Archive for the ‘Colorado Budget Crisis’ Category

No blood in those state turnips

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Means no $ for Ed

School districts are beginning negotiations with their unions based on their 2010-2011 budget numbers, which are depressing.  If it’s impossible to draw blood from a turnip, just try to wring money from state legislatures for education.

The Colorado legislature is about to claw back $250 million+ from public schools for the ‘10-’11 year.  It will probably take back just as much, if not more, for ‘11-’12.  If school districts don’t have enough reserves, and no one does, they will be going backwards in funding for years.

Money saving tricks

Some districts are freezing salary - no COLA, no steps and levels.  Others are doing furlough days.  Others are charging for transportation.  Others are ending all technology purchases.  Others are emptying administration - no more professional development for teachers or curriculum support!  Others are increasing classroom size by one, two, or three children.  Last but not least, some districts are closing buildings.

No more investing in education!

Investment in education has stopped.  Districts that have made progress in student achievement will probably freeze in place or will start drifting backwards.  After all, if no one is in charge any more of managing the voluminous data underlying each student’s progress, how will the analytical process thrive that supports achievement?

Schools going backward in funding

The largest district in Colorado is about to cut $60 million from a $670 million budget.  The district estimates it will make the same size cut in ‘11-’12, and possibly again in ‘12-’13.  That means that by ‘13-’14, unless miracles happen, the district will be at a budget starting point roughly $180 million below where it is today.  And yet the District is supposed to get every student to meet annual growth targets.

Colorado calculates annual growth against student peers.  Proficient students are measured against proficient students, barely proficient against barely proficient, etc.  So the only good news for schools is that all students in the state are in the same hole, so the lack of annual achievement growth should be relatively similar.  This prediction will assure funding remains at about the same dismal level for all schools in the state.

Not enough tax dollars for education today

Colorado is almost last in state funding per student, at about $7300, even though the state has one of the highest college education levels.  This “Colorado paradox” happens because educated out-of-staters like to come and live here for the mountains.  The state is also reasonably affluent.  But like other western states, including California, citizens prefer to keep their money in their pockets.  Colorado has one of the lowest state income tax and sales tax levels in the country.

How’s that Obama money doing?

ARRA money has bailed districts out in 2010, but now everyone is headed towards a cliff.  What kind of help is the Obama administration offering?  Race to the Top, of course, or as some wags say, slow jog to nowhere.  Really, the $4 billion will go to schools doing education Arne Duncan’s way, which means pay-for-performance and closing non-performing schools or turning them around or starting over.

What does any of that do to help districts whose schools aren’t completely in the doghouse yet (but may be after two or three years of these budget cuts)?

What would you do if you could?

And will pay-for-performance really do the trick with teachers? Schools definitely need something beyond steps and levels, but what should that look like?  Do schools need a more streamlined way to move bad to mediocre teachers out?  Yes.  Do schools need more money for entry level teachers, so education can compete at least marginally with law and medicine for top graduates? Yes.  Do schools need a way to pay off student loans to encourage teachers to work in challenging schools?  Yes.

How about a little extra money for some teacher career tracking - giving teachers money for online course development, professional development of peers, etc.

Get your 30 in and retire

It’s true that some relationship needs to exist between compensation and how well kids learn, but that’s not the whole package.  And frankly, in Colorado, teachers and districts are going to be so busy plowing money into their PERA pension fund, they may not get a raise for years.  They are mostly going to be working for that glorious final moment when they stagger over the 30 year finish line and can get out of education altogether.  Not very pretty, is it?

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Posted in Colorado Budget Crisis, Race to Top, public schools, school accountability, school resources |
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Hurricane Katrina a-coming; school districts drowning

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

School districts are cutting budgets like crazy.  In Colorado, the state will reduce its contribution to school districts by roughly $350 million in 2010-2011, leaving districts scrambling to high ground while figuring out how they’ll cut millions from their operating budgets.

Pension fund deficits hurting budgets

On top of budget cuts, Colorado’s state pension fund (PERA) is underwater by about $30 billion over 30 years.  If left unchanged, the fund will go broke in 2032, which is not a problem if you’ll be dead within the next 22 years, but a challenge if you intend to live past that.

Colorado’s SB10-001, a bipartisan bill to square up the pension fund, will reduce the automatic annual COLA increase of 3.5 down to 2.0, and will increase employee contributions by 2 percent and employer contributions by 2 percent.

