THOUGHT OF THE DAY – 01/21/2010

Now that the US Senate race is over, some political attention is shifting back to Beacon Hill.

People are asking how Massachusetts political leaders intend to address some of the biggest problems facing our state.

Tonight, we might get a glimpse into some of those proposals when Governor Deval Patrick delivers his annual State of the Commonwealth Address.

I will be listening intently to what the Governor says in his remarks, and specifically what he envisions for the upcoming year. And, I’ll be looking for him to make specific proposals to move our state forward in several ways, including:

• FIXING THE ECONOMY – In order to be successful tonight, I think Governor Patrick needs to prove that he has a plan to fix our state’s economy. He needs to demonstrate that he can bring jobs back to Massachusetts and trigger investment here.
 
• FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY – I want Governor Patrick to show me that he will balance the budget this year and control state spending, while holding the line on new taxes and fees.
 
• GOOD GOVERNMENT – I will be watching to see if Governor Patrick has any new ideas to make government less costly, more efficient, increasingly transparent, and completely accountable to those it serves.
 
• RIGHT PRIORITIES – In addition to the above, I hope Governor Patrick will convince me that he is getting back to basics and putting emphasis on the right priorities this year, things like supporting cities and towns with local aid, improving our schools and making our streets safer.
 
• LEADERSHIP – Most of all, I think Governor Patrick needs to lay out a vision for how to make Massachusetts a better place and how he intends to take the lead in making that vision a reality.

It sounds like a tall order, but that’s what I think our state needs in order to succeed. Interestingly, it looks like the editors over at The Boston Globe will be looking for more or less the same thing. There’s an editorial in today’s Globe that calls on the Governor to show “what else he will do to promote government that is both responsive and frugal.”

We’ll see what happens when the speech starts at 7 p.m. tonight. I’ll be sure to let you know what I think. Until then, I’d love it if you’d let me know what you think. What should Governor Patrick talk about tonight? Please post a comment below and let me know.

Thought of the Day - 01/14/2010

Later today, the House and Senate are poised to take a vote on a plan to reform education in under-performing school districts across our state, and to position Massachusetts to access federal “Race to the Top” funding by expanding charter schools.

Sadly, it’s difficult to say whether or not passage of this bill today is good news.

Even though state officials have known for months that reforming our education laws would be necessary in order to tap into Race to the Top funds, they have waited until the very last minute to pass those reforms into law. In fact, applications for states to access Race to the Top funds are due next Tuesday.

To make matters worse, the final bill has been worked out behind closed doors by a legislative conference committee. Its final decisions were not made until late last night under the cover of darkness.

This means that a two-thirds vote of both branches is needed to even discuss the bill today, much less to pass it into law. Most legislators won’t have had enough time to read the bill completely and to accurately decide whether to vote for it or not based on its details. These details matter a lot, and I believe the importance of the issue at stake merits more than today’s last-minute rush job.

One of the most important parts of this bill for me is what it means to traditional public school districts. An early look at the final product indicates that the bill extends the reimbursement schedule from three years to six years, and it increases the total reimbursement amount from 200 to 225 percent. To me, this means that the bill overall might improve opportunities for students in under-performing school, but it does little to address financial concerns of school districts that are working hard and performing well. Over time, the issue of fair reimbursement to districts that send students to charter schools may become more pronounced as more charter schools are established, and we will have to wait and see how this turns out.

Unfortunately, because it’s a conference committee report that’s up for debate, there is no opportunity under legislative rules to amend its provisions to make it better today, even if legislators find problems with it.

I’ll keep you posted on the process in the House today. Until then, what do you think about this bill? Please post a comment below to let me know your thoughts.

Thought of the Day - 01/13/2010

According to the Boston Globe, cities and towns across Massachusetts are growing increasingly concerned about the state’s bleak financial picture and what it will mean for local aid, fearing deep cuts in school assistance from the state later this year.

I don’t need a newspaper to tell me how important local aid is to cities and towns, and how debilitating a further cut in local aid would be this year, particularly when it comes to supporting our schools.

