Friday, April 15, 2016

House amendments coming in: UPDATING AS THEY COME IN

You can find them here.
As of yet, nothing on the foundation budget.


UPDATE: a few of note (and updates as available; note that I am writing up only those amendments that impact more than one community; amendments that would build a playground in a particular town and the like are not included below):
Second update: as of this evening, there are 1307 amendments. All those having to do with PreK-12 education are below:
  • Amendment 387 would implement a permanent Foundation Budget Review Commission that would report out every three years, with the next report due January 2018.
  • Both amendments 353 and 436 would amendment McKinney-Vento up to $24M and $20M respectively : UPDATE add 523 also for $24M and 960 for $20.8M
  • Rep. Harrington has in amendment 436 moved that minimum per pupil aid be moved to $100. 
  • Amendment 441 moves regional transportation reimbursement from $60M to $65M.
  • Rep. Sannicandro in amendment 440 adds transportation of students at recovery high schools as a requirement BUT ALSO provides for their reimbursement. 
  • Amendment 678 would, in cases of major student enrollment increases, extend the student enrollment reporting deadline to December 15.
  • Amendment 696 from Reps Decker and Smizik would disallow the use of student assessment data in teacher evaluation; if you're interested, I'd read the language, as it's pretty specific.
  • Disappointingly, amendment 702 is directed to not allowing undocumented students to have in-state tuition. The three sponsors are Lombardo of Billerica, O'Connell of Taunton and Diehl of Whitman, for future reference.
  • Amendment 731 increases the dual enrollment line to $2M.
  • Amendment 761 would reimburse districts for the cost of IT changes necessitated by MCAS 2.0. That's from Rep. Orrall who has been outspoken in opposing the change in testing (and the Common Core, which we'll come back to).
  • Amendment 802 would create a commission to look at the education of children with low-incidence disabilities, with the aim of educating them better and with less cost.
  • The Turning 22 program support is raised to $7M by amendment 811.
  • Amendment 845 was the one we were tweeting about earlier today, coming in from Rep. Ultrino of Malden: full (as best as we can tell) funding of the charter reimbursement line item at $134M. Amendment 1232 raises the reimbursement to $95M.
  • Amendment 912 which raises math and science AP support back to $3.2M also has a number of co-sponsors; it has some fairly substantial language attached, so read it if this is of interest.
  • Amendment 950 for targeted intervention is raised to $8.4M from $7.3M
  • Rep. Peisch sets aside $150,000 for healthy relationships work in schools in amendment 961.
  • Amendment 974 from Rep. Peisch raises the assessment account back up to $29.5M.
  • Rep. Ferguson of Holden amends the pothole for districts that are struggling this year with unrepresented poverty by allowing districts to also look for funding for "significant overpayment of local minimum contribution" which has caused hardship. That's amendment 977.
  • Amendment 979 increases the Quality K grant from $18.5M to $23.9M; amendment 946 raises it to $23.9M; Rep. Mahoney's amendment 1151 also increases Quality K, but to $18.8, reserving at least $1M for the Worcester Public Schools.
  • Amendment 990 is $575,000 for the Safe and Supportive Schools grant
  • Amendment 993 from Rep. Peisch reinstates the MCAS low-scoring support at $4.2M.
  • Rep. Pesich adds "non-profit career technical institution" to those eligible for dual enrollment in amendment 1021.
  • Amendment 1035 adds funding reimbursement for out-of-district vocational transportation.
  • Reimbursement for early education has been a big concern, and amendment 1103 raises that line from $10M to $20M; there are a lot of co-sponsors on that one.
  • Transportation is added to the special education circuit breaker in amendment 1039.
  • Quite a number of co-sponsors (including most of the Worcester delegation) of $500,000 for alternative education in amendment 1058.
  • Amendment 1082 increases the circuit breaker for special education from $276M to $283M.
  • The John and Abigail Adams Scholarship to public colleges and universities in Massachusetts for those students who do well on the MCAS would be extended to private school students in amendment 1096.
  • Amendment 1109 establishes a commission on McKinney-Vento transportation; amendment 1116 holds that any Gateway district spending more than $800,000 on such transportation must be fully reimbursed.
  • Amendment 1110 adds $120,000 in the department of agriculture line specifically for Farm to School.
  • Amendment 1202 increases vocational dual enrollment to $2M from $750,000.
  • Amendment 1209 increases early ed by $2M, provided those $2M are spent on Level 3 and 4 districts.
  • Head Start goes up by $1M in amendment 1205.
  • There is $10M set aside to work on the early education waitlist in amendment 1212 from Rep. Livingstone from Boston.
  • Amendment 1270 and 1273 both from Rep. O'Day; the former sets aside $4M to work on housing for unaccompanied homeless youth; the latter puts aside $150,000 to take a look at the scope of the need.
  • Rep. Orrall puts in amendment 1294 what she has previously filed as a bill: a reversal of the 2010 vote of the Board of Education on the Common Core. I'd be interested if it's actually possible for the Legislature to do this, as the setting of standards is a power reserved for the Board of Education in Massachusetts.
  • Amendment 1301 is directed at Greenfield Virtual Charter; if my count is correct, it cuts this sentences from MGL Ch 71, sec. 94: "In the case of a commonwealth virtual school that is established by a school district, not less than 5 per cent of the students enrolled in the commonwealth virtual school shall be from the school district that established the school." This had come up at the Board of Ed, and it would have the effect of NOT limiting the number of students from Greenfield.
  • Rep. Peisch in 1303 sets aside $200,000 for preschool planning grants. 
And that's what I've found.

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