Volume 36, No. 9
March 12, 2010
Spring Break Arrives;
Time for Education Budget & Sense
Lawmakers will be on break next week , taking a deep breath before tackling the education budget. Facts they face upon return:
* A hole in the education budget of over $400 million. That hole exists despite the second half of ARRA dollars already dedicated to the 2011 budget.
* $345 million in federal aid for education jobs is not expected to be available to fulfill the bottom line within Riley’s budget proposal.
*Financial receipts indicate that even a zero growth is optimistic while Riley’s budget is based on a 2.35 percent figure.
* Public schools will be fortunate to end the current fiscal year without additional cuts.
* Budget decisions are time-sensitive. Local boards must have a budget before the school year ends to make difficult personnel decisions to comply with the tenure laws.
* The budget must be realistic (non-proratable) because many school boards simply could not survive another round of proration in 2011.
* The stark truth: personnel cuts are the only area that dramatically impact the bottom line.
* Unless prized programs are unfunded or new alternatives, such as furloughs, are utilized many education jobs will be lost.
*An equitable 70-30 division of the ETF would more accurately reflect the number of students attending K-12 and higher ed.
*Unpopular decisions are the only way to establish a workable budget. The political dynamics in an election year make this process more difficult.
The state budget is made by local lawmakers. Communicate locally and ensure your system’s priorities/challenges are front and center.
Testimony Confirms that
Tenure Pay Loophole Holds Schools Hostage
The message was loud and clear: a flawed tenure loophole must be erased to stop draining public dollars and confidence from public schools. Members of the Senate Finance & Taxation Education Committee Wednesday engaged in compelling discussion during a Public Hearing on S.429 and S.430, bills identifying and correcting an abuse created by the 2004 change in tenure and fair dismissal laws.
“Restore common sense,” said AASB Executive Director Sally Howell. “Allow school boards to recover authority because they must be accountable and answer to parents in the community.” Howell reminded committee members that the existing tenure law is a sour remnant of the failed Amendment One effort in 2004.
The law negatively impacts everyone despite “thousands of incredible, selfless and brilliant teachers who teach, counsel, protect and love our children,” said Montgomery attorney Jayne Harrell Williams. Williams, who represents several school systems, said the laws send a dangerous signal by enabling wrongdoers to take advantage of the payroll loophole at the expense of student achievement and public confidence.
S.429 and S.430 would assure parents that bad teachers do not return and are not eligible to bonus pay during drawn out appeal processes. A proud product of public schools, Williams said as a mother, she empathized with the dilemma. “With all due respect, if you want the parents of this state to trust our public schools with their children, you have to give them something in return,” she said.
Abuse as a result of what perhaps is an unintended consequence of the law is the appropriate term for the scenarios presented during testimony, including:
1. Virtual job scholarship? An employee did not resign but simply did not show for work while he attended a training program for a new job. The new law required the school board to follow the termination process, which he appealed, to ensure he received full pay during a drawn out appeal as he was schooled for a new career.
2. Drug and porn subsidy? A teacher was found not only to be making meth at her home, but also to have had a highly pornographic webpage. Admitting her bad conduct, she said she still must appeal because she needed the money assured by the loophole.
3. Ineffective and what of it? A school teacher who admitted she was incompetent to the point she couldn’t teach for several years insisted on the appeal to take advantage of the payroll loophole.
Testifying superintendents had more shocking examples: the cost of more than a half million dollars to one system alone, and a warning that these cases are from only a handful of school systems. Multiply that by 132 school systems and it is easy to see the state is plagued by abusive costs at the risk of students and public confidence.
As a state employee, AASB President Florence Bellamy testified there is a distinct difference in the termination processes. Merit system employees enjoy protections as do tenured teachers; however, once the employer fires an employee, pay and benefits stop.
She urged committee members to understand her frustration as a school board member to know that when they make a thoughtful and painful decision to terminate an employee, full pay and benefits will be paid until an appeal is exhausted at the expense of students. “Notice I stated when they appeal and not if they appeal because the loophole guarantees a monetary incentive to appeal no matter the cause or insult and injury to students, “ Bellamy explained.
