One Fight More

State Fiscal Policy Conference

2011-12-06T13:29:00.005-05:00

For nineteen years, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has hosted a State Fiscal Policy Conference. Unless you are a policy wonk, you may not have heard of the Center. A quote from their website is a quite accurate description: The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is one of the nation’s premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

I just recently returned from this year's conference and want to share a few highlights with readers. In the first place, we started the conference in a very different place. Last year, Mark Zandi, the chief economist for Moody's Analytics, gave an establishment type of presentation. Essentially, saying that the current economic system needs some tweaks and things will be back in decent shape in five years. This year we opened with a panel talking about very practical state policy reforms. No one, no one was predicting an end to this recession.

Indeed, without a drastic change in national economic policy, this recession will not end, at least for 99% of us. However, that's a subject for other posts.

Notable ideas and presentations included reform of corrections (prisons) ,sentencing, and parole laws. There are 2.3 million Americans behind bars now. This population is growing thirteen times faster than our population. We have 5% of the world's population, but 25% of world's prison population. Around 50% of this prison population is incarcerated for drug offenses. Because of ever more "get tough on crime" legislation, prison populations are not only growing rapidly, but also aging. The corrections industry now must also have facilities that look a lot like nursing homes with bars. Legislation based on principles like "three strikes you're out" and "no chance for parole" and "mandatory sentencing" have all contributed to the mess. States are spending on average $25,000 per individual each year for incarceration.

Another presentation urged states to be prudent about their economic development spending, especially regarding tax cuts. A general business tax cut is not cost effective. Much of the money from a cut in business tax goes to businesses whose hiring in tied to local demand, regardless of what the tax incentive will be. Also, businesses who are in no position to expand receive the same break. Economic development ideas that do work include customized job training and manufacturing extension services. However, these both pale when compared to investment in early childhood. A one dollar investment in early childhood returns three dollars. Both hard and soft education skills appreciate over time as opposed to other investments that depreciate over time.

Two "talking head" celebrities were at the conference, journalist E.J. Dionne, and Jared Bernstein, who is now working with the Center. Among the many wonderful insights in both of their presentations was an acknowledgment of the Occupy movement. Dionne and Bernstein each praised Occupy for bringing more public attention on income inequality in a matter of two months than other progressive efforts have managed in two decades.

Next year the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will celebrate the 20th annual State Fiscal Policy Conference. While we policy wonks enjoy catching up with one another each year, I'm not expecting a joyous reuniting around the work we do.

Educators and Public Employees Playing Hardball

2011-11-14T09:44:00.003-05:00

“I think it’s important to be as involved in politics as the politicians have been involved in education.”
Cathy Monteiro - Classroom Teacher - Westerville, OH

The above quote is from an Ohio Education Association member in the context of the huge struggle the working people of that state have weathered. Of course, you've heard that the anti-union ballot question was crushed by a 22 % margin. This is the first mandate on the new anti-unionism in which an open vote was held.

(The Delaware State Education Association was able to share in some of Ohio's glory. We have the luxury of a Governor who respects union rights, and that allowed us to loan staff and governance people to the Ohio effort in the last few days before the election. President Frederika Jenner, Vice-President Mike Hoffman, UniServ Jocelynne Jones, Wendy Cannon, and Toby Paone all aided the OEA political activity.)

You don't need to be a weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing. Educators and other public employees are fighting back against political demagoguery that blames them for everything from struggling schools to the struggling economy.

In Wisconsin, several Republican senators who supported the abrogation of union rights faced recall elections. There are now two less of those senators in the legislature. Governor Walker is facing the same scenario as the campaign for signatures to place his recall on the ballot is moving forward.

While unions across the country flex their political muscle, we should not forget the example of the Alabama Education Association which demonstrated union power in another way. The Alabama Education Association has been politically powerful for many years, always beating the odds in the conservative environment of the deep South. However, like most of the nation, this educators' organization lost their political grip in the 2010 election.

The enemies of AEA went after them hard by denying members the right of paycheck dues deduction. The response of the Alabama Education Association should be a lesson to us all. AEA recognized that governments give unions a framework in which to function, but they do not make unions, therefore they should not be able to break unions.

What makes unions is the desire of people to organize and collectively act in the welfare of the whole group. A government can make that inconvenient when they take away dues deduction, but that should not break a union. AEA went out and signed their members up for electronic fund transfers (automatic bank draws) to pay their union dues. Today, an overwhelming majority of educators continue to be in AEA as dues paying members despite the best efforts of the Alabama legislature to bust the union.

Troubles and Challenges

2011-11-03T09:34:00.002-04:00

The national Occupy movement has me pondering a few points. First, it's not going away. Last night Occupy Oakland had 15,000 marchers who shut down both the Port of Oakland and the Bay Bridge. We have high unemployment and even higher under-employment (those who are part-time employed only because they cannot find full-time employment). We have young people who were told that if they played by the rules and got a good education then they would have a successful future. Those same young people are now carrying $25,000 or more student debt and have nothing on their horizon. Large groups of unemployed and youth are the right ingredients for any social movement. Yet, I tarry too long; let me get to the point of this post.

As the economic crisis settles into the "new normal", there will be an attempt to shift the blame down, way down to educators. Have we not already seen signs of this?

In the 1980s corporations began to pursue low wage manufacturing in developing countries. For the first time in history, any kind of effort to tariff to protect domestic industries was anathema. No politician Republican or Democrat wanted to be called, "protectionist". That's silly in light of the fact that trade has been regulated since the days of Ancient Rome. However, that's the story we bought; so, goods were manufactured with slave wages and brought back to be sold in the US with low or no tax penalties.

As manufacturing jobs left the US in droves, public policy makers said, "Don't worry, we can be a service and information based economy." For a while that looked viable as we rode the wave of Internet technology. However, the erosion of US jobs continued as we discovered that services such as telemarketing, data entry, and customer service could also be outsourced.

Decision makers stepped in again to reassure the public by saying, "Don't worry. It's true we will not manufacture or provide many services, but we will be the engineers, scientists, and designers."

Now, we are experiencing the dissolution of that dream as well. Guess what, just as there are nations where people are desperate to manufacture for slave wages, there are also nations with plenty of very smart people willing to engineer for grossly unfair wages.

This is the crucial point: Just as manufacturing left the US in pursuit of low wages, so has Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). US corporations did not leave the US in pursuit of smarter employees for those jobs. Corporations left to get people to do STEM for the same bargain basement wages that they can now get for manufacturing.

Some people are blaming educators for not giving the nation enough well educated STEM graduates to compete with other nations. But that was never the cause of job flight to begin with.

A combined effort of researchers Hal Salzman from Rutgers and Lindsay Lowell of Georgetown looked at the STEM issue in a study using thirty years of longitudinal data. The report titled, “Steady as She Goes? Three Generations of Students through the Science and Engineering Pipeline,” is a fascinating and comprehensive look at STEM. In short, we are graduating STEM students with as much quality and quantity as we were in the 1970s. The difference is that now, for every three STEM graduates we give the nation, there is one STEM job waiting for them.

Educators are not to blame for any of this economic mess. However, they may be able to help if given the resources and freedom to educate with a well-rounded curriculum that is not fixated on either test scores or STEM alone. Educators will accept the challenge to help move us into a new economy, but they should never accept the blame for the current economic situation.

Stay Balanced

2011-10-31T15:10:00.005-04:00

Last week the Delaware State Education Association was host to a briefing by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) on the national economic picture and the impact on state budgets. Jon Shure, the director of State Fiscal Strategies for CBPP, was the presenter.

Three immediate thoughts came to me during the presentation. First, things are bad out there, really bad. Second, as bad as they are here, they are worse in most other states. Third, in Delaware we used a balanced approach, a combination of revenue and budget cuts, to deal with the worst of the crisis. This is exactly the approach recommended by the nation's top policy wonks at CBPP.

One startling fact in the presentation dealt with the loss of public employee jobs nationwide:

In case the chart is a little difficult to read, that's 646,000 jobs since August of 2008. Those job losses represent a major stepping away from public services by many states. While the loss of 646,000 jobs alone means a mighty blow to the economy, consider that these are jobs that support the foundation of the greater economy: Education, public safety, transportation, and health care to name just a few.

The loss of public services ripples throughout the economy. Allow me a simple example. If I need to renew my license and I wait for 3 hours instead of the usual 30 minutes, that's a residual economic loss (my time) from the economy, in addition to the laid off DMV employees and their spending power.

We live in an increasingly complex society with a complex and interdependent economy. Correspondingly, it takes a complex and comprehensive network of public services to provide the foundation. States who go too far down this path of smaller government, fewer public employees, and less public investment are borrowing against their economic future.

As we enter our fourth consecutive tough economic year, we should maintain our balanced approach, and keep Delaware a great place to live, work, and raise a family.

Guilty Reappearance

2011-10-24T16:23:00.002-04:00

It is with some guilt that I come back onto the blogsphere after a long absence. There's been so much happening and little time to write about it. So, in no order of date or importance, here are some of the issues and happenings that deserve comment.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has been "marked up" (amended in committee to reflect spending needs) in the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee. The Senate version as it has been passed out of committee, has no teacher evaluation component. This has caused the United States Education Department to pull their support for the bill. The NEA continues to support Harkin's bill and is working to make it better. There is no word on when the bill will go to the floor of the Senate. We do know it will not happen before November 8th. Chairman Harkin agreed to another hearing on November 8th for the benefit of Senator Rand Paul who authored about half of the 150 amendments proposed for the bill.

Delaware is competing for another Race To The Top grant. This one is for early childhood education. The Delaware Department of Education solicited input from Kindergarten teachers before completing the grant application. Lt. Governor Matt Denn met with Kent and Sussex County Kindergarten teachers on October 3rd and with New Castle County K-teachers on October 6th. While the program is centered on pre-K education, the Kindergarten teachers would be tasked with assessing children to determine their preparedness for school.

DSEA has had two very successful trainings recently. October 14th -16th was Leaders' Weekend training. This training had an emphasis on the meaning of union and establishing a successful union culture in Locals. October 22nd was the Education Support Professionals conference. Feedback from both events has been positive.

November 1st, 2nd, and 3rd will be Political Action Leader (PAL) trainings. Any DSEA political activist is welcome to join us for one of the following: Nov. 1 at the DSEA building in Dover from 5:00PM to 7:00PM, Nov. 2 at Heritage Shores from 5:00PM to 7:00PM or Nov. 3 at DSEA Newark office from 5:00PM to 7:00PM.

Ok, I'm back...once again I'll try to keep up with postings.
Peace.

Major NCLB Changes Ahead

2011-09-23T15:57:00.002-04:00

President Obama announced this afternoon that states will be able to apply for waivers to No Child Left Behind. Educators and policy makers have complained for years about the unreasonableness of certain NCLB mandates such as the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP).

Instead of the sanction orientated focus of the Bush years, the new emphasis will be recognizing and rewarding successful schools while providing struggling schools with targeted support and more flexibility.

One major change is the elimination of the 2014 drop dead date to have proficiency for 100% of students. Instead, states will be able to have realistic improvement goals for students in reading/language arts and mathematics.

States and school districts will have greater flexibility on the use of federal funds, while at the same time funds to meet the needs of particular populations of students will be protected.

Under the waiver, priority schools will no longer have to choose one of the four intervention models. They can design their own improvement plan based on turnaround principles.

Teacher evaluation systems will not have to be fully implemented until 2014-15 school year. This will allow states time to develop stronger and sensible evaluation systems.

In order to qualify for a waiver, states must develop a plan to address three areas of education reform: 1. Statewide college and career ready standards and assessments for students. Delaware is ahead of most states in this area 2. Systems for differentiated recognition, accountability and support. In other words, a way to identify and provide resources for the lowest performing schools. Again, Delaware has this system operating. 3. Evaluation and support for teacher and principal effectiveness. Delaware's DPAS II fits this model.

The hard work of Delaware educators in winning the Race To The Top grant may now pay off in another way. The requirements for NCLB waiver appear to be very similar to the requirements for RTTT.

Ok readers, I hope the above article makes sense. I had to write it in a hurry, but I wanted you to know the scoop before the weekend.

Jobs Bill Offers New Hope

2011-09-12T19:41:00.002-04:00

The Obama Administration sent the Jobs Bill to Congress today. Tonight, Vice-President Biden was on a national phone call with educators explaining aspects of the Jobs Bill. Education is a major part of the bill because the Administration continues to recognize education as key to our future, because we have lost 129,000 education jobs since January, and because educators are prime examples of middle class workers.

The bill has $30 billion to employee 280,000 educators for the school years 2011-2012, and 2012-2013. This type of stimulus is at work, right now in Delaware. Delaware is today utilizing money they saved from the 2010 Education Jobs Act to keep educators working this year.

$30 billion will be used to renovate our crumbling schools. $10 billion of this money will be distributed directly to school districts utilizing Title 1 funding formula. The other $15 billion will be sent to the states to allocate for school building and repairing. The average age of a US school is forty and the buildings are notoriously energy inefficient. It is estimated that we might save $2 to $4 billion on energy costs with new and renovated buildings.

$5 billion is in the legislation for community colleges although their need is much greater as demand for their services have increased with the bad economy.

Other middle class help in the bill includes deeper cuts to payroll tax and foreclosure relief.

Small business tax cuts are included as well as tax credits for those businesses hiring veterans and the long-term unemployed.

For those that have caught the fiscal conservative bug, this bill is paid for by closing tax loopholes. For example, in spite of year after year of grossly high profits, we continue to give oil companies tax breaks worth $37 billion. We also allow hedge fund managers (who actually detract, not add to the economy) to be taxed at 15% instead of the 28% rate that common folks pay on earnings. Both of these loopholes are closed by the law.

This stimulus package creates about 1.9 million jobs. The entire debt ceiling/ deficit reduction fiasco created zero jobs.

A Jobs Bill is Coming

2011-09-02T12:51:00.004-04:00

If you are reading this consider yourself invited to join the Delaware State Education Association at the annual Labor Day Parade in Wilmington, Delaware. We will line up at 9:30Am at 15th and King Streets. Give an hour to Labor since they gave you the whole weekend!
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President Obama will be unveiling a new jobs program in a few days. One interesting distraction has been the setting of the date to address Congress. The Republican House rejected the first offered date and suggested another...well you can hear about it in the news. The only reason I say "interesting" is that I have never seen such crude disrespect for the office of the Presidency than I have since Obama took office. Remember Congressman Joe Wilson's "You lie!" during the State of the State? Or John Boehner's not returning the President's phone calls? There have been other incidents as well. The point is civility appears to be gone. It's like the meaner cousins of the Beverly Hillbillies have come to Congress.
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Let us all hope that Obama's jobs plan will be worth the wait when the House does finally let him speak. Playing catch up is always difficult, but that's what he needs to do. When Obama's first stimulus, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, was before the people he should have stated something along these lines:
My predecessor attempted to help this economy with a massive initiative in trickle down economics when he bailed out the banks. This Administration is not going to do that. We are going to put money at the grassroots level to stimulate the economy and in the process of putting people back to work we will improve our education system, repair crumbling infrastructure, and move the nation forward in alternative energy and green economy. With all that said, I must warn you: This is a deep recession. Just like the Administration of FDR, we may have to come back again, and maybe again, with more stimulus until the citizens in this country are back on their economic feet. I will never apologize for investment that puts us back to work and strengthens us for the future.

Unfortunately nothing like the above was said during the first stimulus fight. So, instead of creating jobs with federal spending, we've been on a mission to cut federal spending. We didn't think of taking on this job when we gave $1 Trillion in tax cuts to the wealthy, when we took on two wars costing billions of dollars every month, or even when we gave billions to extremely profitable oil companies. No, we decided to cut spending in the middle of a deep recession. FDR must be rolling in his grave.

How the President now changes the debate from 'kill government and shrink its head', to 'government is the only entity that can get money moving again in the economy so lets rebuild and build anew', I don't know. However, he is a great communicator. Moreover he's going in the right direction and there is a power that comes from doing the right thing.

Irene's Out and School's In

2011-08-31T11:11:00.002-04:00

School's in, and Irene's out! Most schools in Delaware started a day late as the maintenance crews in school districts made sure that water and debris were cleaned up before allowing the kids back.

Delaware acted responsibly in preparation for Irene and in response during and after Irene. That seems like a "no brainer", but it's not. Governors and media of the East Coast are actually receiving criticism from some pundits for being too cautious and "hyping Irene". This is absurd Monday Morning Quarterbacking, but it is out there in the public discourse now.

Delaware deaths due to Irene are now at two, and insurance claims at around $2 million. These are tragic but contained losses. Evacuations and a state of emergency declared by Governor Markell were a major factor in easing the impact of the hurricane. Additionally, public employees at every level of government really performed well.

Emergencies like Irene remind us of the importance of public infrastructure and public employees.

Odds and Ends

2011-08-25T11:44:00.003-04:00

Labor Day is coming! DSEA members are encouraged to participate in the annual Labor Day parade in downtown Wilmington. Labor Day is in honor of American Labor and like all your other weekends would not exist without the Labor Movement. So, if you are a DSEA member please join us at 15th and King Street (this is our starting position in the parade line up) at 9:30 AM on Labor Day. This is a fun activity, bring your spouses and children to walk with us and hundreds of other Labor families from the area.
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New Teacher Orientations have been taking place around the state. As teachers are welcomed into school districts to take on their new roles, they are also recruited by DSEA and welcomed into the union. The DSEA locals do a great job, often getting 100% of new hires signed into the union.
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The teachers in Capital School District will come under Fair Share rules this year. That means that teachers who choose not to be members will pay a fee for the services they receive under the contract. In Locals without Fair Share, the loyal dues paying members pay to sustain the organization that negotiates contracts for compensation and working conditions enjoyed by all, including the non-members. That will no longer be the case in Capital, congratulations to that Local.
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At the federal level the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is moving forward. US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, will announce a plan in September to allow flexibility around some of the NCLB requirements. However, this will be in exchange for undisclosed commitments to reform.
This action prompted National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel to comment:“What we need now is teacher-led and student-focused comprehensive reform instead of making states jump through more hoops. The Administration should be leading efforts that support all students and schools by providing real relief from parts of the law that everyone acknowledges simply don’t work.”

Charter School Law

2011-08-19T16:31:00.002-04:00

Today, Governor Markell signed HB 205 into law. The bill increases the oversight and accountability of charter schools. This is the first change in Delaware charter school law in the 14 years since the schools were established in the state.

The Governor said, "Charter schools empower parents to choose the school that best fits their child's needs. But the promise of charter schools is not just added flexibility - it is added flexibility coupled with heightened accountability."

Perhaps another way of phrasing this is the old saw: To whom much is given, much is expected.

Certainly we have given charter schools a lot. They have the exclusivity of private schools, but with all the public funding (except capital construction)of your local community public school. Additionally, charters have been given unmitigated praise by education reformers across the country. The lavish praise has been reinforced by an unquestioning media.

Intentionally deaf ears and blind eyes ignore research showing that when comparable populations are examined, charter schools do no better and even worse in some endeavours than traditional public schools.

The new Delaware law will require charters to disclose finances, to come under the governance of a state Financial Recovery Team if they are in fiscal trouble, have criminal background checks for operators, and evaluate the impact on community public schools before expanding or replicating.

The Governor worked closely with DSEA, legislators, and charter schools to make this legislation happen. Congratulations to the Markell Administration for the courage to do it, and the smarts to do it right.

NCSL Final Thoughts

2011-08-14T19:45:00.007-04:00

Ok, this is the last blog post on my NCSL trip. I promise. This will be just a hodgepodge of thoughts about the trip.

First, the dire straights of a nation in economic peril made more perilous by bad government policy was evident in San Antonio. San Antonio is arguably the premier convention city for Texas, and landing NCSL was a premium opportunity. NCSL has state legislators, policy experts, lobbyists, corporate and union officials from all over the nation attend. Yet, even here where Texas and their presidential hopeful governor wanted to showcase the state, at the back of the convention center were three historic buildings (complete with brass plaques advertising their importance to Texas) boarded up. After all, in Rick Perry's world who needs history and culture unless it can pull its own weight with an admission fee?

Flying into and out of San Antonio I was shocked that the countryside looked more Las Cruces, New Mexico a desert city, than the lush river city I remembered from years ago. This is not just an anecdotal observation. All 254 counties of Texas have been declared drought disasters by the US Department of Agriculture; thus making them eligible for various types of federal relief. This topic was not mentioned when Rick Perry addressed the NCSL about government spending, entitlements, et al. Interesting to note that climate change did not come up either.

It was rather ironic that on the same day Rick Perry spoke to NCSL, the final space shuttle crew made an appearance and gave a presentation. For a decade US astronauts have been building and improving the space station. NASA will now no longer have a space station program with astronauts. However, privately funded missions are being developed for corporate interests who want to experiment in space. It took "big government" to develop a space program. Now, the private sector will profit from the foundation laid by the public sector and, yes, public employees.

Finally, what's with the Alamo? A favorite saying in Texas, to this day, is "Remember the Alamo!". Personally, I think they need closure and should move on. Forget the Alamo. By the way, if you want to see the captured flag of the Alamo, you will have to go to Mexico City for that is where it sits in a museum behind Chapultepec Park. The Mexicans have denied repeated requests from Texas for the flag. I can't blame them. After all we haven't given back Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Check into that little piece of history called the Mexican American War and take note the next time you hear folks from Texas or Arizona talking about Mexicans illegally crossing into "our country".

Please don't get the wrong idea. I was born in San Angelo, Texas. I still have family in Texas. I think Texans are naturally friendly, gregarious, and down to earth. I like Texans. I like them enough to believe they deserve a better government, and a more compassionate public policy that reflects their true nature.

Governor Rick Perry at NCSL

2011-08-10T19:04:00.002-04:00

Rick Perry spoke to the National Council of State Legislatures this morning. His platform could be summarized as Bush Re-do: Cut taxes, cut social services spending, cut regulations on corporations. The nation wants to do this again, because it worked out so well the first time?

