Who’s Crazy?

There were at least 117 people standing on a downtown street corner yesterday in the freezing cold to tell Governor Corbett what his budget cuts have done to our schools. Parents, students, teachers, and community members stood shoulder to shoulder, huddled against the wind, while speaker after speaker rattled off the devastation we’ve witnessed over the past two years right here in Pittsburgh. The gutting of art, music, library, tutoring, and other education programs. Increased class sizes. Cuts to sports, activities, transportation, field trips, textbooks and supplies. School closures. Hundreds of furloughed teachers.

Yet the Governor’s office says we must be seeing things, since it claims to have increased state support for public schools by $1.17 billion. [Post-Gazette, 12-10-13] So are we crazy?

After two years of devastating cuts, this year’s budget did increase the “basic education” funding line (one of many education funding categories) by 2%. But overall funding for public schools remains far below where it was a few years ago. Compared to the 2010-11 budget – the year before Gov. Corbett’s historic attack on our schools – this year’s budget is still short over $681 million. [See “Budget Failure” for details.]

In fact, Pittsburgh students are missing $26.8 million from their annual budget, which accounts for well over half (58%) of the district’s predicted budget shortfall. And it’s exactly that budget gap that is driving the district’s plan to close yet more schools, increase class sizes again, and eliminate more classes and programs. [PPS Whole Child report, 12-4-13] Make no mistake, Governor Corbett’s cuts are hurting Pittsburgh students, their families, and their communities.

So it was especially disappointing yesterday when the Governor’s Pittsburgh office locked its doors and refused to allow a delegation inside. We were planning to deliver the postcards filled out by parents, students, and teachers earlier this year at our Rally for Public Education. What contempt for democracy. This is not the first time: remember last year when his office refused to allow school children to come in with their hand-drawn cards and letters? That was the same day he shut down his phone lines after getting calls from public education advocates. [See “The Governor Must Listen”]

And now the administration is calling us names. In response to yesterday’s rally, which was one of over 60 simultaneous demonstrations in cities across the country coordinated by a growing grassroots education justice movement, Tim Eller, spokesman for the state Department of Education, lamented, “Unfortunately, the AFT [the American Federation of Teachers], as well as other traditional public education establishment organizations, continues to misinform the public about the governor’s record of education funding in Pennsylvania.” [Post-Gazette, 12-10-13]

The use of the words “traditional” and “establishment” are clearly meant as an insult, to suggest that Pittsburgh’s religious leaders, parents, and students are somehow aligned with the teacher’s union in defending a broken status quo. Yet it is traditional to want great public schools for all our children. Why doesn’t the Governor? And the group standing on the freezing street corner yesterday was loudly rejecting the status quo – instead calling for the very things research shows will improve education for all students: smaller class sizes, a nurse in every school every day, arts education and more.

So who’s crazy? Certainly those of us standing outside on a December afternoon wondered if we might be a little nuts. But crazy is slashing $2.4 billion from public education while repeatedly claiming to have done the opposite. Crazy is calling parents, students, and teachers the “establishment” and accusing them of lying to the public. Crazy is locking the doors and refusing to allow kids to talk about what is happening to their public schools.

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What Pittsburghers are Really Saying about School Funding

Yesterday I shared with you what Pittsburghers are really saying about school closures. (If you haven’t already, please take a minute to check out this piece explaining why we must listen to the collective wisdom, knowledge, and experience of ordinary Pittsburghers.) Today we look at budget cuts in the context of the district’s looming $46 million budget gap. Once again, the community has a lot to say that we absolutely must listen to, if we’re going to get our priorities straight and make great public schools for all of our children.

For instance, did you know that this year Pittsburgh Public Schools will spend 9% less on classroom teachers than it did two years ago, while spending 9% more on school police? Of course school safety is important, but teachers are the people who work with our kids and help them learn. And PPS will spend more on school police than it will on counselors, social workers, school nurses, and librarians. [PPS 2013 Final Budget, p. 25] Is this what we want? The PPS administration should be having a deep conversation with the people of Pittsburgh about budget priorities.

In our community survey, we asked 920 people (mostly in person, with volunteers going door-to-door all over the city) about the effect of budget cuts on their public schools. Here’s what Pittsburghers are saying about school funding. [The following is excerpted from GPS Community Report, 10-13: Creating a District of Last Resort]

Budget Cuts

In recent years, PPS has made dramatic cuts to its staff, reducing the number of teachers by 17 percent, the number of librarians by 45 percent, the number of paraprofessionals and support staff by 35 percent, and the number of guidance counselors and psychological personnel by 20 percent.

Just within the last year, students have felt the effects of significant staff reductions and cuts to programs such as art, music, library services and tutoring services. We asked our survey respondents about the effects of these recent changes, and their responses were striking. They present a clear picture of a district that is rapidly alienating far too many of its students, families and educators, and can ill-afford any additional budget cuts.

