Education News in Alabama

November 2, 2004 (archive)

IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR
Guntersville Elementary School teacher, Lou Ann Rains-Patton, who is the only in-state recipient of the prestigious Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award, commonly referred to as the Education "Oscar." State Superintendent Joe Morton delivered the surprise announcement during a "disguised" school-wide assembly. The assembly was actually called for co-workers, community leaders and others to recognize Patton and congratulate her on the success she’s experienced in education. Rains-Patton will receive an unrestricted $25,000 financial award and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual Milken Family Foundation National Education Conference in May 2005.

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION UPDATE
The State Board of Education held its monthly work session to discuss K-12 business on Thursday, October 28. Members present included Randy McKinney, District I; Betty Peters, District II; Stephanie Bell, District III; Dr. Ethel Hall, District IV; and Sandra Ray, District VII.

Most of the day's discussion focused on the budget proposal that board members must approve at their November 18 meeting. Growth in the Education Trust Fund is expected, however growth figures will not be released from the Legislative Fiscal Office until January 6. Therefore, the budget under consideration does not include increases in teacher salaries.

Key budgetary issues include:

1. Health care premiums are increasing from $583/mo to $684/mo per teacher unit, and retirement benefits are rising from 7.03% to 8.17%. This represents an increase of $133 million in current teacher benefits from last year's budget.
2. The proposed budget includes an additional $3.1 million for library enhancements, a line item that has not received an increase in many years. Further, the State Department of Education (SDE) is recommending in increase in professional development dollars from $60 to $90 per teacher, representing an additional $1.4 million overall. The proposed budget also includes an increase in textbook funding per student from $57.50 to $67.50, for a total of $7.3 million. This moves the allocation closer to the actual average cost of $80 per student.
3. The SDE is requesting $35,000 per school system to fund a Technology Coordinator to address data/technology issues within local school systems and between local school systems and the SDE. This is a much-needed item, as the amount of student test data continues to grow and is used more and more to drive instruction.
4. Due to the continued success of the Alabama Reading Initiative, the proposed budget includes an additional $15 million to fund training and reading coaches for the expansion to 225 new schools.
5. The SDE is requesting $14.7 million for the Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) to keep the program operational and to expand the successful initiative into new areas.

Questions Concerning the Automatic Pay Raise—In 2000, the National Average Teacher Pay Increase Act established that teachers in Alabama receive automatic salary increases in years when the growth in the Education Trust Fund (ETF) exceeds 3.5 percent. The law mandates that 41 percent of this growth be earmarked for salary increases and that up to 62 percent of the growth can be used to cover the increases in benefits that accompany salary increases.

It is speculated that growth in the ETF will exceed 3.5 percent, thereby triggering an automatic pay raise for teachers. As stated before, the growth projections will be released in early January, allowing the SDE to reconfigure the budget based on the amount of money available for pay raises, additional benefits and other items. Early calculations show that a 1% pay raise would cost $160 million, while a 3% pay raise would cost $215 million.

During the past several years, most of the growth in the ETF has been used to cover the increasing cost of health and retirement benefits, the state has not been able to restore deep cuts made to the education budget three years ago. As a result, the SDE is making two allocation requests that could be made from the unappropriated balance carried forward from FY 2004. These requests are: 1. Allocate funds for a one time "catch-up" on postponed textbook purchases caused by the FY 2004 allocation cut of $36 million from the FY 2003 funding level. 2. Allocate funds for a one-time increase to the Capital Purchase line item in order to allow local school systems to make building repairs and other capital purchases that have been postponed since the proration of FY 2001.

IN THE NEWS
Edweek.org Launches Education Counts Database—The new edweek.org, launched Oct. 12, introduced the Education Counts database of more than 250 state-level K-12 education indicators, as well as powerful but easy-to-use tools to create custom tables, graphs and maps from a wealth of data. Indicators on accountability, school finance, student achievement, and more can be selected to create a table comparing states or look at year-over-year data. To get started, go to the Research Center at edweek.org: http://www.edweek.org/rc/edcounts/ (free registration required).

Survey Finds Public Support for No Child Left Behind Increasing—A new national survey shows that public support for "No Child Left Behind" is significant and rising, even after many weeks of negative attacks. The national survey of 1,000 people, released in October18 by Americans for Better Education (ABE), was conducted by The Winston Group on October 11-12, 2004, and has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

"These results show strong and growing support for the No Child Left Behind Act and its emphasis on high standards over government spending increases," said U.S. House Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH). "Americans are far more concerned about children passing through our schools without learning to read than they are about students facing too many tests. They support testing teachers and making sure they’re qualified. They aren’t buying the negative rhetoric about funding, and they certainly aren’t supportive of lowering standards or making it easier for states or school districts to hide the fact that some children are not learning." To read the survey results, please visit the ABE website at http://www.bettered.org.

Report Shows NCLB Spurring Gains, but Not As Quickly As Needed—Student achievement in reading and math is rising in the elementary grades in most states, and achievement gaps are narrowing, according to a new report released by The Education Trust, a national advocacy group for poor and minority students. However, these gains must accelerate dramatically if all students are to reach state standards by 2014, the goal set by "No Child Left Behind."

The report, "Measured Progress," is the first comprehensive analysis of student achievement on state assessments since the enactment of NCLB. Twenty-four states were eligible for the study, as they have at least three years' worth of comparable state assessment data. Although Alabama was not one of the states in the study, student achievement in our state mirrors what the report finds: math and reading scores are increasing incrementally each year, but the state has a long way to go to ensure that every student is doing grade-level work by the year 2014.

"Measured Progress" can be downloaded for free at http://www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/press+room.

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Education News in Alabama is published bi-weekly by the A+ Education Foundation and is distributed to A+ board members, the media, and list serve subscribers. View archived newsletters.

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