California Association of Private School Organizations 

CAPSO Midweek E-Mailer 

April 25, 2012 Volume 5, Number 13
In This Issue

-- Sweeping Changes in Louisiana

-- You're Kidding Me, Right?

-- Quick Takes

-- Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: A Case Study

-- Publication Note

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Sweeping Changes in Louisiana
CAPSO Logo GIF Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has put his signature to legislation creating a state-wide school voucher program.  Prior to the enactment of the new law, vouchers were available only in New Orleans, and to students with special needs residing in eligible parishes (i.e. counties).  Under the expanded system, vouchers will become available to students from low- and middle-income families who currently attend public schools receiving grades of "C," "D," or "F" from the state accountability system, and can be used to defray, or cover the cost of tuition at participating private schools.  To qualify for receipt of a voucher, a student's family must show combined income totaling no more than 250 percent of the federal poverty level (currently, about $55,000 for a family of four).

State Superintendent of Instruction John White hailed the passage of the legislation as "...a momentous day for the families of Louisiana."  The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice's President, Robert Enlow, added: "This measure puts control of kids' educations where it belongs--in the hands of their parents. We applaud Gov. Jindal, Superintendent White, and the legislative leaders who are making Louisiana a lead state in putting students first."  The Friedman Foundation estimates that some 55-60 percent of students in grades K-12, statewide, may now become eligible to receive vouchers.

Others were less enthusiastic.  State Senator Karen Carter Peterson complained that, "we are accepting the idea that because they use the word 'private' or 'parochial,' it's automatically better. ... It's a slap in the face to every teacher in this state."  Others objected to the flow of public funds to private entities that are not subject to the state's public school accountability standards.

Of particular note is the fact that the legislation underpinning the creation of a statewide voucher program was bipartisan, having garnered a dozen Democratic votes in Louisiana's House of Representatives and the support of nearly half its Senate Democrats.

Nola.com reports on the Louisiana voucher expansion, here.  A press release issued by the American Federation for Children can be found, here.

In addition to the vouchers component, the newly adopted legislation significantly transforms Louisiana's teacher tenure provisions.  At present, teachers achieve tenure following three years of at-will employment.  The granting of tenure currently provides teachers with the right to a hearing before a school board before an instructor can be terminated for cause.  The new law will establish a two-pronged teacher rating system consisting of principal observations and student achievement.  On the basis of these "qualitative and quantitative" sources of information, teachers will be classified as either "highly effective," "effective," or, "ineffective." 
 
According to an article appearing in The Times Picayune, "The Jindal measure would require that all teachers hired after July 1, 2012, achieve 'highly effective' status under the new system for five out of six years to receive tenure. Teachers who already have tenure would retain it. But all teachers -- including those currently tenured -- would lose the due process protections upon being judged 'ineffective.'"  The state Department of Education and aides working for Governor Jindal estimate that only 10 percent of teachers will be classified as "highly effective" in a given year, and that an additional 10 percent will be labeled "ineffective."  While the specifics of the new system have yet to be finalized, if estimates should prove to be anywhere near accurate, far fewer Louisiana public school teachers will be granted tenure in the future.

The new reforms also contain provisions that will extend charter school authorization to non-governmental entities, and will establish a so-called "parental trigger," permitting a majority of parents whose children are enrolled in an "F"-rated public school to take action to convert the "traditional" public school to a charter school. 

You're Kidding Me, Right?
CAPSO Logo GIF Bullying has become a focal point of national consciousness and education policy.  Last year's CAPSO Convention featured sessions titled, "The Bullying Dilemma," "We Don't Tolerate Bullying at Our School!," "Bullying: A Case Study in Ostracism," and "How Visionary Schools Successfully Build Bully-free Learning Communities."  During its current session, the California Legislature has taken up a spate of "anti-bullying" bills addressing troubling behavior both on- and off-campus.  Cyber-bullying has garnered widespread attention.  And film maker Lee Hirsch's gripping documentary, "Bully," now places the issue front and center on the big screen.

In light of the subject's notoriety, it comes as somewhat of a shock to discover a U.S. Department of Education report noting that 14 of the nation's 20 largest public school districts reported no incidences of bullying or harassment on the basis of sex. Zero.  Cero.  Null.  Sifuri (...that's Swahili for "zero.") Education Week presents the findings, here. Edweek cites a study conducted by the American Association of University Women which found that, "...nearly half of all surveyed students in middle and high school reported they had been harassed during the 2010-11 school year."  Obviously, something is wrong with this picture.
 