The Misguided and Misleading Envisioning Process

Why would PPS make a series of education reforms that are overwhelmingly opposed by the community? One cause is the district’s budget challenges.

To be sure, Gov. Corbett’s decisions to drastically cut funding from PPS and other public school districts around the state have been devastating. Even worse, he did it while expanding funding for corporate tax breaks, allocating funds to build new prisons, and at- tempting to further privatize education in Pennsylvania by, for example, providing tax breaks benefitting private schools and attempting to implement school vouchers. [See “A Vampiric Budget”] Additionally, the state has eliminated reimbursements to districts for charter school tuition; school improvement grants; and state-funded science, tutoring and high school reform programs. [Keystone State Education Coalition, 5-13] The state has also refused to help districts deal with legally mandated increases to pension contributions. As a result, PPS has certainly taken a financial hit that must be addressed. However, the district is operating as if there is only one option for addressing their financial challenges—namely, by immediately implementing severe budget cuts—and that is disingenuous.

… In fact, when we asked survey respondents whether they would support a small local tax levy or savings from other units of government to avoid additional cuts to classroom education, they said by more than a 5-1 margin that they would support it (with 24 percent being undecided).

Nevertheless, PPS is proposing additional radical budget cuts that will severely compromise the educational opportunities of our youth. Their solution is to “eat away” at the gap between PPS per-student funding and those of other districts. [Envisioning presentation, 5-13, pp. 18-19]

While most communities would be proud of having well-funded schools, PPS is using its relatively high per-pupil spending as a justification for the cuts. Yet given the extreme needs of our youth (including a greater proportion of students living in extreme poverty, special needs students, English language learners and homeless students), PPS should have higher per-student funding than most districts. Anything else would be profoundly inequitable. …

Eight Reasons Why Scoring Schools Doesn’t Work

Pennsylvania has just released its new School Performance Profiles, or SPP. As I’ve said before, that acronym probably ought to stand for Stupid Public Policy. These profiles are essentially scores assigned to schools based on the results of student testing and replace the previous Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) rankings. [See “From AYP to SPP”] It’s very trendy right now among corporate-style reformers to grade schools like this. But the whole idea should receive an “F” and here’s why:

1.  The stakes are too high. Assigning scores to schools adds the “high stakes” to high-stakes-testing. When student test data is being used to determine resource allocation and to shape public perceptions of schools, the system creates a perverse incentive for adults to cheat. [See “A Plague of Cheating”] Recall Florida’s state superintendent, Tony Bennett, who was forced to resign this summer after reporters discovered that he had helped increase the grades of several schools. In one case, he increased a C to an A grade for a charter school run by and named after one of his campaign donors. [Politico, 8-1-13]

And don’t forget the Atlanta superintendent who was indicted this spring along with 34 others, including teachers and principals, for widespread cheating on the state’s standardized state tests. Investigators found 178 Atlanta educators had worked to change student answers, among other things, to increase the district’s performance. Eighty-two people have already confessed and the superintendent now faces up to 45 years in jail. [Washington Post, 3-30-13] This year we have confirmed cases of test score manipulations in at least 37 states plus the District of Columbia. [FairTest, 3-27-13]

Of course adult cheating is just one consequence of high-stakes-testing. Teachers are being demoralized by this system. Pittsburgh superintendent Dr. Linda Lane reports that when teachers received the results of the high-stakes-testing that formed the SPP scores “some were in tears.” [Post-Gazette, 10-5-13] But students suffer the most. The over-emphasis on testing results in lost class time, a school year spent on test preparation, the narrowing of curriculum, and the perpetuation of abusive practices that undermine actual learning. [See our piece “Testing Madness,” which was just republished in the Washington Post.]

2.  Scores actually reflect bad state policy making. The SPP scores are largely based on PSSA and Keystone test results, which are down for many students as the result of state decisions. Dr. Lane suggested the drop in Pittsburgh test scores resulted from, among other things, budget cuts, the elimination of modified testing for special education students, and the new Common Core standards, which are being taught in the classroom but not measured on the tests. [Post-Gazette, 10-5-13] With increased class sizes, school closings, and the loss of hundreds of educators again this year in Pittsburgh alone, our student test scores say more about poor state educational policy making than about actual teaching or learning.

3.  A single number is insufficient. The Pennsylvania Department of Education calls its new SPP system “comprehensive” and boasts it “brings together multiple academic indicators that are proven to provide a full overview of academic growth and achievement in our public schools.” [PDE, 10-4-13] I don’t know what evidence there is that these indicators “prove” academic growth in schools, but the idea of using multiple academic indicators sounds like a good idea. Too bad, then, that 26 of the 31 indicators listed for each school are actually based on high-stakes-test scores. [PA School Performance Profiles] While factors such as attendance and promotion rates are now being considered, these SPP scores are little more than a re-packaging of high-stakes-testing. Test scores don’t tell us much about what is actually happening at a school: the after-school mentoring program that parents started, the new playground or garden built and paid for by the local community, or all of the programs teachers volunteer to make happen, from directing the school chorus and plays, to coaching sports teams and the math club, mentoring student government, and collaborating with local artists. Where are those things on the profile?

