Welcome
Earlier this month, the NC Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education presented their supplemental budget requests for 2012-2013. In this week’s CommenTerry, I outline the good, the bad, and the ugly of the $151 million budget request.
Bulletin Board
- Please join the Civitas Institute and the NC Institute for Constitutional Law for a luncheon discussion on the merits of the Obamacare oral arguments. Lunch & Learn: Obamacare Supreme Court Discussion will be held on March 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Clarion State Capital Hotel. Cost is $15. To register, visit the Civitas Institute website or call (919) 834-2099.
- The North Carolina History Project would like educators and homeschool parents to submit lesson plans suitable for middle and high school courses in North Carolina history. Please provide links to NC History Project encyclopedia articles and other primary and secondary source material, if possible. Go to the NC History Project website for further information.
- JLF’s research newsletter archive had you at "hello."
CommenTerry
Every year, the North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) and the NC Department of Public Instruction (DPI) present a supplemental budget request to the Office of the Governor (see Facts & Stats below). The governor may or may not include proposed line items in the budget she forwards to the General Assembly for their consideration.
In better economic times, the supplemental budget request was nothing more than a wish list, but the days of state education officials proposing "goodies" are gone. As a result, the 2012-2013 request was relatively modest. That is not to say that all line items are sensible ideas.
State education officials proposed restoring all of the funds for the NC Governor’s School, a summer honors program that has received enough funding from alumni and supporters to remain in operation. Private sector support of this optional program is strong enough to relieve taxpayers of the expense.
Of course, proposed funding for the Governor’s School is trivial compared with the nearly $15 million price tag for adding five instructional days to the school year. Although there is little evidence that increasing the school year from 180 to 185 days would raise student achievement in North Carolina, I expect Republicans legislators, particularly those who championed the idea last year, to take this request into consideration.
The $19 million request for professional development funds had three parts. It would add $3 million to the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT) budget, use $3.5 million to restore the Teaching Fellows Fund, and include $12.6 million for staff development. Advocates for NCCAT and the Teaching Fellows program will be active in the upcoming legislative session, so lawmakers may feel compelled to put both proposals on the table. If they can be persuaded that North Carolina receives a substantial return on investment from these programs (admittedly a very tough sell), expect the General Assembly to restore a portion of the funding.
Testing and accountability were major components of the supplemental budget request. It included $7.5 million for administration of the ACT, PLAN, EXPLORE, and WORKKEYS tests for middle and high school students. In addition, the request included $2.65 million for "testing needs" and $3.56 million for "diagnostic assessment" of math and reading for elementary school students. State officials also asked for additional funds for the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), a computer system that evaluates teacher performance using "value-added" methodology. Legislators would be wise to incorporate ACT and EVAAS line items in the forthcoming budget.
Of the remaining items, the $76.5 million for textbooks is the toughest call. Without a doubt, public school students and teachers need to have access to high-quality instructional materials. But are the books and materials used by public schools worth the considerable investment? According to NC DPI, the average cost of a set of textbooks (math, reading, science, and social studies) for one high school student is $280. The average cost drops to $250 per middle school student and nearly $162 per elementary school student. Are there more productive ways to spend these funds? Evenly distributing $76.5 million to all public school students would allow teachers to spend an additional $51 per student on instructional materials. Would this be a better approach?
It remains to be seen how many supplemental budget items will be included in Governor Perdue’s and the General Assembly’s proposed budgets. Regardless, I believe that reform-minded legislators should carefully consider the ideas outlined in the SBE/DPI budget request. There are a few diamonds in the rough.
Random Thought
A few months ago, KVUE meteorologist Albert Ramon received an inspired thank-you letter from Flint, a fourth-grader from Austin, TX. Flint wrote, "you’re more awesome than a monkey wearing a tuxedo made out [of] bacon riding a cyborg unicorn with a lightsaber for the horn on the tip of a space shuttle closing in on Mars, while engulfed in flames. … And in case you didn’t know, that’s pretty dang sweet."
Obviously, Flint’s imagination is pretty dang sweet.
Facts and Stats
Supplemental Budget Requests for 2012-2013
$7,500,000 — ACT (Ready, Set, Go!)
$1,130,000 — Governor’s School
$2,650,000 — Additional Testing Needs
$1,005,993 — North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS)
$1,600,000 — Reserve for Children with Disabilities
$20,000,000 — Healthy Students Initiative
$105,000 — Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS)
$430,000 — EVAAS – Enhanced Reporting Capabilities
$3,564,956 — Diagnostic Assessment (Math and Reading) in Grades K-3
$14,619,149 — Additional funding for five instructional days
$2,561,326 — Funding for cooperative innovative high schools (CIH)
$158,750 — Microsoft Information Technology Academy (ITA) Certiport Site Licenses
$76,500,000 — Textbooks
$200,000 — Charter Schools
$19,101,995 — Professional Development and Support of Public School Teachers
Total — $151,127,169
Mailbag
I would like to invite all readers to submit announcements, as well as their personal insights, anecdotes, concerns, and observations about the state of education in North Carolina. I will publish selected submissions in future editions of the newsletter. Anonymity will be honored. For additional information or to send a submission, email Terry at [email protected].
Education Acronym of the Week
ITA — [Microsoft] Information Technology Academy
Quote of the Week
"We would also request that you look at repealing the Liability Insurance for Public School Personnel ($3.7 million) that was placed in our Budget in the last session. We believe that this service is best delivered by organizations or agencies where such a program is more in line with their core missions."
— William C. Harrison and June St. Clair Atkinson, Supplemental Budget Request for 2012-2013, March 1, 2012
Click here for the Education Update archive.