With the increase of Republican majorities in legislatures, including the influx of Tea Party Republicans, many of the presentations at NCSL have turned decidedly to the Right. For example, I attended a panel on health care this morning that was entirely about states opting out of the Affordable Care Act. There were ten panelists, and by my count only one was saying anything positive about ACA.

That's not to say that there are not problems with ACA. For example, the insurance industry made out like bandits and the pharmaceutical industry didn't go away paupers either. However, these folks were simply wanting to throw out ACA and return to "free market" health care. One panelist said, "People should have the freedom to buy health care with their own money". Yes, and the homeless should have the freedom to dine al fresco. Seriously, the free market has left about 50 million Americans without health care. If you work in one of the millions of low wage jobs that does not provide benefits, your freedom of choice amounts to food or health insurance.

This will be my last day reporting from the Lone Star State, it's back to the First State tomorrow.

NCSL Day 2

2011-08-09T23:33:00.002-04:00

Among many interesting things at the National Council of State Legislatures is the Exhibit Hall. Exhibitors from AAA to the Youth Support Concussion Coalition fill the giant hall touting organizations, causes, and products to state legislators.

Some exhibits cause a smile such as American Association for Nude Recreation. Some exhibits cause a frown such as the John Birch Society. Some have clever giveaways such as the all too real looking plastic cockroaches by Terminix. Taser International Inc. was in the hall as well, only they were not giving out samples, and neither was the National Rifle Association.

There are wonderful research resources offered by a few exhibitors. For example, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis was showing off their website which offers factual information about the American economy. The Bureau has resisted the winds of ideology in Washington by being staffed by merit employees untouchable by vindictive politicians.

The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy was present with a truthful and mature approach to taxation. On the other hand, there were probably 7 or 8 groups present who had an assortment of snake oil approaches in lieu of taxation.

Thank heavens for the National Education Association and their great booth, staffed with professionals. Their advocacy found companionship with exhibitors such as Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers, and American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees.

Tomorrow, NCSL delegates will hear from Texas governor, and presidential hopeful, Rick Perry. A legislator from Waco, Texas complete with white cowboy hat and bollo tie told me how pleased I was going to be when I heard a "good Christian man" like Rick Perry. Oh, the temptation to go into an old SNL skit and say, "Rick Perry is not good, Christian, or a man: Discuss among yourselves".

NCSL in San Antonio

2011-08-08T17:58:00.002-04:00

I am at the first day of the National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL) in San Antonio, Texas. It's over 100 degrees here and as tough as it is on the visitors, we should remember Texans are in their 39th day of tripple digits.

Regardless of heat, the National Education Association is at NCSL and doing their part to influence the public policy of states towards an education agenda that makes sense. Towards that end, the NEA sponsored a presentation by William Mathis of the National Education Policy Center. Mr Mathis and the NEPC spend a lot of time debunking the myths driving US education policy today. In this post I'll focus on just one part of his brilliant presentation, in which he identifies the "Market-Model Approach" under which we are living now, and answers with an alternative.
According to William Mathis the Market-Model Approach is as follows:

The purpose of education is high test scores for international economic competitiveness.

Properly run schools can overcome poverty and other disadvantages by dint of greater efficiency and effectiveness.

A free-market, privatized system will, through competition, achieve the desirable outcomes.

Advanced by wealthy patrons, business community, media and politicians based on research from vested interest think-tanks such as Heritage, Cato, Manhattan and Hoover.

Again, according to Mr. Mathis, the Anti-Market Model Narrative:

Education is, among other things, a process

of shaping the moral imagination, character, skills and intellect of our children,

of inviting them into the great conversation of our moral, cultural and intellectual life, and

of giving them the resources to prepare them to fully participate in the life of the nation and of the world.

The alternative provided by the National Education Policy Center sounds closer to the type of education that attracted most educators to the profession and it is certainly closer to mission of education when middle aged Americans were themselves students.

It occurs to me that the Market Model is based on two falsehoods:1. US corporations have outsourced millions of jobs because they cannot find enough "smart" Americans to take those jobs. 2. It is the job of the US education system to now make America economically competitive again.

In short order. US corporations did not outsource for smart labor. They outsourced for cheap labor, and for labor unimpeded by safety and environmental laws. 2. The job of education is about those immeasurable attributes listed by Mr. Mathis above...to instill a love of learning that is applicable in the intellectual, moral, and cultural life of an individual.

Looking at Doom Dreaming of Paradise

2011-08-06T11:46:00.003-04:00

Sometimes you don't want to be right. I've been a huge pessimist about the economy on this blog since it started. Moreover, regarding the recent budget deal I had to agree with Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver from Kansas City, Missouri who called it, "a sugar coated Satan sandwich".

Now we've got big problems. Standard and Poors just downgraded our credit rating last night. The budget deal contained no revenue increases and the GOP promised to not allow revenue increases in the future when the so called Super Committee revisits the budget. More importantly, there is now established a precedent to continue huge battles about the debt ceiling in the future. So, if a nation will not raise any money and will periodically threaten not to repay creditors, what kind of an investment risk does that make us? Are we sure that we even warrant the AA+?

There is a good fix for this, and there is the fix we will probably adopt. Let's start with the bad and expected fix.

There is a good chance that ideologues in this country will use the economic scary times to completely dismantle the already patchy social service net. Although S&P mentions failure to raise taxes more than failure to cut spending in their reasoning, there is an element that will concentrate on cuts. Not just any cuts, but cuts to Medicaid, Social Security, Student Aid, ESEA funding, and of course regulatory agencies such as the EPA. We could actually be looking at an America that resembled Hoover's America of our parents' or grandparents' day. This is a bad fix.

Further cutting of domestic spending in the current economy will deepen the recession. Estimates of job loss for the cuts currently on the table stand at around 1.8 million. The US will have trouble surviving that loss, let alone going back for more.

The good fix in my mind is as follows. First, the President should declare that there will be no more debt ceiling fights in the future, because he will simply invoke the 14 Amendment and raise the ceiling unilaterally. Second, we should go after revenue from the two sources that still have money, the top 1% of the wealthiest Americans and corporations who are sitting on more than $2Trillion and not hiring US workers. Third, we should cut corporate subsidies such as the outlandish practice of giving oil companies hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Fourth, we should impose a rapid trades tax on Wall Street. Current trading has nothing to do with investment and everything to do with speculation. Shares may be held for weeks, days, hours, or even minutes by speculators using computer trading. On shares held for so short a time which are obviously not investments, there should be an escalating tax. Fifth, we should complete the exit of troops from Iraq including the many private soldiers hired there, and leave Afghanistan, and when troops are safely home, make the Pentagon live within a reasonable budget for the first time in 70 years.

Finally, we should actually spend money. Our transportation system is a joke. We should join the rest of the world and have this country crisscrossed with commuter trains; from cross country bullet trains to in- town trolleys. Our infra-structure is crumbling. Ironically, a lot of it was built in the last Depression to create jobs under the Work Project of America. And we are still hiding our head in the sand about climate change and the resulting extreme weather. We should be moving to green energy and we should be honest and figure out if we will need to change agriculture growing locations and even if we will need to move people from some areas that will not be inhabitable either because of flooding or drought and temperature.

Underlying it all will be the need for a good public education system that includes tuition free college (once again something the rest of the developed world has had since WWII).

All of these things are of such enormity that only the federal government can take them on. However, all of these things create jobs and grow the economy. They are big, pie in the sky dreams...like the ones that built this country to begin with.

That's One Smart Actor

2011-08-02T13:07:00.002-04:00

Today's post is largely someone else's words, but what words! This last weekend at a rally for education in Washington DC, the actor Matt Damon gave the following speech:

I flew overnight from Vancouver to be with you today. I landed in New York a few hours ago and caught a flight down here because I needed to tell you all in person that I think you’re awesome.

I was raised by a teacher. My mother is a professor of early childhood education. And from the time I went to kindergarten through my senior year in high school, I went to public schools. I wouldn’t trade that education and experience for anything.

I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself — my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity — all come from how I was parented and taught.
And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned — none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success — none of these qualities that make me who I am ... can be tested.

I said before that I had incredible teachers. And that’s true. But it’s more than that. My teachers were EMPOWERED to teach me. Their time wasn’t taken up with a bunch of test prep — this silly drill and kill nonsense that any serious person knows doesn’t promote real learning. No, my teachers were free to approach me and every other kid in that classroom like an individual puzzle. They took so much care in figuring out who we were and how to best make the lessons resonate with each of us. They were empowered to unlock our potential. They were allowed to be teachers.

Now don’t get me wrong. I did have a brush with standardized tests at one point. I remember because my mom went to the principal’s office and said, ‘My kid ain’t taking that. It’s stupid, it won’t tell you anything and it’ll just make him nervous.’ That was in the ’70s when you could talk like that.

I shudder to think that these tests are being used today to control where funding goes.

I don’t know where I would be today if my teachers’ job security was based on how I performed on some standardized test. If their very survival as teachers was based on whether I actually fell in love with the process of learning but rather if I could fill in the right bubble on a test. If they had to spend most of their time desperately drilling us and less time encouraging creativity and original ideas; less time knowing who we were, seeing our strengths and helping us realize our talents.

I honestly don’t know where I’d be today if that was the type of education I had. I sure as hell wouldn’t be here. I do know that.
This has been a horrible decade for teachers. I can’t imagine how demoralized you must feel. But I came here today to deliver an important message to you: As I get older, I appreciate more and more the teachers that I had growing up. And I’m not alone. There are millions of people just like me.

So the next time you’re feeling down, or exhausted, or unappreciated, or at the end of your rope; the next time you turn on the TV and see yourself called “overpaid;” the next time you encounter some simple-minded, punitive policy that’s been driven into your life by some corporate reformer who has literally never taught anyone anything. ... Please know that there are millions of us behind you. You have an army of regular people standing right behind you, and our appreciation for what you do is so deeply felt. We love you, we thank you and we will always have your back.

Deal or No Deal

2011-08-01T11:25:00.005-04:00

One way or another it looks like the debt ceiling/budget reduction drama is about to end. Like most large pieces of federal legislation, it will take a few days to sort out the details, and then analyze the impact. However, one thing remains true regardless of the fallout. This was a manufactured crisis to push an agenda, and it could not have come at a worse time for the country.

The debt ceiling of the US government has been raised hundreds of times by both parties. George Bush raised it 7 times and conservative icon Ronald Reagan raised it 18 times. Our debt sounds scary to Joe and Sally citizen when the talk of Trillions of dollars is in the air. However, a government budget does not function like a family budget. (Although even family budgets are scary when one considers long-term debt such as home and auto mortgages.)Governments are judged on their economic capacity and their ability to pay as they go. Our debt is approaching GDP (depending what calculation you want to use it ranges all the way from 59% of GDP to 96% of GDP), some reputable nations such as Japan have debt at twice that amount. No one doubts that the hard working and innovative Japanese are worth the investment and will continue to pay bonds. Can they say that about the US now thanks to this lunacy?

There is also a mythology about China buying the US debt and controlling us etc. While we should certainly be concerned about our trade deficit with China and the outsourcing of US jobs to China, the debt is of less concern. China owns about 7.5% of the debt. Japan is then next closest creditor nation holding 6.4% of US debt. United States individuals and institutions own 42.2% of the debt. It should also be noted that the US government owns some of their own debt: 17.9% Social Security Trust Fund and US Civil Service Retirement Fund 6% are examples of this.

As a nation we should control spending and eliminate a great deal of fraud from government contractors. We should realize that military adventurism is very expensive. We should realize that tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans do not "trickle down" and are extremely costly ($1 Trillion for the Bush tax cuts). Corporate welfare is costly. For example, why are oil companies receiving billions of dollars from taxpayers?

With all of the above acknowledged there was no crisis today that warranted the actions taken by Congress. The US economy is plugging along at a dismal pace (.4% first quarter and 1.3% second quarter). Unemployment is over 9%. Why is that relevant? Because slowing federal government spending is a sure way to cause more retraction and unemployment. The inexcusable thing is that economists know this, we have data on this, it's not just an ideological opinion.

If these cuts take effect in 2013, we will see another significant dip in the economy. Of particular concern is how much of this deal involves aid to states for such things as Medicaid and education? State budgets have not recovered from the original crash, and now they could take another hit. A part of our current slump comes from the fact that state and local governments shed another 250,000 jobs this year.

The recession is not due to government spending at either the federal or state level. The crash was caused by private sector greed and incompetence, compounded by historic levels of wealth disparity. The whole debt ceiling/budget reduction drama will not add a single job to the economy.

NEA Asks Members to Weigh In

2011-07-27T15:39:00.002-04:00

The National Education Association has asked members across the nation to weigh in on the fight over deficit reduction. The NEA is alarmed at the extremist positions coming from Tea Party members of Congress. Essentially, the Tea Party position is for no revenue increases at all, even from the super rich. Additionally, they are willing to cut key programs that are the underpinnings of our society such as education and health care.

The NEA has asked members to email Congress through the NEA Legislative Action Center at www.capwiz.com/nea/issues/alert/?alertid=51305571&TYPE=CO.

Congress should be told to support a balanced approach that protects the middle class and preserves the investments that make America strong. Congressmen should be told that any deal must include the wealthiest Americans paying their fair share. Finally, we expect a "no" vote on the Boehner plan which does none of those things.

Back With Current Events

2011-07-22T13:53:00.003-04:00

I apologize for the long absence. I need some time to decompress after an exhausting legislative session. For DSEA members, our next issue of "Action" will give a summary of the legislative year. You should see this in your mailboxes in a few days.

For the rest of the summer I'll use the blog to comment on timely political and labor issues. Nothing could be more timely than the current battle in DC over the debt ceiling.

The debt ceiling should be a non-issue since it simply means that we will continue to pay our debts on already borrowed and spent money. Democratic and Republican presidents have favored the raising of our debt ceiling. President Bush raised the ceiling 7 times, and conservative icon President Reagan raised it 18 times in his two terms.

We live in strange times. Fiscal conservatives, primarily Republicans but with a few Democrats as well are using the debt ceiling as leverage to push a fiscal agenda. Their agenda is strange. In short they are fiscally conservative when it comes to social program spending such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. However, when it comes to tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations, and military spending, they are like drunken libertines. There are legislators among this lot who are willing to risk throwing the nation into an economic depression to push their agenda. Defaulting on our debt would be injurious in good economic times, but will be a disaster in this recession.

You are being blasted with information about the debt ceiling debate in the mainstream media, so I will not belabor it. In conclusion, realize four very important things. First, in spite of the large numbers thrown at you, our debt is not critical because of the large economic capacity of the US. Our debt is just now approaching GDP. Some nations such as Japan carry debt twice their GDP. Second, the current recession has nothing to do with government over-spending and everything to do with greed and imprudence in the private sector. Third, significant debt reduction could be achieved by ending the Bush tax cuts ($1 trillion), ending corporate tax loopholes, and ending our three wars. Finally, the only experience we have with economic conditions as bad as they are today, is the Great Depression. In that circumstance, it was the direction of economist John Maynard Keynes that got the nation back on our feet. Keynesian economics basically believes in using government spending to stimulate a depressed or recessed economy.

Budget, Bond, and Grant In Aid

2011-06-17T11:28:00.003-04:00

The Joint Finance Committee finished all their work yesterday by completing the Grant In Aid process. Last week they completed budget markup and the published budget bill (HB 190) was distributed on the floor of the House on Tuesday of this week.

None of it becomes reality until both chambers pass the budget and the grant in aid bills. Additionally, some economic decisions regarding construction projects, job creation initiatives, and tax breaks will be taken up by the Bond Committee on Monday, June 20th.

The Bond Committee will be more tight fisted with projects than they might have been after this week's economic forecast. The Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council (DEFAC) which estimates state revenues reported an additional $18 million for the fiscal year, but this is after a month of rumors that it might be as big as $40 million. Moreover, their projections show revenue will drop around $38 million in fiscal year 2012.

On a bright note, one of the additions that the Joint Finance Committee was able to do before finishing markup, was make a small investment toward improving paraprofessional pay. In addition to step increase, paraprofessionals will receive an additional $875 on scale. This is a much better deal for paraprofessionals that the original 2% increase.

Finally, in the closing days of the session a charter school regulation bill will be put forward by the Markell Administration to deal with recent problems that have arisen with a few of those schools. DSEA will be involved in trying to influence the legislation.

Joint Finance Committee Labors On

2011-06-06T17:32:00.002-04:00

The Joint Finance Committee met again today continuing to work on budget markup. The two big items of discussion today were expenditures under the Tobacco Fund and Medicaid expenditures. The Tobacco Fund refers to money that the tobacco industry has to give states as part of a federal settlement from about a decade ago. In Delaware we have been true to using this money for health care programs. In recent years with declining General Fund revenues, we have been relying more heavily on the Tobacco Fund and drawing down the reserve. Some members of JFC expressed concern about this trend and the dependency of various health programs on the fund.

However, the discussion of Medicaid was much more involved. The Governor's budget proposed $5 million in reductions for Medicaid. A lot of attention focused on use of the emergency room for non-emergency care by the Medicaid population.

From the perspective of an observer, it seemed like there needed to be more information provided to the JFC. (Perhaps it was provided and simply not available to the public) There is no, one, homogeneous Medicaid population. A person who uses Medicaid could be a child, a paraplegic adult, a single mom, an able bodied adult who goes to work everyday in a low-wage job without health benefits, or a senior citizen who is too poor to pay for the gap in coverage from Medicare. So to say that the Medicaid population is over-using the emergency room tells one, next to nothing about what is really going on and why.

To use an example from our sample group above; the working poor often have inflexible employers who do not have "sick days" for their employees. Thus, going to a doctor's office from 9:00AM to 5:00PM is not an option; leaving the emergency room for care. (Although Acute Care clinics are beginning to fill that niche in many areas).

In any case, except for a very few disturbed individuals, people who use Medicaid are just like you and me. They are not going to sit around in an emergency room all night long just to make the state spend more money. There must be something driving the behavior for a specific demographic.

It is this kind of need for more information and thoughtful decision making that prompted the JFC to take the following two actions. First, they restored all $5 million in proposed cuts to Medicaid. Second, they have ordered a task force to study cost savings and innovation in health care and Medicaid.

A major item of interest for educators remains unresolved in the 2012 Budget, the paraprofessional pay plan. This blog has written previously about the promise made by the General Assembly four years ago to raise paraprofessional pay in three phases. The modest goal is to get the starting salary to the federal poverty level for a family of four (currently $22,350 per year). The General Assembly funded Phase I in 2008, but has not funded another phase since the bad budget years.

Given Delaware's unexpected revenues over the last few months, the Delaware State Education Association would like the State to take the opportunity to move paraprofessionals closer to a living wage.

The JFC continues to toil over the budget. They will meet again Wednesday morning.

JFC Still Working Hard

2011-06-02T15:46:00.003-04:00

Ohhhh, I hope blogging is like riding a bicycle, you never forget how, no longer how long it's been.

Life has been busy in education politics. The Joint Finance Committee did two weeks of Budget Mark Up work, did not get finished, did some more this week, and hopefully will finish in a marathon session on Monday.

Educators have held their own, getting a few improvements such as a 2% raise beginning in January, 2012 (as opposed to July, 2012 the actual start of the 2012 fiscal year), and the infamous extra pay period.

Unfortunately, the moratorium on National Board Certification stipends, or Skills and Knowledge cluster stipends will continue yet another year. Without compensating educators for the hard work and time involved, these self-improvement endeavours will become a thing of the past.

There is still one funding issue to be decided that is important to educators, paraprofessional Phase II funding. Four years ago, the General Assembly studied educator pay and found paraprofessional pay particularly egregious. The General Assembly set a modest goal of moving the starting salary of a paraprofessional up to the federal poverty level for a family of four. This was to be done in three phases. In 2008 Phase I was implemented. We have done nothing since then because of the fiscal crisis.

Now, we have some unexpected revenue, so DSEA is pushing hard for Phase II of the paraprofessional pay plan. Remember, this is a modest goal to begin with because federal poverty level for a family of four is only $22,350 a year. Phase II will not yet get them there, but it will help.
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The next item of interest falls under the DSEA commitment to "Protect and Nurture Children". This DSEA legislative plank reads as follows:

Every educator knows the heartbreak and frustration of children who are too hungry, sick, or traumatized to learn well. The opportunity to learn cannot be divorced from socio-economic realities, and those realities are becoming more challenging. In 2010, more than 26% of all US children live in poverty. DSEA will be supportive of legislation, policy, and initiatives which promote the welfare of children and the economic stability of their families.

With this in mind we should be proud of our Attorney General Beau Biden. Mr. Biden is standing up to the insurance industry, by making Blue Cross Blue Shield put money into a health foundation if they merge with a for-profit insurance company. This will mean millions of dollars for indigent care in the state, and that means healthier kids and families in Delaware.

Fast Start for JFC

2011-05-16T17:08:00.003-04:00

The Joint Finance Committee came out of the gate fast today. The first issue in budget mark-up was salary policy. The Chair, Representative Dennis P Williams, and the Vice-Chair, Senator Harris McDowell, brought forward a proposal: A 2% raise for all state employees and educators beginning January 1, 2012. A 1% pension increase for retired state employees and educators. Step increase for all educators (including support staff such as school secretaries).

After much discussion, this proposal passed unanimously with all 11 JFC members voting for it.

The fact that educator Step Increase was by no means a "given" this year, suggests that we have education and advocacy to do around this issue. Step "increases" are simply movement on a very delayed pay plan. By the time you have been around 15 years, you might be making what someone in the private sector started their career with. Educators should thank Representative Dennis P Williams and Senator Harris McDowell for making Step a part of their pay policy proposal.

The famous or infamous (depending on your perspective) 27th pay also passed by a vote of 10 "yes" and 1 "not voting".

DSEA will continue to advocate for restoration of the National Board Certification stipend, the Skills and Knowledge stipend, and for funding of Paraprofessional Phase II pay plan as the process moves along.
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A special note on SJR4:
The Senate Resolution to study the consolidation of school districts was given a committee hearing last week, but not before Senator Mike Katz reached out to DSEA. The Senator wanted to make it clear that his intention was to bring educators to the table for discussion through the representation of their union. To that end, Senator Katz amended his bill to specifically include representatives from DSEA.