What’s more, nearly everyone is fixated on the single “academic score” calculation – the grade – assigned to each school. The PDE can claim all it wants that these are robust profiles, but the media in every corner of the state has already demonstrated the way in which these profiles will be reported as single scores. For instance, the Post-Gazette reported, “Of those [Pittsburgh schools] that have academic scores, the highest is 82.6 at Pittsburgh Liberty K-5.” [Post-Gazette, 10-5-13; see also Post-Gazette 10-5-13 graphic.] Yay, Liberty! But honestly, what does that mean? The SPP scores effectively rank and sort schools.

4.  These systems are prone to error. The state has already bungled the release of SPP data. More than 600 schools (out of 3,000) do not have complete scores because of problems with relying on students to correctly fill in bubbles on the tests indicating if they were “end of course” exams. Rather than hold up the promised roll-out of the new profiles, the PA Department of Education instead released only partial data on Friday, leading to more confusion. For instance, no Pittsburgh high school or any school containing eighth grade currently has a score. The state is also delaying the release of the 2013 PSSA and Keystone results. West Mifflin Area Superintendent Daniel Castagna summed it up, saying, “This is a mess, an absolute mess.” [Post-Gazette, 10-5-13]

5.  Scores actually just measure poverty. It’s great that my former elementary school (Eisenhower in Upper St. Clair) got the highest score reported so far in the county, with a whopping 97.9. Not surprisingly, there’s my middle school, Fort Couch, at 96.8. And all of Mt. Lebanon’s reported schools so far are over 90. But did we need all these tests and this elaborate new system to tell us that upper-middle-class kids in predominantly white suburbs are doing better than those in the struggling Duquesne school district, which weighed in at 49.3, the lowest in the county? What standardized test scores are really good at showing is family income. For an excellent visualization of the correlation between test scores and poverty, take a look at last year’s SAT:

Source: Washington Post, 9-24-2012

6.  Scores don’t measure what matters. The Pittsburgh school district has conducted research on its own graduates and concluded that, “the most important predictors of post-secondary education success are grade point average and attendance, not state test scores.” [Post-Gazette, 10-5-13] If that’s the case, why are we spending so much time giving these high-stakes-tests to our students? Why are we giving 21, even 30, standardized tests each year to our kids? [PPS Assessment Calendar] Why aren’t we focusing on providing a rich, engaging curriculum with music, art, languages, and activities so that students want to be in school? We can’t even discuss these important questions because the School Performance Profile system forces districts to continue playing the game of ever-more-testing in the name of accountability. But if we really care about what matters – such as actual student learning or college success – policy makers must move away from systems that simply reinforce testing by assigning grades to our schools.

7.  Scoring schools wastes valuable resources. The SPP system cost us taxpayers $2.7 million to develop over the past three years. [Post-Gazette, 10-5-13] That’s $2.7 million at the exact same time that Governor Corbett and our legislature were telling us we did not have money to pay for our public schools. And it will cost an estimated $838,000 every year to maintain. That’s a lot of drumsticks for the Westinghouse Bulldogs Marching Band or library books for Pittsburgh Manchester K-8. Beyond the ridiculous price tag, grading our schools costs valuable staff time and wastes the attention of the public, media, and policy makers by forcing them to focus on the wrong thing.

8.  School scores don’t help students. SPP scores don’t give students what they really need: adequate, equitable, and sustainable state funding for their public schools. Public policies that support, rather than vilify, their teachers. Quality early childhood education. Pre-natal care. Healthcare. The stability of their community school remaining open. Smaller class sizes. It’s would be funny, if it weren’t so cruel, to hear the PA Department of Education proudly explaining that under the new SPP system, the lowest scoring Title I schools (those that serve a large proportion of low-income students) are now eligible for “access to intervention and support services.” [PDE, 10-4-13] How about access to their laid-off teachers and state funding they desperately need?

Even worse, the highest performing Title I schools will now be rewarded by becoming “eligible to compete for collaboration and/or innovation grants.” Are you kidding me? This is right out of the Race-to-the-Top playbook, making schools compete for the resources they desperately need. Races and grant programs by definition have winners and losers. No student at a Title I school deserves to be a loser in this game invented by policy makers. Our kids don’t need “technical assistance,” they need state legislators to restore the budget cuts and reinstate a modern, fair funding formula. These SPP scores are only going to hurt our poorest students and communities of color more.

How to Read the PSSA Report

The PA Department of Education just distributed the results of last year’s PSSA testing. Those are the high-stakes tests that Pennsylvania students start taking in the 3rd grade. The fact that families are only getting these results now – six months after students took the actual tests – is the first big clue that these have nothing to do with actual student learning. Quality feedback must be timely, so that teachers can make adjustments to individual instruction and students can learn from their mistakes. But it’s September: students have started a whole new school year and don’t even have the same teachers they did in March.