The U.S.D.E. data, as presented by the AAUW, indicate that during the course of the 2009-2010 school year, the San Diego Unified School District reported 620 allegations of bullying and harassment on the basis of sex, while the Los Angeles Unified School District reported zero such allegations.  Either the LAUSD has done a magnificent job of creating and maintaining bully-free schools, or someone failed to answer the question correctly.  (Perhaps LAUSD officials figured that if the New York City Public Schools could report no incidences of bullying and harassment on the basis of sex, so could they.)
 
The U.S.D.E. chalks up the discrepancies found in its Civil Rights Data Collection to the fact that the most recent administration of the survey included questions addressing bullying and harassment for the first time.  According to the EdWeek article: "The Education Department said that any time there are new reporting requirements, there will be imperfect reporting."  Imperfect?  You're kidding me, right?
Quick Takes 
Green Ribbon Schools Named

The nation's first cadre of Green Ribbon Schools, comprised of 66 public schools and 12 private schools, has been announced.  Four California schools - the maximum number permitted by the current regulations governing the program - were named:
  • Longfellow Elementary School, Long Beach
  • Environmental Charter High School, Lawndale
  • Grand View Elementary School, Manhattan Beach
  • The Athenian School, Danville

The Athenian School is affiliated with the California Association of Independent Schools, a CAPSO member organization.  The other three California recipients of the Green Ribbon Schools designation are public schools.

 

According to the U.S. Department of Education: "Honored schools exercise a comprehensive approach to creating 'green' environments through reducing environmental impact, promoting health, and ensuring a high-quality environmental and outdoor education to prepare students with the 21st century skills and sustainability concepts needed in the growing global economy."

In addition to The Athenian School, other private schools to receive the designation are:

 

  • American Hebrew Academy, Greensboro, NC
  • Catlin Gable School, Portland, OR
  • The College School, St. Louis, MO
  • Crossroads College Preparatory School, St. Louis, MO
  • Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Kamuela, HI
  • Lucy School, Middletown, MD
  • The Overlake School, Redmond, WA
  • Sidwell Friends Middle School, Washington, DC
  • Savannah Country Day School, Savannah, GA
  • Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, Philadelphia, PA
  • The Willow School, Gladstone, NJ  

 

CAPSO congratulates all recipients of the Green Ribbon School designation!  A U.S. Department of Education press release listing all 78 recipients of the honor can be found, here

 

 

Jewish Groups Rethink School Choice

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, some Jewish groups are reassessing longstanding positions of opposition to school vouchers and education tax credits.   A recent JTA article reports that increasing tuition costs coupled with a growing recognition of the positive role played by Jewish day schools in the formation of Jewish identity has caused several prominent groups to think anew about their disposition toward various forms of school choice. 

While some organizations, such as the Anti-Defamation League, continue to oppose all forms of government assistance to religious schools, the American Jewish Committee "...is talking internally about whether to rethink its long history of opposition to tax credits and vouchers," according to that group's general counsel, Marc Stern.

In a related development, the UJA-Federation of New York has created a new staff position tasked with increasing the amount of state funding provided under existing programs.  State funds are currently available to offset the cost of items such as textbooks, computers, and the administration of state-mandated tests.  The UJA-Federation is also interested in seeking "additional constitutionally permissible means of government support."

In Louisiana, the Jewish Community Relations Council supported recent legislation creating a statewide voucher program (see article, above), even though the new law's means-test provision would limit the impact of the program in Jewish schools.  The group is now lobbying to increase the income eligibility parameters.

Next month, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs will devote a plenary session to a consideration of "The Jewish Stake in Public & Private Education."  The organization includes 14 national and 125 local Jewish community relations agencies.


New Ed-Data Reports Available

Are you interested in knowing how much the State of California spends per-pupil for the provision of K-12 education?  Would you like to find out what percent of total spending in your public school district is devoted to instruction?  How about a guide to California's bewildering school finance system?  Happily, you can access all of the above at the Ed-Data website.

Ed-Data is a partnership between the California Department of Education, EdSource, and the Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team.  The Ed-Data website was recently updated to include information for the 2010-2011 school year.  If you'd like to see a statewide per-pupil spending figure, place your cursor over the word "State" in the horizontal menu bar near the top of the Ed-Data homepage, then move the cursor to "Financial Reports" (which will appear on a drop-down menu), and click on "School Districts" (which will appear on a second drop-down menu).  If you scroll all the way down to the final table, you'll find a statewide, per-pupil "current expense of education" figure of $8,323. 
 
Statewide, approximately 62 cents out of every dollar spent on public K-12 education pays for direct instruction, and 20 cents flows to employee benefits.  The total amount of money spent to provide employee benefits is equal to 32 percent of the total amount of funding allocated for salaries.