Good Economics

2011-05-09T15:09:00.002-04:00

It's amazing, but true, Delaware has a little money due to better than expected revenue. The State is better off by more than $320 million. I say, "amazing" because too many Delawareans are still unemployed and under-employed. The purpose of this post is not to go into why revenue numbers have improved while the lives of many of our citizens have not. The purpose of this post is propose reinvesting a small piece of that money back into Delaware.

Public employees, including educators are still not made whole from cuts made the previous three budgets. I'll speak to educator issues and let other union activists speak for their people.

First, educators need their step increase. This is the less than 1% incremental increase for each year of the first fifteen years of service. All educators need this step increase. The proposed budget only recommends the step for teachers and para-professionals, leaving out all other school employees. We are one community, with one mission to educate children, and we should not do anything to sow division.

Second, educators who wish to increase their skill level by attaining a National Board Certification, or by educating themselves in skills and knowledge clusters should be rewarded for their efforts. The State has in place a moratorium on the stipend connected to those two worthwhile endeavors.

Finally, the Legislature made a commitment a few years ago to bring para-professionals up to the federal poverty level for a family of four. Para-professionals do the real hands-on work with some of our most physically and developmentally challenged kids. Yet these important people in our schools make shamefully low wages. A step one para-professional earns $17,500 per year.

The plan was for para-professionals to be paid increasing amounts up to the poverty level in three phases. So far, the State has only managed Phase I before the tough budget times caused us to go no farther. Implementing Phase II would be another step to keeping our original promise. By delaying this pay plan, we have actually lost ground as the federal poverty level has risen, but the pay of our para-professionals has remained the same.

Phase II of the para-professional pay plan would cost the state about $3.3 million. It would put an additional $2,500 a year into the hands of desperately struggling workers. This is real economic stimulus to the Delaware economy.

If I give a tax break to a corporation or to a wealthy individual, do I create jobs? No, probably not. For example, a corporation is not going to take their tax break money and hire someone unless there is a demand for a product that they can sell and return investment. If such a situation (the potential to make money by hiring additional labor)exists, they will hire with or without the tax break. There is no empirical data that shows tax breaks to the wealthy or corporations create jobs.

On the other hand studies have shown that money in the hands of the working poor ends up being quickly used at the local level for necessities, thus stimulating the economy. If you give our para-professionals a few extra dollars that money is spent at the grocery store, paid to the landlord, or used to purchase clothing at the local K-Mart.

We have a little bit of money to work with for the first time in three years. Let's use it to do some good for common working people. This in turn will do good for local businesses. Before you know it we will have a recovery quickly springing up from the grassroots, not slowly trickling down as waste water from the top.

Issues Blooming Like Spring Flowers

2011-04-19T15:15:00.003-04:00

Yes, readers I dropped off the face of the earth again, but now I'm back. Here are a few of the things that kept me off the blogsphere:

First, discussions on educator and public employee benefits ended successfully with legislation, House Bill 81, incorporating the agreed upon changes. House Bill 81 passed the House with only 3 "no" votes out of 41 and passed the Senate with 20 "yes" votes and one absent. It will soon be signed into law by Governor Markell.

Senate Bill 34, the bill to give public employee unions representation on the State Employment Benefits Committee came out of committee in the Senate and will probably be on the floor of the Senate in early May.

SB 5 was filed which proposes the consolidation of the vocational technical school districts in Delaware. Currently all three counties have their own vo-tech district. The New Castle County vo-tech system has four schools, Kent and Sussex Counties both have one each, for a total of six schools. Proponents of the bill say that we should be able to administer six schools with less than three superintendents and three school boards. Opponents of the bill point out issues such as the individual missions and identities of the districts and the fact that the fiscal note shows a savings of only $65,000 after consolidation.
DSEA has expressed concerns regarding salary discrepancies between the three districts which would need to be "leveled up" to the highest salaries. Also, the bargaining rights of educators will have to be protected because the original certified bargaining units will no longer exist in a consolidation scenario. Finally, we raised the issue of evaluating the educational impact of consolidation particularly in the context of education reform.

Senate Joint Resolution 4 was filed by Senator Katz. This resolution forms a task force to look at consolidation of all 19 school districts, and then specifically excludes educators from being a part of the task force! This was filed the last day of session before the Spring Break. We will obviously be voicing opposition to this legislation when the lawmakers return.

It's school board election time! School board elections are Tuesday, May 10th. So, that means mailings, and phone banking, and all sorts of activity to get the best people elected to govern our schools.

These are a few of the things keeping me from blogging much.

Only in Delaware

2011-04-06T20:54:00.008-04:00

Governor Jack Markell spoke today at the Delaware Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The event reminded me (as a transplant to Delaware)that the "Delaware way", truly is unique.

First, in other states it would not be likely that I as a Labor activist would attend a Chamber event. However, in Delaware, I and other Labor people were present at the event. Why? Because in Delaware, the Chamber is not obsessed with the destruction of Labor.

Second, the keynote speaker, Governor Markell, a pro-business, smaller government Democrat, gave a speech that was pro-union and pro-public employee. Governor Markell said that some other Governors speak of their public employees in a way that "makes me sick". He went on to explain that as businessmen they would not speak ill of their employees because they know that therein lay the value of their businesses. In the same way, Governors should not speak ill of their employees who teach kids, or do any number of other difficult jobs. The Governor went on to give praise to the state employee unions who just finished a challenging process of finding cost savings in their benefit plans. He singled out Jeff Taschner of DSEA for good work on the project. Additionally, Markell returned to one of his common themes, the need for good, forward-looking schools to make Delaware economically competitive.

In conclusion, and with my "only in Delaware" mindset firmly in place...Only in Delaware could an old Labor radical like me, go to a Chamber event, listen to a fiscally Conservative Democratic Governor, and go away truly believing that we have turned a corner with this same Governor and that we will be able to walk down the road with him to better times.

Voice for Health Benefits

2011-03-31T16:29:00.003-04:00

There is much attention on educator and state worker benefits this year. The State and the public employee unions have been engaged in a long and grueling process of exploring and agreeing upon cost saving measures for health care and pension. The final package from this process is close to completion.

Meanwhile, an important bill that gives educators and state workers a voice in decisions regarding their health plan, silently moved forward yesterday. Senate Bill 34 was voted out of the Senate Health and Social Services committee.

Senate Bill 34, sponsored by Senator Blevins, expands the current State Employees Benefits Committee (SEBC). The SEBC is the governing body for the health plan which insures educators and state workers. The SEBC makes decisions about premium rates and the plan benefits. Currently the SEBC has seven members: Director of Office Management and Budget, Insurance Commissioner, State Treasurer, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Controller General,Secretary of Finance, and Secretary of Health and Social Services.

SB 34 would take the SEBC to nine members. The Governor will appoint two positions from a choice of four: President of DSEA, President of Delaware State Troopers Association, Executive Director of AFSCME, or President of Correctional Officers Association of Delaware. The terms will be for three years and no one can be appointed for more than two consecutive terms.

Stakeholders deserve a voice and a vote in the governance of their own health plan. Moreover, the public unions in Delaware have demonstrated that they are a responsible partner in the preservation of affordable benefits. Congratulations to Senator Blevins on a fine piece of legislation.

Health and Pension Savings

2011-03-23T19:45:00.004-04:00

The State Workers United coalition, which includes the Delaware State Education Association has been meeting with representatives from Governor Markell's Administration to see if there could be a meeting of minds around cost savings in health care and pension. The discussions have gone well.

Unfortunately, the details of the discussions were prematurely leaked to the News Journal today. Therefore, we have scrambled to put together a summary of the agreement before people see it in the paper tomorrow. What follows is our attempt to do so.
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Proposals
These proposals have been agreed upon by representatives of the Markell Administration and State Workers United for a Better Delaware, aka, the Coalition. They must still be incorporated into the state’s FY12 Budget, i.e. approved by the Joint Finance Committee and the General Assembly.

The Governor’s budget called for $100 million in savings over five years to the state’s cost of employee benefits. The Coalition’s interest was to protect pension and benefit plans so that the benefits are not diminished and are sustainable for the career state employees and their families.

The savings these changes represent amount to $128.06 million over the next five years. And these savings will continue to increase incrementally into the future.

New state employees only:
Move from 3% to 5% for employee contribution towards pension
Vesting to qualify for pension after 10 years, up from five
Increase the penalty for retiring early from .2% to .4% (the penalty that existed in the early 2000’s)
Change the normal retirement age to age 65 with 10 years of service; age 60 with 20 years of service; 30 years of service at any age (Current is age 62 once vested; 60 years with 15 years of service; and 30 years of service at any age)
Eliminate “double-state share” where the state provides full health care benefits for spouses when both are state employees. For new employees, one spouse will be primary.
Lengthen the time to qualify for state share of health care in retirement from:
50% state paid at 10 years of service; 75% at 15 years; and 100% at 20 years to –
50% at 15 years of service ; 75% at 17.5 years; and 100% at 20 years (same as now).

Pension health care changes for current state employees and future state employees:
Future retirees will pay 5% of the Medicare Medigap coverage provided by the state, or approximately $21/month. At present, the state pays 100% of this coverage, resulting in a more robust benefit for Medicare retirees: pre-Medicare retirees pay the employee share of health care costs as well as co-pays and deductibles. Once retired, Medicare recipients pay nothing for the state health care supplement, nor do they pay for co-pays and deductibles.

Health care cost increases for current and future state employees:
While the group is still fine tuning the specifics, the consensus proposal regarding establishing a cost share for employee health would likely increase the employee cost share on the basic plan from 0% to 5% of the premium. With respect to the PPO plan – the state’s most generous plan – this proposal would increase the employee cost share from approximately 12.7% of the premium to around 13.5%.

First State Basic Plan – Currently only 560 state employees (less than 1%) are enrolled in this plan.
This plan will no longer be free but will cost $25.73/month, or 5% of its cost.
Aetna HMO – Plan cost will increase between $1.43/month for single employee to $5.19/month for Family.
BlueCARE HMO – Plan will increase between $1.46/month for single employee to $5.47/month for Family plan.
Comprehensive PPO Plan – Fifty-three percent of state employees are enrolled in this plan.
This plan’s cost will increase $4.59/month for single employee; $9.73/month for employee and spouse; $7.76/month for employee and children; and $12.17/month for Family.

27th pay for FY2012
As you have most likely heard, the Governor has put in his proposed budget funds for a 27th pay period for next year, thanks to the anomalies of our pay calendar. It should be noted that school districts may object to paying the local portion of the additional pay.

The group is also recommending to the JFC and the General Assembly to include in the state budget language providing for a 2% pay increase effective 2012-2013 – keeping part of the money from the 27th pay in the state budget for salary. This would offset the increase in pension contribution from new employees and provide current employees with a 2% raise.

Other considerations – More savings are being discussed
Finding savings – The Coalition recommended that the State review its contractual arrangements with insurance providers to maximize discounts it can obtain. The State has acknowledged savings $9.26 million in savings over the next five years in prescription drug discounts alone.
The Coalition also suggested that it could realistically and without causing any harm adjust some of its actuarial assumptions regarding pension costs. These recommendations will be considered by the Pension Board at its March meeting.
The Coalition suggested that these savings be used to continue to fund the OPEB Trust Fund, the fund that pays for pension health care costs. Unlike one’s pension, retiree health care is not guaranteed by the state. The OPEB Trust Fund exists to help the state prepare for future pension liabilities. The state has committed to using a portion of any savings from adjusting actuarial assumptions for OPEB.

Items of Note

2011-03-21T13:37:00.003-04:00

Representatives of State Workers United have been meeting with Governor Jack Markell's office about saving money in employee benefits. State Workers United is a coalition of 13 unions representing educators and state workers. The group selected from State Workers United to engage in these discussions are from the coalition's "Big 4": Delaware State Education Association; American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees; Corrections Officers Association of Delaware; and Delaware State Troopers Association.

Both sides of the discussion have been pleased with the results and will be communicating to members and legislators in the near future with details.
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The Legislature returned to session on March 15th after a long break during which the Joint Finance Committee worked on the budget. At the current time three big challenges face the legislature. First, the budget remains daunting in spite of some revenue improvement. Second, this is a redistricting year. Every ten years, following a census, state representative and state senate districts are redrawn to reflect population changes. Politically, this can be a highly charged exercise. Districts can be redrawn not only to reflect population, but also Party affiliation. Finally, once again, gambling venues will be on the agenda. For the third straight year, lawmakers will try to decide if they wish to increase the number of sites for gambling in Delaware.
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Mark your calendar for Monday, April 4th. Unions have designated this day as a national solidarity day. April 4th, 1968 is the day Martin Luther King was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. King was in the city that day to support a strike by sanitation workers. Given the full-scale attack on public employee unions across the country, and given King's own commitment to Labor, this day was chosen to bring attention to places like Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio where basic rights are being taken from public employees. Local union leaders will be receiving ideas for observing April 4th.

SHAME IN WISCONSIN!!!

2011-03-09T20:33:00.002-05:00

Tonight in Wisconsin Governor Walker just went all the way over the line into the territory of petty dictator. After weeks of insisting that denying workers collective bargaining rights was all about the budget, he took the disgusting legislation out of the budget and had the Senate Republicans pass it without the super majority which would have required the absent Democrats.

This is not only a day of infamy, but a day of awakening as well. There is only one way to win now in Wisconsin; out in the streets. Workers in Wisconsin have had their legal vehicle taken away from them. There is nothing left but civil disobedience, direct action and strikes.

The Labor movement was born in the streets. If we have to die, it should be in the streets.

Coffee Catastrophe??

2011-03-07T19:35:00.003-05:00

I'm not a coffee drinker, unlike my wife and many friends. However, I'm aware of what is happening with coffee prices. They are up. Coffee is more costly than it has been for fourteen years. Since the summer, commodity coffee prices have nearly doubled.

The reasons for coffee prices are a combination of events intersecting in the proverbial "perfect storm": Bad weather caused poor harvests; China and India both have new middle classes for which coffee has become a fad; and Brazil has attempted to corner the market and hoard coffee.

So why all the coffee talk?

Because of what's not being said. No one is predicting a coffee bankruptcy. No one is assuming that the critical coffee conditions remain unchanged. No one is suggesting an austerity plan for coffee drinkers.

For those who really care about coffee, they can look back over the years and know that the coffee price rise is not a never-ending inflationary trend. The situation is acute, not chronic.

Now, compare that with what is going on around the country with public employee pensions. In too many states lawmakers are looking at pension contributions coming off the bountiful 1990s when investments carried the cost of the plans, and comparing it to the contributions following the 2008 financial collapse when states had to increase their share. By looking at a snapshot of pensions that establishes a baseline year around 2000 or 2001 and an ending year of 2010 or 2011 one gets a very high inflation rate for the costs of pensions.

However, pensions are designed to withstand bad years and even bad decades. That's why it is more telling to look at pensions in twenty or thirty year increments. When viewed for the long run, America's public employee pensions are healthy. We should not drastically change pension policy to adjust for the current downturn.

Coffee prices go up for a few months or even years, then they go back down. Don't stop drinking coffee. Don't stop public employees from earning a fair pension.

Labor's Biggest Enemy is Jealousy

2011-03-04T22:49:00.002-05:00

Labor has had many enemies in my lifetime and has been prematurely declared dead a couple of times. As an organizer in the 1980s I saw a lot of simple injustice. For example, unionized janitors making one dollar above minimum wage would be terminated for a non-union crew willing to work for 25 cents above minimum wage. Or health care workers who wanted to unionized would have a professional union prevention firm run a campaign of psychological intimidation against them.

In my young years with the Service Employees International Union we fought these battles in the streets. We became experts in direct action, civil disobedience, big rallies and big marches. In Los Angeles we won the Century 21 organizing campaign after LA riot police attacked and beat a group of peaceful marchers. It seems the parade permit didn't account for much.

However, the less obvious enemy of Labor was more harmful. One of Ronald Reagan's first moves against unions was to break the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO). The less obvious enemy here is not President Reagan, but the jealousy of the American public including many union members. Reagan saturated the public with information about the high wages and good benefits of PATCO members. Remarkably, this message appealed to the most base element in people. Many, too many people, including many people from other unions, were jealous of these white collar professionals. The result was that the federal government was able to utilize replacement workers for the air traffic controllers, breaking their strike, with no public outcry, and little solidarity from the rest of Labor.

The next major union to be broken by jealousy was the United Auto Workers (UAW). In the 1980s and 1990s every yahoo from California to Maine had an anecdote about a guy their cousin knew who worked in an auto plant, making big money, and sleeping on the job every day. So, when the automakers begin to break down the UAW through foreign outsourcing, too many people didn't care.

And so it has gone with union after union, and the refrain of the jealous, "I don't get paid that well! I don't have health care or a pension!"

For several decades public employee union workers were ignored by the green eyed monster, jealousy. After all, who wanted to make the sorry wages of a public employee, or heaven help us, do their jobs: teaching, social work, law enforcement, etc.

Public service jobs no longer look so bad.

To explain what changed, let me digress with yet another anecdote. During the George W. Bush Administration the historic wage gap between men and women narrowed. What a surprise! Was Bush a feminist? No. What actually happened was not that the wages of women had risen, rather the wages of men had dropped. Thus the gap between the two narrowed.

Now, getting back to public employees today. Public employees are no more well paid than they ever were. Public employees have benefits, not rich benefits, just benefits. HOWEVER, other American workers had been pushed down so low with bad pay and simply no benefits, that now public employees seem to be living in high cotton.

If public employees and their unions go the way of other union workers. The country will sink even deeper into this recession. We must have spending power back at the main street level and that means decent wages and benefits for public employees who make up a sizable portion of workers in all states. If my dear readers do not believe this, watch what happens to the so called economic recovery after the public sector sheds another 250,000 jobs this year. We are due for yet another economic setback.

Americans must put aside petty jealousy that comes with rampant individualism and instead adopt a sense of community with other workers, their neighbors, the teachers of their children, the cops who keep them safe at night, the people who repair their bridges, who care for their aged parents, who counsel the mentally ill, and who make their water safe to drink.

Markell on Public Employee Unions

2011-02-23T13:48:00.002-05:00

Governor Jack Markell wrote an article for Politico.com showing a political maturity that is refreshing in today's environment. The article is copied below:

By GOV. JACK MARKELL | 2/23/11 4:47 AM EST
I’m not the likeliest candidate to speak out on behalf of the labor demonstrators in Wisconsin. After all, my own relationship with the unions in Delaware has been a bit iffy since I took office as governor two years ago.
Within two months of becoming governor, as I faced a budget shortfall of 25 percent of my state’s entire budget, I proposed an 8 percent pay cut for state workers, which was reduced by our Legislature to 2.5 percent and restored a year later.

Several times during that first legislative session, more than 1,000 union members came to the state Legislature to protest against me and my proposals. The impeachment signs were hard to miss.

My own background before politics is hardly labor-oriented. I have an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, a bastion of the free market. I spent time in banking, management consulting and working with the investment community as a senior executive in the telecommunications industry.

I’m also sympathetic to the need in Wisconsin and other states to secure pension and health benefits concessions from public workers.
We’re in the same position in Delaware. What taxpayers fund for these benefits is certainly not sustainable.

But with that background, I also believe the call to get rid of unions goes too far.
Perhaps that’s because, as governor, I’ve spent so much time visiting our state agencies and watching our people work. I often spend time there explaining my own unpopular proposals — including those to cut their pay and benefits.

Their work is often grueling, dirty and unappreciated by many. They bathe vulnerable patients in state hospitals. They plow streets in the middle of the night, when the rest of us are asleep. They keep our streets safe by dealing with the worst of our society. They help kids learn — even when those kids haven’t eaten since they last left school, haven’t bathed in a week or have come to school from a shelter.
That’s the reality for many of our state employees.

It’s true that my job as governor would be easier without having to deal with public-sector unions. Some of them file frivolous grievances. Some union members have unrealistic expectations about wage increases when so many of their neighbors throughout the state don’t have jobs, wages or benefits. I’m sometimes frustrated by that attitude.

But my job as governor is not to make my own job easier. It’s to make sure that the quality of life for my constituents will be better tomorrow than it is today. That’s why we focus every day on putting more people to work and improving our schools.
On balance, it’s better for our state when unions have the right to speak out and to have a place at the table — when they represent those whose voices may not be heard.
Those discussions might be painful. But it would be worse if they didn’t take place at all.

Jack Markell is governor of Delaware.

WI and OH Revitalizing Labor

2011-02-22T19:46:00.003-05:00

Wisconsin and Ohio are revitalizing the Labor movement. We are learning a tough lesson in those states, a lesson that leads back to our roots. We have learned we can not depend exclusively on the political system. Given that corporate media is no longer even coy about slanting their coverage to the bosses, and that the Supreme Court has allowed the bosses to spend an unlimited amount on elections, the political system will fail us more often in the future.

The solution is playing out in the streets of Madison: Relational organizing and direct action.

If enough union members stick together (solidarity) then legal and political obstacles become less daunting. For example, in Madison teachers all decided to take personal days to protest last week. Superintendents decided to deny those personal days. In turn, teachers all got sick at once and called in. The end result: Schools in Madison closed for the week and no teachers were disciplined. The number of protesters last week ranged between 60,000 and 80,000 every day.

Final lesson: We shall all hang together or assuredly we will all hang separately.

DSEA Testifies before Joint Finance Committee

2011-02-16T18:46:00.001-05:00

DSEA President, Diane Donohue gave testimony today before the Joint Finance Committee. Her testimony, as it was presented is copied below:

Good Afternoon, Chairman Williams and Vice-Chairman McDowell, and members of the committee:

I am Diane Donohue, president of the Delaware State Education Association.

I start today the same way I did last year by thanking you for your service on the Joint Finance Committee. In these challenging times, JFC is about hard decisions, headaches, and few accolades…all things with which educators can identify.