These test results are largely meaningless. At least for students. Yet they are being used – inappropriately – to evaluate teachers and schools. To threaten, punish, and eliminate them. To justify mass school closures in our sister city of Philadelphia. To determine which schools are next on the chopping block in Pittsburgh.

Tests are only valid measurements of the things they were designed to measure. If they are designed to measure students’ mastery of a set of concepts, then they are measuring students. You cannot turn around and use them to measure how well teachers are teaching or how well schools are performing – that’s not what those particular tests were designed to evaluate. Education researchers and professionals know this, but it is education policy makers who are twisting student assessment to meet a set of ideological goals.

To help you see through the doublespeak, here’s our handy guide to reading your child’s PSSA report:

 

More or Less

Three thousand, eight hundred. That’s how many teachers and school staff the students in Philadelphia are losing. You read that right: 3,800 – almost 20% of the city’s entire education workforce – received pink slips last week. Philadelphia public schools will no longer have any secretaries to answer the phones, counselors to help students, assistant principals, or cafeteria monitors. There will be no more teachers for music, art, or library. No books, supplies, after school activities, clubs, or field trips. [The Notebook, 6-7-13]

One Philadelphia teacher wrote to education historian Diane Ravitch this weekend to say, “Most of my co-workers laid off were history teachers – an untested subject in PA.” She went on, “What is happening in Philadelphia is a complete travesty and a failure of democracy … If I return to the classroom in the fall, the ‘education’ I will be able to give my students will not look anything like what I was taught education should be.” [DianeRavitch, 6-9-13] Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said the cuts will leave only “something called a school.” [The Notebook, 6-7-13]

So why should we care over here in Southwest PA? For one thing, the travesty described by these Philadelphia educators is just the tip of the public-education-crisis iceberg. What’s happening in the city of brotherly love is happening all over Pennsylvania (and in fact, all over the country) with the systematic de-funding of our schools, the re-routing of public resources to private hands, and the re-writing of state education policies to benefit the few at the expense of the many.

Look at Duquesne school district, which is circling the drain and may not even be a school district after next year. Look at Wilkinsburg, which is on the state’s new “financial watch list” and is just inches from a state takeover. The Post-Gazette reports today that residents there think “the district has already fallen off the cliff”. One person told a reporter, “Honestly, it’s too far gone. … At this point, it needs to be totally dismantled.”  [Post-Gazette, 6-10-13] That’s the tragic sound of the public giving up on public education. Worse, it means people have given up on public school students.

This battle we are fighting for our schools is a battle for education justice. This past weekend, Yinzercator Kathy Newman and I presented at the Labor and Working Class History Association conference in New York City, along with our colleague Rebecca Poyourow from Philadelphia. We talked about the political, social, and economic context of public education today and our grassroots movement – and Rebecca spoke movingly about what is happening in our sister city.

In another session, teachers from New York and Chicago talked about the successful 2012 Chicago teachers strike, which was really a strike to save public schools for public school students. Peter Brogan, a Ph.D. student in geography and one of the panelists at that session, described the way that school closings reproduce poverty in particular neighborhoods and treat students as “surplus humanity.” What an apt phrase. When we give up on public schools in places like Wilkinsburg or Philadelphia, we condemn tens of thousands of children to living as surplus humanity. And we know that this “surplus” is mostly black and brown. In other words, education justice is also about racial justice.

I was struck by this photo taken at a recent rally in Philadelphia of a young African-American student holding a sign that reads, “Why take MORE when we already have LESS?” Indeed.

[Photo: Amy Yeboah, The Notebook, 5-30-13]

Think about this student. Think about Duquesne and Wilkinsburg. Think about Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and the devastating cuts to our educational programs. It’s time to get MORE for these students who have LESS.

Education Voters PA is urging everyone to call the State Senate today, explaining, “Over the past two years, the Senate has played a critical role in getting money back into the budget for public education. …Right now the Senate is where key decisions will get made to move things in the right direction.” Click here to get your Senator’s information and then call today and tell them to:

• Fight for $270 million in funding to be restored. If they can cut almost $1 billion in one year, then restoring a third of that shouldn’t be impossible. In addition, they should help identify resources for Special Education – which has been flat funded for 5 years – and they should fix the charter pension double dip.
• Adopt provisions to improve the funding allocation formula to make it fairer and to get to adequate funding levels for all students.
• Ask them NOT give away hundreds of millions this year by eliminating the state corporate assets tax (the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax). Tell them to delay this phase out so we can so we can invest in children instead of providing another corporate tax break.

That would do it, more or less.

Bleeding Out

School districts across Pennsylvania are on life support. After massive defunding of public education by the state the past two years, schools have made so many cuts there is almost nothing left to remove. A new study out this week reveals just how big this gaping wound is where strong public schools ought to be.

The Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) and the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) surveyed all 500 school districts in May, and received responses from 187 (for a response rate of 37%). The results are sobering (all data from PASBO/PASA School Finance Report, June 2013):

• 75% of districts will continue to make cuts to educational programs this year – more than in either of the past two years.
• 47% of school districts expect to increase class size in 2013-14. That’s on top of larger class sizes imposed by 51% of districts last year, and 70% of districts the year before.
• 37% plan to reduce courses such as world languages, art, music, physical education and even some in math, science, English and social studies. Elective courses were already reduced by 43% of schools in 2012-13 and 44% of schools the year before that.
• 23% will delay the purchase of textbooks (following 40 and 41% of districts that delayed such purchases in the previous two years).
• 22% of districts will reduce or eliminate tutoring program for struggling students (on top of the 32 and 35% of districts that did this the past two years).
• 13% more districts will eliminate summer school (following 21% and 19% that cut these programs in the past two years).
• 31% will further reduce or eliminate student field trips (in addition to 43 and 55% in each of the past two years).
• 22% will reduce or eliminate extra-curriculars, including sports or will establish/increase fees for participation. That’s on top of the 30 and 33% of districts that have already done so in the past two years.
• 8% of districts will close school buildings this year. (7% closed buildings in 2012-13 and 10% in 2011-12).
• 64% will continue to decrease staff, with over 20% planning furloughs.

Despite these severe cuts, more than 70% of school districts are dipping into their fund balances to try to pay for basic educational programming. While the calculator-wielding business professionals at PASBO and PASA consider a one-time dip into these rainy-day funds acceptable, they call the current rate of depletion “alarming” and explain that, “sustained use of fund balance in this manner is fiscally devastating.” Those are strong words from accountants.

In laymen’s terms, our public schools are bleeding out. Governor Corbett needs to stop making ridiculous claims that he has increased education funding. Our schools can’t take any more lies or cuts. It’s time to put our resources back into public education, for the sake of our schools, our communities, and our kids.

Black Holes

Could someone fetch Rep. Daryl Metcalfe back from outer space? Earlier this week, the Cranberry Republican co-sponsored a bill in the state house to send the proceeds of liquor store privatization to infrastructure improvements, rather than to education, as Gov. Corbett had initially proposed. [See “Kids or Booze”] Pennsylvania certainly needs to support all of its public goods – including infrastructure – but what is appalling about Rep. Metcalfe’s bill is that it rests on a shameful disregard for public education.

At a news conference with several other Republican legislators, Rep. Metcalfe complained, “When you give the money to the education establishment like this, it’s like throwing it into a black hole.” Wow. This man thinks our children’s future is a black hole. He calls our schools “the education establishment” as if our kids are somehow the problem. Of course, what he really means is that our teachers are somehow the problem, as he makes clear in his next sentence: “All it will be used for is to drive those salaries up that are continuing to be one of the main drivers for our pension problem.” [Post-Gazette, 4-16-13]

Actually, we do have a pension problem – but the blame for that lies heavily with Pennsylvania legislators themselves who have kicked the can down the road to this point. [See our “Pension History 101” for an easy to read explanation of this important issue.] Rep. Metcalfe suggests that providing desperately needed funding to our schools will “drive those salaries up” – does he mean that districts will turn around and give raises to teachers? Highly unlikely when most schools are now struggling to even buy textbooks or chalk. Perhaps he is worried that school districts will hire back some of the 20,000 teachers our children have lost these past two years? Heaven forbid our kids get their art and music teachers back in their classrooms. Or that we will ever see full-time librarians again.

Perhaps Rep. Metcalfe needs to actually talk to the families he represents, where kids are now missing over $6 MILLION from their schools. Here’s a breakdown of the cuts since 2010-2011 to the five school districts in his 12^th PA congressional district. [Data from Save Pennsylvania Schools]

Butler Area School District	$2,723,093
Freeport Area School District	$728,596
Mars Area School District	$514,272
Seneca Valley School District	$1,270,871
South Butler County School District	$1,011,179
Total:	$6,248,011

One of those districts, Seneca Valley, was trying to figure out how to keep its Junior ROTC program alive last year with all the budget cuts – a program you might think a former Army man like Daryl Metcalfe would appreciate. At the time, Seneca Valley was also discussing “closing the pool and cutting the swim program, reducing Title I reading programs or further reduction of elementary school staff.” At that point, the superintendent warned that, “elementary class sizes already are larger than best practice recommendations.” [Post-Gazette, 4-12-13] The district wound up being forced to cut 14 positions – 11 of them teachers, including “one art teacher, two math teachers, one social studies teacher, two science teachers, two English teachers, a Spanish teacher and two health/physical education teachers.” [Post-Gazette, 4-17-12] Yes, this is the “education establishment” that Rep. Metcalfe is so worried about. To him, social studies, science, and English teachers are black holes. Or perhaps dark matter.

