THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014 Chairman Pittman, Chairman Poole, Members of the Senate and House Budget Committees, Distinguished Legislators and guests – I am proud to be with you this morning representing our State Board of Education and all of K‐12 education to present our budget request for FY 15. The priorities in this budget first and foremost support the foundational needs of our local school systems along with the goals and objectives of our PLAN 2020 – Alabama’s strategic eight‐year plan of transformation of public education that has as its core a redefined high school graduate based on the expectations of our community colleges, institutions of higher education, and business and industry—a partnership that after just two years is already yielding positive results. Before I begin, however, I would like to share some reference points for context related to the state’s Foundation Program for new members to the budget committees and others in attendance. The K‐12 portion of the Education Trust Fund is based on the state Foundation Program funding formulas, which were implemented in 1995 to provide equitable funding and resources to our school systems. It is also worthy to note that the K‐12 budget is the only entity funded through the Education Trust Fund with such requirements and restrictions. At the core of the state Foundation Program is a required and non‐negotiable 10‐mill match from our local school systems in order to participate. This year that amount totals $541 million that the Legislature does not have to appropriate to operate Alabama’s public K‐12 education system. The expectation, however, is that through this 10‐mill matched participation a reciprocal state budget will be allocated to the local system based on the formulas contained within the state Foundation Program. Regretfully, this reciprocal match is not currently in place in multiple areas of the Foundation Program and creates an unequitable situation for many of our school systems, especially those with limited local funding that are left to make up the difference. Our budget request for this year focuses on key areas to hopefully rectify some of this funding shortfall. Let me use Coosa County for a perspective on how this funding formula affects one of our poorest school systems, and I will refer to them periodically throughout my presentation. After the 10‐mill match that comes from local ad valorem and sales tax, Coosa County is left with $367.00 per student for all non‐funded services and operations. With an ADM of 1147.45 students that equates to $431,632 to sustain the school system throughout the year. That number is important, and I would ask that you jot it down somewhere and we will subtract from it as we proceed through my presentation. Within this context of the Foundation Program, rather than just go over totals on a spreadsheet that you have before you in a one‐page, front and back document, I want to take you through a typical day in K‐12 education and insert our budget requests as they naturally occur to give you a real‐world perspective of our need (not our want) and to keep the focus squarely on who this budget and our K‐12 public education system is intended to serve—our students. This morning 740,567 students headed out to attend a public school in Alabama. This is a 1,272 student increase from the previous year. We provide services to these 740,000+ students through 135 local school systems (many of the 135 superintendents leading these systems are in attendance this morning—ask that they stand as I thank them publically for the work they do each and every day to serve our students). These leaders provide the required academic and support services through their 1,496 local schools and some 50+ career tech centers and through contractual agreements with over 50 specialized treatment centers ranging from those who serve
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
severely autistic children unable to be served at the local level to adolescents incarcerated in our Department of Youth Services Detention Centers. *Many individual cases at an annual cost of over $100,000 per student. ****To put in perspective the magnitude of our public school system, our daily student body is eight times the number of fans in attendance at the 2013 Iron Bowl.
For many of our students, their first interaction of the day begins with a bus driver, since of these 740,000+ students 378,709, or 51% of our total student population, rely on transportation on a daily basis in order to attend school. Without this transportation, many of our students would find it difficult to attend school and, in some cases, it would be impossible.
2
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
We have multiple routes that begin before 6:00 a.m. in the morning—before daylight (I was actually behind an Alexander City school bus this morning at 5:25 a.m.)—due to the adjustments required to operate our transportation system as our state allocation is currently funded at only 80% of the actual costs for buses and operations with the difference being covered by the local school system at a statewide total of $53,000,000 dollars. This is $53 million on top of the $541 million local school systems provide through the 10 mill match. This transportation function is fulfilled through 7,609 buses covering some 488,136 daily miles for an annual total of 87,864,480 miles.
This photo is one of my favorites—it is the ferry you take from outside Monroeville across the Alabama River to Packer’s Bend—a ferry that has been inoperable for over a year requiring an additional hour of travel to transport children and supplies . . . just an example of the rural nature of our state and how vital transportation is to our students. ***Let’s revisit Coosa County—remember the school system has only $376 per student or $431,632 left after meeting its 10‐mill match. Coosa County’s local transportation costs equal $39,220, so please subtract that amount from the Coosa County total.
431,622.00 ‐ 39,220.00 392,412.00
3
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
As these students are en route to school, our lunchroom workers, maintenance staff, custodians, support staff, and others are busily preparing meals, the building, and grounds for the students’ arrival.
These positions are crucial to the overall operation of our school systems and the only state funding for these positions and the operational costs for keeping the building heated, cooled, and updated comes from Other Current Expenses (OCE), currently funded at 85% of the total costs of operations with our local school systems making up the difference. Remember Coosa County—its cost for non‐state‐funded operations and support persons is $402,938, so please subtract that from the Coosa County total. As you can see, the school system is already in the negative and school has not even started for the day!!!
