Education Reform Briefs

From the Family Research Council/Ed Facts, 2/2/01

America's National Security Demands Education Reform

A shortage of well-qualified math and science professionals coupled with poor math and science test scores of American students constitute a "crisis" in the minds of the 14-member U.S. Commission on National Security. The panel named education reform as its No. 2 priority last week, second only to investment innovations.

"If the United States does not stop and reverse negative educational trends-the general teacher shortage, and the downward spiral in science and math education and performance-it will be unable to maintain its position of global leadership over the next century," wrote the Commission in its third and final report of a three-year study.

Some of the Commission's recommendations to the President Bush and the 107th Congress include:

• Reduced-interest loans and scholarships for math and science students
• A National Security Teaching Program to foster excellence in science and math teaching
• Increased funding for professional development of math and science teachers
• Work with states to increase the number of qualified math and science teachers
• Create more flexible teacher certification programs
• Raise salaries for math and science teachers
• Expand programs to boost educational progress in areas with acute socio-economic problems

From the Mackinac Center, 2/2/01

Why Voluntary Unionism Beats Compulsory Unionism in Education

The underlying obstacle facing real and necessary education reform remains compulsory unionism in public education. No meaningful reform measure can be implemented under the current mandatory collective bargaining structure, which requires teachers to join or financially support a labor organization&emdash;even if that organization promotes an agenda that conflicts with the best interests of students.

Compulsory unionism not only acts as a barrier to education reform, it also hinders educators and the educational mission. Individual teacher desires and needs are overridden by the interests of the group, as determined by union officials. The result is that many talented teachers resign, and many more would-be teachers never go into education.

Clearly, it's time to replace compulsory unionism with a voluntary bargaining model, wherein teachers would have the option to join with others to participate in collective bargaining, but they would not be required to join or financially support a labor organization. Public school employees could negotiate terms of employment individually to best meet their unique needs.

From the NSBA/School Board News, 2/6/01

Some Charter Schools Experiment with 11-Month Teacher Contracts

One way to raise teacher salaries while helping to raise student achievement is to make teaching a year-round profession, with the extra time used for professional development, remediation for students, or both.

That idea, put forth a year ago by former U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley, has had few takers, primarily due to the high cost.

Most teachers work&endash;and get paid for nine and a-half months of work&endash;and extending that to up to 11 months would bust most school districts' budgets. Even states that are gradually adding a few days to the school year are facing intense budget battles.

From U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/6/01

U.S. House of Representatives Honors Catholic Schools

The House today passed H. Res. 28, a resolution to recognize and honor the contributions of Catholic schools. The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Bob Schaffer (R-CO) and passed with 412 members voting in support of it.

For the 1999-2000 academic year, Catholic schools enrolled over 2.6 million children in over 8,000 Catholic schools across the country. The student-teacher ratio is 17 to 1, and Catholic schools can pride themselves in educating a diverse group of students, with over 24 percent of the school children enrolled coming from minority backgrounds.

From Reason Online, 2/15/01

AFT Cries Foul Over State Legislators Paycheck Protection Efforts

Debates over school choice are often framed as battles between low-income parents struggling to find options for their children and under-funded public schools desperate to keep their per-student funding. But a just-released study by Jay P. Greene, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow as well as a Harvard research fellow, finds that Florida's recent two-year experience with limited school choice has actually improved public school performance.

This is good news not only for Florida's families and educators, but for the rest of America as well, because President George W. Bush's educational proposal is similar to Florida's reform.

Greene's findings come at a critical time, as Washington policymakers debate President Bush's education reform package. Like his brother's Florida plan, it relies on testing to identify problem schools and assists these schools with new money to improve performance. And like the Florida plan, the ultimate sanction is an exit option for students in the form of a voucher, should poor schools fail to improve over a three-year period.

From the Education Intelligence Agency, 2/5/01

Utah House Passes Paycheck Protection Bill

The Utah Education Association had been feeling its oats the last six months, staging a one-day walkout and demanding higher salaries and smaller classes. Last week, the Utah House fired back, passing a bill that would ban the automatic deduction of PAC contributions from the paychecks of public employees. The bill is expected to easily pass the Senate. UEA is already planning a court challenge if Gov. Mike Leavitt signs the bill into law.