How does he explain his outer space theory to his representatives in the Mars Area School District, which debated cutting all art, music and physical education in its elementary schools last year? The district wound up having to cut its Kindergarten and first grade art teacher, cut back on art classes at the High School level to four days per week, eliminated two guidance counselors and two technology teachers, and did not replace four retiring teachers, “two in art, one in health and one in foreign languages.” [Post-Gazette, 5-10-12] It looks like art got sucked into a gravitational budget hole in Mars.

Last spring, students in Mars stood on the sidewalk holding signs imploring board members to “Save Our Specials.” Perhaps they could help us tell Rep. Metcalfe that their education is not a black hole but rather a bright shining star. It’s time to go super nova on Rep. Metcalfe and his fellow Pennsylvania legislators and demand real pension reform that protects taxpayers, teachers, and our schools. And we must insist on adequate, equitable, and sustainable public funding for public education – so that we are nurturing the astrophysicists of tomorrow who will study the real black holes.

Boiled Frogs

Remember the story about boiling frogs? If you put a frog into a pot of hot water, he will jump right back out; but if you put him in a pot of cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, he doesn’t notice until it’s too late, and you have a boiled frog. Unless you want to cook poor little amphibians, the point of this story is that we humans often get used to terrible situations – even as the danger slowly increases around us. We can’t let this happen in public education, where our pot is nearing the boiling point.

Quite simply, the situation in our schools is worse this year than last year. Despite what Gov. Corbett’s administration continues to claim (see our response to yesterday’s ridiculous assertion), here in Pennsylvania our children are now dealing with the combined loss of nearly $2 billion. That’s the initial $1 billion trouncing that Gov. Corbett gave our schools in 2011, followed by the 2012 budget that locked those cuts in. Last year, the consequences of those cuts were new and raw, and our grassroots response was swift and loud. But we need to remember what is happening right now and not become complacent: we can’t accept this as some inevitable new reality.

This year at the public school my two children attend, we lost our parent engagement specialist, despite the fact that she served a critical role connecting with our hardest-to-reach families, and was having one of the most direct impacts on our trenchant racial achievement gap. Our beloved school is labeled a “failure” by the state, yet instead of receiving additional resources – as we are entitled to under the federal NCLB law – the district cut our after-school and Saturday tutoring program. For the second year in a row, parents have been organizing a volunteer tutoring program in its place with local college students and racing to raise thousands of dollars to cover other essential costs. Parents are also raising money to pay for transportation so students can continue to go on field trips.

Our 7^th and 8^th graders lost library; 3^rd and 4^th graders lost instrumental music; and the middle level students lost their in-school gifted services and their baseball team. We lost a full time member of the office staff, leaving only 1.5 people to serve a school of 720 kids and their families. Yes – 720. Parents have provided nearly all of the school’s supplies this year, from pencils to tissues. And our school now operates on a 6-day schedule so that we can call that a “week,” cramming in long blocks of reading and math to meet state requirements, while our kids get reduced access to “specials” like music, art, world languages, and library.

Perhaps worst of all, we lost 2.5 full-time teachers and 2 paraprofessionals. Not only has that reduced the number of rounds we can have per grade and increased class sizes (my sixth grader is now sitting in a math class with 39 students), but the cuts have also wrecked havoc with our master schedule. With fewer adults in the building, we don’t have enough coverage for lunch and recess and teachers are scrambling to teach multiple subjects across different grades. In order to keep our librarian, she now has to teach a course on top of her regular duties. Other teachers are split half-time between our school and another, so they are only in the building three out of six days and students have two different teachers for the same class. All this juggling looks “clean” on paper when it appears we “only” lost 4.5 educators, but the impact on students is much larger, despite the heroic efforts of the principal to make the changes as seamless as possible.

These cuts aren’t just affecting my children’s school. Last year, Pittsburgh Public Schools desperately cut programs across the city, spending $11.5 million less than the year before. But even after slashing almost 19% of its employees over the past five years, the district still estimates that it will be broke by 2016. That’s a tiny improvement over 2015, when the district formerly projected we would be bankrupt, but certainly not good news. [Post-Gazette, 3-22-13] The district is working on a strategic plan that will almost certainly include a proposal for closing more schools, echoing Philadelphia which has just announced it will shutter 23 more of its schools (while opening up more privately managed charter schools at the same time). [See “Philly Today, Pittsburgh Tomorrow”]

Think this is only a big city problem? Think again. The state just put Wilkinsburg and Aliquippa school districts on their financial watch list. Both Southwest, PA towns are struggling to pay their bills and Wilkinsburg will only get through this year on a new $3 million loan it was forced to take out. [Post-Gazette, 3-15-13] Of course, the state’s new “early warning system” designating districts as financially troubled seems to do nothing to actually help them. There is no recognition by Governor Corbett or the Department of Education of what these districts have in common: poverty and a large proportion of African American students.

