Professional Oklahoma Educators

Vouchers Defeated in Utah
NCLB Stalled in the House and Senate
President Bush Vetoes Education Spending Bill
Moment of Silence in School Challenged in Court
Unions Make Wish List for 2008
Pilot Project for States under NCLB is Introduced
Collective Bargaining Agreements Made Public by the Department of Labor
New Study Examines Issues Associated with Teacher Pensions
“Doing What Works” Website Launched by the U.S. Department of Education

Vouchers Defeated in Utah
On November 6, vouchers in Utah experienced a crushing blow with the voucher legislation being defeated in the state referendum. Sixty-two percent of voters cast ballots against the measure. If passed, the legislation would have provided $500-$3,000 per student to attend a private school. The referendum was a battle fraught with grave consequences for both sides of the issue. As a result, a total of $8.5 million was poured into the campaign. If enacted, the voucher legislation would have been one of the most comprehensive voucher programs in the country, therefore setting new precedents and trends for other states to follow.

Overstock.com chief executive Patrick Byrne, who provided nearly three-fourths of the $4 million raised by the pro-voucher group Parents for Choice in Education, referred to the referendum as a “statewide IQ test” that Utahns failed to pass. He went to say, “They don’t care enough about their kids to think outside the box.” Larry J. Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, speculated that voters may have been concerned about government spending and therefore voted against the vouchers. “The voters were in a surly mood. When that’s the case, they’re inclined to say no. … The voters know that there are many needs and limited resources, and this just does not appear to be a priority.”

Another issue surrounding the voucher legislation is the limited amount of private schools in Utah that would have needed to take on an influx of students if the voucher program passed. There are roughly only 100 private schools with 6,000 vacant seats in Utah. Michael J. Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington think tank, believes the legislation had several flaws. “It was poorly designed,” he said. “The idea of having a universal voucher, and one that is funded at a fairly low level, made it so easy for the opponents to claim that it wasn’t going to help poor kids, and would subsidize middle-class parents.” Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, believes that the problem did not lie with the voucher legislation but with the fact that it went to a referendum. “Ballot initiatives on such emotional issues as education rarely succeed when they’re looking for dramatic change, because people are uncomfortable with making policy at the ballot box,” stated Ms. Allen.

That question at hand is what Utah will do with $9.3 million set aside for the voucher program. The money is in the state’s general fund, not part of the K-12 budget. Sen. Lyle Hillyard (R-Logan), co-chair of the Appropriations Committee has stated that the money could be used various ways in the state including employee salaries, social services and transportation. Rep. Stephen Urquhart, (R-St. George), the voucher program’s sponsor, said he is willing to use the money for public schools but he isn’t yet sure in which way. Rep. Greg Hughes, (R-Draper) believes that education reform should not stop because the voucher program was defeated. “We need to continue to come up with other answers,” he said. “People need to realize that student population is booming, there’s a teacher shortage and the funding challenges were not answered in the referendum.” Lawmakers will decide what to do with money previously appropriated for the voucher program when they convene in January.

For more information about the voucher referendum, please read the following article titled “Vouchers Go Down in Crushing Defeat.” You may also read the article, “Who Gets Millions Intended for Vouchers.”

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NCLB Stalled in the House and Senate
As the end of the year quickly approaches the possibility that NCLB will be reauthorized is dim. Neither the House nor the Senate education committees have formally introduced a bill for the reauthorization of NCLB. Melissa Wagoner, a spokesperson for Senator Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has said that Kennedy will not introduce a new version of NCLB until next year. “Senator Kennedy is committed to putting together a responsible reauthorization package early in 2008,” Ms. Wagoner said. Tom Kiley, spokesperson for Representative George Miller, chairman of the Education and Labor committee, has stated that the Senate’s postponement in introducing a bill has made efforts difficult in writing a House bill. “It’s growing less likely that we will get a bill off the House floor this year,” Mr. Kiley said. We’re continuing our negotiations on the bill with Republicans and with educational organizations, but we’re looking to balance the need to work expeditiously with the need to get this bill right.” Before the House adjourns in December appropriation bills and other issues will need to be addressed. Alexa Marrero, a spokesperson for Representative Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, the ranking member on the Education and Labor Committee, has stated, “Chairman Miller has signaled that the committee is turning its attention to higher education. Looking at the calendar, it’s difficult to see how NCLB could move through the process this year.”

For more information about NCLB’s progress in Congress please read the following New York Times article titled, “For a Key Education Law, Reauthorization Stalls.”

