Tulsa Public Schools Spending

[Townsend]

At least with the printed book racket you can buy used unless your professors choose to participate.

That was rare for me.

Also, I'm thinking more for the younger grades.  Our public schools spend an insane amount of money on constantly out dated books.  Why not have easily updatable tablet texts?

[nathanm]

Also, I'm thinking more for the younger grades.  Our public schools spend an insane amount of money on constantly out dated books.  Why not have easily updatable tablet texts?

As I said, don't get me started on the textbook racket in higher ed.

I think I mentioned before that I don't have a problem with ereaders in general, I just don't think iPads (or any other LCD-screened tablets) are the way to get there.

[Townsend]

TW tweet:

Barresi to request $37.7 million in supplemental funding for schools

and FB:

State Superintendent Janet Barresi announced Thursday that she will be seeking $37.7 million in supplemental appropriations from the Legislature.

[Townsend]

Barresi wants lottery funds to be used for technology, not state aid to schools

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130201_19_A11_CUTLIN449047

State Superintendent Janet Barresi on Thursday called on the Legislature to halt the use of lottery proceeds as a source of state aid to public schools and to dedicate it instead to school technology needs. "I want to work with the Legislature on this, with the provision that the hole (in state aid) be filled and to use lottery money in the way it was intended, which was for the 'extra' or 'special' things needed to enhance education," Barresi told the Tulsa World before a state Board of Education meeting at one of Oklahoma's most technologically advanced schools. Each year, $30 million to $34 million from the state lottery is used as a source of state aid payments to public schools across the state. Barresi said she will be seeking a permanent, dedicated revenue stream for technology needs fed by that lottery money.

[Townsend]

Authors dispute claim by Barresi

They say they never backed away from their criticism of the A-F grading system.

State Superintendent Janet Barresi told some parents Tuesday that authors of a report that concluded that the state's new A-F grading system is flawed have since privately renounced their analysis.

But the report's authors say that isn't true.

"I have no idea where that idea on the part of the superintendent came from," said senior project coordinator Patrick Forsyth, professor of education and co-director of the Oklahoma Center for Education Policy at the University of Oklahoma in Tulsa. "We are perplexed by that and don't know what to make of it."

When contacted Wednesday by the Tulsa World, state Education Department spokeswoman Sherry Fair said Barresi's claim was a result of a misunderstanding between Barresi and Assistant Superintendent Maridyth McBee.

Fair said McBee had a conversation with OSU researcher Laura Barnes after the release of the report and spoke with Barresi about it later.

But Barnes said she and McBee talked primarily about their personal lives. She said the two are friends and that she was McBee's doctoral adviser.

"There was nothing I said that could have been construed as an apology or acknowledgement of error," she said. "There was no meeting, no apology, no acknowledgement of error," she said.

"I had a personal conversation with Maridyth McBee because she is my friend and my former student. But Dr. Barresi wasn't there, and her statements are completely incorrect. We stand by our work and are confident in the results and the conclusions we drew."

McBee declined to comment.

According to the report, the A-F grading system is "neither clear, nor comparable."

Its authors are three OU senior research scientists, including Forsyth, four research associates, plus two senior research scientists at Oklahoma State University's Center for Educational Research and Evaluation.

It was reviewed independently by Robert Linn, an education researcher at the University of Colorado, as well as by internationally known psychologist and psychometrician Robert J. Sternberg. He is an OSU professor and provost.

After the state Board of Education approved the state's grade calculation methods in October over the objections of more than 300 superintendents, the Oklahoma State School Boards Association and the Cooperative Council for School Administrators commissioned the analysis.

Jenny Hudspeth, a member of the Tulsa Area Parents Legislative Action Committee, was one of several people who heard Barresi tell a group Tuesday at the Tulsa County Republican Women's luncheon that the authors had debunked their own report.

"It seemed remarkable to me," she said. "She also said she would like an apology from the authors with as much fanfare as the release of the report."

When others in the group suggested that the department send a news release to announce the authors' about-face, Barresi reportedly said her staff had told her it would just be a "tit for tat back and forth."

Another Tulsa Area Parents Legislative Action Committee member, Angie Rains, also heard Barresi's pronouncement.

"It was news to me," she said. "It's hard to know what to say at the moment. It just made me want to find out."

Forsyth said he and the other experts have not met with anyone from the Department of Education since the release of the report, nor have they apologized or been asked to apologize for it.

"I just think that there isn't anyone at the state Department (of Education) who can really understand the scope of the critique," he said. "From what was reported to me, the superintendent is just essentially dismissive of the report."

Hudspeth said Barresi told her the A-F grading system doesn't lend itself to being analyzed the way it was.

