FEDERAL EDUCATION UPDATE
Association of Education Service Agencies
Colorado Springs, CO
December 1, 2011
OVERVIEW
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ESEA
 Reauthorization
 Waivers
 Title I Formula Fairness
Appropriations
 FY12
 Super Committee/Deficit Commission
 IDEA Full Funding
Ed Tech
Child Nutrition
Rural Education
Other Topics
Advocacy Resources
CLIMATES
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Funding
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Political
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Partisan. Middle ground moderates are gone.
Gearing up to an election year
Federal
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Continued recession at state and local level
Cessation of ARRA/EduJobs
Actual and anticipated cuts from FY11 and FY12
Anticipated cuts from Debt Ceiling
Commission/Sequestration
Gridlock between House and Senate
State
State legislatures were heavily impacted by last year’s
elections
 Strong push on education issues with grassroots
implications
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ESEA REAUTHORIZATION
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Areas of Agreement
Measuring Growth
Disaggregation
Annual summative
assessment
 New higher standards
 New better assessments
 SES & Choice, less
prescriptive
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Area of Debate
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Accountability
framework - AYP or
growth
Assessments –
Quality/Type
Teacher evaluation –
test weight/multiple
measures/performance
levels
Flexibility/transferabilit
y – how much/where
Charter schools – rules
same or different
Comparability – the
sleeper issue!!
ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: HOUSE
H.R. 1891 "Setting New Priorities in Education
Spending Act"
Full Committee
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Ordered favorably reported, as amended, to the
House by a vote of 23-16
H.R. 2218, "Empowering Parents through Quality
Charter Schools Act"
Full Committee
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Ordered favorably reported, as amended, to the
House by a vote of 34-5.
Voted out of full House 9/13
HR 2445 “State and Local Funding Flexibility
Act”
Wednesday July 14, 2011
Ordered favorable reported, as amended, to the
House by a vote of 23-17
ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: SENATE
Marathon Mark Up in late October
 Bipartisan bill passed out of committee, 16-7
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12 Ds and 4 Rs
144 filed amendments
24 adopted
 10 rejected
 The balance were either withdrawn, not offered,
ignored, and/or will be offered on the floor
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ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: SENATE
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Improvements
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Eliminates impossible goal of 100%
Eliminates AYP and AMOs
Eliminates 2 percent testing cap
Changes testing requirement for ELL from one year
to two years
Permits shifting to measure growth while retaining
status testing
Permit multiple measures
Includes computer adaptive assessment
Shifts control of accountability to the states
Requires adoption of more accurate assessments
ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: SENATE
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Accountability Changes
Requires continuous improvement towards C/CR
 Maintains disaggregation
 Ranks schools, focus on bottom 5%
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Achievement Gaps and Persistently Low Achieving
 Achievement based on test scores, graduation rates, state
summative test scores, and % on track for C/CR.
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Turn Around Models
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Transformation, Strategic Staffing, Turnaround, Whole
School Reform, Restart, Closure, State Flexibility and Rural
Waiver
ESEA REAUTHORIZATION: SENATE
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Points of Concern
Comparability Changes
 Reliance on One-Time testing
 Treatment of Foster Kids
 Codification of RttT and i3
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ESEA: REGULATORY RELIEF
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Flexibility being offered in 11 specific areas
States have to adopt all three policy priorities:
Higher standards
– Differentiated accountability system
– Teacher/principal evaluation system based on growth
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NCLB Waiver Watch: www.cep-dc.org
AASA position: we agree with the areas in which
flexibility is being provided but are opposed to
the conditional nature of the process.
ESEA: REGULATORY RELIEF
Conditional, quid-pro-quo deal, with states
having to adopt specific policy priorities I
exchange for relief
 To date, 39 states have expressed interest in the
waivers
 11 states submitted applications in the first
round: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana,
Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New
Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee
 Next Deadline for Applying: Mid-February
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TITLE I FORMULA FAIRNESS
www.formulafairness.com
 Led by Rural School and Community Trust
 Current statute uses two weighting brackets to
determine an LEA’s Title I allocation
 Unintended consequence is that some larger, less-poor
schools can end up receiving more Title I dollars perchild than smaller, poorer districts
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TITLE I FORMULA FAIRNESS
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All Children are Equal (ACE) Act (HR 2485) provides
legislative fix
Turns down the volume on number weighting to ensure
that Title I dollars are distributed to concentrations of
poverty
11 original co-sponsors: Representatives Glenn Thompson
(R-PA), Ruben Hinojosa (D – TX), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC),
Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Dan Boren (D-OK), Mike Ross
(D-AR), Tom Petri (R-WI), Lou Barletta (R-PA), Mike Kelly
(R-PA), Todd Platts (R-PA), and Richard Hanna (R-NY).
Also joined by Reps. Roby (R-AL), Hartzler (R-MO), and
Crawford (R-AR)
Urge your representative to sign on!
FY12 APPROPRIATIONS
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House: Education down over all, huge increases
for Title I and IDEA, cuts for many other ed
programs
Senate: overall increase for education, lack
funding increases for Title I and IDEA
Current Dear Colleague in the House; Sign on by
Friday!
