Well the Legislative Action Coalition is back for another session of lobbying! Here is their agenda for the 2011 legislative session that you HAVE to support or you don’t care about the kids;
* The state must maintain its funding commitment to education, including increasing the basic formula limit of $5,124/student (unchanged since 2008-09) by two percent.
* Establish a plan to incrementally pay back the aid payment shift.
*We support sustainable resources for high quality, research-based programs, especially for high-need students, including:
— The state fully funding its obligation to special education students.
— Early childhood education programs to prepare children to be kindergarten ready.
— Expanded opportunities for extended time programming for students not making adequate yearly progress.
— Maintaining resources that specifically support closing the achievement gap, including compensatory education and integration funds.
* Like all other publicly-elected bodies, schools should be allowed to generate and spend financial resources to best meet local needs, especially when state funding resources are limited.
* School districts should not be penalized for not reaching contract settlements by January 15.
* RAS should not be financially harmed by providing an education under the care and treatment legislation.
* RAS supports reforming the current policies and procedures of managing the school trust lands to maximize the future revenues from these resources.
* RAS should not be negatively impacted by providing state mandated transportation for charter schools.
* The Minnesota Department of Education should be required to develop a model evaluation tool for teachers/principals based on multiple measures that Robbinsdale Area Schools could choose to adopt.
Hmmm….did they forget wanting to give school boards the ability to pass a discretionary levy or extend a referendum without a public vote? OK, lets agree on a few things here (we have to find agreement when we can). We wholeheartedly support removing the January 15 deadline as well as the transportation to charter schools. We also agree that a system of evaluation needs to be created but the LAC seems to stop short of calling for merit pay. The rest of it looks like the same old stuff. Think about it; with a $6 billion deficit, what are the odds we are going to get a 2% increase per pupil, more special ed funding, more early childhood ed, integration funds, more programs after school etc.? Where are things like….
*Combining school districts
*Ending/reforming tenure laws
*Alternative teacher licenses
*Ending/reforming back-door referendums (oh sorry alternative funding)
*Getting out of defined pensions
*More competition and more merit pay
*Simplifying the formula
I’m sure these omissions are pure coincidence. We can’t wait to see what happens!
281 Exposed 