392,412.00 ‐ 402,938.00 ‐10,526.00
4
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
Once our students arrive at school we currently provide a breakfast program in all but two of our local school systems due to the increasing numbers of our students who fall into the level of poverty and live in an environment of food insecurity. This past year, we served a total of 36,946,502 breakfasts, with 83% of those breakfasts being free.
Due to this expanding level of food insecurity, we recently expanded the summer feeding program across the state, and Alabama was recognized for the greatest expansion and number of meals served this past summer. It is only then that our students are ready to learn. Our instructional program typically begins around 7:45 a.m. It is important to note that we have no admission criteria other than age and residency; we welcome ALL children regardless of the gifts or challenges they bring with them because we believe that ALL children can learn if provided with the resources they need.
We are charged with providing a quality and comprehensive educational program for ALL students, K‐12, that includes reading, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, PE, and health. At the high school level, Alabama is one of only a handful of‐states with a 4X4 secondary curriculum requirement, making it one of the most rigorous in the nation. Our entire academic program has recently been intensified with the adoption of 5
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
our college‐ and career‐readiness standards with the goal that all students not only graduate from high school but that they are prepared for college, work, and adulthood in the 21st century—a goal we now share with postsecondary, institutions of higher education, and business and industry. To meet this requirement, we rely on funding through the state Foundation Program again for teachers units determined by taking our student numbers and dividing them by a divisor. These divisors have been adjusted over the past years to balance the ETF budget resulting in fewer teachers, especially at the middle grades level, the point we have determined is the beginning of high school dropout issues and includes the majority of our priority schools. We are therefore asking for an increase in the divisors for this grade span as it is where we see our greatest need. Another major funding shortfall is the state support at a level sufficient to fund those programs that research tells us are crucial to meet the needs of the whole child beyond these foundational academic requirements— programs such as music, art, drama, world language, career explorations that are the least available to the students who need them the most.
6
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
We are asking for seed money to conduct a competitive application for school systems with no access to music or arts programs to partner with local entities to begin offering those crucial programs. Most recently, with the resurgence of career and technical education, we find ourselves seeing innovative, high tech, and STEM programs being created using the bond issue you so thoughtfully approved during our last session.
Our biggest obstacle to full implementation of these exemplary plans is funding for teachers. Without some adjustments to divisors implementation will be impossible in the school systems that need these programs the most since they can only staff the number of teachers and essential support personnel provided through state funding. An additional challenge is the fact that our local school systems currently receive no state funding for Technology, Library Enhancement, Continuing Education, and only a portion of the costs of textbooks or digital content. Last year our local districts spent $33,393,223 from local funds to make up the difference for professional development, textbooks, and classroom supplies. We are still capturing the totals for technology and library enhancement.
7
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
Throughout the day we offer an array of support services, from guidance and counseling, occupational therapy, physical therapy, behavioral and mental health counseling, ESL services, speech and language therapy, and nursing and health services that include anything from medication distribution to tube feeding and other critical care needs that can only be administered by certificated medical personnel. Currently, there are thousands of nursing procedures that occur on a daily basis throughout the state, and one of the most crucial, G‐Tube feedings, being provided 444 times daily, or just under 80,000 performed annually. Just down the street at The Children’s Center 150 are performed per day.
I would urge you to visit.
8
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
Beginning around 11 a.m., we begin the process of providing lunch to all of our 740,000 students. Last year, we provided 90,186,259 lunches with 64% of those lunches being free (a 4% gain in just one year). That again indicates that our greatest challenge to increased student achievement is poverty. To compound this challenge, the recent reduction in SNAP or food stamp funding, regardless of your political position on government assistance programs, has had a negative effect on our children who have no control of their current situations.
To begin to assist with these needed services we are asking for funding to expand our system of Comprehensive Student Support and Alabama’s Network of Family Resource Centers in partnership with other state agencies serving children and their families. We know and research supports that EDUCATION is the answer to reversing generational poverty. With adequate funding and a bold plan for transformation—PLAN 2020—we CAN and WILL educate ourselves, the state of Alabama, into a new economy. I have some facts to support that statement at the end of the presentation that affirms your Return on Investment in our work!
We return from lunch and pick back up with our instructional programs that include many of our statewide programs—AMSTI, a national and international model with delegations from Germany coming to see how it works; ARI; Advanced Placement (97 schools and 47,000 students‐‐led the nation in qualifying scores and $25 million in saved tuition costs to Alabama students and families); and ACCESS, currently serving 24,141 students in 108 subjects and ready to expand into the next generation, online learning.
9
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
Each of these programs brings some level of equity for students in school systems like Coosa County that could not offer a full curriculum without them. At the close of the day we again transport some 378,709 students home or to childcare or afterschool programs within the community while a significant number of our students remain at school for tutoring, enrichment, and other extra‐curricular activities, including athletic programs that are for the most part supported by local funds. At the end of the day in many school systems it is not uncommon for the coach to take some kids home, which would be the only way some kids could participate. That is just a partial snapshot of a day in Alabama public schools. I could never capture nor could any test score measure the miracles that occur and the life‐changing relationships that develop each and every day– and we do that over 179 more times each year. As I mentioned earlier, what makes K‐12 public education unique is that we accept all students regardless of their gifts or challenges. I find it interesting that I often hear the statement, “If they would just run it like a business it would improve.”
