Funding Formula TWG recap - Sept. 17

Posted on 21. Sep, 2009 by Heather.

The Funding Formula Technical Working Group met on September to 17th to continue with its work. This meeting felt more productive and many members of the group seemed to have a better hold on the tasks they were charged with. The group is still struggling with the definition of a school, as well as the central administration percentage allocation. The most encouraging part of the meeting was how committed to transparency many of the Working Group members are.

Items the working group came to consensus on:

• Calculate high-poverty enhancement funding based on a combination of the number and percentage of Free and Reduced-Price Lunch students
• Keep high-poverty enhancement spent at district discretion among schools within the district
• Use enrollment numbers from Basic Education Finance Task Force prototype school models (400 in elementary, 432 in middle, 600 in high schools)
• Generate and allocate funding at the district level
• Continue to round staff category FTEs to the thousandths place

• Use annual average FTE at the district level for enrollment reporting for now, explore at the school level

More ad hoc committees were formed in the hopes of tackling upcoming issues at a quicker pace (the committees will bring recommendations to the next FFTWG meeting, enabling faster decision making, we hope). Ad hoc committees will address the central administration percentage, implementation/phase-in, categorical programs, CTE/skill centers/Running Start, and substitutes/sick leave/HCA.

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Funding Formula TWG to meet Sept. 17

Posted on 16. Sep, 2009 by Heather.

The Funding Formula Technical Working Group (created by ESHB 2261) will meet tomorrow at the Puget Sound ESD in Renton. The agenda is posted online yet; it’s pasted below.

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Meeting recap: Funding Formula Technical Working Group

Posted on 08. Sep, 2009 by Heather.

The Funding Formula Technical Working Group met on September 3rd at Highline Community College. This meeting was full of much discussion, but not a lot of decisions. While discussions were frustrating at times, many members of the Working Group seem to better understand the intent of ESHB 2261 and have gotten on the transparency bandwagon (The presence of Sens. Rosemary McAuliffe and Eric Oemig and Reps. Ross Hunter and Skip Priest may have helped with that). Working Group members also seem to better understand the need for a school-based allocation model, well, maybe.

Questions surfaced again around dollars generated by high-poverty schools. Many district representatives thought the district should decide how to best spend those funds, while some other group members felt the schools that generated the allocations should receive those funds. Rep. Hunter clarified during a brief presentation that both categorical (LAP) funds generated by low-income students were meant to be spent on those kids, and similarly for enhancement funds generated by high-poverty schools. Julie Salvi also clarified at one point that the Legislature selected 50 percent Free and Reduced-Price Lunch as the enhancement cutoff because of research indicating that is the tipping point for many schools.

NERCs or MSOCs or whatever we are calling non-staffing costs continue to drive debate. Where should be put technology? What about library supplies? On and on and on and on. Yes, these allocations are important for schools and districts (hopefully students too), but the back and forth is exhausting. Members had to keep reminding one another to not get too in the weeds and remember that the allocation and reporting models could be different.

The Planning Time Subgroup came back with a recommendation on how to handle teacher planning time in the model. Ultimately, the Working Group decided on 20 percent of the day for secondary teachers and 15 percent of the day for elementary teachers. Two other subgroups were created, one to look at poverty levels and the other to examine small schools/districts.

The next meeting of the Working Group is Thursday, September 17 at the Puget Sound ESD.

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Funding Formula TWG to meet September 3

Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by Heather.

The Funding Formula Technical Working Group is set to meet Thursday, September 3 at Highline Community College. The agenda is available here.

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Funding Formula TWG has a website too

Posted on 26. Aug, 2009 by Heather.

Oh man, the links just keep on coming. The Funding Formula Technical Working Group has launched its website. The agenda isn’t up yet for next week’s meeting, but will be soon. The website does have links to the handouts from last week’s meeting.

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Meeting recap: Funding Formula Technical Working Group

Posted on 21. Aug, 2009 by Heather.

The Funding Formula Technical Working Group met yesterday at the Puget Sound ESD in Renton. (A brief overview of the working group and agenda for yesterday’s meeting here.)

The good news from yesterday’s meeting is that the group is attempting to hit the ground running. Staff to the working group (from the Office of Financial Management and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) made a brief presentation on Washington Learns, the Basic Education Finance Task Force and ESHB 2261, and then jumped right into the prototype model.

Of concern, however, is how easily transparency was getting lost in the discussion. Some group members didn’t seem to understand that the intent of ESHB 2261 is to have a transparent prototype model so all stakeholders can easily understand school and district finance. To be clear, group members were not advocating for the removal of transparency, but they weren’t always mindful of its import. The group also got a bit bogged down in trying to work within the current funding formulae (namely around non-employee related costs).

