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ESEA (aka NCLB) Reauthorization: A Message from NSBA
Although the House and Senate have made progress with the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) bills by each of the respective congressional education committees, the legislative process appears to have stalled. Our local schools should not have to wait any longer - there is too much at stake. Congress is on recess until April 16, so if you are able to meet with your members in the district or if you run into them at community events, we need you to strongly urge them to Reauthorize ESEA NOW! In addition, we have outlined several additional activities that school board members can do beyond the recess- such as write to their members of Congress, pass a board resolution, participate in the NSBA Contact Congress Day on Wednesday, April 18 or write a letter to the editor. Details can be found on our ESEA NOW campaign website under Recommended Activities.
ACTION ITEM
Please contact your senator or representative and ask them to urge their colleagues serving on the House Education and the Workforce Committee or the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee to reauthorize ESEA NOW! We ask that you take a few minutes to contact your Congressman or Senator using our sample letter. School boards must urge Congress to move on a bill that must be improved and not "shelved" for the next new Congress to address. School board members must also get the message out to their community to show the negative impact not reauthorizing the bill is having on their local public schools.
For further information, view our Talking Points.
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NH Building Aid Update
Both the House and Senate have positions restoring a Building Aid Program to resume in FY 2014. SB 383 reflected the Senate position and HB 533 the House position. As adopted by each body, both bills create a process for prioritizing and ranking new construction projects, with the ranking system based on unsafe conditions, obsolete, inefficient, or unsuitable facilities, and overcrowding. Both bills also call for the Dept. Educ. to develop rules for the prioritization of projects, with some differences in the schedule for completing that process, and both bills show an 'intent' (within budgeted appropriations) to fund current commitments before incurring obligations for new projects. Differences between the bills focus on whether or not a 'cap' is placed on future appropriations (House at $50 million; Senate at budgeted appropriation adopted by the legislature). The Senate position includes an incentive for high performance schools, eliminates funding for SAU offices and temporary space, funds districts at 20-80% of the construction cost (depending on property wealth and income wealth of the district), and pays half the eligible amount of aid up front, and half upon completion of the project. The House position eliminates the high performance incentive, maintains eligibility for SAU office space, funds districts at 30-60% of the construction cost, and pays the entire grant up front.
Assuming the continued commitment to current obligations, available funding under either proposal for new projects will be very limited initially. With approximately $45 million needed annually in the next biennium to meet current obligations, and at the House proposed cap of $50 million, it will take several years before significant funds become available to address the pent-up need that exists statewide.
SB 383 had a hearing in House Finance, and the committee promptly voted to recommend killing the bill (ITL). HB 533 was later heard in the Senate Education Committee, which promptly voted to recommend amending the bill to reflect the Senate position, using the same language of SB 383. The chairs of both committees have indicated their intent to take the issue to a committee of conference to negotiate a compromise.
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Education Tax Credits: HB 1607 Public Hearing Next Tuesday
HB 1607 establishes an 85% education tax credit against the business profits and/or the business enterprise tax for contributions to scholarship organizations that award scholarships (vouchers) to defray the educational expenses of attending a nonpublic school, a public school outside the pupil's resident district, or for limited home education expenses. A 3-year phase-in is proposed, with a maximum of $3.4 million in tax credits for the first year, $5.1 million in the second year, and $6.8 million subsequently. For students receiving vouchers and identified in the ADM count for adequacy payments, deductions of those aid amounts will be made to the resident district, with notice by Sept. 1. Estimated losses in Adequacy aid payments to school districts are $3.9 million in year one, $5 million in year 2 and $5.5 million in year 3. The public hearing in Senate Education is scheduled for next Tuesday, April 17, at 2pm.
ACTION ITEM
Please contact your local senator as well as members of the Senate Education Committee, expressing your opposition to this bill. Diverting money from the state and local districts for private school purposes is the bottom line of this legislation. Local districts will see little or no reduction in their expenses and fixed costs when small numbers of students leave the public school, yet will still be required to forfeit $4-$7 million in adequacy funds. It is hard to understand why the legislature would consider a proposal to reduce revenues while not currently paying the bills it owes. Rather than diverting scarce tax dollars away from our public school classrooms, NHSBA urges the legislature and congress to support improvements in our public schools and meet current funding obligations and promises.
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Special Education Services in Chartered Public Schools
SB 300 requires a chartered public school to make available a free and appropriate public education to all children with disabilities by making available to the child all special education programs and services that are available to the child in the child's school district of residence. Both the district and charter school are included on the IEP team, and the bill indicates several options for how services may be provided. But the bill also includes provisions that require a child to receive services at the charter school (unless otherwise stipulated in the IEP), and places upon resident school districts the financial and administrative responsibility to ensure the provision of special education services.
Most NH charter schools operate independently of school districts: under those circumstances federal law imposes responsibility on the State, not on school districts, to provide whatever the special education laws require. In addition, federal law does not confer a right to receive special education at a charter school. SB 300 compels school districts to provide services in the "least restrictive environment" and then stipulates that charter schools are always the least restrictive environment, thereby requiring local districts to fund duplicative programs at additional cost. SB 300 also directs school districts to transport special education students to and from charter schools, regardless of distance and cost, no matter where they receive their special education; a very expensive additional cost.
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Authorizing the Retention of Funds by a School District
SB 373 authorizes a school district to retain funds for emergency expenditures or to reduce the tax rate. The bill proposes that, "a school district at an annual meeting may adopt an article authorizing, indefinitely until specific rescission, the school district to retain year-end unassigned general funds in an amount not to exceed, in any fiscal year, 2.5 percent of the current fiscal year's net assessment pursuant to RSA 198:5, for the purpose of having funds on hand to use as a revenue source for emergency expenditures and overexpenditures under RSA 32:11, or to be used as a revenue source to reduce the tax rate." This bill reflects a specific resolution adopted by the NHSBA Delegate Assembly last January. It is scheduled for a public hearing before the House Education Committee at 11:30 pm next Tuesday, April 17, in room 207 of the Legislative Office Building (LOB).
ACTION ITEM
Please contact your local representative as well as members of the House Education Committee, expressing your support for this bill. Such a provision, once approved by the local legislative body, will allow a revenue source for emergency expenditures, as well as the ability to smooth out variations in local property taxes when responding to reductions in state and/or federal revenue.
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Defined Contribution Plan Update
SB 229, the Senate position that establishes a Study Commission to make recommendations on whether the current NHRS system should be replaced with a defined contribution plan for all new hires, remains in the House Special Committee on Pension Reform, with no hearing date scheduled yet. The bill calls for the Commission's report to be due on or before December 1, 2013.
HB 1460 is the House position that implements a Defined Contribution Plan beginning next November. The bill had a public hearing this week in the Senate Executive Departments and Administration Committee. Bill supporters acknowledged problems with the bill, but asked for time to allow the House Special Committee on Public Employee Pensions Reform to quickly study implementation issues. It was explained that Pension Reform Subcommittees have been created to study different aspects of moving to a Defined Contribution Plan, focusing on transition issues and how to address the estimated $1.2 billion addition to the unfunded liability. Following the hearing, the Senate Committee quickly voted to amend the House bill to reflect the Senate position of creating a study. The Committee recommendation now goes to the full Senate for consideration next week.
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