Cities and towns should not be made to suffer for the state’s poor fiscal management and unwillingness to make tough decisions to balance our budget. We should not be talking about laying off teachers when we have waste in our state budget, like millions of dollars of unnecessary legislative expenses, and when our state transportation agency is still bloated with administrative positions. Teachers are on the front line of helping kids in our state, and we should make it our priority to fund them before we pay for wasteful state programs.

Governor Patrick has been restoring money to several important programs lately because of better-than-expected revenue numbers. I’m hoping that local aid will continue to be a priority. I’m also hoping that local aid will be a priority when Governor Patrick files his budget in a few weeks. I’ll be checking his budget closely for state aid numbers, and I will be looking for ways to make sure cities and towns have the support they need if it’s not already in the budget.

Thought of the Day - 01/07/2010

Last night, Massachusetts took steps to improve under-performing school districts by bolstering our support for charter schools. I support giving parents additional education options through the cultivation of charter schools, but I believe those opportunities should not come at the expense of students who remain within the traditional public school system.

I proposed an amendment to the education reform bill that would have helped to resolve this problem by creating a funding formula that would more fairly reimburse school districts when students who live there attend charter schools. It would have helped to level the playing field between public school districts and charter schools, which I believe is an important priority for our cities and towns. The amendment also had the support of the Massachusetts Superintendents Association, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, and Stand For Children.

I am disappointed that this amendment was not adopted as a way to improve upon the changes being made in the education reform package. Instead, the amendment was recommended for further study, as members refused to even discuss a way to ease the plight facing cities and towns. Unfortunately, last night, members preferred procedural tactics and politics to good policy.

The debate over the bill lasted late into the night, with a flurry of changes being made at the last minute, decisions happening behind closed doors, and numerous amendments being consolidated together into one. In the end, it was impossible to tell what was actually in the final legislation and because of this, I could not vote in favor of the bill.

Going forward, I will continue to try to find ways to improve our education system here in Massachusetts while holding cities and towns harmless for any changes.

TEXT OF THE AMENDMENT

AMENDMENT #49  Ms. Polito of Shrewsbury, Mr. Kaufman of Lexington, Ms. Garry of Dracut, Ms. Ehrlich of Marblehead, Ms. Benson of Lunenberg, Mr. Guyer of Dalton, Ms. Peake of Provincetown, Mr. DiNatale of Fitchburg, Ms. Callahan of Sutton, Ms. Provost of Somerville, Mr. Stanley of Waltham, and Mr. Miceli of Wilmington move that House Bill 4410 be amended by striking lines 909 to 915 of subsection gg of Section 2 and adding in the following new section:-


(gg). In a year during which a sending district‘s total district-sponsored charter school tuition amount is greater than the sending district‘s total district-sponsored charter tuition amount for the previous year, the sending district shall be reimbursed by the Commonwealth in accordance with this paragraph and subject to appropriation; provided, however, that no funds for the reimbursements shall be deducted from funds distributed under Chapter 70. The reimbursement amount shall be equal to 100 per cent of the increase in the year in which the increase occurs, 60 per cent in the second year, 40 per cent in the third year, and 35 per cent in the fourth, fifth, and sixth years following.

Thought of the Day - 01/06/2010

Massachusetts residents have always taken great pride in the quality of the public school education we offer to our sons and daughters. Our public schools are some of the best in the world, and they do a great job providing skills that our young people need to compete for jobs in the complex workforce of the future.

But there are always ways we can improve our education system, particularly in certain chronically-underperforming school districts.

Massachusetts took decisive action to reform its public schools with passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993, which changed the way we support public schools with state aid, opened the door for charter schools, and established the MCAS exam for accountability. Changes soon followed on the federal level with passage of the No Child Left Behind Act during the Bush administration.

Now, President Obama is proposing a new federal education reform package aimed at tracking student performance, establishing nationwide standards and recruiting teachers. Part of this “Race to the Top” initiative involves dedication of $4.3 billion of federal economic stimulus funds to state grants for innovative programs to improve schools.