The state also just added Reading, PA – the second poorest city in the country (it was first in 2011) – to its watch list. [New York Times, 9-26-11] And it added Steelton-Highspire school district near Harrisburg – which as the name suggests, is in an old industrial area – and also serves a large proportion of African American students. That school district just announced that it will eliminate pre-K and cut all Kindergarten to half days next school year. [PennLive, 3-21-13] Yes, read that sentence again. Districts are now forced to cut the very things we know work the best to help students. Meanwhile, the Allentown school board has just approved what it calls the “worst possible scenario,” eliminating all remaining art, library and physical education staff from its elementary schools. [Morning Call, 3-21-13] Check out this brave Allentown teacher who recently made this short video explaining the situation there:

Are you starting to see the connections here? High poverty school districts, towns suffering from post-industrial decline, school boards with limited ability to raise taxes (additionally hampered by state laws), and students of color being disproportionately affected by a growing list of cuts to absolutely essential education programs. No one in their right mind thinks we should be cutting early childhood education or Kindergarten. Can you imagine your child in an elementary school with no art, no library, and no gym?

Pennsylvania is becoming a dangerous place for kids and amphibians. Before we become boiled frogs, it’s time to leap out of that hot water and make some noise. Next Wednesday, April 10^th, will be a great chance: plan to join EdVoters’ state-wide call-in-day and take a few minutes to contact your legislators. Can you help organize an event at your school or place of work? Here’s what we will be calling on the state legislature to do this year:

• Reinstate $270 million in funding to K-12 education in this year’s budget (and for the next 2 years – to restore the nearly $1 billion in state funding level cuts over a three year timetable).

• Put in place funding formulas that have a strategy for allocating dollars, working toward a permanent, rational funding formula. Formulas must account for the number of students, include “weights” for the additional costs for educating students with special needs (including students in poverty, gifted students and English language learners), and provide sustainable and predictable funding for districts.

• Begin to address formula and funding mechanism flaws in the way that charter schools are funded (a good formula will set rates appropriately and not pit groups of children against each other);

• They must also provide cost of living increases for special education (which has been flat funded for 6 straight years) and career-technical education;

• Develop a comprehensive plan to guarantee that the students in financially distressed districts have the resources necessary to meet the state’s academic standards.

Ribbet. Ribbet.

Can They Fly Our Kids to School?

What on earth is going on with our state legislators? Yesterday the House Finance Committee voted, 18 to 6, to give away $14 million in our taxpayer money to exempt the super-wealthy from paying sales tax on the purchase of their private jets. House Bill 1100 will also keep corporate aircraft, jet parts, maintenance, and repair all tax free. Of course, you and I will still have to pay sales tax on our cars. [Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, “Kids or Tax Breaks”]

Seriously? Eighteen Pennsylvania state representatives voted for this bill when school districts across the state are still slashing programs, furloughing teachers, and closing entire buildings?

Our state senators are apparently eager to give away our money, too. By a unanimous vote last week, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill creating a new loophole allowing business owners to pass along their assets to heirs without paying the usual inheritance tax. Senate Bill 303 does nothing to exempt the rest of us from paying that tax when we inherit a family house, but we will all be footing the bill for the estimated millions this tax giveaway will cost us every year.

And the House Commerce Committee is looking at a bill that will give away $15 million a year to wealthy investors. Yes, if you’re already rich, Pennsylvania is the place for you. House Bill 36 will reward investors with a net worth of $1 million or more (or who have an annual income over $200,000) if they put their money in start-up companies. And they can take the tax credit even if they don’t owe state taxes. [Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, “Kids or Tax Breaks”]

What’s $15 million here, $14 million there? To our legislators, apparently nothing. But to our children, this is real money that is being drained directly away from their schools. You can’t honestly claim that Pennsylvania is broke and make draconian cuts to public education, then turn around and offer plump tax breaks to millionaires. And you can’t honestly suggest that our kids get their school money from a one-time shot of booze-bucks while these new tax codes will continue to strip our public coffers of millions of dollars every single year.

Last week, seven public education allies sent a letter to Governor Corbett warning him of the many ways in which Pennsylvania’s school finance system is failing to meet the state’s own constitutional requirements. [See our previous discussion of this in “Simple”] The letter was signed by The Education Law Center of Pennsylvania; Education Voters Pennsylvania; Public Citizens for Children and Youth; Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center; Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia; Pennsylvania League of Urban Schools; and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools. All these organizations argue that state “underfunding is now so significant that the Commonwealth is failing to fulfill its constitutional obligation to maintain a ‘thorough and efficient system of public education.’”

The groups also point out that Pennsylvania is actually now providing less funding for public schools than it did back in 2008, a finding consistent with our own analysis. [See “The Numbers Game”] What’s more, the state’s share of school funding is once again on the decline: Pennsylvania now provides only 36% of the costs of public education, while the national average is 46%. [“The Unconstitutionality of Pennsylvania’s School Finance System,” March 2013]

If Pennsylvania is not meeting its own constitutional requirements to fund public education, we need to be asking why our legislators think they can give away more of our tax dollars to wealthy investors and private jet owners. Pittsburgh has already tried eliminating bus passes for students and having high school kids start at the insanely early hour of 7AM, all to save transportation money. [Post-Gazette, 5-19-12] Harrisburg has talked about getting rid of student transportation altogether. [Penn Live, 5-16-12] Can those private jet owners fly our kids to school?

