Readiness project rollout

The final report won't be out until after the November election, but the Patrick administration began its rollout of the Readiness Project report yesterday. On the school funding front:

• the committee agreed that the state funding formula--the foundation budget--needs to be revamped.
  

"On average, school districts spent 18 percent more than the foundation budgets set by a state formula, Patrick said in a press conference at the Boys and Girls Club of Dorchester yesterday."(from the Boston Globe report)

And Worcester? 0.4%

• a move towards funding universal pre-kindergarten and "high need district" full-day kindergarten (it's unclear if this would help Worcester; it looks as though the funding would be for those high need districts that don't yet have full-day kindergarten)

• state assistance in lowering class size in "high need districts" (this would seem to help Worcester)

• consolidation of districts
  

• a recommendation for a state-wide teachers' contract. According to the Berkshire Eagle, the Massachusetts Teachers' Association hasn't had a chance to look at the details of this proposal. The Worcester Telegram and Gazette is already against it.

You've probably already seen the reports that funding all of this is not planned for at this point.

And the MCAS? No change. This was work, incidentally, as the entire committee had to ignore the assessment subcommittee report. And so we will be continuing to pour millions of dollars into that particular assessment system which leads to many of the problems cited elsewhere in the report.