Massachusetts could potentially tap into about $250 million in Race to the Top funds over the next four years. But in order to do so, we need to comply with certain federal mandates, including a requirement that we lift a cap on charter school spending that exists under current state law. And we need to act quickly, since the deadline to apply for Race to the Top funding is January 19.

A bill that would do just that is the first order of business for the House of Representatives today as we commence formal legislative sessions for 2010.

I support the bill’s swift passage. Race to the Top funding is too important for us to forfeit.

But there’s also more at stake with this legislation, and I think that certain adjustments could be made. In particular, we need to be sure that this next step in education reform continues to safeguard municipal finance systems that form the backbone of our public schools.

Under current law, per-pupil tuition payments for charter school students are deducted from local aid payments to the cities and towns where charter school students live. However, the state phases-in those deductions with three years of graduated reimbursements totaling 200 percent.

The pending legislation would increase the overall amount of reimbursement cities and towns would receive, but it would reduce the payments municipalities see each year, making them wait almost twice as long to recoup the same amount of money. This would have a serious impact on the ability of cities and towns to meet local school budgets, especially in these difficult fiscal times, and it would thereby defeat the purpose of charter schools as a way to improve the overall quality of public education by offering competitive alternatives that inspire public schools to do better.

I have filed an amendment that would change the funding mechanism for charter school reimbursement, and I hope my colleagues will consider including it as part of the final bill. Under my plan, total reimbursement would be increased to a total of 305 percent over six years. This would give cities and towns better reimbursement, while at the same time preserving attributes of the current funding formula meant to provide initial assistance to sending districts for their loss of Chapter 70 dollars to charter schools and their inability to immediately realize savings as a result of the loss of those students.

We need to level the playing field so we don’t pit charter schools against traditional public schools, and so that we don’t diminish the dollars necessary for students within the traditional public school system. I also want to make sure that suburban communities like those I represent are not adversely impacted by changes in the funding formula.

Our state has no more noble or important mission than to educate our young people. I hope the Education Reform Act pending before the legislation will help us meet our obligations more successfully and make our schools something that we can be even more proud of in future years.

What do you think? I’d love to know your thoughts. Please post a comment below.

Thought of the Day - 12/28/2009

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is usually fairly quiet on Beacon Hill.

But this year, this typical vacation week will be punctuated with lots of work to advance a bill that represents our state’s first major attempt at education reform in two decades.

The flurry of activity surrounding this bill is appropriate, albeit overdue. There is a lot at stake with this legislation, particularly with regard to charter schools in Massachusetts.

This past summer, President Obama announced a $4.35 billion competitive grant program for states to improve under-performing schools. Applications for state grants to access these so-called “Race to the Top” funds are due by January 19, 2010. According to Governor Patrick, Massachusetts could be eligible to receive up to $250 million in grants under the program, but access to the funds would require our state to lift its cap on new charter school creation over the next few weeks, before grant applications are submitted.

The education reform bill would remove this cap. It also would change the funding formula that is used to reimburse cities and towns for the money they pay to fund charter schools based on the number of students they send there. Right now, cities and towns receive reimbursement for students over three years on a declining balance basis, with 100 percent reimbursement in the first year, 60 percent in the second year and 40 percent in the third year (for 200 percent total). A new funding proposal would send reimbursement directly to charter schools, and it would increase reimbursement to 225 percent total. However, it would stretch the reimbursement term out to six years, with 100 percent reimbursement in the first year and only 25 percent in following years. Many school districts are concerned that this funding formula could impact their local budgets substantially.

As of now, the education reform bill is scheduled to be debated and passed by the House on January 6, 2010, right after the beginning of formal sessions for the new year. I support lifting the cap on charter schools, and I hope the Legislature passes this bill quickly. However, I hope the funding formula will be fixed so that we can be sure the effects of education reform will be fair to suburban school districts, and so that their budgets will not suffer even greater strain as a result of our reform efforts. Now is the time for suburban districts to level the playing field.

What do you think about this education reform plan? Is it a good idea, or is it too much too soon? Please post a comment below.