[Vision2020] Legislative Newsletter 10, MARCH 20-25, 2011
Rep. Tom Trail
ttrail at moscow.com
Sat Mar 26 14:55:08 PDT 2011
LEGISLATIVE
NEWSLETTER 10 MARCH 20-25, 2011
Constituents:
It appears
that the Idaho Legislative session may stretch into April according to
some reports. Just remember
what Mark Twain said, "No man's life, property, liberty, or happiness
is safe while the legislature is in session." After what has been going on
in the Idaho Legislature I'd say the sooner we close up shop the
better.
1. Megaloads Move North to Moscow -- Earlier
this week I received an e mail from the Idaho Transportation Department
announcing that Exxon was going to cut up 33 of the big Megaloads of oil
refining equipment and ship them up to Coeur d' Alene through Latah County
and Moscow. The loads will
weigh around 200,000 lbs. and take up the entire two lanes of Highway
95. Travel will be at
night. ITD failed to contact
any of the elected officials and law enforcement in Latah County and
Moscow about these plans before they made the announcement. The Latah
County Commissioners are holding a meeting on Monday about the issue, and
Mayor Chaney and some members of the City Council are upset over the
plans. One would think that
ITD might have learned a bit about contacting stakeholders ahead of time
after all of the problems with the movement of Megaloads over Highway
12.
2. HB222 -- Idaho's gun-on-campus bill failed
to advance in the Senate State Affairs Committee. The issue was discussed today for
two hours. The issue hit home
for Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, whose 23 year old son died from a
gunshot wound to the chest at a Boise party eight years ago. Cameron Wade Davis, a BSU student
was shot by another students carrying a concealed weapon. Davis sits on the Senate panel and
interjected shortly after Idaho law student Jonathan Sawmiller argued that
student with guns were responsible citizens and not, as some would
suggest, "drunken frat boys." Davis said, "This is not an intellectual exercise
for me and my family."
3. SB1184 -- This is the 3rd in terms of the three major educational
reform bills advocated by SPI Tom Luna and the Governor. The bill passed the Senate on a
20-15 vote. The bill would
phase in new laptops for every student and teacher. It diverts schools funds for
online courses, and shifts funding from teachers to technology. SB1184 trades teachers for
technology and creates a permanent line item for computers reducing direct
teacher time for the student.
It should be pointed out that technology is a tool that can
supplement but not replace a teacher. There are also places in Idaho that do not have
broadband or high speed internet.
Sen. Dean Cameron, JFAC Co-Chair outlined a
number of points in opposition to the bill:
a. Every single stakeholder is
opposed to the legislation.
This is not a consensus approach.
b. The bill lacks flexibility to
school districts. It takes
away funds from teaching and diverts it to technology.
c. The bill locks us in and binds
future legislators.
d.
It constitutes a multi-year reduction in salary based
apportionment. The most
appalling fact is that it is not a one year reduction. It is a multi-year commitment.
e. The bill avoids transparency at
the state level. The bill
puts the public school budget on autopilot. It gives new authority and power to distribute funds to
the Superintendent of Public Instruction and not the Legislature.
f. The bill creates three new
entitlements--on line learning, dual credit for early graduates, and
mobile computing devices for all students and teachers.
Basically the bill is wrong
for Idaho, the taxpayer, education and our kids.
Those are the
highlights of the week. Please send your comments and concerns to me.
My
email is ttrail at house.idaho.gov
My phone (208) 332-1184.
Rep. Tom Trail
You can
also view my updates on www.infotrail.com/Idaho
p.s. I’m
including the following article on education reform from the Washington
Post:
Washington Post
Posted at 03:58 PM ET, 03/17/2011
Ironic extremes: Lauding and bashing teachers By Valerie Strauss
How’s this for ironic extreme?
Thursday an
international conference on the teaching profession<http://www.ed.gov/blog/2011/03/ed-kicks-off-international-summit-on-the-teaching-profession/> is being held in New York to do the
following, as explained by the U.S. Education Department, a co-host:
“To identify and elaborate on best practices from around the world
for recruiting, preparing and supporting teachers in ways that effectively
enhance the teaching profession and ultimately, elevate student
performance.”
Educators from countries around the world,
some of them representing education systems hailed for excellence on
international student tests,gathered<http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/internationaled/teaching-summit.html> to look at what commonly works across
systems and what doesn’t.
What the top-achieving school
systems -- in countries including Finland and South Korea -- have in
common is that teachers are well-respected. In varying degrees, teachers
are also well-paid, well-supported with resources and development,
unionized, and considered capable of designing curriculum and lesson plans
themselves without interference from non-educators.
Contrast
that with what is going on in Florida. A new law is about to be put on the
books that will go a long way toward dissuading anybody from wanting to be
a pubic school teacher there.
How?
For starters,
legislation awaiting Gov. Rick Scott’s (R) signature takes away
teachers’ job security; starting in July, all new hires will be
offered only one-year contracts, as will veteran teachers moving to a new
district. As for teachers already with tenure, it will be very easy to
lose it.
Then there’s the provision that requires that at
least 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation, and thus pay, and thus,
job -- is dependent on how well kids do on standardized tests. (It
didn’t matter to the legislature that research has repeatedly shown
that there is no validity to such a linkage.)
And let’s
not forget this: New tests are to be created to cover every single course
offered in public schools so that kids can take more tests than they do
now (and they take a lot), though the legislature didn’t provide
state money for their creation, leaving districts to pick up the tab.
Did I mention that the legislation calls for teachers<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/florida-teacher-tells-obama-yo.html> to be eligible for “performance
bonuses” based on standardized test scores, but, alas, there is no
money by these bonuses. Or
that there is no money or requirement that struggling teachers get
professional assistance to improve.
Supporters of the bill say
that the measure is simply meant to align state policy with promises made
by the state in its successful quest to win $700 million in the Obama
administration’s Race to the Top<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/race-to-the-top/><http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/race-to-the-top/>sweepstakes.
Race to the
Top has plenty of problems of its own, including a standardized testing
emphasis, but it doesn’t insist that states strip teachers or their
due process rights, or undertake initiatives without funding. In fact, any
districts that find they can’t carry through with their Race to the
Top commitments can withdraw. This Florida law stays on the books
until/unless the Legislature changes it.
Still, Race to the Top
was the spark for the legislation.
Florida<http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/race-to-the-top/> isn’t the only state to reduce
and/or eliminate job security for teachers, or to link standardized test
scores to teacher evaluation and pay. Rather, it is just one of the most
egregious examples of a trend sweeping the country, encouraged by the
Obama administration’s Race to the Top to use test scores for
high-stakes decisions.
The Department of Education is trying to
have it both ways. It wants to be seen as trying to elevate the teaching
profession; hence, a conference about elevating the teaching profession.
Meanwhile, it promotes policies that are being used as weapons for a front
assault.
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