I’m not going to make it easier on you. I am asking for step increases for all educators as well as Skills and Knowledge Clusters and National Board Certification stipends.

The education community has made great effort the last few decades in realizing a united mission around the education of children that involves all school employees: Teachers and para-professionals, yes, are on the frontline. However, school support professionals such as secretaries, custodians, and food service workers not only provide the support for a functioning school environment, but also educate and nurture children in their interactions and service.

I believe separating teachers and para-professionals from other educators for step increases takes us in a divisive direction that the education community cannot afford. It is a move that is more costly than the $900,000 difference in adding in the other employees. All of our educators need a step increase for FY 2012.

Regarding Skills and Knowledge Clusters and the stipend for National Board Certification, I feel like this is a missing piece to the wonderful initiatives underway in Race To The Top. Race To The Top provides a hopeful path forward in innovative education and has put a lot of positive national attention on Delaware as well as $117 million into our schools. However, I fear that a deep look at our compensation system shows that we are not rewarding educators for improving their skills the way RTTT suggests. We have the vehicles to do so in both of these programs, but we have not funded them for several years now. I ask again that you once more fund both Clusters and National Board Certification and thus provide alternative compensation, one of the goals of RTTT. Both compensation programs together would be around $1 million.

I will not address benefits for members in any detail today because I wish to honor the work currently underway. DSEA along with other public employee unions are in discussions with the Administration examining the pension plan, post-retirement health care, and health care for active members. I only ask that you refresh your memories and look at the salary schedules for teachers, para-professionals, secretaries, custodians, and food service. Then, ask yourself if it is too much for those folks to at least have good health care and a decent pension.
Yet, I hear lawmakers when they say, “Diane, what do I tell my next door neighbor who has been unemployed for four months?”

I would say this:

If I reduce compensation or benefits for your child’s teacher, it will not put you back to work tomorrow; it will not ease your fear tonight when you lay awake wondering how you will pay the mortgage; it will not answer your question of how you learn new skills over age 50 to find employment. However, if I compensate your child’s teacher fairly and fund education adequately, it may keep your son and daughter from facing those same haunting challenges 10 years from now.

Education is an investment in the future; and because education is a service, not an industry, when you increase or maintain investment, it is not in machinery or raw materials, it is in people. Invest in our educators and they will produce returns for generations.

Thank you very much!

Unions Respond on Benefits

2011-02-15T11:19:00.004-05:00

State Workers United, a coalition of 13 unions representing state workers and educators in Delaware recently submitted an editorial letter to the News Journal on the health and pension benefits of our members. For months, the News Journal has hammered on public employees' benefits. We answer back, and are still waiting for publication...well, we are not exactly waiting, we have started to publish the editorial on our own using various media.
Here is the editorial:

Public Employee Unions Prepared to Do Their Part
Submitted by State Workers United* - Tom Brackin, Chair; Tim Barchak and Karen Valentine, Co-Chairs

This year’s debate about the state budget will further define Delaware’s priorities and the role that state government will play in helping all of us recover from the Great Recession of 2008.

We are encouraged by Gov. Jack Markell’s invitation to join with his Administration and the General Assembly to find ways to ensure the long-term solvency and affordability of the fringe benefit programs provided to state and public education employees.

In his State of the State address, Gov. Markell called for debate without rancor. We concur wholeheartedly.

This is the time for a reasoned, thoughtful approach. One example suffices: Bloomberg News recently reported the incendiary comments of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie that arguably caused that state to cut by one-half the amount of bonds sold for needed school construction. “He’s scaring some people when he says the state is going bankrupt”, commented Gary Pollack, of Deutche Bank Private Wealth Management.

Unlike other financially troubled states, Delaware’s public employees’ health insurance and pension programs do not constitute a huge ‘budget buster’. Our budget woes result primarily from the continuing effect of the Great Recession on state revenues.

Over the coming weeks, three major programs will be reviewed:
• Health insurance is a continuing challenge that must be monitored closely over the coming years, especially with the advent of the new federal health care law in 2014. Savings can be generated in the present system.
• Our pension system is financially strong and constitutes a major reason for our continued AAA-bond rating. Benefits are extremely reasonable. For example, our state and public education retirees do not receive a regular/automatic cost-of-living increase adjustment; in fact, retirees are now in their third consecutive year without one. Smart changes can be made to save money over the coming years.
• Post-retirement health insurance requires our immediate attention due to its rapidly rising cost and the increasing number of retirees. Delaware has been favorably recognized for the initial steps taken to address this challenge, but more must be done.

In April, 2010, Fitch Ratings issued a AAA-grading of Delaware’s $124 million bond issue, stating: “The state employees’ pension system is fully funded and the state has taken steps to begin funding the other post-employment benefits (OPEB) liability.” Moody’s Investor Service followed suit, stating that the state has a “Healthy pension funded status.”

Can the state afford nearly $100 million this coming budget year for state and public education employee pensions? We believe it can. For each of the past six years, Delaware has spent between $91-102 million for pensions. This averages 3% of the entire state budget, an amount below the national average.

The pension portfolio took a big hit in the stock market crash of 2008. However, investment returns have steadily recovered. On all other measures, our pension fund continues to perform better than projected by underlying assumptions. The pension system can be secured with common sense changes to yield savings over the normal 20-year funding period. There is no current compelling reason to rush such important decisions, they must be well reasoned and carefully thought through.

Delaware does not face the same level of financial challenge that New Jersey, New York, California, and Illinois do. Gov. Markell and the General Assembly have made sound, difficult decisions to weather the current storm. But more work remains to be done.

We commend and support the Governor in his tireless efforts to attract and retain jobs. Recently, for example, he proposed a “significant funding [increase] for the Delaware Strategic Fund”, an initiative that will subsidize corporate investments in our state. If this initiative constitutes a needed program that will economically benefit our entire state, then isn’t it the responsibility of all Delawareans to fund it? Increasing benefits costs to state and public education employees should not be the source of these needed funds.

Our unions stand prepared, with the assistance of our actuaries, to analyze each of the three major benefit programs, and compare these benefits and what we pay for them with those of employees in this region and around the country. If changes are warranted, we will support appropriate adjustments.

Some have argued that public employees need to take ‘a hit’ in their fringe benefits similar to what unfortunately has happened to many private sector employees. We will not engage in this kind of ‘race to the bottom’.

State police, teachers, mental health professionals, highway workers, correctional officers, emergency service professionals, and many state and public school employees deliver high quality public services on which our citizens and businesses depend.

If the call for ‘shared sacrifice’ is to have genuine meaning, then it must extend beyond cost shifts on to the backs of public employees and poor and working families. The responsibility for building a stronger Delaware and guaranteeing our prosperity for the coming decades extends to all of us.

Stepping Up?

2011-02-07T10:49:00.002-05:00

For many years educators have taken step increases for granted. Step increases are the small bumps in salary that happen for every year of service. For most educators in the state they are "stepping" for about 15 years on the state salary schedule and even longer on their local schedules.

Last year, step 15 with a Masters Degree was $44,428 per year. Add another 30% from their local school district then you are talking big money, approaching $58,000 per year. In case you missed it folks, that was sarcasm.

In any regard, in tough economic times, even these modest incremental increases are not guaranteed. The legislature must vote to fund the steps.

This year two factors are playing havoc with educator steps. First, the Governor's recommended budget is only for teachers and para-professionals to receive step increases. That means no secretaries, no custodians, and no food service. Second, educator step increases have now become more of a public issue than in the last two tough budgets; with the result being that there is some discontent being heard from other state workers who are not receiving any kind of increases.

Limiting education step increases to teachers and para-professionals is a break with not only budgeting tradition but with the education community culture as well. Educators take seriously the idea of a school community where every adult in the system contributes to the education of a child. Many students have special bonds with the school custodian or food service worker (the kids would say "cafeteria lady").

Separating teachers and para-professionals with steps in the middle of education reform is not good for the education community. There has already been some misunderstanding about education reform centering almost exclusively around teachers and ignoring other education professionals. This move seems to compound that undesirable direction.

The Delaware State Education Association is taking a strong position that they want all educators to receive step increases. The education community is united in their mission of educating children, and they should be united in fair compensation.

JFC Begins Work

2011-02-01T14:29:00.002-05:00

The Joint Finance Committee started work this week on putting together Delaware's budget. Yesterday, they received an overview of the state's economic situation as well as a presentation on the Governor's proposed budget.

JFC chairman, Dennis P. Williams at one point yesterday remarked, "Remember, the Governor proposes, and we dispose." His point being that the Governor's Recommended Budget is just that "recommended"; it is up to the legislature to decide which of the proposed spending and cut areas they will support or change.

Adding to the mix of politics around budget decisions was an article in today's News Journal about a proposed raise for judges in the budget. In response to the article and the issue, the Delaware State Education Association released the following statement to media:

February 1,2011

DSEA: Proposed pay increases for judges ill-timed given sacrifices being sought from all state workers
In these times of continuing economic distress and 'shared sacrifice', all state and public employees are doing their very best to deliver high quality public services. While we support the efforts of Superior Court judges to obtain pay equity with their Chancery Court counterparts, we feel the proposal is poorly-timed given the Governor's effort to seek $100 million over the next five years from the cost of current health insurance and pension benefits provided to state and public education employees.
DSEA calls upon the Joint Finance Committee and General Assembly to resolve these matters in a fair and equitable manner over the coming weeks as they work to construct the FY12 budget.

Budget Release

2011-01-27T18:44:00.002-05:00

Governor Jack Markell released his recommended budget for fiscal year 2012 today. Usually, a budget address by the Governor, attended by press and other interested parties, introduces the document. However, bad weather kept the event digital with release of the budget on the Office of Management and Budget website.

The state and the nation go into the third straight year of tough economic times. The recommended budget contains more than $100 million in cuts from state agencies and programs. Layoffs will happen among the "seasonal and casual" workforce. Included in the cuts is $7 million less for school transportation.

On the positive side of things, the state will fund 100 more teaching units as our schools continue to grow. Educator and other state worker salaries will remain frozen, however, no reductions or furloughs are being sought. Full day kindergarten in Christina and Milford will be supported by the state. And the new DCAS testing system will be funded.

Fortunately, rumored large cuts to Medicaid did not materialize although there will be plan changes and some hardship as the program struggles to keep up with swelling ranks.

The Governor's recommended budget now goes for a long look and a lot of work by the Joint Finance Committee. The JFC will work from now until March 15th on the budget while the rest of the legislature is on recess.

The JFC will be under the able leadership of chairs, Representative Dennis P. Williams and Senator Harris McDowell. Although it is fair to say that former senate chair, Nancy Cook will be sorely missed.

State of the State

2011-01-20T15:47:00.005-05:00

Governor Jack Markell gave the State of the State speech today before a joint session of the Delaware House and Senate. The Senate chamber and balcony were packed to hear the speech that sets policy direction for the coming year.

Educators, state workers, and troopers all received praise. This might come as a surprise to the News Journal which has seemed to be hoping for, if not actually attempting to provoke, a fight between the public employee unions and the Governor.

The Governor stated his concerns with escalating health and pension costs and then added: "So the proper course is to work together with our state and public education employees to find the best and fairest ways to achieve near and long-term savings."

"We have begun a dialogue with representatives of the major state and public education union leaderships and leaders from within the General Assembly. I am open to any and all good ideas. But we must secure the necessary savings during this session of the General Assembly , because the cost of delay is just unacceptable."

This section of the speech refers to the fact that representatives from DSEA, AFSCME, and DSTA (troopers) will be meeting with members of the Governor's staff, the Office of Management and Budget, and with a few members of the General Assembly to examine health and pension issues. The model for problem solving is similar to that used several years ago to bring down costs associated with Workers Compensation in Delaware.

While public employees continue to have challenging times, there were indications in the State of the State, that the bad economy will cause hardship for others as well. Medicaid, the source of health care for the poor, seems almost certainly slated for cuts. Additionally, Grant-in-Aid which refers to a whole category of funding for charitable and service organizations may continue to see dwindling funds.

Next Thursday, January 27th, the Governor will release his recommended budget and we will get details around the direction set today.

They're Off and Running.

2011-01-11T16:36:00.004-05:00

The 146th General Assembly of Delaware convened today. As is tradition, many legislators brought family and friends to watch them take the oath of office. Today, everyone kept a watchful eye on weather, keeping ceremonies and receptions brief with a pending snow storm coming up from the south.

The new committee lists are out. The Senate Education Committee is:
David P. Sokola Chair
George H. Bunting Catherine L. Cloutier Bethany A. Hall-Long Margaret Rose Henry Michael S. Katz Liane M. Sorenson
The House Education Committee is:
Teresa Schooley Chair
Darryl Scott Vice Chair
Michael A. Barbieri Donald A. Blakey Stephanie T. Bolden Ruth Briggs King Debra J. Heffernan Earl G. Jaques S. Quinton Johnson Harvey R. Kenton John A. Kowalko Nick T. Manolakos Joseph E. Miro Edward S. Osienski

Welcome to all the new legislators. Let's all keep in mind, it's a marathon, not a sprint. July 1st is a long way away.

Some Opinions Better Not Shared

2011-01-05T14:58:00.002-05:00

Delaware's News Journal Opinion Page got it wrong again. Today's spread of love came from a piece called "Calif. governor offers lesson to Delaware, D.C. politicians". What follows is a confusing piece that somehow tries to tie Governor Brown to the News Journal's own anti-union, anti-tax agenda.

The start of the NJ article puts some blame for California's mess on the movement against property taxes. However, in NJ form it quickly moves on to blame Brown's support for collective bargaining, powerful teacher unions, and income taxes. The News Journal implies that Brown will now correct these "mistakes" in his second chance as Governor of California.

Before going any further we should point out that Brown has not renounced unions. This is a NJ fantasy. Brown has been pro-worker rights throughout his career including his recent tenure as California Attorney General.

While waxing philosophical on California's economic woes, the NJ might stop and consider that 48 of 50 states are in bad economic shape right now. It's called a severe recession. States are driven to bankruptcies in recessions because revenues drop due to mass job loss and falling business profits; at the same time the need for services such as unemployment insurance and health care rises because of the same job loss. How can anyone have a serious conversation about the economic condition of any state without first acknowledging that the PRIMARY cause of their problem is the current recession? It is a revenue problem, not a spending problem.

Public employee unions, including those in California have given workers rights and FAIR pay and benefits. The emphasis is on "fair" because in spite of irresponsible reporting, public employees are not over-paid and they have health care and pensions, but those are not "Cadillac" or "extravagant" or any other exaggeration. State workers start at around $17,000 a year. If one is lucky and sticks around for 30 years, then they might make as much a first year junior executive.

Income taxes that ask more of those who have greatly benefited from society do not cause mass migrations of the affluent or businesses as suggested in the NJ opinion. There is absolutely no data that shows the wealthy fleeing any state if they are asked to pay 1% more tax on the top bracket. This is myth and it is harmful myth.

Shame on the NJ for once again slamming working people.

Flowers Is New Treasurer

2011-01-04T14:28:00.002-05:00

In an impressive ceremony this morning, Chip Flowers became Delaware's new State Treasurer, and the first African American to be elected to a statewide office in the First State.

Flowers chose the Delaware Museum of Art in Wilmington as the location for friends to witness him taking the oath of office. Special guests of this event included Governor Markell, Lt. Governor Denn, US Senators Carper and Coons, Congressman John Carney, Speaker Bob Gilligan of the Delaware House, Senator Blevins, Senator McDowell, Representatives Swartzkopf, Scott, Johnson, and Jaques.

Senator Carper and Governor Markell who were speakers on the program, were both former Delaware Treasurers.

Treasurer Flowers is a very bright and energetic young man who wants to do a lot with the Treasurer's position. He is an economic progressive who has interesting ideas. Unfortunately, he may face difficulties getting the resources he needs to run programs. Delaware, along with the rest of the nation, will enter the third straight year of budget deficits as revenues remain low. Tomorrow is a lot of work for Flowers, but today should be savored.

DeLuca is Pro-Tem

2010-12-14T21:52:00.002-05:00

The Delaware Senate went into special session today in order to approve a judicial appointment. In ordinary times this would be a non-event. However, in keeping with the extraordinary times in which we are living, even this day had drama.

The drama swirled around the need for the Senate to "organize" themselves. That is, before doing business they needed to pass rules and elect leadership. If not for the special session leadership would have been elected when the legislature returns January 11th, 2011. The early return forced a battle that has been brewing for weeks.

Senator Katz and Senator Peterson have been attempting to lead a revolt against incumbent President Pro-Tem, Senator DeLuca. Both made impassioned pleas to their colleagues on the floor of senate to vote against DeLuca.

However, their effort fell far short of a revolution.
Voting for DeLuca: Blevins, Bonini, Bushweller, DeLuca, Ennis, Hall-Long, Henry, Marshall, McBride, McDowell, Venables
Voting against DeLuca: Katz, Peterson, Sorenson, Simpson, Lawson
Present but not voting: Booth, Bunting, Connor, Sokola
Absent: Cloutier

DeLuca remains Pro-Tem with 11 favorable votes, 5 against his leadership, 4 not voting, and 1 absent.

Not Helpful

2010-12-13T17:58:00.003-05:00

Delaware's "News Journal " featured the glaring Opinion page headline: "Student test results should be a call to arms". The headline and short piece refers to the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA tests are administered to 15-year-old students in 65 nations and/or education systems (for example, China might receive a ranking, but in their case only Shanghai participated).

President Obama said the results should create a "Sputnik moment" for the country. Chester Finn a top ranking education official in the Reagan Administration added "Pearl Harbor" to the list of comparable national catastrophes.

When ranked by nation the US was 25 out of 34 in mathematics, 17th out of 34 in science and 14th in reading.

If there was a ranking of hyperbolic reaction, the US would have ranked last, with analogies and statements at the Junior High School level.

If we were a thoughtful, introspective nation we would take a deep breath and pause, before doing ANYTHING, before making ANY statements. If we are going to continue to place a great deal of importance on test scores, then the number one lesson we should take away from PISA is that what we are doing is not working. However, it seems that many decision makers will take PISA as the signal to run even faster down the wrong road.

Consider a few facts around the PISA high performer, Finland. Finland does very little testing of students. In fact, the only mandatory Finnish test is at the end of high school, before admission to college. Finland's student population of 7 to 14- year-olds receives far LESS instructional time than other countries. Also, Finland's teachers are almost all unionized.

Consider also that the PISA results were a part of a report that analyzed education systems and had some interesting, but unreported findings: Students from low socio-economic backgrounds (ie poor) will usually score a full grade level behind students from more affluent backgrounds. Private schools do no better than public schools once family economic status is factored in. School systems that must compete with charters and vouchers for students show no advantage in scoring. Schools that have grade promotion requirements (repeat the grade until you score out) actually score lower. Systems in which student tracking and grouping is allowed have lower test scores and higher achievement gaps.

I have thrown a lot of rambling facts around in this post. Let me try to knit them together in some kind of conclusion.

The News Journal and other purveyors of sensational doom about our educational system are not helping matters. In truth, they are contributing to the problem by creating a sense of panic in policy makers. Panic will lead to more of the same, faster: More testing, more high stakes for students and teachers, more class time, more teacher work time, more data, more, more, more.

Again, we need to take a deep breath and start thinking outside of our own box. And we should consider the old axiom of working smarter, not harder.

Newark Education Forum

2010-12-06T22:00:00.002-05:00

Tonight, the Greater Newark Network, which usually discusses economic development, hosted a forum on education. While several of the discussion questions were from a business perspective and at least one suggested charter schools as a solution, the format was fair and open to opinions. The moderators did a good job of maintaining neutrality.

The program belonged to the audience which was divided up into small groups to discuss five questions for 15 minutes each. With each question people changed tables so that one discussed each question with a different group of people. Comments were recorded to be placed in a report.

There were two charter school supporters in the room who were zealots. I do not use the word lightly. They reminded me of new converts to a religion who feel like they have to spread the faith, even if at the point of a sword. One of these individuals, a teacher at a prominent charter school was adamant that all their students are chosen by lottery. Having seen the census on the two premier charter schools, I must ask how can anyone believe that by luck of the draw these schools end up with virtually no special education students or students with developmental disabilities?

Delaware must not be a litigious state; otherwise someone would surely sue one of these charters for these so called "lotteries" that miraculously always ended up with the schools getting very bright students without learning disabilities or behavioral problems.

Fortunately, the charter chant did not drown out many other good ideas in the room including using the magnet model and the school within a school model.

Pay Freeze Sends Wrong Message

2010-11-30T11:22:00.004-05:00

President Obama announced a two year pay freeze for federal employees. This move would reduce the federal deficit by $60 billion over ten years. However, be careful of numbers when speaking of federal policies because everything is on such a huge scale. For example the $60 billion pales beside the fact that stopping the two wars and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire would reduce the deficit by $7 trillion over the same amount of time.

Economists and political operatives are characterizing the move by Obama as symbolic, but symbolic of what? Symbolic of a pattern of always asking working people to sacrifice and share the burden, while avoiding the tough battles with the wealthy and powerful?

Make no mistake, federal employees are overwhelmingly working class, just like state employees and educators. Federal employees make 20% less than their private sector colleagues doing comparable jobs. Grade 1, Step 1 on the federal pay schedule is $17,803 per year. That sounds awfully close to Step 1 for a para-professional educator in Delaware who makes $17,228 per year.

Freezing the pay of federal employees will not create one new job. It will not cause one business to rehire one laid off employee. In fact, when coupled with another year of state and local public employee cuts (this sector will lose another 250,000 jobs this year) the impact will be more slowing of an already faltering recovery.

Again, if this is symbolism, it is sending the wrong message. The pay cut enables enemies of public services and public servants to continue to spin a tale about over-paid bureaucrats delivering unneeded and intrusive public services. When in fact public servants educate our kids, catch the bad guys, make water safe to drink and bridges safe to cross, cut the check for your grandmother's Social Security, treat the wounded soldier, take the abused child to safety, and perform a thousand other services necessary to provide the infrastructure for a complex and profitable society.

