Month: May 2022

Supporting Robb Elementary & Uvalde

The OneStar Foundation created a page for donations to support families, teachers, & the Uvalde community. Funds will cover healthcare, travel, funeral expenses, & long-term needs to support the community’s recovery.

  • OneStar’s Donate page and select Robb School Memorial Fund in the donation options. (Note: OneStar’s site is receiving heavy traffic so if you encounter issues, you can also donate via OneStar’s PayPal Giving Fund.) 100% of donations received by OneStar will be given directly to the Robb School Memorial Fund.

Recap: Important Meetings

  • Tuesday, May 24 – Senate Education heard invited and public testimony on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the educator talent pipeline, monitoring HB3, HB 1525, and HB 4545, bond efficiency, and the homestead exemption. The committee addressed all of the items on their agenda. There was a significant emphasis on the efficacy of high-quality tutoring, but it was paired with an admission that guidance, implementation, and monitoring have been either confusing and/or inconsistent
  • Tuesday, May 24 – House Public Education was scheduled to hear invited and public testimony on a myriad of interim charges. Due to the tragic events in Uvalde, Chairman Dutton made the difficult decision to adjourn the meeting before all of the items on the agenda were addressed. The committee did hear testimony on mental health and updates on HB3 from Commissioner Morath before the meeting was adjourned. Some members did seem interested in raising the basic allotment. The unfinished agenda will be completed at a future date, likely alongside additional interim charges that have not been scheduled.
  • Wednesday, May 25 – The Texas Commission on Virtual Education canceled its scheduled meeting on the topic of special populations. This topic and the related invited testimony will be rescheduled for a future date.

Recap: Primary Runoff Elections

SBOE Districts 1, 2, and 4 had Democratic primary runoffs and District 13 had a Republican primary runoff. Here’s a recap of the results:

  • SBOE District 1 (El Paso to San Antonio-lower West Texas): Democrat Melissa Ortega defeated Laura Marquez. Ortega will face Republican Michael “Travis” Stephens, a current San Antonio area high school teacher, in the general. The district has a slight Democratic tilt.
  • SBOE District 2 (Rio Grande Valley through the Coastal Bend): Democrat Victor Perez, a former member of the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD board, defeated Pete Garcia. Perez faces Republican LJ Francis, a Corpus-Christi-based Jamaican-American running against CRT issues, in the general election for this swing district
  • SBOE District 4 (Houston): Democrat Staci Childs, an attorney who created GirlTalk University, defeated Coretta Mallet-Fontenot. Childs will be unopposed in the general.
  • SBOE District 13 (Urban Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington): Republican Kathryn Monette, founder of the Grand Prairie Tea Party and anti-CRT candidate, defeated Denise Russell. Incumbent Aicha Davis (D) is favored to win the general.

Some other runoff results of note:

  • In a tight race with significant implications in South Texas, the race between Democrat U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros is still too close to call. Cuellar led Cisneros by 175 votes, or 0.4 percentage points, out of 45,209 ballots counted as of 2 p.m. on Friday. Many are calling this a fight for the future of the Democratic Party with establishment leadership backing Cuellar and the more progressive wing of the party backing Cisneros.
  • In an even tighter race, progressive Democrat Michelle Vallejo is ahead of moderate Ruben Ramirez by 27 votes for the 15th Congressional District. Republicans see this district as central to their strategy to turn South Texas red. The race is still too close to call. Counties have until Thursday to finalize their results and report them to the state.
  • On the GOP side, three of the four incumbents in the Texas House won their runoff races, with four-term Rep. Phil Stephenson being the lone defeat. Gov. Abbott endorsed the winners in all four of those races, including former Waller Co. Comm. Stan Kitzman who beat Stephenson.

For more information on the runoff elections, look at who’s on the ballot and get further info using the Texas Tribune’s Runoff Voter Guide.

