But what did Fair Share get us?

ahem...

I hope by now you've seen that the Fair Share amendment, which taxes at 4% on every dollar over a person's first $1M in income, has far exceeded expectations. As noted back in May: 

Massachusetts has collected about $1.8 billion from a voter-approved surtax on the state’s highest earners through the first nine months of the fiscal year, the Department of Revenue said Monday in a quarterly report.

That’s more than $800 million more than what the Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey planned to spend in surtax revenue for all of fiscal year 2024, raising the possibility of a sizable pot that will land in an Education and Transportation Reserve Fund and the Education and Transportation Innovation and Capital Fund, both surtax specific accounts, once the books close.

Remember, unless you've made a million plus at least a dollar in income? You are not paying this. And if you made a million plus a dollar, you're only taxed the extra 4% on that one additional dollar.

I've seen some confusion about this, so I thought I'd clear up a few things. 

First, the above money doesn't get spent until next year; this is a reserve fund, so the funding goes in and sits until the total is determined by the state comptroller in December. It's pretty clear, though, that the state's been conservative with projections, and this is one where we do really want to spend the money that's coming.

Second, this is funding--like most in the state--that's allocated by vote of the Legislature, signed by the Governor. There isn't some sort of formula where everyone gets some of this. I've heard districts ask how they can apply, or if it's being allocated evenly...that isn't how this works at all. The Legislature decides on what, within transportation and education, they want to spend the money on, and that's where it goes.

Funding was allocated in this year's budget from last year's Fair Share collection. Again, there is a very good chance that you are not personally paying for this--these efforts are not increasing your taxes!--but we as state residents are benefiting!

• universal free lunch - a program much in the news, due to Minnesota similarly funding meals for all students, the reimbursement to districts of the federal reimbursement rate for non-federally reimbursed meals (the wonkish explanation!), this $170M is from Fair Share funding. 
  Yes, we literally have our millionaires making sure all kids eat!
  Remember, the FY24 number is a compromise and is expected to still not be enough to fully reimburse the expense to districts
• $74/pupil increase in minimum aid in chapter 70. I've ongoingly argued that this is not a fair, equitable, way to get aid to districts, and yet...here we are. $37M here for K-12 districts.
• free community college is funded from the Fair Share amendment (there's several lines of public higher ed funding, in fact)
• $110M to regional transit authorities-- aka, local bus systems
• $60M for MBTA physical infrastructure
• $20M for a low income reduced fare program for the MBTA
• $7.5M for ferry services
• $36M for safety work at the MBTA
• $45M for municipal roadwork
• $10M for a skilled workforce pipeline for the MBTA (those bus and train drivers don't grow on trees!)
• $175M for child care grants (operations)
• $15M to reduce the waitlist at early childcare and education for teen parents and homeless families
• $5M for preschool expansion
• $65M for increased salaries and benefits for early education and care
• $18M for reducing the early childcare waitlist
• expanding early college, technical, and innovation pathways at $2.5M 
• the Literacy Launch, funding for both curriculum and professional development, which they compromised at $20M for
• Green Energy infrastructure grants to schools for $10M
• developing a framework for mental and behavioral health funded at $5M

This is all really good stuff! We should be proud that we fought for this money! 
I wish more people were more clear on where it is going. Please spread the word!

Sometimes you have to say 'we told you so'

The Worcester School Committee voted in 2021 to break from the current vendor provider, Durham, and take busing in-house, with issues being cited regarding a lack of drivers and excessive costs. A 2019 study by the district projected that taking busing in-house will lead to $3.5 million in savings. A subsequent analysis conducted by the department revealed that the actual savings for fiscal 2023 were $5 million, and that email complaints from parents fell by 76%.

from today's Worcester Telegram & Gazette 

The T&G itself links to their report from the time, which includes the following: 

But Superintendent Maureen Binienda recommended Worcester not take on busing entirely on its own, and continued to defend Durham’s track record of collaborating with the district.

AI is antithetical to what we are doing in education

 In late June, I posted the following on Twitter: 

I continue to be horrified by how terribly K-12 education is dealing with AI. It's all "how to use!" "How to engage!" not "this is not something we should be doing at all, as it undermines and conflicts with fundamental purposes of what we are doing over all!"

— Tracy O'Connell Novick (@TracyNovick) June 24, 2024

...and it blew up. 

 I wanted to flesh this out more, as far, far too much of what is circulating is of the "how to use AI in education" rather than asking what we're doing here at all*. 

on so-called 'pandemic recovery' in education

 I honestly find the way this is discussed most of the time exceedingly irritating, as much of the time, it's essentially adults saying, "but I thought we'd be over THERE" about a road that no longer exists. I did, though, want to note two things from recently circulated items:

What does Trump think about education?