Salary freezes, furlough days, and larger classrooms on horizon

At the same time, many districts are looking to freeze salary steps and levels right now to balance their short-term budgets.  The freeze in Colorado teacher salaries could extend over two or three years, depending on state and local property tax revenues.

These facts leave boards and all school employees between a desk and a hard place.  It’s difficult to picture how school districts will provide any staff raises in the near future.  Starting teachers in the $30 thousand range may be stuck, sliding farther behind workers in other professional fields, such as investment banking.  New college graduates may struggle to figure out how public school teaching can ever provide enough of a living to be worthwhile.

While taxpayers certainly feel the pinch in this recession, schools are doubly hit as the budget crisis proceeds.  If a salary freeze occurs in ‘10 -’11, budget balancing in ‘11-’12 will require larger classrooms and layoffs.  By the third year out, budgets may be so drained that furlough days will be piled on salary freezes and increased classroom size.

High quality education at stake

Meanwhile, schools try to bring the highest quality education to kids, including all the technology necessary to keep students technologically literate.  They’re asked to reduce the learning gap between ethnic groups.  They need to get kids up to speed in reading, math, writing, and science.

Schools have so many fingers in the dykes that it’s inevitable that a New Orleans style flood is on its way, drowning kids in inadequacy and insufficiency.  School districts will need to offer their best arguments to their constituents to bring more money into the system.  But communities will also have to step up to avoid Hurricane Katrina destruction in classrooms across the nation.

*Serious discussion needs good communication to promote successful solutions for the school community.  See the website with this blog for a possible support program.

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Posted in Colorado Budget Crisis, public schools, school community, school finance reform, school reform |
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Tough decisions for school districts, and it’s not all money

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

Jefferson County Public Schools (known as Jeffco Public Schools) is the biggest district in Colorado and one of the largest 50 districts in the country.  Its 80,000 students attend schools from the north, still part of the Denver metropolitan area, to the southern most hamlet of Deckers in the national forest near the headwaters of the South Platte River, and over to the front range Rockies at the west.

Like so many other suburban school districts in the western United States, it’s becoming a place for students of many ethnic backgrounds. The changing demographic began about 10 years ago and is accelerating.

At the same time, the whole district is now “mature” and built out.  Little new construction will occur, but plenty of re-construction of older buildings in less affluent parts of the county will be necessary.  School closures are also a possibility as some facilities are under capacity by over 50 percent.

The biggest long-term challenge the district faces is how to handle this transition from primarily white, suburban schools to a diverse population of kids speaking many different languages.  To make the problem more complicated, some of the district in more affluent areas is still primarily white.  And the resources to bring kids up to proficiency on the exams selected by The Colorado Department of Education are most necessary in the poorer parts of the county.

Jeffco Public Schools will probably lose about $11 million in January, 2010, when the state legislature pulls budgeted money back into the state’s general fund.  The district faces about $40 million in deficit financing from property taxes and state contributions in 2010-11 and another $40 million in 2011-12.  It has roughly $160 million in reserve, some of which will be applied to the budget deficits.

Based on the demographic demands and the budget deficits, how should the district allocate resources?

Should it hunker down and keep on trucking as it has?

Or should it take bold steps to attack school improvement of student math and writing deficiencies and reduction in the 25 percent high school dropout rate?

Are we in a time when bold is impossible because there is no money to fund it, even when the facts on the ground require bold action?

Jeffco Public Schools is not the only district facing this dilemma in Colorado or across the nation.

The time is here to make tough decisions, and they will affect the lives and education of many little kids depending on the adults to make the right ones.

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*The school community wants to talk about this dilemma? Take Care!, showing ways for the school community’s adults to resolve problems successfully may help. See the website for this blog.

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Posted in Colorado Budget Crisis, Jeffco Public Schools, public schools, school reform, school resources |
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School volunteers in times of budget crunches

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

When school resources decline, and districts slice millions of dollars from their budgets, what options are available to reduce the world of hurt?  Every kid in school right now is potentially threatened by cutbacks.  Every kid in school right now deserves school districts ready to innovate and create a powerful and positive response to this financial crisis.

Kids love the attention

I helped in my grandson’s school this year.  About once a week, I’d spend two hours in his second grade classroom working with the kids on their reading or math, or doing some small chore to make his teacher’s life a little easier.  I let his teacher know by email exactly when I was coming, to give her a heads up.  She was very flexible and accommodating.