There was a lot of back-and-forth about whether the prototype should be at the school or district level. At the district level was suggested to help prevent gaming of the system (since additional funding would be provided for schools with larger low-income and ELL student populations). School level advocates worried about schools actually receiving the funds they generate under the prototype if allocations are given at the district level.

Also up for discussion:

• definition of a “school”
• small schools versus rural and remote districts
• percentage of low-income and ELL students considered “average”
• what Materials, Operating Costs and Supplies (MOCS, formerly known as NERCs) allocations should cover
• what percentage of the day is considered teacher prep time

A class size subgroup was created to look at teacher prep time and class size; Shawn Lewis (North Thurston) and Neil Sullivan (Spokane) volunteered.

The Working Group’s next meeting will be Thursday, September 3rd at Highline Community College.

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Funding Formula Working Group to meet Aug. 20th

Posted on 18. Aug, 2009 by Heather.

In case you forgot (or we didn’t remind you enough, ha ha ha), ESHB 2261 (section 112) created a Funding Formula Technical Working Group. This work group is charged with the following:

• Develop the details of the funding formulas for instructional programs
• Recommend to the Legislature an implementation schedule for phasing-in any increased program or instructional requirements concurrently with increases in funding for adoption by the Legislature
• Examine possible sources of revenue to support increases in funding allocations and present options to the Legislature and the Quality Education Council for consideration

A report is due from the work group by December 1, 2009.

Members of the group have been appointed and the first meeting is set for Thursday, August 20th from 9:30am to 3:30pm at the Puget Sound ESD in Renton.

The agenda is as follows:

We will be there and, at minimum, will post a recap.

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July 28 conference call

Posted on 30. Jul, 2009 by Kelly.

We hosted a conference call about the current education landscape Tuesday night. Many thanks to those of you who joined us. For those that missed it, we now have a recording of the call. Since it’s a 4MB file, we recommend you email the link rather than the actual file.

Also, to help you follow along, this is the agenda we followed:

• Education Reform Bill HB2661 (George Scarola)
  • What is in the bill
  • What are the next steps to implement the bill
  • Possible reconvening of legislature on 1776
• Overview of School Districts (George Scarola)
  • Budget cuts
  • Stimulus Funds run out 2010/2011
• National (Lisa Macfarlane)
  • Stabilization/Race to the Top Funds
• State wide ballot issues (George Scarola)
  • Initiative 1033
  • Income Tax - Nov 2010
• Court Cases (Lisa Macfarlane)
  • Federal Way equity lawsuit
  • NEWS trial Sept
• Early Learning/Higher Education (Frank Ordway)
• Q&A

Listen to the entire conversation here.

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Wonky words: Report on education equity

Posted on 22. May, 2009 by admin.

The Schott Foundation for Public Education just released Lost Opportunity: A 50 State Report on the Opportunity to Learn in America. In this report, the states are ranked on the opportunity to learn provided to all students. What I find really interesting is where the report calls out the economic consequences of each state’s education system.

 This report puts Washington’s annual economic burden to taxpayers because of inequity at $507 million. Yep, that’s $507 million each year, or $1.1 billion each biennium. To give some perspective, the annual economic burden in Virginia is $1.5 billion, in Massachusetts, $852 million, and in Oregon, $16 million.

 Here are some more numbers for Washington:

Potential Return on School Improvement Investment:           250%
(Differences attributable to high school graduation per annual cohort)

State Annual Total Lifetime Health Loss                                          $100 million

State Annual Crime-Related Loss                                                        $65 million

State Tax Losses (Lifetime)                                                                    $342 million

Annual Lost Lifetime Earnings                                                             $704 million
(Difference attributable to high school graduation per annual cohort)

Net Annual Potential Revenue Increase from Equity                 $313 million
(After deducting estimated cost of improving schools)

Just some food for thought for the holiday weekend.

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How will Federal Stimulus funds help Washington schools?

Posted on 03. Mar, 2009 by admin.

Thank you for sending in your questions. I choose five related to the fiscal stabilization funds (education and general purpose), school construction, supplanting, Head Start/Early Head Start, and the general budget picture in light of new federal funding. The video says that I answered six, but I had to cut one (on the innovation fund) because I ran out of time.

Have more questions? Let us know.

Here are some resources to go along with the video:

• Track how Washington spends stimulus funds
• LEV’s one-pager on education money we’ll receive in Washington State
• Estimated money distributed by school district
• Ed Week’s useful Q&A
• Economic Revenue and Forecast Council preliminary March 2009 forecast

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yit4ZG3CaCc]

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