TEA & State Updates

  • After the tragic event in Uvalde and subsequent differences in official reports of what took place with law enforcement, there have been strong calls from Democratic Texas Legislature members for Gov. Abbott to immediately call a special session focused on gun legislation. There have also been a few Republicans joining the Democrats in this request. Gov. Abbott, as he regularly does when pressured to call a special session, stated that “all options are on the table” when pressed for a response. It’s unclear at this point if he will issue a call.
  • The Teacher Vacancy Taskforce will meet this Thursday, June 2, at 8:30 am. They will split up into four working groups: Educator Prep, Strategic Staffing Models, Compensation Models, and Teacher Experience.
  • After significant backlash from parents and many Republicans for not taking action already, the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) cut ties last week with the National Association of School Boards (NASB). This came a few days after the release of an independent review of NASB showed that they planned to ask for the National Guard and the military to be sent to school board meetings. Nearly half of the school board associations in NASB had already left before TASB’s delayed move.
  • Last week, the Texas Supreme Court picked up the Houston ISD takeover case. However, they haven’t posted a date for oral arguments. TEA is asking the court to reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and render judgment dismissing HISD’s claims. Much of the case centers around Wheatley High School, which hasn’t received an acceptable performance rating since 2010. Senate Bill 1365, which allows TEA to appoint a conservator to oversee a failing school’s management, passed the legislature with bipartisan support and took effect on September 1. The bill says that state-appointed conservators have authority over the entire district, not just a single F-rated school. The legislature hopes the new law will help overturn the injunction that currently protects Houston ISD from takeover.
  • In other court news, Texas’ court challenge to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) has been scheduled for oral arguments on Wednesday, July 6. The policy’s future has been uncertain since July of last year when a Texas federal judge blocked the government from approving new requests.

DOE & National Updates

  • In a report released last week, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) called on teacher prep programs to beef up their math education training. “In spite of allocating more overall time to mathematics preparation, many undergraduate programs are not making optimal use of this instructional time,” the report stated. “The overwhelming majority of graduate programs preparing elementary teachers do not dedicate sufficient time to teaching mathematics content, explaining how 85% of graduate programs earn an F [in our ratings].”
  • Two of the most prominent national teacher’s union leaders gave remarks outside Friday’s National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting in Houston. Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, both spoke on gun safety and how to keep communities and schools safe. They were joined by Ovidia Molina, the president of the Texas State Teachers Association, among others.

Articles of Interest

Important Dates

  • Thursday, June 2 – Teacher Vacancy Taskforce meeting
  • June 14-17 – SBOE meeting
  • Tuesday, June 28 – Senate Finance Hearing on Federal Funds
  • Wednesday, June 29 – Texas Commission on Virtual Ed meeting
  • Friday, July 22 – SBEC meeting

Check out more and Subscribe to Amanda List TX Legislative Updates here. 

California has a historic budget surplus of $97.5 billion. Of which, $49.2 billion is in discretionary funds after Prop 98 and other commitments are accounted for.

Budget Overview

  • $300.7 billion in the total budget
  • $227.4 billion in the General Fund
  • $37.1 billion in reserves
  • $9.5 billion in the School Stabilization Reserve

K-12 Overview

The May Revise includes total funding of $128.3 billion ($78.4 billion GF and $49.9 billion other funds) for all K-12 education programs.

LCFF COLA Increase – 6.56%

  • $1.1 billion ongoing Prop 98

LCFF Base Funding Increase

  • $2.1 billion ongoing Prop 98

Declining Enrollment

  • $2.1 billion for declining enrollment
  • To minimize reductions in LCFF funding that would otherwise result due to increased absences, the May Revise proposes allowing all classroom-based local educational agencies to be funded at the greater of their current year average daily attendance or their current year enrollment adjusted for pre-COVID-19 absence rates in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
  • Specifically, the May revision enables local educational agencies to utilize a modified version of 2021-22 average daily attendance to determine their 2021-22 LCFF allocations.

The May Revise also proposes further modifying the three-year rolling average to conform with this adjustment. The total ongoing costs associated with these policies are estimated to be $3.3 billion ongoing Prop 98 and $463 million one-time Prop 98.

Discretionary Block Grant

  • $8 billion one-time Prop 98 in discretionary funds, allocated on a per-pupil basis.