10
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
Graduation Rate
We have in fact taken many of the practices from business and industry and applied them to our operations and functions with positive results, but there is one significant difference. At the Hyundai Plant down I‐65 managers have a quality control function over the parts that they receive to build the automobiles. If an imperfect part or batch of parts arrive, managers simply return them. In public education, we have no control over the students we serve, as we serve all students—imperfections and all—and do so gladly because that is what makes public education so rich . . . our diverse student body! We would want it no other way. At the end of the day, we account for every dollar spent in the categories outlined in the state and local budget reports posted monthly on our state Web site and audited annually for assurance to the public that their tax dollars are being spent appropriately. We are accountable for student achievement, student health and safety, and for an education that ensures that every student who enters high school graduates within four years or they are not considered a graduate for public reporting purposes. Let me pause here and share for the first time publically what should be tomorrow’s headline in every paper, bog, and social media site in our state: our new graduation rate for 2013. I am proud to say that due to the tireless efforts of our teachers and school leaders, we have reached a graduation rate of 80%—the highest in state‐recorded history and an incredible 5% point one‐year gain. Just last year we also experienced a 3% point gain. This meets our projected percentage for 2016 two years early and places us well on our way to meeting the overarching goal of PLAN 2020, a 90% graduation rate by 2020 (projected graduation rate). This is the first time our superintendents have seen this number so give them a hand for a job well done! Indicator: By 2016, increase the 4‐year Cohort Graduation Rate. Baseline: 72% 1‐year target: 74% (Actual: 75%) 4‐year target: 80% 8‐year target: 90% Increasing the Graduation Rate 100% 80% 90% 75% 80% 70% 80% 78% 76% 74% 72% 60% 50% 40% 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 11
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
There are no allowances for poverty, disability, or any other unexpected occurrence such as major medical issues, death of a parent, divorce, incarceration. The expectation is that all students enter as a kindergartner and graduate on time much like widgets through an assembly line factory. We are the only education entity with such an expectation. So I would say that is a remarkable, if not an unequaled, return on investment. A graduation rate with a 5% gain equates to 3,000 more high school graduates in one year. Economists support the fact that there is a $10,000 dollar differential between the annual earnings of a high school graduate versus a non‐graduate. Based on 3,000 new graduates, we have just potentially infused 30 million dollars into Alabama’s economy, which interestingly is 5 million dollars less than our entire budget request increase for all state programs and initiatives outside the Foundation program (refer to one page budget request). I guess it could be stated we have created our own funding for our budget request increase if allocated accordingly. Regretfully, however, we continue to measure and fund our local school systems just as we have since 1995 under an industrial model of “batches in, batches out” based on a set number of years assuming that the batches (cohorts of students) all enter at the same place at the same time in total contradiction to the foundation of PLAN 2020 that supports the multiple innovative and non‐traditional programs that have embraced our new mission of not only ensuring that all students graduate but, most importantly, that they are prepared for college, work, and adulthood in the 21st century. Why we need our budget request fulfilled . . . our local school systems continue to meet their legal obligation for the 10‐mill match for participation in the Foundation program yet at the same time they have seen the per‐ pupil expenditure decrease by some $1,200 per student over the past several years and at the same time the academic and technical expectations of a successful graduate have been increased. We are here today not to ask for anything extra but merely to ask for our fair share of the Foundation program based on the formulas contained within it—funding to maintain and in a few areas expand programs that are yielding sizeable returns on investment for our students, their families, and our state. Our biggest challenge to this budget request is also our greatest strength. Just like with our new 80% graduation rate, time after time, regardless of whether we receive our fair share of funding or not, our educators will make great things happen because that is what public educators do: we believe in our students and will go to any lengths possible to make sure they are successful.
12
THOMAS R. BICE, STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION PRESENTED AT THE BUDGET HEARINGS FOR THE JOINT HOUSE AND SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEES JANUARY 14, 2014
Which brings me to my concluding slide — Shawn Forbes
Shawn was a statistic waiting to happen since kindergarten, in and out of school for a variety of reasons, but in a caring and committed school system that never gave up. This all culminated in an e‐mail I received from Shawn in late July. He explained that he had not completed all the requirements to graduate in May with his class, that he was enrolled in summer school, that and it looked like he was going to need just a little extra time to finish his graduation requirement. He asked if I could call Florence City Schools and give them permission to allow him an extra day or two to graduate. Needless to say, if you know anything about Florence City Schools they already had a plan for Shawn, permission granted from me or not. I was so honored to be asked to participate in the summer graduation ceremony for Shawn and his summer graduates—it was one of the most moving experiences in which I have participated in my recent memory. What does this have to do with a budget request? It has everything to do with our budget request because it brings our focus back to why we are here—for the needs of the student, one of the 740,000+ and one of the 80%—the 3,000 new high school graduates. We can educate Alabama into a new economy, but we need parity in Education Trust Fund funding to make this happen. We look forward to working with you to craft the best possible education budget for our students.
13