This weekly outing made the best two hours of my week.  The kids seemed to love the attention, and I know I did.  I’m unsure if I made an academic difference in their lives, but I do know that the additional focus on them was important.

Volunteers can benefit from some instructional guidance

I was handicapped, though, in not having many tricks of the trade for helping the kids with reading or math difficulties.  If a child was below grade level in reading, I couldn’t help much more than telling him a word or helping him work through the syllables.  I’m not trained in even the basics of reading instruction.

Similarly with math.  If a child couldn’t do a subtraction problem, I was locked into my “old way” of subtracting, using “borrowing,” which is not exactly how math is taught today.  I told the unsuspecting child I was giving him a “shortcut,” but I wasn’t reinforcing current math strategies.

Welcome volunteers, build reliability

I think schools need to take the possibility of parents and other volunteers much more seriously as one option for curing the budget disease.  My home school district has one link on its website for “Volunteers,” which reads - “go to your local school site to volunteer.”  Not exactly welcoming.

Ideally, each school would have a volunteer coordinator, but if that’s not possible, perhaps one in 10 schools can have such a person to assess academic needs, numbers of volunteers necessary to meet the needs, to find volunteers, and provide training on student learning styles and basic instructional techniques.  Perhaps the volunteer  coordinator can be a volunteer  also- a reliable parent or grandparent with time to help.

Websites as volunteer-coaching medium

School districts can use their websites for instructional resources to help parents and volunteers understand new methods and reinforce learning.  A section of the site at the district and school level should be devoted to this effort, with marketing to parents especially as a value-added resource.

Parents and volunteers must agree to a full commitment, perhaps in a “contract form” so teachers and schools can rely on them. If a district puts in training and coordinating resources, the volunteers must resolve to do their part regularly.

Clearly, this concept is not a complete solution, but it can help schools in bad times - and good times.  Let us hear from schools who have successfully extended their open arms to encourage volunteering - what works and what doesn’t.

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Posted in California budget crisis, Colorado Budget Crisis, Education, Elementary, Uncategorized, school reform, school resources |
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Budget crunch crushes education reform

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Why is money at the heart of any discussion about education?  Here in Colorado, with a drop out rate of about 25% (higher and lower, depending on the school) it’s because some people think the schools need more money to succeed.  Others think school budgets are bloated and more can be squeezed by efficiencies.  And others think that any dollar spent on public schools is a dollar on a bad poker hand.

These arguments come from a polarized electorate, frustrated that school reforms don’t work fast enough or well enough to fix our problems.

Do tax reforms hurt school reforms?

Many of Colorado’s problems stem from our arcane budgeting mess.  Colorado’s the state with the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, TABOR.  Taxes go up only with a vote of the people, fair enough.  State revenues can only increase based on inflation and population.  Any surplus money must be returned to voters.  That means it’s very hard for the state to save for a rainy day, such as now, when revenues are way lower than expenses.  Colorado has cut the budget about $700 million this year, and will cut a lot more next year.

Tax amendments to tax amendments = budget chaos

Colorado also has what’s known as Amendment 23, a constitutional amendment to ensure a certain amount of state money goes to k-12 education.  But as dollars decline, even these funds are threatened.

Currently, the largest school district in the state, Jefferson County Schools, has to cut $35 million from a $500 million budget over the next three years because a 2008 mill and bond election failed.  The district is trying to figure out what schools to close and what teachers to lay off.  Not pretty.

No steady revenues for education

Like many states, Colorado has to figure out a steady revenue source for education, including higher ed.  At one point during this year’s legislative session, the state’s Joint Budget Committee was going to cut $300 million from the state’s higher ed system, including community colleges, state colleges and universities.

TABOR makes finding revenue sources extremely difficult.  Just about every cash fund has already been emptied and the state is relying more on fees to pay for its ongoing needs.  The Department of Transportation and municipalities are about to partner with the private sector to build new roads, so we’ll be tolled to death.

Reform without money is like a fish without water

Just like California, Colorado has to figure out how to pay for a quality education for all kids.  Without a steady revenue source, it’s tough to get school reforms to work.  If teachers and schools are to receive incentives and rewards to reduce drop out rates and improve achievement, someone has to put some significant money on the table.  We all have skin in the game, whether we want to or not, so we’re all going to have to ante up.

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Posted in California budget crisis, Colorado Budget Crisis, public schools |
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