Community Schools

  • $1.5 billion one-time Prop 98 to expand access to the community schools grants.

Nutrition

  • $611.8 million ongoing Prop 98 to augment the state meal reimbursement rate sufficient to maintain meal reimbursement rates beginning in 2022-23.

Facilities

  • $3.9 billion in School Facilities
    • New Construction – $1.8 billion GF, allocating $2.2 billion one-time GF in 2021-22, $1.2 billion one-time General Fund in 2023-24, and $625 million one-time GF in 2024-25 to support new construction and modernization projects through the School Facility Program.
    • Maintenance – $1.8 billion one-time Prop 98 for schools to address outstanding school facility maintenance issues.

Expanded Learning Opportunities Program

  • $4.8 billion, and full funding implementation of $2,500 for every low-income student, English language learner, and youth in foster care in the state.
  • $1 billion one-time Prop 98 to support Expanded Learning Opportunities Program infrastructure, with a focus on integrating arts and music programming into the enrichment options for students.
  • LEAs will be required to offer expanded learning opportunities to all low-income students, English language learners, and youth in foster care, and local educational agencies with the highest concentrations of these students will be required to offer expanded learning opportunities to all elementary students.

TK

  • Local Assignment Option for Transitional Kindergarten Teachers—To temporarily increase the pipeline of qualified transitional kindergarten teachers, allows teachers with preschool teaching permits who hold bachelor’s degrees that meet basic skills requirements and are enrolled in coursework leading to be assigned as the teacher of record in a credential to teach transitional kindergarten. This flexibility is proposed to sunset on June 30, 2026.

Educator Workforce

  • $500 million one-time Prop 98 to expand residency slots for teachers and school counselors.
  • Expand the Golden State Teacher Grant Program to school counselors, social workers, and psychologist candidates who earn a credential and serve in a priority school for four years.
  • $86 million one-time Prop 98 to create a Pre-K through 12th grade educator resources and professional learning to implement the Next Generation Science Standards, Math Framework, Computer Science Standards, and math and science domains in the Preschool Learning Foundations. $300 million one-time Prop 98 to augment LEAs professional learning through the Educator Effectiveness Block Grant with a priority for STEM educators.
From the January Budget:

Independent Study

  • The budget emphasizes the Governor’s commitment to in-person instruction but recognizes the need to streamline independent study and allows LEAs to choose between traditional independent study and course-based independent study for short- and long-term instruction models.
    • In addition, the budget proposes streamlining the administration of programs allowing synchronous instructions to count for instructional times in traditional independent study, in addition to student work product, and flexibility in collecting signed independent study plans.

Early Literacy

Coupled with other investments in early education, professional development, along with support for dyslexia and other learning disabilities, these investments will support improved literacy outcomes for children.

  • $500 million in one-time P98 available over 5 years for high-needs schools to train and hire literacy coaches and reading specialists.
  • $200 million in one-time P98 for the establishment of grant programs to enable LEAs to create or expand multi-lingual schools or classrooms.
  • $10 million in on-time P98 for the California Department of Public Health and First 5 California on the Books for Children Program.
  • $2 million one-time P98 to incorporate early identification for learning disabilities into the state’s preschool assessment tool and $60 million one-time P98 to provide training for professional development.

Trailer bill language clarifies that expanded learning opportunities programs may be used to hire literacy tutors.

Special Education

$500 million ongoing P98 for special education funding formula, paired with the following policy changes:

  • Improve LEAs abilities to project their special education funding allocations and undertake comprehensive program planning, amend the special education funding formula to calculate special education base funding allocations at the LEA level rather than Special Education Local Planning Area (SELPA) level.
  • Consolidate two special education extraordinary cost pools into a single cost pool to simplify the current funding formula.
  • Allocate Educationally Related Mental Health Services directly to the LEA rather than to SELPAs.
  • Develop a Special Education Addendum to the LCAP that will include planning and promote cohesion by linking special education and general education planning, so parents of students with disabilities have a defined role in the LCAP development.
  • Support efforts to develop comprehensive IEPs by focusing a special education resource lead on IEP best practices and establishing an expert panel to continue the work of creating a model IEP template.
  • Establish an alternate diploma and a workgroup to explore alternative coursework options for students with disabilities to demonstrate completion of the state graduation requirements.