Challenges As Well As Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T09:51:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, the Delaware Department of Education made their budget request. The DOE requested a less than 1% increase (.9%) from last year. Much of this will be used to deal with new teachers needed for increased enrollment. As we have discussed before in this blog, as the economy slows, we have an increase in public services including children who were once in private school returning to public school.

Although the DOE is asking for an increase, the education budget is still lean and mean due to continued low state tax revenues. Last year's unpopular cost shift to local school districts on student transportation is back for consideration. The Joint Finance Committee rejected this cut in the FY 2011 budget.

The federal Education Jobs Fund money that was available for 2011 has been saved by local school districts for use in FY 2012. In Delaware, the funds are worth $27.4 million. The state communicated with districts last year in less than diplomatic terms that they should not use the money for FY 2011 because they would need it in FY 2012. Indeed, this money will in practical terms simply supplant other cuts this coming year.

There is no end in sight for robbing Peter to pay Paul in state budgets. Most economists believe that employment in the US will not fully recover for a decade. That's a long time for always hungry public services to starve for income tax revenue. It's a long time for American workers to go from jobless spell to jobless spell; or from wage and benefit cuts to more of the same. It is a long time for kids to experience the framework of education reform without a foundation of funding for the best in staffing and facilities. It is a generation with a college education in jeopardy. If you wonder why the National Education Association and her affiliates are becoming increasing interested, educated, and activated around fiscal policy and economic justice, this is why. We cannot pretend that we can produce a world class educated population in a safe bubble while the economy continues to crash around us.

Soooooo, Happy Thanksgiving?

Yes, I think so. Ultimately, what will get this country to thinking about a different way of doing things are the values of Thanksgiving: family and community. We are more than taxpayers. We are more than consumers. We are families and communities. All of our systems including economy, government, and education exist for the benefit of families and communities, not the other way around.

So, Happy Thanksgiving!

Where Have All the Librarians Gone?

2010-11-18T13:42:00.002-05:00

Public school librarians seem to be disappearing. Librarians who retire are not always replaced. Librarians are often pulled from their traditional duties to be testing monitors, or sometimes to simply watch (babysit) classes as teachers are involved in activities like collaborative planning time.

Public schools have traditionally implemented one of two models for use of librarians. The older model, probably the one most of remember from our own school days, is the Flexibly Scheduled Model. In this model classes make use of the library as needed with the teacher and librarian working together with the students on a project. Additionally, the librarian responds to walk-in needs of students and teachers. Flexibly Scheduled Models are in decline. The alternative is the Fixed Scheduled Model. This is equivalent to "library as a class". The librarian teaches classes about library science and research in 45 minute blocks throughout the day. Some librarians on this model do as many as 7 of these classes in a day.

In the Flexibly Scheduled scenario librarians act as a resource for every subject and grade level for teacher and student. The librarian maintains the collection of books, technology, and periodicals; as well as running an orderly lending and use system for those materials. Increasingly, librarians are technology experts, training students and teachers in the use of the latest education and research tools. The reprieve from a constant onslaught of classes allows for such duties.

The Fixed Schedule Model serves two primary needs. First, it teaches students use of the library and technology. However, because the classes are not tied to a project, the knowledge retained from these classes may be limited. Second, the classes free up teacher time for the 1,001 duties that now challenge class time. It should be noted that the Fixed Schedule has another serious weakness. Operating a serious lending program requires time, for supervision of browsing time and for cataloguing the check outs and ins. Libraries with librarians on the Fixed Schedule do not do much lending. They reduce the open library time.

Some observers of the decline of school libraries may not be alarmed. After all, with the Internet, everyone is their own librarian. Also, if kids want to read their parents take them to the public library or to Borders' Books. First, the Internet is a maze of information, some accurate and some inaccurate and much of it hard to find. Furthermore, there is more to technology than the Internet and much of the best of it is being underutilized because there is no one to walk through it with educators and students. Finally, many students do not have access to public libraries or bookstores. Parents may lack the time, money, or will to provide these opportunities.

In education discussions there is often a desire to return to basics. It seems so basic to a child's education to be able to browse endless rows of books and check out an armful. In an earlier post, I referenced the need for self exploration and unstructured time in learning. The library with knowledgeable, helpful librarians seems to fit the bill.

Letting My Mind Romp

2010-11-15T15:41:00.003-05:00

I recently had the good fortune to attend a conference where workshops gave good information and new skills. It reminded me, however, of how many conferences I’ve attended where the value was in the networking and flow of ideas that took place on the breaks and at the hotel bar at the end of the day rather than during the actual conference agenda.

All of this in turn had me thinking about education, and by comparison, how much did I learn as part of the curriculum and how much did I learn (really learn) from the non-regimented aspects of school; such as a teacher who told a life anecdote, or during free library time, or even recess?

A few years ago, about this time of a year, a kindergarten teacher told me of a concern. She wanted to have the children trace and color turkey pictures and cut them out. However, she expressed genuine concern that her administrator would witness this activity and discipline her for being off the pacing of the curriculum.

Many children are being denied art time, library time, recess time, gym time, and self-study time all in the pursuit of more structure, more control, more testing, and more accountability. Why? In the hopes that children will perform better in ways that can be quantified (tested).
That is a sad statement about the pursuit of measured performance at the expense of child development. It makes one wonder if the education reformers are even speaking to the cognitive development scientists. Cognitive scientists have told us that children need more time for self exploration and unstructured play time. Please note, unstructured play time does not include sports, enrichment, or music. In unscientific terms, we need to lighten up.

The idea of “lightening up” on our kids is not a popular one nowadays. We have gone back to a “spare the rod, spoil the child” outlook. Much of this is about our own middle class anxiety of the last few decades. We see, hear of, or have experienced the decline of the American middle class. We believe that we can save our children from a life of struggle with a “good” education.

However, there has not been deep thought given to what constitutes a “good” education. Is a good education one that teaches you how to think and gives you a life- long appreciation for learning? Is a good education more like a trades school that gives you skills for the future economy? The perception and direction of country would seem to indicate the latter.

Even in the case of viewing education strictly in the economic utilitarian sense, we do not seem to have given much thought to a “good” education. Currently, we are pushing all kids into STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). There is nothing well thought out in this pursuit. Today, for every three STEM graduates, there is just one US STEM job available. Even if every Johnny and Mary were capable of being a rocket scientist, we just do not need that many rocket scientists.

Yet, acknowledging these unpleasant realities would require us to move beyond pushing the kids, driving the teachers to madness, and condemning the public schools. We would have to think about systemic change to the economic and social structures of our country, first; and then build an educational system that compliments the new order.

Yesterday's Post

2010-11-11T10:17:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

My comeback was marred by technical difficulties. The post from yesterday had about half the text missing. I was trying to post from my laptop using an air card and evidently the connection failed in the middle.

I have edited yesterday's post to include the rest of the material.

Thanks again, for your patience.

Tim

Delaware Way Prevails in Election

2010-11-09T21:29:00.005-05:00

The Delaware election season is over. The "Delaware Way" of personal relationships, moderation, and thoughtful deliberation was a sharp contrast to the national trend of "I'm mad as hell, and I'll vote for candidates who are as angry and ill informed as I am".

Hopefully, the Delaware Way will prevail in the next General Assembly which will take office in January. We will need a spirit of cooperation and thoughtfulness in dealing with yet another year of budget difficulties. Much of our fate is in the hands of federal law makers, and that alone should be a red flag. Consider the following crisis situations that need the intervention of the federal government, but will not receive it because the majority of the newly elected do not believe in such intervention.

Real growth in Gross Domestic Product has slowed. In order to keep our heads above water we need at least a 3% GDP growth and we will not make that for 2010.
We still have around four million homes either in foreclosure or ninety days behind in payments.

The European sovereignty crisis (Greece et al) has shaken confidence in the global economy. Corporations will now drag their feet on hiring, again.

Most economists believe we could see low employment numbers for at least a decade. Extended unemployment benefits are scheduled to run out for millions of Americans before Christmas. Capitol Hill observers predict lawmakers will extend the benefits for 3 more months to avoid the "Scrooge" accusation, but then will leave the unemployed to their own means.

State and local governments will retrench due to both continued low revenues and the new fiscally conservative environment. Economists estimate the public sector will shed another 250,000 jobs.

The Federal Government has the ability to deficit spend in bad times to jump start the economy and to keep the citizens from going hungry and homeless. In good times the Feds should make up the difference by reducing deficit spending and increasing revenues. Since 1980, the Feds have too often gone in the opposite direction: In good times federal decision makers have found some military action in which to spend billions of dollars and have given tax breaks worth billions as well. When the bad times hit, the Federal Government suddenly become fiscally responsible and tells the people to eat cake.

Greetings

2010-10-27T12:27:00.003-04:00

Greetings All,
You have not heard from me for so long, that I needed to let you know I did not die, or get censored, or imprisoned, or any thing else other than get hit by election season.

As a Political Director for the Delaware State Education Association, in an election year the entire month of October is time missing out of my life. I will be back after November 2nd with information and analysis.

In the meantime, if you are an educator in Delaware, help us get pro-education candidates elected by volunteering on Election Day. You may call DSEA head quarters at 1 (866) 734-5834 for opportunities.

Vanderbilt Study Confirms the Obvious

2010-09-28T22:10:00.003-04:00

I apologize to readers for my infrequent posting of late. It's the crazy season for me because I work in politics.
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Last week on September 21st, 2010 Vanderbilt University released the results of a three year experiment with teacher pay for performance. The conclusion is that teacher pay for performance does not raise student test scores. Congratulations to Vanderbilt on a timely and courageous study. However, considering that teacher pay for performance has been attempted off and on for about 100 years, each time without success, maybe a simple review of history would have sufficed.

The pay for performance folks evidently believe that teachers are holding something back, just waiting for that cash bonus to bring out their true effort. Perhaps that's the way it is in the corporate world or in the world of finance. It's not that way in the world of education.

If the "reformers" want to do some economic good for education they should consider the following: We need educators to have good starting salaries and to reach maximum earning potential in 10 years instead of 25 years. These changes to salary schedules will, to use the common expression, attract and retain quality educators. Also, save the benefits of educators. One of the reasons we have managed to keep quality people in spite of the pittiful wages is that health care and pension have been adequate. How is it that we can now talk about financial incentives for educators in one breath, and about cutting their benefits in the next?

To Thine Ownself Be True

2010-09-15T13:33:00.004-04:00

What more can be said about Delaware's Primary Election night? After all, every national media outlet in the nation has been talking about the O'Donnell victory over Castle in the Republican primary for US Senate.

O'Donnell will get a great deal of media play. She is just the type of entertainment/news that has become the mainstay of what passes for political discourse. Love her or hate her, throughout the campaign she has remained true to her own values and probably will do so even with a camera in her face from now to November 2nd.

Chris Coons, the Democrat for US Senate will pick up his share of attention as well. Coons is now positioned to be the reasonable choice to represent Delaware not only for Democrats, but for moderate Republicans and Independents as well. His candidacy will be viewed by the Democratic National Committee as a hedge against a Republican take over of the Senate...and therein is both the solution and problem.

The Coons Campaign has not lacked for a great candidate with big ideas. It has lacked money. Now will come the opportunity for money and with the money, the consultants. Consultants for Democrats have had one game plan for candidates over the last 30 years; run to the middle. The gist of the idea is that your base has no where to go and you pick up Independents and moderate Republicans. You stand in the middle of the road and hitch a ride from voters all the way to DC.

As someone who has followed American politics since I was eight years old when RFK was running, and who has worked professionally in politics for more than a couple of decades, I would give two points of caution about this strategy. First, candidates always run better when they run true to themselves. If Coons is a progressive, he should run with those ideals, explained in a populist way. Second, given the choice between a real Republican and a faux Republican, Republicans will choose the genuine article; and there is an old joke that Independents are Republicans with an identity crisis.

Please, take my second point above as about 85% jest. Republicans and Democrats in Delaware often cross Party lines when voting because we do not have the same political polarization as most of the nation. Moreover, more people in Delaware choose to be Independents because of this unique practice of politics in the state.

The point is, both candidates should be who they are and let the voters decide on the merits of their positions. Neither O'Donnell or Coons should let someone from DC in a $2,000 suit tell them who to be.

A Speech to Remember

2010-09-12T10:01:00.003-04:00

This weekend there were many tributes to the 9/11 victims and heroes. At the best of these remembrances our own mortality is acknowledged and our own morality is inspired.

However, I can not stop noticing that for a few people the slogan, "Remember 9/11" has become what "God bless America" is for the same few. These phrases which should be prayerful and thoughtful are more like pugnacious challenges: "By-god, I'm all-American, I remember 9/11 and I know that God blesses America, but I have my suspicions about you, and what you believe."

On the opposite side of this example Delaware's Lieutenant Governor Matt Denn gave a fantastic speech on September 10th in Georgetown to commemorate Patriots' Day. Nothing more needs to be written by me. I have simply copied his speech below, enjoy and learn:

"Tomorrow, September 11th, is Patriot Day. We have commemorated it every year since 2002, and as President Bush said when he declared the first Patriot Day, it reminds us to “always remember our collective obligation to ensure that justice is done, that freedom prevails, and that the principles upon which our Nation was founded endure.” Some facts about September 11th are self-evident. The heroism of the men and women who died that day was profound, and it will be remembered by my grandchildren and their grandchildren. The lesson it taught us about the need to increase our vigilance in a world where two oceans no longer protect us has also taken hold.

To take only those lessons from September 11th, though, is too easy. We should also strive to be a people, to create a country, of which those who gave their lives on 9/11 would be proud. The drafters of our Constitution began by saying “We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.” They did not use language lightly. When they said “a more perfect union,” they recognized that even the nation they were creating would not be what it ultimately could be. The framers would be proud of the nation we have become.

From a nation that declared black Americans to be 3/5 of a person and denied women the right to vote, we have become a nation that has enshrined in its Constitution the equal treatment of all Americans regardless of race or gender. The framers would think—and more importantly, the men and women who have given their lives to defend this country would think–that a nation where personal differences are not punished is a more perfect union.

So how can we continue to make a more perfect union, to honor the memory of those who gave their lives on September 11th? One way would be to heed the words of past presidents of both parties, and past religious leaders of many denominations, to also become a kinder nation.When President George W. Bush was inaugurated in 2001, he eloquently invoked the Bible when he said “I can pledge our nation to a goal: When we see that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho, we will not pass to the other side.” Exactly a quarter of a century before him, President Jimmy Carter began his own inaugural address by using words of the prophet Micah that are central to the Jewish faith: that we should do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with our God.

In some ways this goal, of a kind and compassionate nation, is harder to achieve, because it can’t be legislated and it can’t easily be measured. But to strive for it would honor Salman Hamdani. Salman Hamdani died on September 11th. He was a police cadet with the NYPD, and a trained emergency medical technician, an American citizen who had immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan when he was one. When he heard about the attacks on the towers, he rushed there immediately, even though he was off duty. Because he was Muslim and disappeared without a trace on September 11th, he was publicly identified as a suspect in the terrorist attacks. On March 20, 2002, his remains were finally found at Ground Zero, the Mayor of New York and chief of the NYPD eulogized him as a hero at his funeral, and his heroism was recognized by the United States Congress. Striving for a kinder, more compassionate nation would honor Salman Hamdani in deed as well as in word.

To strive for it would honor Father Michayl Judge. Father Judge was the New York Fire Department’s chaplain on September 11th. He had been the chaplain for nine years, and some time during that nine years he had told the Fire Commissioner and other friends that he was a celibate gay man. Father Judge also raced to the towers when he heard of the attacks, and administered late rites to those dying on the scene. He turned down pleas that he leave the area, and instead went back into the north tower to be with his men just before the building collapsed, killing him. His body was carried from the scene by firefighters and laid at the altar of a nearby church, designated by the city as victim number one of the World Trade Tower attack because his body was the first removed. Striving for a kinder, more compassionate nation would honor Father Judge in deed as well as in word.

We can honor the deaths of these patriots, and all the others who perished on September 11th, by continuing the work started over two centuries ago to make this nation a more perfect union. In this more perfect union we will recognize our differences not as a burden to be borne, but as a strength to be cherished. And we will carry forward the tradition of constant progress toward perfection that has allowed America to continue to be a beacon for the world through generations. On this September 11th, let us honor its patriots by rededicating ourselves to making the country they died for, already the finest nation in the world, finer still."

How Big was the Spill?

2010-09-08T21:02:00.004-04:00

The DSEA-Retired group had their annual picnic today at Pizzadilli Winery in Kent County. About 100 retired educators attended the event. In this population, much discussion continues around the incident in which thousands of retirees had personal information compromised by Delaware's State Benefits Office and their consultant, AON. For a period of four days the gender, dates of birth and social security numbers of 22,000 individuals were posted to an open website.

AON and the state were posting information as part of a Request For Proposal (RFP) for vision care. The Social Security numbers were not supposed to be in the posting.

The DSEA retirees are demanding that the compromised individuals be given a minimum of five years free credit monitoring, and that the State Benefits Office establish a policy that will prohibit this type of vendor mistake from happening again.

There are three critical questions that either the state or AON should be able to answer given available technology: How many "hits" were registered on the infamous website? Who looked at the data? Who downloaded the data? The answer to these questions will tell us the magnitude of the damage and the resources needed for the clean up. It is the equivalent of BP telling the public how much oil was spilled.

Labor Day

2010-09-06T21:32:00.003-04:00

The annual Labor Day parade in downtown Wilmington had a big turnout this year, and participants were rewarded with perfect autumn walking weather. Once again, the Delaware State Education Association was in the parade. All attending members and guests received a tee shirt from DSEA with the new "Great Schools, Great Communities" theme. DSEA gave away apples and pencils to those gathered along the parade route.

Elected office holders and candidates often walk with the various union groups. Walking with DSEA this year were Governor Jack Markell, Lt. Governor Matt Denn, US Congress candidate John Carney, and State Representatives John Kowalko, Earl Jaques, and Bryon Short. Also, walking with DSEA was Abe Jones, who is both a DSEA member and a candidate for state representative in House 24.

Two great marching bands kept things moving this year. A special thanks goes out to the Cab Caloway marching band from Red Clay School District, and the Christiania High School marching band from Christina School District.

This Labor Day, remember the "Labor" in the day. Labor Day was originally celebrated on May 1st as International Workers Day. A few of Labor's accomplishments through collective bargaining and political action include: weekends, the eight hour day, child labor laws, public school education, overtime pay, workers compensation (job injury insurance), and the duty free lunch...just to name a few.

4 in the Zone

2010-08-31T21:07:00.002-04:00

The Delaware Department of Education has named the four schools who will be in the Performance Zone next year: Stubs Elementary and Glasgow High in Christina, Howard Vo-Tech in New Castle County Vo-Tech District, and a charter school in Camden called Positive Outcomes.

These schools will be under direction of DOE and will receive extra funds from the Race To The Top grant. The affected districts have 120 days to seek input from teachers and parents and submit a plan to DOE. The schools are expected to choose a plan under the Transformation model that allows the most flexibility with the least disruption to students.
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Elections are coming. Tuesday, September 14th is primary election day. If you are a DSEA member, contact your Local leader or UniServ Director for volunteer opportunities.
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The Delaware State Education Association will once again march in the annual Labor Day Parade in Wilmington. Join us, and bring your family. We will meet on Monday, September 6th at 9:15AM on 15th and King Street. You will receive one of the cool new Great Schools, Great Communities tee shirts for your effort.

Welcome Back and Welcome Funds

2010-08-23T14:25:00.002-04:00

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. old Chinese proverb
Welcome back hard working educators.

After a great deal of lobbying from educators all over the country, school districts now have a new infusion of federal money to spend on educators. The Education Jobs Fund Program was a response to frightening number educator layoffs across the country. Without intervention schools would be under staffed and the fledgling economic recovery would suffer a setback. Fortunately, Congress acted and most of the laid off educators across the country will be returning to classrooms this autumn.

Delaware school districts will receive almost $27.5 million. The federal money will be passed through the state to local school districts using either a Title 1 funding formula or a school foundation formula. A state may not use more than 2% of the allocation for administrative costs. School districts will receive the money within the next few weeks.

According the United States Department of Education's Initial Guidance for States on the Education Jobs Fund Program: "An LEA (local school district) must use its funds only for compensation and benefits and other expenses, such as support services, necessary to retain existing employees, to recall or rehire former employees, and to hire new employees, in order to provide early childhood, elementary, or secondary educational and related services."

A school district may not use funds for district level administrators, for consultants, or for any contracted-out service.

A school district which has already found a way to rehire laid off employees may save the funds for use no later than September 30, 2012.

US Education Department officials say that there is a great deal of accountability and transparency for school districts on the use of the funds.

Victory Today

2010-08-10T15:59:00.003-04:00

Today, the US House of Representatives approved the final version of the education jobs bill by a vote of 247 to 161. Most Republicans voted "no"; however, Delaware's Mike Castle voted "yes". Last week in the US Senate both Senators Kaufman and Carper voted for the bill.

The National Education Association mounted an enormous grassroots lobbying effort to pass the critical funding legislation for both education jobs and FMAP (Medicaid). Thanks to these efforts 161,000 educators who were laid off this spring will now be heading back to work in the autumn.

Delaware will receive almost $28 million that may be applied towards saving the jobs of about 400 educators who received either Reduction In Force or termination of temporary contract in May.

Every activist who made a phone call or sent an email or letter for their colleagues should be proud of their efforts.

The Time IS Right

2010-08-06T14:40:00.003-04:00

This week I had the privilege of participating in a Salary Roundtable conference hosted by the National Education Association. The discussion was about raising the salaries of educators, both teachers and support personnel.

Why have a conference about raises when the country is still under the pall of a persistent recession?

First, our educators are given professional expectations, thus it should follow that their compensation is viewed in the light of professionalism. Professionals never devalue their services even in tough economic times. If you have utilized a doctor, lawyer, dentist, accountant, or other professional recently, I truly doubt that individual offered you a steep discount in the fee because "times are hard". Yet, educators have been asked for both salary cuts and benefit reductions in the last two years.