 I am blaming Kevin Kruse, who wrote a bit here about the Elon Musk interview, for my opening the transcript of the interview. 
With a sigh, I will concede that having the nonsensical sentences that he actually says in front of us should be done.

Here's the education section, with notes from me: 

Proposal to Close Department of Education
DONALD TRUMP: I want to close up Department of Education, move education back to the states where states like Iowa, where states like Idaho, you know, not every state will do great because states that basically aren’t doing good. Now, you look at Gavin Newsom, the governor of California. He’s terrible. He does a terrible job.

As we've noted before, closing U.S. DoE is a perennial proposal, which has never gone anywhere. It of course would fundamentally create additional inequity in education, both due to the funding loss--the title grants and IDEA, which Project 2025 wants to make block grants before phasing out--but the loss of the civil rights division, which is the federal government's ability to ensure, well, civil rights in schools.
Ranking of states against each other in education is of course a fool's errand (and I say this sitting in the one that frequently comes in first), as it entirely depends on what you're measuring, but both Iowa and Idaho have of course fundamentally been undermining their students' basic rights, while California has been protecting them. I'm not sure what else is going on there.

So he’s not going to do great with education. But of the 50, I would bet that 35 would do great. And 15 of them or, you know, 20 of them will be as good as Norway. You know, Norway is considered great. You can name them. I mean, just they’re so good. Some of these countries are so good. But if you go into some of these really well run states, you know, we have states that don’t know what debt is. We have states that have low taxes, no debt. Everybody work. You know, they’re really well run. 

 ELON MUSK: Sure. 

All states save Vermont have to balance their budgets. The Jerusalem Post actually took a look at what makes Norway's education system different, and...I don't see anything there that Trump or Project 2025 actually supports.

 State Advantages and Education 

DONALD TRUMP: And maybe they have certain advantages in terms of location, in terms of, you know, the land or the the sun, the sun and the water and the whole thing. You know, there are a lot of advantages to some people. But if you moved education back to the 50, you’ll have some that won’t do well, but you’ll have. But they’ll actually be forced to do better because it’ll be a pretty bad situation. If you think about it. You’ll have some of these states. I’ll bet you’d have 30, 35 states. It’ll be much better. And you know what? It’ll cost less than half what it is in Washington. And these people don’t care about students in these, you know, faraway states. And it will be unbelievable. 

It's impossible to know what "it'll cost less than half what it is in Washington" means, aside from Trump one assumes not understanding that the federal government pays for about 10% of K-12 public education.

His primary argument here, of course, is that somehow competition improves public education, a misunderstanding of both Democrats and Republicans for at least the past twenty years. But of course, public education has the charge of educating every single student, even the inconvenient, expensive, difficult ones. It fundamentally doesn't work.

 ELON MUSK: Yeah. I think you’re making a good point in that. If the states have — if each individual, if each state has to compete against other states, then people will naturally move to states where it’s better.

Only someone for whom the questions of money and family have no bearing could say such a thing.

I don't remember anyone noting in May

 ...that the two largest school districts in the state exited the "lowest 10%" list for the purposes of charter school expansion.

A round-up on WPS things

 So much to post, so little time. Some WPS notes in the meantime:

• At tonight's Worcester School Committee meeting, the School Committee conducts Dr. Monárrez's annual evaluation. The presentation is here. As I noted last month, there is a SINGLE evaluation of a superintendent, not, in Worcester's case, nine. The evaluation as presented overall evaluates her work as proficient, which, as the DESE standards remind us, is a "rigorous expected level of performance." This is an official action of the School Committee and will be voted. 
  
  
• The agenda tonight also has a proposed meeting schedule (which I suspect will need to be amended) and a proposed calendar of agenda reports.
  
  
• Oddly, still no update on the bottom line of the budget. 
  
  
• With the first day of school for students grades 1-12 on August 26 (preK and K on the 29), there's a back to school letter shared on the district website. This includes a list of new principal and coordinator assignments, which I'll include below. I assume these went through a community committee screening, 'though it's odd that it never had any public side (aka: not the internal school community) outreach for those. 
  
  
• Note that the WPS Transportation system not only had routes available for families LAST WEEK--it's never in my memory been that early!--they're also starting the year FULLY STAFFED with drivers. There's going to be 101 bus routes this year in Worcester. And don't miss WPS mechanic Jim Hicks on WBUR this morning! 
  