Improving Services to Young Children with Disabilities

  • $849,000 GF and 6 positions to support CDE’s transition process efforts.
  • $51 million GF in 2022-23 and $68.1 million GF ongoing to reduce regional center service coordinator caseload ratios to 1:40 for children through age five to increase family visits from bi-annually to quarterly and strengthen federal compliance with timely service delivery and transitions.
  • $10 million GF to promote inclusion in preschool of three- and four-year-olds served by regional centers. Resources will support preschool efforts to improve the accessibility of their programs.
  • $3.2 million GF to establish IDEA Specialists at each regional center. The IDEA Specialists will provide expertise on IDEA services through technical support to both regional centers and local education agencies providing school-age services.
  • $1.2 million GF to increase DDS resources to make improvements to the Early Start Program to drive toward inclusive services, help streamline intake processes, align systems, and increase interagency collaboration with CDE.

Educator Workforce

$54.4 million for accelerated preparation and supporting, training, and retention of well-prepared educators:

  • $24 million one-time GF to waive some teacher exam fees,
  • $12 million one-time GF to extend the waiver of select credential fees.
  • $10 million one-time GF competitive grants programs to public and private institutions to develop and implement integrated teacher preparation programs.
  • $5.2 million P98 and $322,000 GF to re-establish the Personnel Management Assistance Teams to support LEAs in improving hiring and recruitment practices.
  • $1.4 million GF to establish career counselors for prospective educators at CTC.
  • $924,000 GF to support multiple grant programs and fee waivers.
  • $900,000 for CTC to contract a public outreach to highlight the value and benefits of educational careers in prekindergarten – 12th grade.
  • Extend CTCs ability to authorize any holder of a credential or permit issued by CTC to serve as a substitute teaching assignment, aligned with their authorization for up to 60 cumulative days for any one assignment.
  • $5 million one-time P98 for community college-university teacher credential collaboratives.

As part of National Charter Schools Week, these parents needed their voices to be heard about their choice of a high-quality education for their children. So they went to D.C. to share their stories of how their local charter schools have had a positive impact on their children. 

The new regulations being proposed by the Administration would cripple growth, expansion, and the startup of charter schools across the nation and the 3.6 million students they serve. And about 65% of these charter schools are in low-income, Black, and Hispanic neighborhoods where students are already struggling to get a quality education from public schools.

Why are charter schools important? The evidence is undeniable:

Charter schools are important for several reasons. The first reason is that charter schools are usually created by former teachers or groups that want to pursue education in an innovative way. Some charter schools tend to lean more into the arts while others focus more on STEM, and still others concentrate on college prep. Each charter school is unique. So the curriculum is very student-focused with specific goals. More specific goals can allow for smaller class sizes.

In addition to smaller class sizes, a study by the Manhattan Institute discovered that charter schools average an additional 59 learning days of math and 44 days of reading. This means that students in charter schools generally perform better on tests, but more importantly, they have higher graduation rates for Black and Latino students in comparison with traditional public schools.

A study done by the New York Department of Education showed that Black students who attended a charter school in elementary and middle grades were 60% more likely to get into the most desirable secondary schools. Latino students who attended charter schools were 2 times more likely. This then transfers to higher graduation rates for minority students as well as higher college acceptance rates.

And, charter schools have better behavioral records in general, because charter schools often have more community involvement. This means their attendance is more steady, teen pregnancy rates are lower, suspension rates are lower, and incarceration rates are also lower.

Be an advocate for Charter Schools!

As part of National Charter Schools Week, the National Alliance for Charter Schools is celebrating 30 years. You can also join the festivities and learn more about charter schools and how you can support them in your community.

Leadership comes with its unique set of challenges, and prioritizing mental health is a cornerstone of effective management. Explore a diverse range of resources offered to foster resilience, stress management, and thoughtful decision-making at your school.

Mental Health Resources

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