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President Bush Vetoes Education Spending Bill
On November 13, President Bush vetoed the appropriations bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education departments. The appropriations bill that Congress sent to President Bush contained $606 billion in spending, $10 billion more than the President’s proposed budget, and contained 2,200 earmarks, including funding for pet projects such as a prison museum, a sailing school taught aboard a catamaran and a program teaching Portuguese as a second language. “The majority was elected on a pledge of fiscal responsibility, but so far it's acting like a teenager with a new credit card,” Bush stated. “This year alone, the leadership in Congress has proposed to spend $22 billion more than my budget provides. Now, some of them claim that's not really much of a difference. The scary part is they seem to mean it.” The NEA was quick to claim that President Bush’s veto was a “politically motivated attack on children.”

For more information about President Bush’s veto of the spending bill, please read the following article titled, “Bush Vetoes Health Education Bill.”

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Moment of Silence in School Challenged in Court
Organized prayer in schools has not been allowed since 1962, when the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the practice citing violations of the First Amendment’s ban against laws promoting an establishment of religion. A host of states − Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia −have mandatory moment-of-silence laws for activities such as mediation, prayer, or reflection. Illinois last month was the newest state to join the list of states that require mandatory moments-of-silence and is already facing challenges to the law. A lawsuit has been filed by a Buffalo Grove High School student, Dawn Sherman, and her father, radio talk show host and self-proclaimed atheist Rob Sherman to block the moment-of-silence. “The first thing the statute does is tell students to consider silent prayer….It is endorsing religion and injecting public prayer in the public school,” stated Gregory E. Kulis, the Sherman’s attorney. Rep. Monique D. Davis (D), one of the law’s co-sponsors would disagree. She has stated, “These kids are living hectic lives. Now, we can’t stop all of that because a lot of it is necessary, but every day in school there should be a moment of quiet time, just a moment of silence for students to collect his or her thoughts.” U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman has refused to block the moment-of-silence but has signified that he has concerns about the law. A hearing later in November will further examine the law.

Illinois is not the only state that has had challenges to mandatory moments-of-silence. Virginia’s law which allows for meditation, prayer or reflection was challenged in 2000. The law still stands after federal courts upheld the law and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. In 2003, Texas had challenges to their law which states students may “reflect, pray, meditate, or engage in any other silent activity.” The plaintiffs stated the word “pray” shows religious intent. There has not been a ruling on the case yet.

Charles Haynes, a scholar at the First Amendment Center, does not believe that the Shermans will be successful in their lawsuit. Since 1985 when the Supreme Court ruled that the legislative history behind Alabama’s moment-of-silence law showed intent to bring prayer back to schools and therefore was struck down, lawmakers have been careful to word legislation as to not promote religions. “Now legislators may, in their heart of hearts, want to get prayer back in school, but just because that’s the push, it doesn’t make the law unconstitutional,” Haynes stated. “There’s no constitutional problem with a genuinely neutral moment of silence. How could there be? It’s just silence.” Haynes has pointed out that opponents of moment-of-silence laws worry that individual teachers or principals could violate the neutral nature intended in the law and use that time for prayer in the classroom.

For more information about moments-of-silence in schools, please read the following article titled, “Moment of Silence Gets Moment in Court.”

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Unions Make Wish List for 2008
Big Labor is looking ahead to 2009 with hopes that they will have helped elect a Democrat to the White House and increased Democrat majorities in the House and Senate so that their wish list of legislation to make forming unions easier, restrict free-trade pacts, and raise corporate taxes can be accomplished. The 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has stated that they are planning the “biggest mobilization” in U.S. labor movement’s history for the 2008 elections.

The number one priority for Big Labor will be the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). With declining membership unions are anxious to be able to unionize workplaces without having to hold secret ballot elections, but instead by using the “card check” system to have employees form a union by simply signing a card. This legislation passed the House this year but failed in the Senate.

President George W. Bush vowed to veto EFCA this year and it was unlikely that the veto would be overturned in Congress. Two-thirds majorities are needed to overturn a presidential veto and the Democrats do not control either body by a large enough majority to be able to easily overturn vetoes. Political analysts believe that even if there is a Democrat in the White House in 2009 big labor bills may still have difficulty passing in the Senate. “The Republicans have shown they can use the filibuster very effectively. The party will continue to do so when it comes to labor-friendly bills,” stated, Jacob Hacker, a political science professor at Yale University.”

For more information about Big Labor’s legislative wish list, please read the following Washington Post article titled, “U.S. Unions Ready to Push New Laws if Dems Win Big.”