Such paycheck protection laws in other states have had a dramatic effect on union PAC contributions, but very little effect on union political activities. Funds that previously would have gone directly to candidates were instead applied to independent expenditures, or other "political information" activities. The end result has made virtually no difference in the political landscape. Utah, however, may be a different test case because it will be the first state to have both paycheck protection and right-to-work laws, which means unions will not be able to compel payments in other forms without the risk of losing members.

From the National Education Association, 2/13/01

NEA's Valentine to Congress: Pony Up

National Education Association (NEA) President Bob Chase sent Congress a Valentine message this week, urging members to show their love for education by providing funds for safe and modern schools.

NEA expressed support for several other proposals under consideration this week including: extended deductibility of student loan interest, tax credits for teacher out-of-pocket expenses, and expanded tax-free status of employer-provided education expenses.

From the CEO America, 2/9/01

New Tax Credit Plan Introduced

Senators Tim Hutchinson and Robert G. Torricelli introduced a plan to allow $2,000 yearly contributions from birth to a child's tax-free education savings account to be used for K-12 education expenses, including private school tuition. The accounts will be called Coverdell Education Savings Accounts in honor of the late Senator Paul Coverdell, a champion of school choice who co-sponsored similar legislation last year. President George W. Bush has proposed similar but more expansive accounts as a part of his education reform proposal. Stay tunedŠ

From Edison Schools, 2/12/01

Education Begins To See Repercussions Of Economic Downturn

Edison Schools announced today that it is entering into an agreement with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to provide expanded before and after-school programs for students and families at five of its schools across the country. Funding for the pilot program will be raised from philanthropic sources.

The goal of this project is to institute and operate full service Boys & Girls Clubs pilot sites for a period of three years at five Edison schools. The Clubs will offer before and after-school programs throughout the academic year. Project Learn, one of the programs, reinforces and enhances the skills and knowledge that young people learn at school through "high-yield" learning activities. The five pilot sites are being developed in the hope that they will serve as models to be replicated at Edison's schools nationwide.

From the American Federation of Teachers, 2/5/01

AFT Cries Foul Over State Legislators Paycheck Protection Efforts

Anti-union lawmakers are again making efforts to block labor's access to the political and legislative processes. Specifically, some state lawmakers are attempting to stymie the voice of unions through "paycheck-deception" legislation, which is currently pending in Mississippi and North Dakota and expected to be introduced in Florida, Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington. Paycheck-deception legislation varies, ranging from requiring organizations to get written permission from members before spending their dues money on political activities to outwardly banning an organization's use of any payroll deduction for political activities.

From U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce, 2/9/01

Ed Committee to Begin Outside-the-Beltway Hearings on Ed Reform

House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH) today announced that the committee would begin a series of outside-the-Beltway field hearings next week on education reform. The bipartisan hearings, which will begin next Friday, will be held in Florida, Georgia, California, and possibly other locations in the coming weeks as Congress prepares for legislative action this spring on President George W. Bush's number-one priority.

The first hearing, "Flexibility, Accountability, and Quality Education," is scheduled for Feb. 16 at an elementary school in Bradenton, FL. The second hearing, "Reading and Accountability: Improving 21st Century Schools," is set for Feb. 20 at an elementary school in Atlanta, GA. An additional hearing is planned for Feb. 26 in California, the home state of the committee's ranking Democrat member, Rep. George Miller. Exact times, locations, and witnesses for the hearings will be announced in the coming days.

From the Capital Research Center, January 2001

Where Does Big Labor Get Its Money?

Officials of the AFL-CIO like to say they set aside $40 million to support candidates in the 2000 election campaign. But this claim distracts attention from the hundreds of millions of dollars that unions spent on in-kind activities, such as paid "volunteering," workplace canvassing, phone banks, and get-out-the-vote drives. Experts estimate that Big Labor's total in-kind spending could be as much as $900 million this past election year.

The costs of in-kind political contributions are hard to quantify because unions hide them in their operating expenses. But some estimates are possible. The $40 million that [AFL-CIO political director Steve] Rosenthal mentions is about 13 percent of the AFL-CIO's budget. If the 25 largest unions spent the same percentage of their receipts as the AFL-CIO federation does on politics, then unions could be spending up to $900 million over a two-year election cycle. Union political spending reached record levels in the first 18 months of the 2000 election cycle&emdash;total reported union PAC contributions shot up by 33 percent over the $48 million contributed to federal campaigns in 1996.