Second, our members are worth every penny they are paid and much more. The value of educators' work product has not diminished because of the recession. In fact, Race To The Top is supposed to be significantly increasing the value of that product.

Third, there is never a "good time" to ask for more in wages. What employer, public or private ever encourages workers to ask for more money? Moreover, the current slow growth economy could last for many more years. Using a real world example; a para-professional in the state of Delaware begins their career at $17,228 per year. It takes them more than a decade of service to reach compensation at the federal poverty line for a family of four. Should we wait for 3 or 4 or 6 years for the economy take off before we do something about this situation? In 2015 should we have a person being paid $17K a year?

Fourth, we have historical precedent for wage increases now. In the 1930s and '40s US workers organized in record numbers and demanded fair compensation...in the heart of the Great Depression.

Finally, the impoverishment of educators does not do a solitary thing to help other impoverished workers or the economy in general. A major ill of the current economic situation is that too much money has accumulated in the hands of the top 1% of the population. People like bankers taking home $100 million a year or hedge fund managers who before the crash made as much as $1 billion in single year. All of this money needs to be shaken out of the top and down to the common people so that they can start spending and living again. There are not many ways to do that. Progressive taxation is one way to do it. Another way is for large groups of workers to begin to demand the wages they deserve. Let it begin with the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association.

Update!

2010-08-05T15:03:00.002-04:00

The US Senate just passed a bill giving states $10 billion to save education jobs and providing $16 billion in FMAP (Medicaid) funding. The legislation passed 61 to 39. Both Senator Kaufman and Senator Carper voted for the bill.

The bill must now go to the House. The House is on recess, but Speaker Pelosi is calling her chamber back into session next week just for this legislation. The House will come back next week to decide the fate of the bill. In Delaware, the education funding means $27.4 million to save close to four hundred educator jobs.

Nothing is Ever Dead

2010-08-05T12:20:00.002-04:00

The old saying that nothing in life is certain except death and taxes does not apply to the US Congress, where nothing is ever really dead and many powerful interests are not taxed. So, while it is not certain, it does appear that there will be federal money to save education jobs around the country, including Delaware.

This blog has reported before on the importance of giving states relief in two areas: Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP) and education. Any state budget will have two expenditure areas that are very large, education and health care. Using a loose lay person's explanation, think of education funding being one third of your state's budget, health care being another third of the state's budget, and all the other services and needs competing over the remaining third, and you have a snapshot of the state fiscal picture.

FMAP is Medicaid funding from the federal government. Many times the federal government reimburses states at a two to one or even three to one rate for their spending on the health care of their citizens. Thus, FMAP is critical to not only the health of a state's citizens, but also to the health of the state's budget. Moreover, Medicaid patients make up an important market share of the health care industry.

The combined impact of the severe recession and the rapid push for reform have made federal education funding much more important than in the past. The recession has swelled the ranks of public school enrollment as families previously using private schools can no longer afford them. At the same time, recession means much less tax revenue to pay educators, and thus layoffs. Meanwhile, the education reform juggernaut continues with more demands, but with grant moneys so tightly earmarked that they do not save educator jobs.

The entire summer National Education Association (NEA) and all her affiliates such as DSEA have worked to pass legislation for federal money to save education jobs. There have been many false starts, many failed efforts, but persistence appears to have paid off.

Under the leadership of Senator Harry Reid, the Senate has put together legislation to provide the critical funding for both FMAP and education jobs. A vote on cloture (to eliminate the possibility of filibuster) was held yesterday and passed 61 to 38. Both our Delaware senators took the good vote for cloture.

Our predictions are that the legislation will pass the Senate today. The House is already on recess. However, this legislation is so important to the education, health, and fiscal well being of citizens around the country, that Speaker Pelosi is calling the House back into session next week just to pass the bill.

We will keep you posted.

Ill Wind Out of DC

2010-07-27T11:23:00.003-04:00

In Washington, D.C. at the end of last week there were two shameful deeds that happened to educators. The first is the termination of 241 teachers by the Washington, D.C. School District due to low performance as measured by their students' test scores. This number seems to fluctuate in the press ranging from 226 to 250. In any case that's about 6% of the district's 4,300 teachers. An additional 17% of the teaching staff are on notice for possible termination next year.

The district is heavy into the "let's judge teachers by student test scores" and call it "innovative reform" mode. The idea was rolled into a new teacher evaluation system and then rolled out without a pilot or much training for teachers. Anyone familiar with the inner-workings of the education system around the country would say that's typical modus operandi for far too many districts. The difference is that ruthless administrators like Michelle Rhee of D.C. now feel empowered to terminate en masse.

Meanwhile, the US Senate was giving educators another kick. They removed federal funding for education jobs from the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act. The House had put funding in the bill to stop massive educator layoffs that are happening around the country. This funding would have included $28 million for Delaware to help more than 400 educators here who received RIF notice or termination of temporary contract this year. However, many Senators did not support the jobs funding, including Senator Tom Carper. Senator Carper did not like the provision that paid for the educator jobs by reducing money for Race To The Top, and the Teacher Incentive Fund. So, the reform programs can roll along with fewer educators to implement them.

Speaking of fewer educators, if the Michelle Rhees of the country get their way and we continue to terminate experienced teachers in large numbers, guess where we will get their replacements? Most probably out of one of the accelerated certification programs. These programs allow "the best and the brightest" graduates to become teachers with just a few weeks of training. These bright lads and lasses will treat your school like a Peace Corp assignment for a couple of years of resume building on their way to the corporate or academic world.

No data supports the idea that "teacher out of a box" produces results, even using the myopic standard of test scores. That does not seem to impede the "reformers" from telling their story.

Let's hope that the ill wind out of DC has shifted for the better this week. The American Federation of Teachers (not the NEA) who represents the teachers in DC are fighting the above mentioned terminations. Proponents of the federal education jobs money are searching for another bill upon which to attach the provision as an amendment.

$28 Million for Delaware Education Jobs???

2010-07-14T18:11:00.004-04:00

It's hard to believe that it's been two weeks since the end of session and two weeks since I've posted on this blog.

Considering we are still in the middle of a deep economic recession Delaware's Joint Finance Committee did a good job of distributing the resources with which they had to work. A number of last year's cuts were either restored or modified.

Delaware, like 48 other states had a budget deficit when the session began. Only natural resource rich Montana and North Dakota seem immune to the recession. Typically in these times revenues fall at the same time people lose jobs and need public services such as unemployment insurance and Medicaid. Additionally, parents who had been able to afford private schools for their children find themselves enrolling their children in the public system.

Delaware had one advantage that other states did not have when it came time to mark up the budget. We have an unique escheat law that allows us to take possession of abandoned property including that of corporations. In short, this stream of revenue ate up about half of our deficit and allowed for some budget relief.

Still, we started this process with more than 400 educators having received either Reduction In Force notifications or the elimination of their temporary contracts. We do not know how many of our colleagues will start work in the autumn. Some districts will receive funding for additional teaching units (remember those private school kids returning to the public schools). Some districts will benefit from the restoration of $21 million of a proposed $24 million cut to public school transportation.

However, these things are hard to calculate, and DSEA does not want to take any chances. That is why DSEA has joined the campaign of the National Education Association to attain federal funding to preserve education jobs. Congress is considering a proposal to put $10 billion into the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill for that very purpose. The proposal would provide Delaware with $28 million to save education jobs. The House has approved this plan and it is now before the Senate.

In the Senate, Tom Carper and 12 other fiscally conservative Democrats are reluctant to support the idea. The House offset the eduction jobs money by taking it from the Teacher Incentive Fund, the charter schools program, and the Race To The Top grants. Carper and his colleagues objected.

Other offsets are now under consideration, but regardless of that we need the funding. So called education reform programs are meaningless if educator layoffs result in larger classes and fewer teachers and paras to give students the attention they need.

It is interesting that "fiscal hawks" seem most concerned about the deficit when the spending is on needs of common people: education jobs, Medicaid, and unemployment insurance.

However, the fiscal hawks do not seem to object to spending such as the recent $35 billion in tax breaks to the oil industry, or the fact that we have spent more than $1 Trillion in the Middle East wars, and $1 Trillion on the Bush tax cuts (set to expire next year if Congress has the courage to let them sunset).

Snapshot of the Session

2010-07-01T13:21:00.003-04:00

The 145th Delaware General Assembly has adjourned. The budget, grant-in-aid, and bond bills all passed without amendment or surprises last night. Here’s a quick list of highlights from the educator perspective:
Restoration of 5 furlough days
Bailout of Health Fund Deficit
Short Term Disability elimination period lowers from 60 days to 30 days
$21 million of $24 million cut (Gov’s budget) to public school transportation restored
Step increases for eligible e
NBC & Clusters continue to be paid for those who have them…moratorium on new continues another year
Restoration of overtime pay to hours paid vs hours worked
90 new teaching units funded
$102 million in school construction
School Resource Officer program saved
State’s obligation to new full-day Kindergarten programs (Christina) honored

Thwarted effort to tier health and pension benefits
Killed bill to eliminate Double State Share for new hires
Killed bill to require parental permission for all human sexuality, violence, alcohol and drug content in instruction

In the coming days as you hear our friends in the Delaware media sound off about the big spending state legislature, keep several things in mind. First, the state is a service industry so most of their expense and spending will be on people, the public servants including educators who deliver those services and of course the citizens who receive those services. Every time a fiscal hawk talks about massive cuts to state spending they are talking about taking something away from you and your neighbors. Second, there has not been much actual growth in the state budget. The figure of 6% growth includes replacing the expired stimulus money in the budget. That accounts for 3% of the spending increase by itself. Moreover, states face a double dilemma in times of economic recession; at the same time revenues fall, demand for services goes up as bad economic times force people onto unemployment insurance, Medicaid, and other public services. Third, realize that states do society's tough and expensive jobs: Education, health care, and corrections are three of the most expensive services offered by state government and all have inflationary costs every year.

This blog will go into more details of the session later, after this blogger catches up on sleep.

Tenure for All

2010-06-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

I have time for a rant before starting the final day of the Delaware 145th General Assembly. Having just heard another derisive comment about teacher tenure on national TV this morning, I feel it is time yet again for an explanation of teacher tenure. Let's call this one Teacher Tenure for Super Idiots.

All lawmakers, policy makers, and media pundits should have the integrity to do just a little research into what is teacher tenure. It is not the type of process and job security of major universities of old . By the way folks, this is rare even in academia today, as that sector has no more respect for employees than any other.

Teacher "tenure" (the term "tenure" is never actually used in DE Code) for K-12 teachers means nothing more than teachers get due process rights before termination. School districts must document poor performance and failure to show improvement after warning the teacher of the unacceptable performance. The teacher is entitled to a hearing before the terminating school board or a hearing officer appointed by them.

If we have a good teacher evaluation system this should not be a burden in any sense of the word to school districts. Under RTTT we are supposed to have superior teacher evaluation. Policy makers should also know that under the current system teachers with tenure are terminated every year. It is an absolute myth (lie) that it is impossible to terminate "bad" teachers under tenure.

My final point is one to rock the Chamber of Commerce. The idea of due process for termination is not some archaic privilege of education which should be eradicated; rather due process in termination is something which should be extended by law to ALL employees. It is good management practice and it is fair to workers. The concept of a disposable American workforce (employees at will) has done nothing for US quality of life. It is time we give "tenure" to everyone.

Bond Bill

2010-06-25T16:05:00.000-04:00

Last night, actually very early this morning, Delaware gave birth to a bouncing baby bond bill at 1:45 a.m. After a full day of legislative action in both chambers, the dedicated bond committee met and worked through the night.

Much like their cousins the Joint Finance Committee, the Bond Committee should be commended on their dedication to restore/preserve essential public services.

Transportation infrastructure consumes most of the committee's time and resources. In addition to big road projects the committee put more money back into the Community Transportation Fund (CTF). The CTF is used to repair neighborhood roads and is directed by state legislators. This fund has steadily dropped in bad times from $300,000 per legislator to $250,000 per legislator to $125,000 per legislator, and finally last night was improved slightly to $175,000 per legislator. Representative Bill Oberle was a vocal champion to make this happen last night.

The CTF is a perfect example of how Delaware media (one paper in particular) consistently misunderstand the workings of government and then proclaim and spread their ignorance. The CTF has been described as a slush fund for legislators. In fact, the projects come right down to your street in pothole and repaving and must be approved by the Department of Transportation. Without the CTF one of two things happen, either your roads fall into severe disrepair or a local entity (county or city) raises your taxes and picks up the repairs. Some prominent decision makers describe state government as "too big"; maybe that's because local governments in Delaware are too small, or in some cases too cheap.

The Bond Committee also bought police car computers for local towns, and dealt with local flood damage; additional examples of communities not being able to provide for their own public service infrastructure.

A special mention should be made of Senator Nancy Cook's successful effort to restore some money to the farmland preservation program. The money, about $2 million will be matched by the federal government. This fund makes long-term leases of arable land and green space to save it from development. While this issue doesn't get much attention it is vitally important as farm land and other green spaces continue to be gobbled up around the nation in poorly regulated development.

It's Always Something

2010-06-24T10:45:00.000-04:00

It's always something, and yesterday it was an annoying something known as Senate Bill 293. Senate Bill 293 would require teachers to give parents 48 hours notice before any instruction involving "human sexuality issues, profanity, sexual acts, violence, drugs and/or alcohol."
The parents, once notified would be allowed to exempt their child from that instruction.

Here is the crazy scenario that plays out with such legislation: Three kids are exempted from an American Literature lesson on "To Kill A Mockingbird", six kids are exempted from health class, two from biology, one from history class, and two more from a class covering "Macbeth". This happens after someone has tracked the daily flow of permission slips and exemptions. Now, you have the exemptions for the week, and who watches these kids and where? Are we going to have extra staff in every school for this mandate?

The group behind this legislation is the Delaware Family Policy Council. Their website, they proudly called SB293 their first piece of legislation. In case you had any doubt on how the DFPC would use this legislation, consider that their website placed parents on "high alert" about a number of books. When you clicked on the book list, a list of 101 books appeared and included "To Kill A Mockingbird", "Catcher In the Rye", the entire "Goosebumps" series as well as all the "Harry Potter" books, "A Wrinkle In Time", "Of Mice and Men", "Captain Underpants", and most appropriately, "Fahrenheit 451", Ray Bradbury's classic story about a time in the future when books are banned and burned. My examples were a quick sampling that caught my eye, but suffice it to say that most of the books in school that challenged your perception of the world, gave you a glimpse into other cultures, or just gave you chuckle are probably on that list.

I will spare you anymore drama. The Delaware State Education Association, the Delaware Association of School Administrators, the American Civil Liberties Union, Delaware Planned Parenthood, and the Delaware Department of Education all testified against the bill in the Senate Education Committee yesterday.

Thankfully, it does not appear that the bill will make it out of committee. However, this group is not going away, and they will be back next year with similar legislation.

Rabbit Out of the Hat

2010-06-21T08:18:00.000-04:00

Late Friday night (June 18th) the Joint Finance Committee completed budget mark up. The JFC did good work throughout the long day and night. The State of Delaware continues to stagger under the weight of the recession along with the rest of the country. Fortunately, revenue numbers for Personal Income Tax were a little better than expected this year, and Delaware's unique revenue source "Abandoned Property" (sometimes called 'escheat') was up a lot. Although, a rumored windfall for the June revenue forecast did not happen.

The Joint Finance Committee made good work of the money that was available. A few weeks ago they restored last year's salary cut and bailed out the deficit in the State Employee Health Plan. They funded step increases for eligible educators. Also the JFC funded the stipends for educators receiving NBC and Cluster, but continued the moratorium on new entries into those programs. Additionally, the JFC saved the School Resource Officer program that was on the chopping block. They also restored over-time pay to hours paid versus hours worked, an important issue for some shift workers in the state.

Of Friday, the JFC began the day by funding the state's share of full-day kindergarten for the Christina School District. Next, the JFC chose to restore almost all of the public school transportation funding. The Governor's budget had a recommended cut of $24 million to transportation, but the JFC brought back about $21 million of it. The restoration of this money should give some relief to local school district budgets and reduce the number of laid off educators around the state.

As the day turned into afternoon and then into evening, a great deal of difficult decision making was taking place around education and social service spending programs. The programs had to be placed as budget pass-through or Grant-in-Aid with much less money to be split among them. Late in the evening it was decided that most of the programs would receive another 10% cut to funding.

The JFC took a short break as we approached 11:00 PM on Friday night. When they reconvened, they were ready to address the issue of Short Term Disability. The DSEA and her coalition partners had lobbied the JFC hard all year on this issue. Short Term Disability insurance pays seriously ill employees 75% of salary during their time off. The STD has a waiting period before it begins paying. The original STD before last year's budget cuts had a 20 day elimination period. Employees have to use accumulated sick days until the STD picks up a portion of their pay. Last year this was changed to 60 days, making the program virtually useless especially to education employees who accumulate sick days slowly and who had to settle the elimination requirement within their contract year.

The Joint Finance Committee reduced the 60 day elimination period to 30 days as the final act of budget mark up. The JFC should be commended on their willingness to make this expenditure happen in spite of virtually no flexible money remaining in the budget. The JFC took the funding for in-school health clinics and placed them under the Tobacco Fund. This maneuver released $2.6 million that was used to fund the partial restoration of Short Term Disability.

This rabbit out of the hat trick will save many educator and state employee families from additional hardship during the wage earner's disability. Our thanks to the JFC magicians who thought this one up.

A Return to Reason

2010-06-15T21:48:00.000-04:00

Today the Markell Administration agreed to pull back from plans to file legislation changing the health care and pension for new employees. Instead, the Administration will meet with stakeholder groups (DSEA and other unions) and legislators between the end of session and next January to discuss solutions to rising health care costs. This is the reasoned approach for which we asked.

The Joint Finance Committee will meet on Wednesday for 2 to 3 hours to work on budget mark up. On Thursday, the final revenue forecast for the state will be revealed. On Friday, the Joint Finance Committee will have a very long work day, probably extending well into the evening completing the budget mark up based on the previous day's final financial data. By Monday, there will be a printed budget for legislators to review well in advance of the June 30th end of session.

The remaining items of interest in budget mark up for DSEA include the restoration of the Short Term Disability policy (to 20 days elimination period vs 60 days), a lifting of the moratorium on NBC and/or clusters, and reducing the cuts to local school districts which contribute to the RIF of educators around the state.

Stay Tuned.

Strong Statement Against Benefit Cost Shifting

2010-06-11T10:14:00.000-04:00

The end of the Delaware legislative session is in sight. The Joint Finance Committee will meet several days next week in the hopes of completing budget mark up. On Thursday, June 17th there will be new economic numbers from the Delaware Economic and Financial Advisory Council to help them in final decisions about restoration of budget cuts.

Meanwhile the threat to health care and pension for state workers and educators continues. The coalition of public employee unions known as State Workers United for a Better Delaware issued a statement to every member of the legislature on Thursday (6/10) opposing the new tiers of benefits. The Delaware State Education Association, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Delaware State Troopers Association, and the Correction Officers Association of Delaware are the largest member groups of the coalition.

In the interest of transparency we have printed the letter below (the graphics and spacing are different from the actual hard copy document):

June 10, 2010
TO: The Honorable <
>FROM: Lt. Tom Brackin (DSTA, 302-270-1765), chair
Karen Valentine (AFSCME Council 81, 302-354-3500), and Tim Barchak (DSEA 866-734-5834) co-chairs of the Coalition of State Workers United for a Better Delaware

On behalf of the members of our Coalition, we urge you to oppose the Markell plan for tiering of health and pension benefits, and instead, support real dialogue and problem solving. The Administration’s proposed plan does nothing to address health care inflation. The Administration plan is not about health care cost containment, it is about cost shifting to employees. It occurs to us that cost shifting is the place of last resort, not the starting point.

Additionally, we believe that there are three distinct issues that should be considered on their own merits: Rising health care costs, pension (which is both well funded and well managed currently), and OPEB (a liability with which every state in the nation must deal).

This Coalition began the discussion of health care cost containment when we hired Milliman Incorporated as health care and actuarial consultants to examine the State Employee Health Plan and make recommendations. We did this on our own volition without having the health care of our members threatened. We believe this work was incomplete because not all of the data or information our consultants needed was forthcoming.

On June 8th, 2010, in the context of the tiering proposal, we have again worked with our consultants and sent the administration a list of questions, considerations, and data requests. This should not be a burden on the State because we assume the Administration had the information we seek before making their proposal. A proposal of this magnitude should be well thought out with a great deal of research and modeling to support it.

The Coalition continues its willingness to discuss health care cost containment, and work towards solutions, in the Delaware way. Years ago when rising Workers Compensation rates created concerns, all the stakeholders worked together in a thoughtful and deliberate fashion. The result was legislation without opposition that reformed the system. This is the type of undertaking we recommend to deal with health care, pension and OPEB concerns.

The Coalition of State Workers United for a Better Delaware
AFSCME Council #81, AFL-CIO, DSTA, DSEA and DSEA-Retired, Teamsters Local 326, CWOA Local 13101, State Lodge of the FOP, FOP Lodge 3, FOP Lodge 10, FOP Lodge 11, UFCW Local 27, Delaware Attorney General Investigation Assoc., Laborers Local 1029 LiUNA!

More to Consider about Two Tiered Health Care

2010-05-31T15:51:00.000-04:00

Governor Markell has portrayed his plan to charge new employees much more for their health care as saving the health plan and as having no impact on current employees.

In regards to saving the health plan, no evidence has been given that this proposal is fixing a specific problem in the plan or filling a cash hole in the plan. This proposal does not seem to have a direct claims to premium need.

Regarding the impact of the proposal on current employees, casting new employees overboard will not save other employees from rate increases. In fact, this proposal could have the opposite effect.

In any insurance plan, "adverse selection" must be avoided. Adverse selection is when some policy around the plan has resulted in more ill people entering the plan than would occur in random selection.

Now consider the radical proposal of this administration moving from the present situation in which basic health care is given at no cost to an employee, to charging new employees as much as 20% of their salary for family coverage. If one is a para-professional new hire making $17,228 a year in salary what will he/she do? In the interest of keeping a roof over the family's head, and doing other things like eating, the para-professional will probably not elect to take the insurance.