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Pilot Project for States under NCLB is Introduced
The reauthorization of NCLB is currently stalled in the House and Senate, but Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has introduced legislation in the Senate that would address some of the main components of NCLB, namely accountability systems and the rigor of subject-matter standards. Under Sen. Lamar’s legislation, 12 states would be able to enter into “State Student Achievement Contracts” with the U.S. Department of Education. These contracts would be for five-year durations and would be granted as a result of the states’ comprehensive plans to increase the rigor of their standards. The states that enter the contracts would need to have their standards aligned with national and international exams or be in line with the admission requirements for the public universities in the states.

As a result of entering into these contracts, states would be given much greater flexibility under NCLB. These states would have more flexibility on the use of federal education funds, how annual school progress is identified, and the manner in which schools raise student achievement and school achievement when benchmarks are not met. “I’ve never seen a school get better when it is managed from a distance. We need to take what we’ve learned in the first five years of NCLB and toss the ball back to the states to create simpler ways to measure high standards,” stated Sen. Alexander.

The day the legislation was introduced Education Secretary Margaret Spellings expressed her support for the bill. She stated, “This legislation is a reasonable and responsible step forward as Congress moves toward reauthorizing No Child Left Behind. I look forward to continuing to work with Senator Alexander and his colleagues as they develop a law that's in the best interest of America's children.”

For more information about Sen. Alexander’s legislation, please read this press release from his office.

Use this link to read Secretary Spelling’s statement about the legislation in its entirety.

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Collective Bargaining Agreements Made Public by the Department of Labor
In an effort to increase union transparency, the Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS) in the U.S. Department of Labor has recently made available the collective bargaining agreements for many private and public sector unions in their online public disclosure room. “Despite recent budget cuts and lawsuits the OLMS continues to prevail by providing the general public and rank-and-file union members with the tools necessary to ensure union accountability. By making collective bargaining agreements public, the OLMS is ensuring open and honest competition and is shining a light on the true extortionist nature these bargaining laws have over state budgets,” stated Brian Johnson, director of policy at the Alliance for Worker Freedom.

To view the collective bargaining agreements, please visit the Department of Labor’s website.

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New Study Examines Issues Associated with Teacher Pensions
Two economists, Robert M. Costrell, an education reform and economics professor at the University of Arkansas, and Michael Podgurksy, an economics professor at the University of Missouri at Columbia, have recently released a study examining the pension systems in public schools. As a result of their study, they have concluded that pensions are becoming a driving force behind teachers’ decisions to retire or enter the profession. Many of the pension systems in the states encourage teachers to retire in their mid-50s but penalize them for retiring earlier or for making the decision to continue teaching. The researchers cited the examples of two teachers, one in Ohio and one in Arkansas. A teacher in Ohio with 24 years of service who wishes to retire at age 49 would receive a pension worth $315,000. However, if he or she would continue to teach for another six years the pension would be worth $1 million. In Arkansas a teacher who is 53 years old and has 28 years of teaching experience would lose a year of pension payouts if he or she would continue to teach.

One of the other issues associated with the plans has to do with the millions of baby boomers who are now reaching retirement age. As this continues to happen, more teachers will retire than are hired, which will put a strain on the collective pension funds. “It is a real educational issue, and it’s going to force harsh trade-offs,” stated Mr. Costrell. Mr. Costrell noted that retirement benefits will start encompassing a greater portion of school expenditures. He also brought up the point that it will be more difficult to convince private-sector professionals to switch careers to teach subjects such as math and science which are high in demand. “The young teachers do not benefit from this system, but it’s going to be paid for out of their salaries,” Mr. Costrell said. “And, it’s going to make it more difficult to recruit mid-career switchers.”

The researchers admit that there is no easy solution for the problem but chastised state legislators for not addressing the whole issue. “There is a tendency to come at this in a piecemeal way. Let’s re-examine this thing from top to bottom. That’s what we really think states need to be doing,” stated Mr. Podgursky.

For more information about the study on pensions, please read the following Education Week article titled, “Structure of Pension Plans May Warp Teacher Market, Research Says.”

“Doing What Works” Website Launched by the U.S. Department of Education
The U.S. Department of Education (DoEd) recently launched a new website called “Doing What Works,” which will help teachers learn about different teaching practices that the research departments in DoEd have deemed effective. Content on the website is organized into three different sections: learning what works, seeing how it works, and doing what works. One example of content on the website is successful strategies for helping English language learners. Visitors to the website can view lesson techniques, classroom scenes, student reactions, graphic aids, and a video of strategies that have been employed by teachers at one school. In the future, there will be the same resources for areas such as childhood education, high school reform, literacy, school restructuring, cognitive learning, and math and science. “Educators need to know what works, and this online library of resources will build a bridge from research to action. It translates research-based practices into examples of tools that support and improve classroom instruction,” stated Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.

The Doing What Works website is available at http://dww.ed.gov. The DoEd’s press release about the new website is available here.

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