  
• You've probably caught some of the Doherty coverage; yes, the new building is done and will open with the rest of the district. The T&G also had a piece on late WPS superintendent Leo T. Doherty, after whom the building is named. We can't say "on budget" on this due to the pandemic, but remember that the inflationary increase was covered by the state. 
  
  
• And yes, Burncoat is still going next; yes, that's actually official; and if you want to bug someone about it, ask when the building committee is going to be announced. There are districts that were accepted at the same time that are WAY ahead of us on timeline (we can actually go quicker than the deadlines!). 

__________________________________________

New assignments: 

Challenge and Reach Academy: Scott Moriarty

Chandler Elementary: Margaret Murphy

Claremont Academy: Christopher LaBreck

Clark Street Elementary: Christopher Dodge

Gerald Creamer Center: Angela Plant

Jacob Hiatt Magnet Elementary: Amanda Martinez (acting)

Lincoln Street Elementary: Karen Allen

New Citizens Center Secondary: Dr. Erin Goldstein

Rice Square Elementary: Fjodor Dukaj

Thorndyke Road Elementary: Susan Donahue

Transition Program: Dr. Brenda Diggs

Vernon Hill Elementary: Tammy Boyle

MA Literacy bill is dead for this session

 And with the official end of formal session of the Legislature, it appears that the well-intended (I think?) but way out of the Legislature's lane literacy bill which would have mandated that districts pull curricula from a DESE-approved list is dead. 
The Boston Globe, who of course had turned this into a crusade this year, have coverage here. The award for 'measured quote which makes the point nicely' goes to Co-Executive Director of MASS Mary Bourque: 

Mary Bourque, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said that the bill was a “top-down” approach, leaving little room for teachers — the education experts — to make the calls for their students.

“But what we feel about the Literacy Launch is it’s more of a partnership with districts,” Bourque said. “Districts that are ready to engage in this and recognize they need help with this work are able to get the funding to get it off the ground.”

...with the 'award for random person quoted' going to the tutor in the middle of the piece. 

The Legislature passed a compromise $20M for funding literacy materials and professional development in the FY25 conference committee budget, in what the Governor is calling "Literacy Launch." Collaboration...now there's an idea.

I live in hope that we won't have to fight this again this coming legislative cycle.

The only complaint I have about the pick of Tim Walz

 ...has not a single thing to do with Tim Walz himself, about whom I could not be more enthusiastic--here's a gift link to the Washington Post talking about him as a social studies teacher, plus here is more from The New York Times, and I hope by now you've seen the video of his signing Minnesota's free lunch bill--but an implicit comment from my fellow educators about his being a social studies teacher.

It goes something like this: of COURSE he was a social studies teacher! He was a football coach!

The implicit assumption here is that someone is hired as the football coach, and then the school administration has to find a place to stick that person for their full time job, so they stick them in a social studies classroom because (and I have seen this said!) it has either the lowest standards or is the easiest to teach.

Whew, educators, do you hear yourselves?

I am not discounting your experience of the coach at whatever school where you saw this.
What I am doing is asking that we all take a minute and note that there are thousands of educators who go to school and get themselves certified as social studies and history teachers, and they do a damn good job at a very difficult subject to teach. 

And from what his former students are saying, Tim Walz was good at that job*.
Wishing him all the very best as he works to get this next one! 

Headwaters of the Mississippi. 
They're in Minnesota, dontcha know.

____________________________________________________

*Walz attended Chadron State in Nebraska for undergrad, which started as a teacher training college, or what we used to call a normal school. Please enjoy that detail.

KOSA is dead in the House

 Punchbowl News is reporting this morning that the House leadership won't bring it up.

While that may be for the wrong reasons, we'll take the win! 

Do note that there is still a House version of the bill, though time is limited and the Senate wouldn't pass what the House has.
If you haven't weighed in with your rep, it is still not a bad idea to do so, but take the win we got, too!

The Governor's vetoes are going to stand

Per Kelly Garrity reporting from the State House this morning, while the House did override them, the Senate isn't going to take them up: 

The Senate will NOT be taking up the House’s overrides of Gov. Maura Healey’s vetoes to the Legislature’s FY25 budget.

Senate Ways & Means chief Michael Rodrigues warned that July revenues are expected to come in low, described the vetoes as fiscally prudent #mapoli

— Kelly Garrity (@kellygarrity3) August 1, 2024

That of course includes all the K-12 education vetoes I listed here.  

Recall, by the way, that Healey's vetoes did not cite revenue as the reason.