In the above scenario the para-professional will not take the insurance unless...unless he/she or someone in the family is already chronically ill. The only way the new plan makes economic sense for low paid employees is if medical expenses from a pre-existing condition warrant this exorbitant type of family expenditure.

Over a period of time the scenario plays out hundreds, and thousands of times until the extreme cost sharing has created adverse selection in the health plan. Guess what happens then. Then, you and I, current health plan members who "will not be affected" are now going to be paying much more for our insurance to correct the resulting imbalance in the plan's expenses.

Solidarity is not only moral, it also makes economic sense.

Budget Mark Up to date

2010-05-31T15:34:00.000-04:00

Here in brief is a run down of the two weeks of budget mark up just completed by the Joint Finance Committee. The following items have been voted by the JFC, although the JFC will meet again for more mark up in about two weeks. Also, no budgetary item is fixed until the passage of the budget bill on June 30th:
The five unpaid furlough days will be restored to educators and state workers.
The deficit in the State Employee Health Fund will be made up with General Funds.
Eligible educators will receive Step Increases.
Although no new NBC or Cluster stipends will be paid, those already receiving them will continue to do so.
Overtime compensation will be given based on 40 hours of paid time.
New unit growth will be funded in education.

Several big issues remain to be decided including the restoration of Short Term Disability insurance, funding for math and reading specialists, and various cost shifting to local school districts such as transportation cuts.

No Need for Rush to Change Health Care

2010-05-24T20:42:00.000-04:00

The Joint Finance Committee continues on with budget mark up. They have not yet taken up education. DSEA believes that stipends for National Board Certification and Clusters should be restored, particularly in light of Race To The Top and the push for alternative compensation. Shouldn't we honor our existing alternative compensation promises before starting more programs of dubious funding potential? Also, we remain concerned about math and reading specialists. Although many of these teachers have been given other positions, some are among the approximately 380 teachers threatened with RIF around Delaware. Refunding these positions could alleviate some of the financial pressure on local school districts.

Also, JFC has not addressed the issue of Short Term Disability. I believe there is interest on the committee for restoration of the insurance to the former 20 day elimination period. Last year, the Short Term Disability elimination period was changed to 60 days. In other words, if a serious illness strikes, and educator or state employee must have the means (banked sick days?) to make it 60 days without any compensation, before the insurance is activated providing 75% of salary.
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In other news today, the Governor communicated to our members via email about establishing a different tier of health care and pension for new hires. Dealing with the latter first, pension should not even be on the table for change. Our pension plan is well funded and well managed. There is no need for new hires to contribute more money.

Health care on the other hand remains a challenge for everyone. Federal legislators allowed themselves to be scared into doing half a job on health care reform, so health care inflation continues to cause problems for working people. However, the solution is not to sell out future generations of educators. Do you want to work next to someone who can't afford health care for their kids, because you didn't want to fight for them?

That's the scenario we will be facing. Consider, for example, the cheapest family plan under the proposed tier is $322.07 per month employee contribution. A new hire para-professional earns $17,228 per year. Obviously, this individual will not be insuring his/her family. Many educators and other state employees qualify for public assistance such as food stamps. I guess we will be able to add Medicaid to the list.

Keep in mind, that after budget mark up ends, we will only have 13 legislative days left. We are asking the Governor not to attempt to make sweeping changes to complex health and pension plans in a needless rush. There is no compelling reason why the summer and autumn can not be used for calling in stakeholder groups and working toward solutions in health care cost containment. To the degree that changes are needed, legislation can be filed in the next General Assembly.
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Finally, if you are a resident of the Christina School District, do not forget that tomorrow is the referendum vote. Polls will be open from 10:00AM to 8:00PM. Christina District desperately needs this operating referendum and the odds are against them. Please make an extra effort to get to the polls.

JFC Votes to Restore Pay

2010-05-17T17:08:00.000-04:00

The Joint Finance Committee is undertaking Budget Mark Up for the next two weeks while the rest of the legislature is on break.

Today the JFC voted 12 to 0 to restore the five unpaid furlough days to educators and other state employees. For educators this will mean the return of the 188 work days to statute.

Eligible teachers will also receive step increases according to this JFC decision.
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Tiering of health and pension benefits is still threatening. Be sure and take advantage of this two week break to contact your state representative or senator at home with the message that it is reckless to attempt to make major health and pension policy within the 13 legislative days remaining in session.

All stakeholders need to be shown the need for such changes ( a hard case to make on pension considering Delaware's is one of the best funded and managed in the nation). All stakeholders need to be involved in a solution. Running legislation imposed by OMB in the final days of session that will impact educators and state employees for generations to come is not a good way of policy making.

Busy Week Ahead

2010-05-09T21:43:00.000-04:00

The week that begins Monday, May 10th will certainly be eventful. Here are a few things on my mind.

On Tuesday, May 11th, School Board races will be held across the state. This blog recommends: Eric Anderson for Christina; Martin Wilson and Catherine Thompson for Red Clay; Melodie Spotts for Colonial; Rodney Layfield for Indian River; Julie Johnson for Appoquinimink; and Chevis Anderson for Capital.
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The Delaware Office of Management and Budget is floating an idea around Legislative Hall for another tier of health and pension benefits for newly hired educators and state workers. DSEA has opposed this idea since it was first mentioned in Governor Markell's State of the State Address.

First, the pension plan is both well funded and managed. Pension, even in these difficult times is not financially distressed. There is no reason for fixing what is not broken.

Second, DSEA has been a strong advocate for good management and transparency in all matters connected with the State Employees Benefit Committee. DSEA commissioned an actuarial report on the Plan which suggested a number of reforms and best practices. Consistent with the organization's prudent approach to everything connected with the Health Plan is our opposition to attempting to legislate change this year. After next week, the legislature is out for two weeks while the Joint Finance Committee works on the budget. Which would give the legislature about 12 working days to do major health care policy work affecting thousands of future educators and state workers and their families. This would be irresponsible.

Finally, this push for tiered benefits is in part a response to the Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB). OPEB is the health care offered to educators and state employees who retiree before being eligible for Medicare. A few years ago states had to begin showing financial accounting for their future OPEB liability. Because health care in the US is so out of control and often has double digit inflation yearly, the OPEB liability for all states is enormous. For Delaware, the liability is currently projected at $5.6 billion. Delaware has established a trust for the liability and has been putting in millions. It's not enough, but it is more than most states have accomplished. Yet, in the end health care is going to take a federal fix. The US Congress needs to go back to work and complete the work started with the recent passage of insurance reforms. In the meantime, Delaware needs to stay the course and see how issues play out with more reform measures before pushing the destruct button on health care for retirees.

Speaking of the federal health insurance reform, the legislation included a provision encouraging employers to provide pre-Medicare health care to early retirees. The federal government could reimburse up to 80% of the cost of this health care under certain conditions. Delaware needs to take advantage of the federal reinsurance program.
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A bill will soon be moving in the Delaware legislature to change teacher due process in termination language in the state code. The change will bring the statute in alignment with regulatory change that has already happened around Race To The Top.

The language change addresses the need for teachers with less than three years in the state or less than two years in a district to have two of three years with a "Satisfactory" rating in the Student Achievement component of the evaluation, before being given due process in termination. The slang for due process in teacher termination is called, "tenure"; although, as this blog has discussed before, the term is misleading.

Currently, Student Achievement is component five of the DPASII. It is possible now to be on an Individual Improvement Plan for component five, fail to show improvement, and not be given due process. So, in substance there is nothing alarming in the bill. However, the work between the Delaware Department of Education and the Delaware State Education Association to determine the definition of Student Achievement under RTTT will be important.
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Budget Mark Up will begin the week of May 17th. Now that the restoration of the furlough days with pay is looking promising, DSEA is pushing for other needed money for our members. DSEA is very concerned about the elimination of the Math and Reading Specialists from the budget. There are 210 of those positions around the state, and we want all of our members to have a job in the Fall. DSEA advocates restoring Short Term Disability. DSEA would like to see our members made whole by restoring National Board Certification and Cluster stipends.

Blog On the Run

2010-05-02T22:11:00.000-04:00

Necessity is moving this blog from well thought out essays to quick updates. Things have really been rocking and rolling at DSEA. Our course we are in the heart of the legislative session and working on recovering lost ground from last year, but we also are dealing with School Improvement Grants, and Race To The Top, and school board races across the state.

On Friday, a training conference on RTTT for DSEA teacher leaders was held in Dover. DSEA was assisted by a consultant from Wellstone Action in presenting the training. We want our teacher leaders to be prepared to make RTTT a positive experience for students and educators.

On Saturday, the DSEA Education Support Professionals had a conference. In addition to skills training, they received a political update and were visited by Attorney General Beau Biden, and state representatives Earl Jaques and John Kowalko. John Kowalko is the DSEA Legislative Friend of Education for 2010. Biden spoke extensively about school bullying and efforts to curb this social ill. Jaques and Kowalko spoke about their work on the House Education Committee as well as efforts to protect educator compensation and benefits.

If you are a DSEA member read your mail and answer your phone this week as information about school board races will be coming to you.

School Discipline Bill Passes House

2010-04-27T22:23:00.000-04:00

Sorry readers for the length between recent posts. At DSEA we have been in a fury of activities including our Representative Assembly, events around RTTT, the weekly march of the legislature, and some spirited school board races.
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Today in the House an interesting debate took place around House Bill 347, sponsored by Representative Mike Barbieri. The bill was one of the initiatives to come from the School Discipline Task Force which was comprised of legislators, educators, administrators, law enforcement, and even the judiciary.

Under current Delaware law, school administrators must report certain misdemeanors to the police and initiate prosecution for any student age 9 or older. This law combined with school districts' "no tolerance" discipline codes has led to some abuses. There have been cases in Delaware of children finding themselves in a great deal of trouble for innocently bringing to school such items as cake knives for class parties or miniature Swiss army knives. In fact, Delaware has never made national news for a small child getting away with a school crime, but we have made national news for a small child being threatened with placement in an alternative school for bringing his tiny pocket knife to school.

HB 347 raised the mandatory police reporting age to 12. However, school administrators would have to report incidents to the superintendent, who in turn would have to report to the Delaware Department of Education.

Notice that the bill changed the mandatory reporting of those below age 12. Administrators would be allowed to use their discretion. For serious offenses a child below the age of 12 could have the police called on him/her. Moreover, nothing in the bill would stop an individual educator from calling the police if he/she were assaulted by a student under 12. Also, any parent could call the police and file a report on a child under 12 if they chose.

The intent of the bill was to give schools more flexibility in dealing with the offenses of children. After all, in the vast majority of cases educators, not policeman, should be dealing with the misbehavior of children. Again, nothing would stop an administrator or educator from calling the police on a younger child; but at their professional discretion, not by mandate.

The old saying is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For supporters of the bill, it seemed like hell at various times today. A few articulate opponents of the bill attempted to change the story for this bill from one of a technical change for discipline flexibility, to a "soft on discipline" or "send the wrong message" piece of legislation. That rhetoric then had the effect of causing a great deal of over-thinking and second guessing.

Courageous and reasonable words from Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf, a former State Trooper, helped get things back on track for the bill. At least enough for the sponsor to push ahead with a roll call vote that netted him a victory of 22 yes, 9 no, 8 not voting.

Broad Superintendents Academy

2010-04-20T10:02:00.000-04:00

I just had to do a quick post about a topic of some concern to me. I was minding my own business commuting to work this morning when I heard the underwriting pitch for an NPR segment. The underwriter was the Broad Foundation Superintendents Academy. The purpose of the program is to train CEOs and other senior level executives from the business world to be school superintendents.

Why?

Why not train social workers, or nurses, or policemen, or librarians to be school superintendents? At least those professions are care giving, service oriented professions.

In the best of times making CEOs into superintendents would be suspect, but these are not the best of times. American big business has been plagued with incompetence, corruption, greed, and lack of vision in recent years. Our economy continues to struggle because of this legacy.

I have never understood why making a lot of money as a business executive should entitle one to run our schools, our charities, our city councils, our foundations, our government commissions, etc. Why is plutocracy a preferred form of governance for society?

Well, that's my rant of the morning. Thanks, for your patience.

Keep Our Educators Working

2010-04-19T18:53:00.000-04:00

Last year the relief of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) had hardly settled in before we began hearing about the "funding cliff". The funding cliff is a sharp decline in ARRA money after the first year. Most states, including Delaware, used about 60% of the money in the first year.

Economic recovery in terms of putting people back to work is coming slowly. With ARRA money running out, one of the first groups of workers to fall off the infamous cliff will be educators. Today, about 300,000 education jobs are being supported by ARRA. Many states have already announced layoffs for thousands of educators: California 23,000 positions; Illinois 20,000 educators; Colorado reductions expected to hit 20% of staff in some districts; Michigan will have thousands of layoffs and more than 100 districts insolvent; New Jersey will see layoffs in more than 90% of their districts. These are a few examples chosen from flipping through a list that is loaded with casualties.

Here in Delaware, math and reading specialists are no longer funded in the budget. There are more than 200 of these educators in the state. Also, some districts who are having difficulty dealing with cost shifts to local districts in the budget, may resort to layoffs.

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa has an answer to these scary predictions. He has filed F3206, the Keep Our Educators Working Act. The purpose of the act is to give the economy another hand up until it is able to walk on its own. He proposes doing this by saving educator jobs with a $29 billion piece of legislation that would bring $64 million to Delaware.

In the Great Depression of the 1930s, it took several federal stimulus programs over a course of years to get the economy producing jobs again.

If you believe this Act is a worthwhile cause, please call our Delaware senators and ask them to co-sponsor with Senator Harkin.

Senator Tom Carper: (202) 224-2441

Senator Ted Kaufman (202) 224-5042

DSEA Representative Assembly

2010-04-17T15:41:00.000-04:00

The Delaware State Education Association held their Representative Assembly this weekend in Dover. More than 135 delegates from Locals throughout the state met to participate in the governance of the organization, as well as to receive and give input on timely education issues. Delegates are comprised of working educators such as teachers, para-professionals, food service workers, secretaries, custodians, nurses, and bus drivers.

An involved discussion of Race To The Top was built into Saturday's program. The organization is devoting a lot resources to position Delaware educators to make RTTT a positive experience; not just to survive under the program, but to thrive with RTTT.

Additionally, there were discussions about educator health care and the need to resist tiering of health benefits for the good of the profession. This issue refers to the idea of giving future educators a different level of benefits than current employees. The tiering of benefits makes the recruitment and retention of educators difficult, it damages morale, weakens the union, and diminishes the profession. Also, the organization reiterated our legislative priority of having a seat on the State Employees Benefit Committee, the governing body of the state employee health plan.

The delegates were informed that ideas are being put forward to change teacher tenure. Frustration was expressed about the myth of tenure among the public and some lawmakers. Tenure is not a guarantee of a teaching job for life. Some tenured teachers are terminated every year. Tenure simply provides due process in termination proceedings, nothing more. Educators, and for that matter all employees, should be terminated for just cause. Furthermore, if administrators are doing their jobs of evaluating teachers, then there is no need for a change in the tenure law.

Delegates returned to their homes late Saturday afternoon. By Monday, they will be sharing ideas with their colleagues.

Legislature on Break. DSEA RA Approaches

2010-04-14T17:01:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Spring Break. As it happens, the Delaware General Assembly is still on break, returning Tuesday, April 20th. That means there will not be any legislative news for a few days, but we will find other things about which to talk. So, keep checking the blog and thanks for reading.

The Delaware State Education Association's Representative Assembly will be held this Friday and Saturday at Dover Downs. We are a democratic organization, and this assembly is one of the vehicles that allow rank and file members to have a voice in the governance of DSEA.

RTTT, SEBC and other Acronyms

2010-03-29T17:26:00.000-04:00

It's old news by now, but still worth repeating: Delaware won a Race To The Top grant for $100 million. Delaware and Tennessee were the only two winners in Phase I of the RTTT competitive grant competition. Now it's a race to make Race To The Top work for kids and educators.
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The State Employment Benefits Committee met today. Two issues were dealt with. First, the $37.5 million deficit in the health fund will be filled by using reserve money from the fund. If general revenue fund money is available, the Joint Finance Committee may still entertain increasing the general fund contribution so that less health plan reserve money will be used. Second, the SEBC raised rates for the health plan by about 10%. (We do not yet have the rate increase data sheet in our possession.). However, employees will not pay this increase next year. The Governor requested in his budget that employees be held harmless from rate increases for FY 2011.

The Delaware State Education Association entered testimony today at SEBC. We have posted the testimony below. As you will see, we are still very concerned about any plans to create a different level of benefits for new hired educators.
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Good afternoon Madame Chair and Members of the Committee.

My name is Tim Barchak, with the Delaware State Education Association.

We appreciate the thoughtful discussions that are taking place regarding the State Employee Health Plan.

We support the efforts of this committee to request additional funding from the Legislature, as well as to cover the employee portion of the premium increase, to get this plan through another tough year.

With the Spring Break of the Legislature beginning at the end of this week, we thought this would be the appropriate time to enter testimony on possible legislative recommendations by this committee.
If this committee is considering recommendations regarding reduced health benefits for new employees, we have the following comments:
· We do not believe legislation of this magnitude should be rushed into. We advise against legislation for this session. There will be only about 25 legislative work days left when we return from Spring Break. We do not see how stakeholders groups can be assembled and ideas pursued in that amount of time. We need a thorough review of all options.
· A plan should not create a permanent underclass of employees who have reduced health care for the duration of their careers. Additionally, some experiences with multi-tiering of benefits have resulted in unfavorable health plans for all members.
· Any consideration of benefit comparisons should keep in mind total compensation packages, for while some neighbors may have slightly less generous health plans, they may additionally have much more generous wage schedules.
· Finally, with any change in benefits we must keep in mind that education is becoming increasingly competitive with higher and higher expectations. If we drive our benefit package too low with already moderate wages, we will have difficulty recruiting the best young educators.

Thank you for your time and consideration this afternoon.

Thoughts on ESEA Competitive Grants

2010-03-25T14:12:00.000-04:00

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is ready for reauthorization, although Congress will probably not take ESEA up until next year. The Obama Administration has issued their "Blueprint" which sets forth the policy that they hope will be reflected in the ESEA. As some of you may have heard, both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have voiced complaints. The education organizations believe that the Blueprint is too heavily focused on standardized tests, continuing the legacy of No Child Left Behind.

Additionally, the NEA and AFT are concerned about the policy shift away from formula driven funding towards competitive grants. Considering the chaotic chase for RTTT and SIG funds, the education world does not favor introducing this same model for the essential ESEA money. The Administration seems oblivious to the issue of capacity in an already stressed system.

This Administration is introducing the idea of competitive grants in many sectors of government. They are giving credence to the stereotype of government's "one size fits all" mentality.

In some areas, one may desire to have winners and losers, and the withholding of money can actually affect a desired outcome. Let us use transportation as an example. If the Secretary of Transportation wants to encourage investment in public transportation and discourage urban sprawl then the Secretary can design grant guidelines that promote public transportation. Continuing the analogy, look at St. Louis, Missouri. The metro-plex of St. Louis is now spread over 5 counties. An area almost twice as large as the entire state of Delaware. Under our scenario, if St. Louis hands in a grant application that plans for building more roads deeper into suburban areas, they will not win a grant. If St. Louis does not win a grant, they will not build the roads and ipso facto the policy of reducing urban sprawl has been carried out.

Now by comparison, the Secretary of Education wants persistently low performing schools to achieve standards and perform up to potential. If the same competitive grant is laid on top of
this situation, what happens? A school district which has a number of under performing schools and competes for ESEA, may very well not win that grant. After all, if the district had great innovative ideas on how to turn the situation around, they would be not be in the situation to begin with. Under the competitive grant scenario this district will not receive ESEA funds. Not receiving those funds continues the downward spiral. There is no aberrant behavior that will stop because of the denial of money. In fact, the struggling district will struggle even more.

Education does not need a dose of Social Darwinism. Education needs resources, understanding, and a way forward that is not all about quantifying the unquantifiable, such as learning and the value of kids and teachers.
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Congratulations to Mary Pinkston, the Delaware Teacher of the Year. Mary gave an articulate speech with strong ideas today before the Delaware House of Representatives. Mary teaches mathematics at Brandywine High School. She has dedicated 17 years of excellent service to the children of Brandywine School District.

We Have a Health Care Law

2010-03-22T14:53:00.000-04:00

Health care reform passed the US House last night. The legislation is a significant step forward in health insurance coverage and insurance reform. Coverage issues are initially addressed by an expansion of Medicaid, not only in the number of people eligible but also in the quality of services. The quality will be improved by increasing doctor reimbursement rates to the same level as Medicare. States will receive increased federal funding to cover the Medicaid changes.

Insurers will no longer be allowed to exclude children with pre-existing conditions. Adults with pre-existing conditions will be given immediate access to a high risk pool. Insurers will not be able to drop people who become sick. Lifetime plan limits are eliminated.

Rate setting reform will stop the use of such things as health status and sex from being used to establish premium rates.

The infamous "donut hole" in senior drug coverage is eliminated.

Small businesses will receive tax credits to purchase insurance coverage for employees.

Dependent children may continue on their parents' plan until age 26.

Insurers with excessively high administrative expenditures will be forced to give rebates to customers. Customers will have an appeals process to contest plan changes or decisions.

All of this is pretty positive stuff, but now a cautionary note. This bill contains an insurance mandate; basically, one way or another by private insurance or Medicaid or Medicare, you have to be covered. That is not bad or unprecedented by itself. Most of us are right now under an insurance mandate. If you drive a car, your state forces you to buy insurance. Also, this bill has various tax credits for those unable to afford the coverage.

The problem with the mandate is that it will do nothing to curtail health care inflation. The mandate may help with insurance inflation because the market will be huge and many new insurers may enter the expanded market. However, the costs of medical procedures, hospital stays, pharmaceuticals, etc will go unchecked and may in fact be fed by the new money in the market.