Facing History and Ourselves Summer Seminars

Facing History and Ourselves has announced the following online summer seminars:

Holocaust and Human Behavior Online Course (June 14, 2012 to August 9, 2012) - Please click HERE for more information and to register.

Choices in Little Rock Online Course (June 14, 2012 to August 9, 2012) - Please click HERE for more information and to register.

  

Benefits of participation in Facing History's summer seminars include free access to the organization's vast lending library, personalized support to implement Facing History in your school, access to a wide variety of contemporary resource books and study guides, and access to classroom speakers through the Facing History network.   

Scholarships are available.  For additional information, please contact   

Noelan Arbis, either by phone at 213-202-2811 x 21, or via email:
[email protected]
Penny Wise and Pound Foolish: A Case Study
CAPSO Logo GIF If you're a regular reader of the E-Mailer, you know that California Governor Jerry Brown has proposed the elimination of the state child nutrition supplemental subsidy provided to private entities.  You are likely aware that CAPSO opposes the elimination of the state subsidy for private school students not only on moral grounds - all private school beneficiaries of the subsidy meet exactly the same means-test as their public school counterparts - but on fiscal grounds.  My attendance at a recent meeting of the California Senate Budget Subcommittee on Education not only confirmed the common sense underpinning of our position, but left me shaking my head as to the folly of the Governor's thinking.
 
To give you some idea of what we're up against, consider the manner in which the issue was presented to the subcommittee by Department of Finance representative Laurie Carney, who opened her presentation with the following statement:

"The Governor's budget proposes a decrease of 10.4 million dollars in non-Prop. 98 general fund.  This would eliminate the 16-cent-per-meal supplemental reimbursement for free and reduced priced lunches served at primarily private schools and private child care centers..." 

Note that Ms. Carney indicated that the anticipated savings from the elimination of the child nutrition subsidies will accrue primarily from private schools and private child care centers.  The documentation accompanying her presentation, however, paints quite a different picture.  Of the $10.422 million in anticipated savings, a total of $372,895 will be realized from the elimination of the subsidies for children attending private schools.  (No, the $372,895 figure isn't missing any digits.)  That's less than 4 percent of the total.  At the same time, the savings to accrue from the elimination of the subsidy to private nonprofit child care programs amounts to $7,257,621, accounting for 70 percent of the total. 

See what I mean?  (If you'd care to literally see it, a video of the subcommittee proceedings can be viewed, here.  The statement quoted above can be found at 1:15:08 of the recording.) 
 
Where will the remainder of the projected savings come from?  Inexplicably, $969,726 is supposed to come from "public institutions" that include county probation institutions, and city or county childrens' homes.  Additional savings are projected to accrue from the elimination of the subsidy to camps and recreation programs, private for-profit child care programs, indian tribe child care programs, and (also inexplicably) child care programs for military and local government agencies, as well as non-foundation CSU and UC child care programs.  I say "inexplicably" because the Governor's budget indicates the $10.422 million is to accrue from reductions to "private entities."
 
I am grateful that the subcommittee saw fit to provide the public with data that breaks down the specific amount of projected savings to derive from each category of program sponsor, because it is clear that private schools are unique among them.  The source of their uniqueness is that among all the relevant child nutrition program sponsors, private school parents, alone, can take immediate, unilateral action to restore the nutrition subsidy.  How?  By simply enrolling their child(ren) in a public school.
 
Of course, transferring a current beneficiary of the state child nutrition subsidy from a private to a public school won't only negate the savings projected by the Governor; it will impose thousands of dollars of additional expense upon the state by virtue of compelling the state to pay for the child's education.  It is here where we get to the "penny wise and pound foolish" part.
 
The amount of the state subsidy comes to 15.62 cents per breakfast, and the same amount for lunch.  Assuming that beneficiaries receive both a subsidized breakfast and lunch on each day of a 180-day school year, the annual per-pupil subsidy would come to $55.80.  Dividing the total projected savings of $372,895 by $55.80, it can be estimated that approximately 6,682 private school children currently benefit from the state subsidy.  How many of these children would need to transfer to a public school (because that was the only place they could receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch) in order to make the Governor's proposal revenue negative
 
If we assume the state's per-pupil cost of providing public, K-12 education to be $7,600, it would take only 50 private school students transferring to a public school to turn the Governor's money-saving proposal into a money-loser.  If you think 50 is an unreasonable number, consider the fact that it represents less than 1 percent of all private school students who currently benefit from the state subsidy.
 
If this is how we plan to save money, it's little wonder we're bordering on broke.

Ron Reynolds
Publication Note


The next edition of the CAPSO Midweek E-Mailer will be published on May 16, 2012.