Weekly Federal Education Policy Update

Announcements

New Education Advocate: A big congratulations to NASSP Director of Government Relations Amanda Karhuse on her recent addition to the family, a healthy Mr. Ronan David Karhuse, born Wednesday August 31. As many of you know, Amanda is on maternity leave through late November. You can be sure that I?ll be trying to sign him up for the Federal Grassroots Network before he learns to tie his shoes!

Congress Back in Session: The Senate returns today from its August recess, and the House returns tomorrow, 9/7.

President Obama?s? Jobs Plan: President Obama?s speech will occur this Thursday, September 8 at 7 PM before a joint session of Congress.? Committee for Education Funding Executive Director Joel Packer is ?very optimistic? that the President will include both school modernization and education jobs funding in his package.? Read a convincing op-ed from last week?s Washington Post on the need for school renovation: A jobs program ? and a boon for kids.

New Legislation: Local Jobs for America Act: Rep. Miller has reintroduced the Local Jobs for America Act (HR 2828), which is very similar to a bill he introduced last Congress. ?Among its provisions is a $23 billion education jobs fund.? See: Miller Announces Jobs Plan and Dem bill aims to save state, local workers.

Legislation on the Floor: The House on Thursday will consider the first ESEA reauthorization bill, HR 2218, Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act. Read more about this bill from our Principal?s Policy Blog post.

Super Committee Staff Director Named: ?Super Committee co-chairs Sen. Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Hensarling (R-TX) last week jointly announced the appointment of Mark Prater as the staff director. Prater has been with the Republican staff of the Finance Committee since 1990 and has been involved with every tax bill since that time. He became chief Republican tax counsel in 1994.? See: Supercommittee unity over Mark Prater pick and Both parties praise staff director choice for supercommittee. The Supercommittee will hold its first meeting this Thursday, September 8, and will hold its first hearing on September 13, which will include testimony on ?The History and Drivers of Our Nation?s Debt and Its Threats? from Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf.

FY 12 Appropriations: Still no official dates for House and Senate Subcommittee markups of the Labor-HHS-ED Appropriations bill, which is the bill that determines the spending ceiling for education programs for FY 2012.? The Senate is set to markup three bills in subcommittee next week (Homeland Security, Agriculture and Energy-Water).

Sec. Duncan?s Back To School Tour: U.S. Department of Education Announces ?Education and the Economy? Back-to-School Bus Tour with Stops Around the Great Lakes

News

Department of Ed Loosens Rules on Cutting Special Education Spending

The Department of Education?s maintenance-of-effort rule on special education spending has been revised so that districts that cut spending for special education in the previous year no longer have to restore funding to the previously higher level. Some special education advocates are concerned about this new freedom to permanently reduce special education spending levels. NASSP, in partnership with many other education organizations including the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), continues to lobby Congress for passage of an IDEA Full Funding Act that would require Congress to meet its promise of funding up to 40% of the excess cost to educate students with disabilities, so that states and districts will receive much-needed assistance to adequately fund special education. Read more here: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/08/31/03speced.h31.html?tkn=URPFKd6MeonriX4OyYAGjdWhPFZRbCqkJy5g&cmp=clp-edweek

New Jersey Implements Most Aggressive Anti-Bullying Law to Date

The Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, which took effect on September 1, is considered the toughest anti-bullying law in the nation. Among its provisions are the requirement for all public schools to adopt 18 pages? worth of comprehensive anti-bullying policies; increased staff training and education around bullying prevention starting with kindergarteners; and a requirement for school leaders to begin an investigation into an incident with one school day of the episode. While many parents welcome this tough law following recent concerning events like the tragic suicide last year of Rutgers freshman Tyler Clementi due to a bullying incident, many school officials worry about their capacity to implement it. ?I think this has gone well overboard,? Richard G. Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, said. ?Now we have to police the community 24 hours a day. Where are the people and the resources to do this?? Read more http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/31/nyregion/bullying-law-puts-new-jersey-schools-on-spot.html?_r=1&hpw.

College Instructors Sign Off on Common Standards for College Readiness

The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) recently completed a study on the applicability of the Common Core State Standards in English and Math to 25 different college entrance courses. The study finds that ?students who are generally proficient in the Common Core standards will likely be ready for a wide range of postsecondary courses, and the more Common Core standards in which they are proficient, the wider the range of postsecondary-level classes they will be ready to undertake.? Read the executive summary here:? https://www.epiconline.org/files/pdf/ReachingtheGoal-ExecutiveSummary.pdf.

Department of Ed Takes Questions, Feedback from Educators in Twitter Rural Education Forum

John White, the Department of Education?s deputy secretary for rural outreach, hosted a Twitter rural education forum last week that entertained a few dozen questions directed at #EDRuralChat. Two highlights from the forum include:

? Details for states wanting waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind law will be announced in mid-September, and the department has been and will continue to solicit comments from educators.

? Rural schools looking for resources can turn to Rural Development state offices for help with buildings, teacher housing, and distance learning equipment, and university extension offices can help with family engagement, 4-H programs, and STEM initiatives.

Read more about the forum: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rural_education/2011/08/highlights_from_rural-ed_deputy_secretary_twitter_town_hall.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RuralEducation+%28Education+Week+Blog%3A+Rural+Education%29

Research

Study Shows Poor, Urban Communities Have Much Stiffer Security Regardless of Crime Rate

Researchers at the University of Delaware and the University of California, Irvine, found that minority students in high-poverty neighborhoods are much more likely to encounter stiff security measures like metal detectors than are white higher-income students, regardless of the amount of actual crime in the school. The researchers based their findings on a study of nationally representative school data.

?

Resources

Webinar Explaining the Budget Control Act and Implications for Education Funding

CEF Presents:

A Webinar on The Budget Control Act

Date and Time: Thursday, September 8? 1:00 ? 2:00 PM EST

Joel Packer, CEF Executive Director, will discuss the Budget Control Act, the deficit reduction ?Super Committee?, sequestration (across-the-board cuts), and the outlook for Fiscal Year 2012 education appropriations.

Learn how this impacts education funding and get answers to your questions.

REGISTER: http://eo2.commpartners.com/users/acte/

The event is listed under ?Upcoming Webinars?

Registrants will receive an e-mail that includes a link and individualized participant code to get into the Web portion of the event and the audio information to call in or listen online.

Updated ED data site: The U.S. Department of Education Launches Version 2.0 of Education Data Web Site. The site currently includes school counts, student counts, advanced placement test data, state test data, NAEP data, funding data, highly qualified teacher data, school choice and supplemental educational services, adequate yearly progress data, counts of schools in need of improvement, statistical components, AYP components, annual measureable objectives, and other accountability workbook data.

?

?

Source: http://nasspblogs.org/principalspolicy/2011/09/weekly-federal-education-policy-update-7/

toys toys violin city hall city hall monaco wizards of waverly place