If, as promised by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reed, that a vote on a public option is coming within a year, then all may be well. A public option is a health insurance plan operated non-profit by the government. The plan is much cheaper than the private plans from which insurance companies extract huge profits. More importantly, a public option enables the government to leverage down health costs. If the public option is hugely popular and millions of people become a part of that plan, along with Medicaid and Medicare, then the federal government can begin to set limits on providers. The government could, for example, tell hospital chains "we will no longer pay $1,500 a day for a hospital stay, we will only pay $1,000 a day. If you don't like it, we will take our 50% of the market somewhere else." That's the way a public option helps control the staggering health care inflation that has now driven health care spending to the level of 18% of our Gross Domestic Product.

Require Registration for School Elections

2010-03-18T18:41:00.000-04:00

DSEA is briefing the Red Clay and the Christina Locals tonight on School Improvement Grants (SIG). Other Locals will be briefed in the following weeks. SIG presents many of the same challenges to districts and educators as Race To The Top only with a very abbreviated timeline in which to work out the challenges.
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Tomorrow the State Employment Benefit Committee will meet. This is the second year in a row that the health plan is facing significant deficit issues. This year, the SEBC believes they need to find cost savings worth about $37 million.
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Require Registration for School Elections

Why, in the State of Delaware is it possible for an individual who does not register to vote, to cast a ballot in local school board and referendum elections? Most citizens of the First State probably do not even know about this quirk in the law. In Delaware, one only has to live in the school district to vote in those elections.

We recognize that to have a voice in the governance of our city, county, state, and nation that one must be responsible and participatory in the democratic process by registering to vote. Yet, in the business of our school districts, electing the board members, and passing the taxation necessary to operate the schools, one only needs to show up with a utility bill showing that one has residence in the district.

How did this ever come to be? One could be a felon, denied voting right for all other offices, but granted the privilege for school elections simply by virtue of residence. Are the operations and governance of our schools less important than that of other public entities?

This issue becomes more problematic in Sussex County where districts may be geographically large with multiple sub-districts. There is no way to cross check voters on Election Day . One could take his utility bill to Sub-District A and then drive over a mile or two to Sub-District B and vote again.

Our schools and the people who run them, along with the funds to run them are important. Certainly important enough to be enfranchised into the democratic process along with other public bodies.

The Last Few Days...

2010-03-15T19:14:00.000-04:00

A little good news in Delaware revenue:
The DEFAC group which tracks state revenue in Delaware revealed some good news today. The revenue stream known as "escheats" was up by $70 million. Escheat refers to a state's ability to claim abandoned assets. In Delaware, our escheat is tied to corporate law and allows the state in certain situations to claim the assets of defunct corporations, even to access bank accounts in other states. While $70 million is a long way from the $287 million deficit, every bit helps.
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My old home town in the news:
The Kansas City, Missouri public school system has been in the national news lately for taking the radical step of closing half of their schools. At one time Kansas City had one of the most beautiful and innovative network of schools in the nation. When Kansas City engaged in desegregation, they received a bonus from a judge who ordered the city to tax itself to do it properly. With the revenue, Kansas City desegregated not by forced busing, but by making a magnet school system so appealing, that white children from the suburbs voluntarily enrolled in the predominantly African American city schools. One school was a performing arts magnet with a state of the art theater, another was a Greek magnet with emphasis on classical learning and sports and included an Olympic sized indoor pool, and others focused on science with an abundance of computer access, some on language, etc.

The schools were huge, new, and lavish. The plan worked. Desegregation was achieved voluntarily. Then a strange thing happened with strange bedfellows. Anti-tax conservatives effectively teamed up with black neighborhood activists to challenge the desegregation program. The conservatives' position was simple, they believe taxation for any purpose (other than the military) is evil. The activists did not like the fact that many times children could not get into their own neighborhood schools because the slot was taken by a white child from the suburbs.

In the early 1990s the court overruled the earlier decision of forced funding, pleasing the unusual allies on the right and left; and leaving the KCMO school district with physical structures that were extremely expensive to maintain on the inside and outside. This act drove the Kansas City public schools to the edge of the cliff. The current recession has just provided the additional push.
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Obama at odds with educators, again:
About a week ago President Obama, in a speech before the US Chamber of Commerce, praised the termination of an entire staff of teachers at a school in Rhode Island. It was obviously a crowd pleaser for the assembled bankers, insurance company executives, and corporate CEOs.

Now this week, Obama releases "A Blueprint for Reform". The Blueprint is his plan for reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

The National Education Association's president, Dennis Van Roekel, was blunt in stating his disappointment with the Blueprint. The following quote sums it up:
"What excited educators about President Obama’s hopes and vision for education on the campaign trail has not made its way into this blueprint. We were expecting to see a much broader effort to truly transform public education for kids. Instead, the accountability system of this ‘blueprint’ still relies on standardized tests to identify winners and losers. We were expecting more funding stability to enable states to meet higher expectations. Instead, the ‘blueprint’ requires states to compete for critical resources, setting up another winners-and-losers scenario. We were expecting school turnaround efforts to be research-based and fully collaborative. Instead, we see too much top-down scapegoating of teachers and not enough collaboration."

Patients Versus Consumers

2010-03-10T10:38:00.000-05:00

There's going to be a lot of talk about health care in the next few weeks. On the federal level, the Democrats are claiming that health care legislation is not dead and that something will pass soon. Although, one should note that the rhetoric has changed to "insurance reform" from health care reform. That by itself is not good news. People need health care, not necessarily health insurance. Insurance is simply the paying vehicle. We could have a public non-profit as the paying vehicle which would simplify and cost contain at the same time. Politically, that will not happen. On the state level health benefits will be under scrutiny because of both continued health care inflation and because of another year of low revenues for the State's General Fund.

One perspective that deserves attention is the concept of "consumer driven health care". This idea of the patient as consumer is popular now in health care policy discussions. The idea is an attempt to understand how health care functions and well intentioned, but I believe flawed.

Let us play out the analogy between health care consumer versus patient. First, when I set out to buy a consumer item there is always the question of "is this a need or want?" I do not believe that is the case with health care, and I find the beliefs around this issue fascinating. I believe that the overwhelming majority of people go to the doctor when they perceive a legitimate need to go. What fascinates me is that everybody believes everybody else is a hypochondriac! Moreover, this idea that we go to the doctor too much is a 180 degree turnaround from what the health care industry was telling us in the 1980s. At that time Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO) were the rage. The idea was for people to maintain their health with regular doctor visits rather than waiting for acute symptoms. Every time one challenges the concept of overuse of health care the response back is purely anecdotal and usually absurd; such as someone going to the emergency room with a cold. How much does that really happen? Do you Mr/Ms Reader go to the doctor on a whim? Do you like missing work and sitting around in waiting rooms reading year old magazines?

Second, when I buy a consumer item all sorts of retailers are competing on the basis of price. What health care facilities compete on price? Have you ever seen a hospital run a commercial advertising discount surgeries for the month of April? No, and you never will. Hospitals and other health services compete on the basis of quality. "We have the best doctors. We have the newest MRI. We have birthing suites."

Third, when I buy a consumer item it is between the sales person and me. If I have done a little research on the internet, I probably know as much as the retail sales person about the product and what I need. A patient always has experts (doctor, specialist, etc.) telling him/her what is needed, how much is needed, when and where to get it. Moreover, the patient is not qualified to argue about it. Is it really appropriate for a patient to say "No, Doc I only need a double bypass, not the more expensive triple"? Should a patient say "No, Doc, not twice a day, I'm trying to save, let's say once a day"? Or perhaps the patient in the back of the ambulance should say "Wait fellas don't take me to General Hospital, it may be closer, but St. John's has a better room rate".

I believe that everyone is going to have to work together for solutions to the exploding cost of health care, particularly at a time when the State is basically broke. However, I do not believe that health care functions like other commodities in the market place.

Thanks Bobby

2010-03-05T15:08:00.000-05:00

I was recently privileged to attend an economic summit hosted by the National Council of State Education Associations. Education advocates are becoming more educated in economics and more active in economic justice issues. The reasons are twofold. First, we find it difficult to educate children who come to school hungry, sick, having slept in a car, with a toothache, etc. Second, education and educators are starved for funds. As long as we have a concentration of wealth at the top 1% of society and as long as those folks and the corporations which they control do not pay their fair share of taxes, education will never be adequately funded.

This conference reminded me that we do not measure the right things in evaluating a nation's wealth. For example, did you know that technically this terrible recession ended last summer? As long as certain economic indicators begin to rise again like GNP and the stock market, the recession is considered finished in spite of months or years of pain ahead for common people.

Take a moment to read the words of the late Robert Kennedy who in 1968 challenged the "value" of our economy. This speech could be used as a meditation on the troubles of today.

For too long we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community value in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product now is over 800 billion dollars a year, but that gross national product, if we judge the United States of America by that, that gross national product counts air pollution, and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic squall. It counts Napalm, and it counts nuclear warheads, and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our city. It counts Whitman's rifles and Speck's Knifes and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet, the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play; it does not include the beauty of our poetry of the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate for the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country it measures everything in short except that which makes life worth while. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

Legislative Program Webinar Review

2010-03-04T16:04:00.000-05:00

On February 19th this blog solicited your input on the Delaware State Education Association's Legislative Program. The Program is simply a short list of priorities which we hope capture our advocacy intentions. We want to make you aware of another opportunity for input.

On Monday, March 8th, at 6:30 PM we will host a webinar to review the document and give you a chance for input and questions. Members who are on our Cyber Lobbyist email list will receive an email with instructions for participation. If you are a member not on our Cyber Lobbyist list and wish to participate, then please email me at tim.barchak@dsea.org

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RTTT Finalists
The US Department of Education announced the finalist list for Race To The Top grants today:
Colorado
Delaware
DistrictofColumbia
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee

These states will be called to Washington in short order to give presentations about their grant applications.

Persistently Low Performing

2010-03-03T21:54:00.000-05:00

It has been a year of disappointment with the Obama Administration, and yesterday's slam on teachers was just one more. In a speech before the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C. Obama praised the decision of a Rhode Island superintendent to fire the entire staff of a low performing school. This blame the educator, union busting maneuver is known as the Turn Around model.

The preferable Transformation model allows schools the flexibility to do innovative reform without the showboating drama and trauma of terminating an entire staff. Persistently low performing schools in Delaware are expected to do the responsible thing for kids and educators by choosing the Transformation option.

It is interesting that the Obama Administration attacks educators for failing to show results in a Rhode Island school. Will he hold himself to the same standard? So far, he has failed to deliver on health care, on peace in the Mid-East, on an economy that works for everyone, on climate change, and on the Employee Free Choice Act. Unfortunately for all of us, that is beginning to sound "persistently low performing".

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On Monday, March 8th at 6:30 PM you will have an opportunity to weigh in on the Legislative Program document. DSEA will be sending a cyber-blast tomorrow with instructions on how to join the Webinar discussion. I will also post it on this blog tomorrow.

News Journal gets it Wrong

2010-03-01T14:32:00.000-05:00

Those who still read the News Journal will have seen several articles criticizing the pensions of educators and state workers. The NJ is in full Social Darwinist mode. Public employee pensions and benefits are too generous according to the NJ.

An easy target for the NJ is the health care liability portion of the pension. Retirees (depending on their hire date with the state/school district) can get 50% to 100% of their health care before Medicare paid. The future cost of this is called the Other Post Employment Benefit (OPEB) liability.

The OPEB liability for all states is enormous. The Delaware OPEB liability is $5.6 billion. (Our state's total annual budget is around $3 billion) In fact, since all states are in the same leaky boat, bond rating agencies are not lowering ratings on this issue.

However, the NJ falsely reported that states must now fully fund this liability. That is absolutely false. The Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) established a rule a few years ago requiring states to show the liability for accounting purposes; not to fully fund it, not even to make a plan to fund it.

Delaware is in better condition on OPEB than many states. We have put $74 million in a non-revocable trust.

None of this is to imply that OPEB is not a big challenge. However, that challenge is all tied up in the general mess that is US for-profit corporate health care. We do not need to be less "generous" to public employees. We need to be more responsible to all citizens and have a national health care plan.

It's an Income Problem, Not a Spending Problem

2010-02-25T20:12:00.000-05:00

The Mid-Atlantic continues to suffer from extreme weather. The latest victim is the Winter Advocacy Retreat (WAR) of the Delaware State Education Association which was scheduled to run the entire weekend in Rehoboth, but is now canceled because of the pending storm.
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It's Income, Not Spending

We need to change the language being used in discussions of our current state fiscal crisis. Too many decision makers in Dover continue to talk about the state's spending problem, or the size of state government, or the efficiency of state government. So what's wrong with that?

First, it's not just "our" crisis. Forty eight states are broke right now. Did all 48 go on a spending spree? Did all 48 grow fat overnight? How about the two states doing okay, what great efficiencies did they employ?

In truth, Delaware and the other states do NOT have a SPENDING problem, they have an income problem. That means their revenues have dipped dangerously low because we are in a severe recession. When a state is in a recession two bad things happen simultaneously. Incomes and profits drop so tax revenue does as well. At the same time the demand for services goes up as more people need unemployment insurance, health care, food assistance, or to send children to public school who were in private school.

The two fortunate states, Wyoming and Montana have natural gas, coal and other forms of "real wealth". The grandfather of economics, Adam Smith, once said that there were only two types of real wealth creation, manufacturing and extraction. I guess Wyoming and Montana have the latter.

Discussions about the size of government may or may not need to take place, but let's not pretend that all this current pain is about Delaware government being too big.

Budget Woes for Local Districts

2010-02-23T22:22:00.000-05:00

Local school districts are facing challenges in the proposed Delaware budget. First, districts will be asked to increase the pension contribution for the employees, amounting to 1.7% of educators' salaries. Statewide, this means about a $5 million cost increase. Second, Division 2 money will be reduced by $1.5 million. Division 2 generally refers to funds used for energy costs. Third, districts face a $5 million reduction in minor capital funds. Fourth, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is dwindling; down $19 million from where it was last year. Finally, there will be $20 million of cost shifting to local districts for transportation. All of the above totals around $50 million.
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WAR is coming. Winter Advocacy Retreat (WAR) is the annual meeting of educator activists from the Delaware State Education Association. The event will be this weekend at Rehoboth. Governor Jack Markel and Delaware Secretary of Education Lilian Lowery will both be guest speakers on Saturday. Topics of discussion will include budget cuts impacting educators, Race To The Top, and this year's elections.

Proposed Legislative Program

2010-02-19T15:32:00.000-05:00

Every two years the Delaware State Education Association reviews our Legislative Program and seeks input from the membership. The Program is a short list of priority areas of advocacy around which we may support or oppose legislation, regulation, or policy.

The draft Program features a completely new section titled, "Protect and Nurture Children". This area of advocacy will allow us to speak to the socio-economic concerns of children and their families. This year approximately 26.6% of all children in the United States live in poverty. If a child comes to your classroom hungry, with a toothache, after having slept in the car all night, or with any one of a hundred challenges that come with poverty, their opportunity to learn is diminished. Therefore, just like the National Education Association became involved in the fight for child labor laws one hundred years ago, so too must we challenge the social order around child poverty.

Please examine the draft Legislative Program below. If you have suggestions for additions, edits, or deletions, please email me at tim.barchak@dsea.org. Also, there will be an opportunity to participate in a webinar on Monday, March 8th at 6:30PM. We will be sending more communications about that event later.

Delaware State Education Association
2010-2011 Legislative Program

· Improved, Sustained Funding for Public Schools
The adequate and equitable funding of Delaware’s public schools is required to ensure that our children --- regardless of where they live or the personal circumstance of their individual lives --- have educational opportunities that allow each child to reach her or his full potential.

· Improved Pay for Public Education Employees
Compensation must be improved in order to attract and retain high quality public education staff for our schools and state agencies. DSEA’s priorities include a starting salary for professionally certified school staff of $40,000. Additionally, the salaries for instructional and service aides are shamefully low and should begin at least with the federal poverty level for a family of four.

· Strengthened Fringe Benefit Programs
Public education employees have a progressive, historically well-funded package of fringe benefits that help to attract and retain a high quality work force that must be protected, particularly in times of economic stress.

· Charter School Accountability
The growth of charter schools since passage of the original law in 1995 continues without taking into consideration the effects of new charter authorizations on existing local public school districts. With public resources scarce it is more important than ever to regulate the charter market by making the state Department of Education the single authorizing authority with guidelines that avoid duplication of services and mitigate the impact on community schools.

· Protect and Nurture Children
Every educator knows the heartbreak and frustration of children who are too hungry, sick, or traumatized to learn well. The opportunity to learn cannot be divorced from socio-economic realities, and those realities are becoming more challenging. In 2010, more than 26% of all US children will live in poverty. DSEA will be supportive of legislation, policy, and initiatives which promote the welfare of children and the economic stability of their families.

DSEA Testimony at Joint Finance

2010-02-17T17:00:00.000-05:00

Today was public education day at the Joint Finance Committee hearings. Diane Donohue, President of the Delaware State Education Association entered testimony advocating for educators. Diane did a wonderful job, and her testimony was well received. It is reprinted below:

JFC Testimony: EDUCATION – February 17, 2010Diane Donohue, president, Delaware State Education Association

Good afternoon to our Chairs, Senator Cook and Representative Williams, and to the other
members of the Joint Finance Committee.

I am Diane Donohue, an educator in Delaware for 20 years and the president of the Delaware State Education Association, which proudly represents
over 11,000 educators in our state.

As our communities struggle with an economy in recession, it is apparent that the impact of a sluggish economic recovery will continue. Consequently, the state must continue to make difficult choices about the allocation of dwindling resources.

The Delaware State Education Association appreciates the work of the Joint Finance Committee in doing what you can to support the students and educators in Delaware. We thank you and urge you to continue your efforts.

Every difficult decision you make that can preserve a dollar of education funding today, will pay off in large returns in the future.

Investment in public education includes many things such as safe, clean buildings, enough books for every student, day to day supplies, such as paper, and of course, the ever growing need for technology and access to computers for all students.
However, nothing defines the school experience for a child more than educators; and the investment in educators is what I will focus on today.

When DSEA speaks of “educators,” we mean a whole team of professionals who touch the lives of all students each and every day. A student’s day begins with the “Good morning” from the school bus driver; continues with the dedication and expertise of the classroom teacher; helping hands of a paraprofessional; the kindness of cafeteria food service; the tough love of a coach; the guidance of counselors; and continues on with nurses, secretaries, custodians, speech therapists, and more.

It has always been critical to have high-quality people in education positions, but now the eyes of the nation are on our educators and students. The Obama Administration and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan have placed education reform efforts on a fast-paced time frame. The expectations have never been higher and, as a consequence, the profession is becoming much more complicated and stressful.

There is the potential for additional financial resources to help achieve our goals. For example, I believe that Delaware has positioned itself to receive resources from the federal government in the form of School Improvement Grants, and Race To The Top funds. This money will help us with many of the old challenges, as well as create a few new ones.

Even with these additional funds, it is not enough. The base salaries and benefits essential to the attraction and retention of the best educators will have to come from Delaware, not from the Federal Government.

With that in mind, there are several key compensation areas that DSEA would like to have restored as soon as possible:
Number one: The five furlough days cost our members both money and professional development at a time when they can scarcely afford either. Our cut amounted to 2.56% of salary. I’m not telling you anything new by saying that it is challenging and demoralizing to our members, and that the restoration of those days and compensation is a high priority for DSEA. Our biggest fear last year was that the five unpaid furlough days would become institutionalized, in spite of intentions and language to sunset the reduction. Now, here we are in another year with plans to continue the furlough and pay cut.

Number two: In 2007 the Public Education Compensation Committee set goals for the Legislature to raise our Educational Support Salaries out of poverty. That journey was not completed. The 2009 federal poverty level for a family of four is $22,050. The entry level salary for an instructional aide in Delaware is $17,228. One would need 13 years of experience to reach the poverty level. This issue remains important to those members, and it remains important to DSEA.

Number three: The moratorium on National Board Certification and Cluster professional development stipends must be lifted. This moratorium sends a very conflicting message to educators who are told by the Federal Government, ‘Improve yourself professionally and you will be compensated.’

Number four: Weakening of the Short Term Disability program has created a hole in the safety net for educator families. This policy carries the potential for real tragedy. No one, let alone someone already battling serious illness, can go sixty days without pay.

Finally, we have a new concern added to last year’s list; that of a proposed two-tiered health and pension plan. We do not have any details on what this plan might look like other than a different level of benefits for newly-hired educators. We need details as soon as possible. In order to make constructive policy recommendations in this area, we need to know what types of health and pension benefits are being considered for new-hires.

Our initial reaction is, “Find the money someplace else.” Reducing benefits to a two-tiered system does nothing to attract the best educators to Delaware, especially when our wages are already lower than our neighboring states.

If there is no other way – none - then at least let us sit down and work with you to develop something that reduces costs, but does limited harm for a limited amount of time. Every employee needs to eventually be made whole, in other words, stay with the profession for a given amount of time and become fully vested just like their colleagues.

We may be able to help you figure out how to make a bad situation a little better, but we will have to be brought into the discussion soon.

These are big issues, big challenges.
I’m glad that you all stepped forward to be on the JFC. Everyone wants to be on the JFC when there is money to spend, but to do it in times like these shows commitment to public service which our members understand and applaud.
Thank you.

A Short PSA from Your Blogger

2010-02-15T19:27:00.000-05:00

Now, a short intermission for a public service announcement:

Tomorrow the Joint Finance Committee will resume hearings. It appears that last week's hearings, canceled due to the blizzard, will be made up at the end of the scheduled hearings. If this is so, and we stay on the remaining schedule, then the public education hearing will be on Wednesday. The Delaware State Education Association will get 5 minutes of testimony time. DSEA state president, Diane Donohue will deliver the testimony for the organization that represents over 11,000 educators in the state. This blog will post the DSEA testimony on Wednesday.

You may resume watching the Olympics, or worrying about the first day back at school. Thank you.