Students suffer because the funds flow to a terminated employee while a substitute must be paid until a certified replacement is hired. The tenure loophole causes embarrassment and pure frustration to school leaders whose hands are tied. Legal costs mount as the terminated employee receives full salary and benefits while simply waiting out an appeals process on an open and shut termination.
Speaking for the bill included: AASB Executive Director Sally Howell, AASB President and Phenix City Board Member Florence Bellamy, ACSBA Vice President attorney Jayne Harrell Williams, attorney J.R. Brooks from Huntsville, Phenix City Superintendent Larry DiChiara, Lauderdale Superintendent Bill Valentine, Ozark Superintendent Mike Lynch, CLAS Executive Director Earl Franks, SDE legal counsel Larry Craven and human resource directors from Mobile and Baldwin County.
Thanks to school board members who came to show their support including Charlotte Meadows and Eleanor Dawkins of Montgomery and Robert Lusk of Elmore County.
AEA opposed the bills. The testimony explained history and need for tenure, which is not at issue in the legislation. Testimony also generally blamed “incompetent legal advice and leadership” for not taking strong action to stop pay in some cases, despite the clear language of the current tenure law that pay continues.
Committee Chairman Sen. Hank Sanders provided the final word saying he had sponsored the tenure law changes five years ago and has first hand experience with the real problems it created. “I made it worse,” said Sanders. While recognizing that the upcoming elections make political hurdles high this year, “I am committed to fixing the law,” he said.
Budget Strategies
Flexibility & Furloughs
The only way to address serious funding shortfalls in public education involves personnel. Personnel costs can comprise up to 80% of a school system budget. H.714, sponsored by Rep. Richard Lindsey, and H.722, sponsored by Rep. Jeff McLaughlin, would incorporate financial flexibility at the state and local level to address when revenues fall below projections in the budget during the school year. The two bills address both the state and local budget impact of the shortfall.
H.714 would allow the legislature to realign state-level personnel funding with available resources during the fiscal year after the state budget has been implemented. The bill authorizes the legislature in a “financial emergency” to fund fewer employee contract days through the Foundation Program. This language is a significant change because it would grant permanent flexibility to align resources to reflect a “real” budget rather than a temporary fix to economic fluctuations.
H.722 would allow local school boards to align their personnel commitments to the lower level of state funding by authorizing local systems to reduce the number of student instructional days. Participation in the Foundation Program would be authorized with a minimum 175 days rather than the current 180 days, at local discretion. AASB applauds the effort to give flexibility. In fairness, ALL education employees should be involved, including year-long employees. To minimize impact on student achievement, all employees have at least two professional days which makes a logical starting place for days to cut.
Furloughs, or forced unpaid leave for specified time for education employees, are not anyone’s first wishes; however, they represent a realistic option that must be on the table. Alabama workers from the car industry to newspaper industry already have implemented such cost-cutting measures. The alternative to EVERYONE bearing a small percentage cut by unpaid leave days would be wholesale job cuts for every community. There are no easy answers and Alabama is not alone in this regard
Another opportunity to free up funding in a potentially desperate financial year would be H.724, by Rep. Richard Lindsey.
H.724 would allow Public School Funds that are not encumbered to be spent on operating expenses. That flexibility exists already when proration is called, however, would be of no help in a year when the budget is severely cut from the start, such as 2011. H.724 provides that flexibility for the FY2011 year only.
Risky Proposal
AASB Opposes H.712
H.712 would require school boards give notice about supplemental position changes by the end of the school year. Supplemental positions include additional salary for coaching duties, drama, etc... A court case clearly stated that supplemental positions, that do not earn tenure, do not require notice by the year’s end. The legislation would overturn the ruling and force local boards to give notice before the school year ends.
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Local school boards work with legislative leaders to accomplish the public’s highest priority -- educating our children.
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10 Days remain in the
Regular Legislative Session
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