Said Forsyth: "(Linn) is perhaps the foremost scholar in terms of school evaluation and assessment in the world. We are reasonable scholars, and we think we know what we're talking about. But, in addition to that, we submitted (the report) to the review of an indisputable expert, and he concurs with our views."

He said the entire A-F grading system should be scrapped and that the department should start over.

"No one is opposed to looking at school performance. But it's so convoluted. It's arbitrary as to how the letter grade is constructed and sort of unconventional," Forsyth said.

The grading calculations are difficult to explain to anybody, he added. "In one sense it pretends to be this simple way of giving you a snapshot of the performance of a school, but in fact it hides much more than it reveals," he said.

Forsyth said the researchers' view is that the system should use raw scores of student performance to show how students at a particular school performed.

"Some of that performance is due to things completely outside the power of schools to do anything about," he said.

"Using a letter grade hides the fact that much of school performance hinges on concentrated poverty and issues like that."

[heironymouspasparagus]

My friend's kids have more computing power in their pocket than NASA had to land on the moon.  1st grade and 3rd grade.

The big question is why...?

No reason for it.  Other than to enable them to skip right over learning the basics (reading, writing, 'rithmetic) and the associated hand-eye coordination and thought process development that goes with those exercises.  Take the Luddite approach until 9th grade....pencils, pens, paper.  No calculator.

[Townsend]

The big question is why...?

No reason for it.  Other than to enable them to skip right over learning the basics (reading, writing, 'rithmetic) and the associated hand-eye coordination and thought process development that goes with those exercises.  Take the Luddite approach until 9th grade....pencils, pens, paper.  No calculator.

It is the way of the world.  Technology.  If they don't learn it they will be left behind.

Or we could have them write on boards with coal by firelight.

They have the phones because my friends want them to be able to contact them when they need to.  Would you put your children's care 100% in the school's employees hands these days if you didn't need to?

[heironymouspasparagus]

It is the way of the world.  Technology.  If they don't learn it they will be left behind.

Or we could have them write on boards with coal by firelight.

They have the phones because my friends want them to be able to contact them when they need to.  Would you put your children's care 100% in the school's employees hands these days if you didn't need to?

I've seen how they are left behind.  9th grade is plenty soon to learn technology.  I have taught the technology generation and the basics are being missed for whatever reason.  Badly.

Coal on a board would be better than a calculator.  The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians used sticks to draw in the sand, and they got the basics.  We put space flight computers in the kids pockets and they don't.  Seems like a disconnect to me.

But they sure can play a video game!!

[Townsend]

I've seen how they are left behind.  9th grade is plenty soon to learn technology.  I have taught the technology generation and the basics are being missed for whatever reason.  Badly.

Coal on a board would be better than a calculator.  The ancient Babylonians and Egyptians used sticks to draw in the sand, and they got the basics.  We put space flight computers in the kids pockets and they don't.  Seems like a disconnect to me.

But they sure can play a video game!!

Watching TV news isn't always the best way to learn about elementary education.  Otherwise we'd have to believe that rainbow parties ran rampant a few years ago.

[DolfanBob]

Bring back Corporal punishment! By Gawd they'll learn! 

[Townsend]

Three GOP Senators Want More School Funding

http://kwgs.com/post/three-gop-senators-want-more-school-funding

Three senate committee chairmen have written a letter to President Pro Tempore Brian Bingman and Appropriations Chairman Clark Jolley seeking to increase common education funding by $75 to $100 million for fiscal year 2014. Senators Jim Halligan, Chairman of the Education Subcommittee, John Ford, Chairman of Education, and Mike Mazzei, Finance Chairman, said after meeting with local school superintendents and State Superintendent Janet Barresi, they are convinced increased education funding must be the top priority when writing the 2014 budget.

"We understand that there are competing needs, but in the final analysis, we believe additional funding for common education for the coming fiscal year must be among our highest priorities," said Halligan.  "The targeted investments we make in our schools now are going to pay dividends for years to come, for our students and for our entire state."

"We have three areas in education we must address, including statutory requirements to fund programs such as medical benefits, additional appropriations to pay for reforms we've already enacted, and additional funding at the local level that school boards can use to address specific needs in their individual districts," said Ford of Bartlesville.

Tulsa's Mazzei said thanks to a growing economy and increasing revenue collections, education funding can be a top priority while also addressing tax relief for hard-working Oklahomans.

"Cutting taxes and increasing education funding is not an either/or proposition," said Mazzei. "By reforming the tax code, we can do both—and ultimately we'll see a larger tax base that will produce even greater revenues for education."

[Townsend]

Eliminating Intangible Property Tax Means Deep Cuts For OK Schools

http://www.newson6.com/story/21527214/oklahoma-policy-institute-property-tax-cut-will-hit-public-schools-hard

TULSA, Oklahoma - Oklahoma public schools are bracing for a tax cut that it seems no one can predict with much certainty.
Schools are always waiting this time of year to see what happens with the state budget, but one part of the equation is certain: there's going to be a loss of funding because of a tax cut voters approved last fall.