Back to the Budget

The governor is talking about education funding again, so it’s time to check back in on our state budget. Yesterday Gov. Corbett visited the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce to tout his liquor privatization plan, which he estimates will yield $1 billion that he will require school districts to spend on science and technology initiatives. [Delco Times, 3-13-13] I’m all for getting schools money after the draconian cuts they have suffered these past two years – totaling $2 billion now – but this plan has some serious holes in it.

First, you may have noticed that the dollar amounts don’t quite add up. This plan only talks about half the amount that schools are currently missing (after the nearly $1 billion cut in 2011 and the budget freeze in 2012 that locked in those cuts for a second year in a row). The governor believes that the state will collect around $1billion in revenue from the sale of licenses and auctioning off wine and spirit retails stores over the course of four years. [Post-Gazette, 1-30-13] As we pointed out before, that’s not a sustainable model. [See “Kids or Booze”.]

Even the Governor acknowledged this was “one shot” funding. But he suggested this would give school districts the chance to try out new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs or buy new experimental equipment. He told school districts in Delaware County, “These are like planting seeds and getting programs going.” [Delco Times, 3-13-13] Um, does someone want to remind Gov. Corbett that our problem is not getting new programs going – it’s funding the perfectly wonderful old programs we had before they were slashed under his budget cuts. New STEM programs would be lovely, but that’s almost a cruel joke when our students have lost their actual science teachers. New science equipment? How about basic supplies? Parents at my sons’ school have donated all the pencils, erasers, folders, tissues, and other classroom supplies this year. Yes – donated. All.

Larry Feinberg of the Keystone State Education Coalition attended the press conference yesterday where Governor Corbett argued that liquor stores are not a core function of government and that 48 states do not have such systems. Feinberg notes that it was good to finally hear the governor say that education is a core function of our state government, and points out, “If education is a core function we should fund it that way. Forty-seven states have funding formulas that provide predictable and sustainable funding for their schools.” [KYSEC, 3-14-13]

Indeed, as a new report out from the Education Law Center (ELC) has found, Pennsylvania is one of only three states that does not use a modern funding formula. The study notes that, “Pennsylvania is a national outlier when it comes to following basic budgeting principles — accuracy, fairness, and transparency – that most states use when it comes to public school funding.” Our state government is not using an accurate student count when it calculates and distributes its education budget. It doesn’t recognize that it costs more to educate students with special needs, English language learners, or students living in poverty. Ironically, Pennsylvania did have a modern funding formula similar to what many other states use. But “that formula was mostly abandoned in 2011 and amended completely out of use last year by the state legislature.” [ELC, 2-28-13]

At the same time, a new report out this week from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center finds that the keystone state is increasingly giving away its keys to corporations in the form of tax breaks. In just the past ten years, the cost of these tax breaks has “skyrocketed” – more than tripling “since 2003-04 from $850 million to just under $3.2 billion per year.” And the report notes that, “these tax cuts compete with state funding for schools, the state’s colleges and universities, early childhood education, and human services.” [PBPC, 3-12-13]

So we’re giving away over $3 billion in relatively new tax breaks, while our students are going without books and teachers, and Gov. Corbett proposes a one-time shot of booze money to pay for some science equipment? The only thing more insulting is that the governor has also proposed a whole new round of tax cuts starting in 2015 – precisely the year that Pittsburgh Public Schools anticipate going flat broke. As the PA Budget and Policy Center analysts explain: “enacting a permanent phase down of business taxes puts profitable corporations first in line when future budgets are negotiated, diverting resources that are critical to children.” [PBPC, 3-12-13]

So what are we going to do about this? My friends, we must protest. A coalition of over 50 groups called Better Choices for Pennsylvania did just that on Tuesday: they went around the capitol building and delivered a half a pie to every legislator, reminding them that all those tax cuts for large corporations have left our schools and communities with a smaller share of the state budget pie. [DailyKos, 3-13-13] Last year we held Mock Bake Sales across the state, perhaps this year is the year of the pie?

EducationVoters PA has set up an on-line form you can fill out right now that will find your legislators and send a message asking them to support fair funding and meaningful reform in the 2013-14 budget. They have also scheduled the next state-wide call-your-legislator day for Wednesday, April 10^th. [Remember what happens when “Yinzer Nation is on the Phone”?] Who can help organize events this year?

We can’t let our legislators think that the Governor’s proposed booze money is the answer to the school funding crisis he created. It’s time to get back to the budget and prioritize resources for our children, fix the state funding formula, and enact real reforms that support public education.