FY12: Started October 1, without a budget
First CR thru 11/18; Current CR thru 12/16
 Differing House and Senate Edu Numbers
 Role of final approps bills vs. CR vs. megabus
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FY12 APPROPRIATIONS
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First CR Included $329 m in cuts to education
programs
Title I: $163 million
 IDEA part B: $129 million
 Title II: $25 million
 Perkins: $12 million
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Reach out to your Senator and Representative to
urge them to reinstate the funds.
FY12 APPROPRIATIONS
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Joint Deficit Commission
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Super Committee Roster:
Senate: Murray (WA), Baucus (MT), Kerry (MA), Kyl (AZ),
Portman (OH), and Toomey (PA)
 House: Hensarling (TX), Becerra (CA), Camp (MI), Clyburn
(SC), Upton (MI), and VanHollen (MD)
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Has to identify $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next 10
years
 Failed to announce plan by Thanksgiving and take
vote by Christmas
 Includes required vote on Balanced Budget
Amendment
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House failed to pass BBA
FY12 APPROPRIATIONS
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Potential Cuts in the Deficit Debacle
Sequestration triggered 1/1/12
 Cuts go in to effect 1/1/13
 CBO estimates sequestration will be a 7.8% acrossthe-board cut
 Estimated Education Impact:
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Title I: $1.1 billion
 IDEA: 978 million
 Perkins: $136 million
 Head Start: $590 million
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IDEA FULL FUNDING
AASA’s #1 legislative priority
 Senator Harkin has introduced the IDEA Full
Funding Act (S 1403). We are waiting for the
House partner bill.
 Rep. Polis has a IDEA funding bill, but our focus
is on the Harkin version
 Urge your Senator to sign on the S 1403, and talk
with your entire Congressional delegation about
the funding pressures of IDEA and the
importance of protecting and increasing IDEA
funding in FY12 and debt ceiling conversations.
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EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY: E-RATE
 FCC
program that provides discounts to
help schools and libraries afford
telecommunications services
 Anti-Deficiency Act (S 297)
 Raise the spending cap
 Waiting for final action by the FCC on a
host of rules/notices:
 Gift rule
 CIPA
 Roll-over funds
EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY: ED TECH
 Title
II Part D, Enhancing Education
Through Technology, E2T2
 Zero-funded by the administration,
eliminated by the House in its ESEA
eliminations bill
 Not included in Senate Base Bill
 Sen. Bingaman introduced the ATTAIN
Act (S 1178), which allows for EETT-type
program ($300 m trigger); Offered as
amendment in Senate ESEA mark up
CHILD NUTRITION
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NSLP/SBP reauthorized last December
AASA, NSBA and Council opposed unfunded mandates
within the law
 Increased reimbursement, higher nutrition standards
 Set paid lunch price
 Set training and certification requirements
 Review indirect cost process
Continue to work on the regulations, which affirm our
suspicions
Hullabaloo in the FY12 agriculture appropriations bill
related to language that limits the use of FY12 funds for
implementing new language
AMENDMENTS TO REAP
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Changes to REAP in Senate version of ESEA
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Transition to new locale codes (move from 7/8 to 33, 41, 42,
43)
Allow districts to choose between RLIS and SRSA funding
If appropriation for REAP is increased, base grant moves
from 20 to 25, max grant goes from 60 to 80
Changes not made to Senate Version of ESEA
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Transition to FRLP as poverty measure from 20% census
data
OFFICE OF RURAL EDUCATION POLICY
ACT
Bill introduced in May; Goal: Adding it to ESEA
 Would establish an Office inside the Dept of Ed
headed by a Director who would
 Advise the Secretary on the needs of rural
schools and ensure that all regulations issued
by the Department of Education explicitly
consideration the impact that the regulations
will have on rural schools and communities
 maintain a clearinghouse on best practices and
research for rural schools, produce an annual
report to Congress, coordinate efforts
throughout federal agencies related to rural
schools
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OTHER ISSUES
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Federal Mandates
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RttT, I3, SIG
Foster Care
 Bullying
 Common Core/Testing Consortia
 America’s Jobs Act
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GET—AND STAY—INVOLVED!
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Weigh in early, weigh in often
These decisions are made whether or not you
weigh in.
15 minutes per month is all it takes.
Get to know your Senator/Representative, and
perhaps more importantly, their education
staffer.
Invite the Representative/Senator and staffer to
your ESA. Anecdotes and stories have a lot of
sticking power with this Congress. Let the face
of your ESA be the one that sticks in their mind!
AASA/AESA ADVOCACY RESOURCES
AASA Website: www.aasa.org
 AASA Blog: www.aasa.org/aasablog.aspx
 AASA Twitter: @Noellerson
 AASA Legislative Corps: Weekly Newsletter
 Advocacy Network: Monthly Update
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QUESTIONS?
Noelle Ellerson
Assistant Director,
Policy Analysis & Advocacy
nellerson@aasa.org