Debra Jacoby is Chief Financial Officer for Union Public Schools. She said she's worried the tax cuts of State Question 766 will mean big cuts in her district.

"And now they're estimating we could lose up to $120 per student," Jacoby said.

SQ 766 eliminated intangible property taxes. The main benefit is expected to go to large corporations, like Cox Communications, and AT&T, with interstate operations and big brand names.

While the railroads might benefit from cutting their property tax payments, public schools will take the biggest portion of the loss. They depend on property taxes for the bulk of their funding.

The Oklahoma Policy Institute has been studying the possible impact, but says a solid number is hard to come by, in part because intangible property has never before been separated on tax returns.

"The indications are that companies are going to take a broad view of what it considered intangible property, and it could be a pretty significant hit," said David Blatt.

Blatt said it's possible the tax cuts could eliminate as much as $120 million in taxes statewide. He said the schools are not overstating the potential impact.

Jacoby says, at Union, the predicted shortage of tax money would force noticeable cutbacks, on top of the cutbacks of the last five years.

"We will not take one cut in one place, we will take a lot of cuts throughout our district, in all areas and in all buildings," Jacoby said.

The expected cuts and their impact at Union will be hashed out Tuesday night in a meeting of a parents' legislative lobbying group.

They're meeting at 6 p.m. at the Union Collegiate Academy at 66th and Mingo.

[Townsend]

Study finds Oklahoma worst in the nation with decline in education funding for local schools

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/Study-finds-Oklahoma-worst-in-the-nation-with-decline-in-education-funding-for-local-schools

Mandy Shimp has her hands full, with a classroom full of five-year-old students.

"Two years ago I had 31 kindergartners in my classroom, and last year I had 26," said Shimp.

The worst part for her, "I couldn't do my job the best that I could because of the number of students," said Shimp.

This year she says she's fortunate. By chance, she has the smallest class size in the school, with 20 students. But she doesn't know what next year will bring.

Tulsa Public Schools has been down teachers for years. Since 2008, the district has cut 400 teachers. It wasn't an easy decision for the superintendent, Doctor Keith Ballard.

"When we talked about it, I just said, 'That's the way it is, that's the recession,'" said Ballard.

The 2009 fiscal year was an especially bad year for the state. It's total budget for state revenues was $6 billion dollars, that was down by more than $1.1 billion from the year before.

It's improved since. Now it's back up to $7 billion.

While the state is doing better, Dr. Ballard says the district isn't seeing those funds increase by the same level.

"What I never dreamed would happen is that when the money came back, that the state leaders would not make a commitment to education to at least replenish that," said Ballard.

A recent study by the non-partisan group, The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found since 2008 Oklahoma's per-pupil spending dropped by 23%, more than any other state in the country.

"The funds need to be made up that were lost during that time," said Ballard.

Still, State Senator Gary Stanislawski says there's more to the story. He says the study didn't take into account other revenue that goes to schools, like property taxes.

"If we take into consideration all funding sources, the latest study I saw puts us about 29th in the nation," said Senator Gary Stanislawski, (R)-Tulsa.

That's not the 50th ranking we were at, but still he admits 29th isn't good enough.

The state increased education funding by $91 million last year but health insurance costs also went up for teachers, offsetting some of that increase.

Stanislawski says education made up 51% of Oklahoma's total costs last year, and the state had to pay for other expenses, like $44 million for mandated DHS improvements. He hopes next year is better.
"I foresee next year they're going to see a nice increase as well," said Stanislawski.

Mandy says she hopes that's the case so she can give her students her best.


Read more: http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/Study-finds-Oklahoma-worst-in-the-nation-with-decline-in-education-funding-for-local-schools#ixzz2iYAR9jJp

[Hoss]

Study finds Oklahoma worst in the nation with decline in education funding for local schools

http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/Study-finds-Oklahoma-worst-in-the-nation-with-decline-in-education-funding-for-local-schools

Knock me over with a feather.

[Conan71]

The state increased education funding by $91 million last year but health insurance costs also went up for teachers, offsetting some of that increase.

Stanislawski says education made up 51% of Oklahoma's total costs last year, and the state had to pay for other expenses, like $44 million for mandated DHS improvements. He hopes next year is better.

"I foresee next year they're going to see a nice increase as well," said Stanislawski.

I had no idea 51% of our state expenditures was for education, that actually sounds like a good amount of a state's budget to me.

So what do you do when you have issues like higher insurance costs to account for?  By covering those instead of passing the increase to the teacher, it's a compensation increase any way you look at it.