Love it, hate it, read it: DESE on what happens now

 The blog post title swiped, as some may remember, from Worcester Magazine, which used it as a tag line for a number of years. You may not like what you're reading here, but we ignore the state governing body (which they are!) at our peril. 

I don't go to those meetings for my health.

If you were following yesterday's liveblogging or read the MASC update from Tuesday's Board of Ed meeting, you may have caught just how much of a muddle we've been left in through the passage of the ballot question removing the MCAS as the state's competency determination. 
And it took until now, but with articles in State House News Service, Commonwealth Beacon, Boston Herald, and MassLive, it appears that maybe now this may be becoming more widespread information. 

Am I going to say that I told you so? Yes, I am. 

As a reminder, here's what the passage of the ballot question has left us with as a state law: 

all slides are from Tuesday's presentation at the Board of Ed

The meetings where I agree with Marty West are few and far between, but his characterization of this as "a mess" is, as I said in my earlier post on this, absolutely correct. 

Buses are an equity issue: in music

 Last spring, Jefferson County Schools in Kentucky (the district that includes Louisville) announced that they'd be cutting bus service this past fall for schools that were not the schools of the students' residence. Two parents took the district to court. Even with those cuts, the district still didn't have enough drivers for this fall.

One group of students protested the decision in a more musical fashion:

This was just brought to my attention this week, and it was too good not to share! I also cannot find any further updates; let me know if you do. 

Board of Ed: competency determination

 anticipate bringing recommendations to Board in February

Board of Ed: vocational tuition

 per pupil increase in coming fiscal year to $13,114 with $75 per pupil 
delegate authority to Commissioner to raise in FY26 in line with inflation

approved unanimously without discussion

Board of Ed: CTE admission subcommittee

 chaired by West who starts by thanking everyone
"are changes needed to promote more access" to vocational schools in the Commonwealth
this is West, Fisher, Rocha, Hills

Board of Ed for December: vision and mission

 Johnston: in 2023, planned for 2023-24 year
finalized educational vision "to better align our projects"
catalog of aligned supports 
"this is ongoing work...turning a shift together"

Board of Ed for December: Luisa Sparrow, Mass Teacher of the Year

 Luisa Sparrow, who teaches fifth and sixth grade students with disabilities at the Oliver Hazard Petty School in South Boston

Johnston in introducing her praises her for her presumption of competence in her students

Board of Ed for December: update on search

Ariana Williams, Issacson Miller
position profile has been finalized and is posted
applications and nominations are coming in
screening committee will meet several times before March to review materials
spending day at DESE for those

Craven: "it's a very transparent process"
"the website is the best way to get information to Issacson Miller"
Craven: "basically this process is an open book"
Moriarty asks if seeing applications coming in
yes
application does not necessarily close
Craven: goal is to have finalists "following the season"
(I have no idea what this means)

Johnston: not applying
"sincerely an effort to get the very best person TO apply"

Hills: "in my experience, this is very unusual"
"think of how you're going to answer how some number of candidates are going to ask" about Johnston not applying
YES INDEED
"you figure out how you're going to handle this"
"not hearing a bunch of people ask the question doesn't mean there aren't a lot of people asking this"

Board of Ed for December: opening comments

 The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education meets today in Everett at 9 AM. You can find the agenda here. 

It is a positive FESTIVAL of faces here at the meeting today...MA Teacher of the year, past student rep Ela Gardiner (home from college! Yay, Ela!), loads of voke superintendents, an MTA group (and that's just who I recognize)...

It is a big day in Worcester news

 ...as Worcester-born and -raised Frances Perkins is scheduled to have a national monument, a still-unusual honor for a woman!

 President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation Monday establishing a national monument honoring the late FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman appointed to serve in a presidential Cabinet and a driving force behind the New Deal, according to the White House.

Biden is expected to visit the Labor Department on Monday to formally make the announcement and sign the proclamation that will establish the monument in Newcastle, Maine, the White House said.

Perkins is of course also a Worcester Public Schools graduate, as she graduated from Classicial High School before attending Mount Holyoke College.  

Check out Moody's

 I have a backlog of "nooo, that's not how this works" comments on budget articles, which I hope to get to, but in the meantime, do read about Moody's outlook for next year. I suspect it doesn't have a lot we don't already know, but sometimes "oh, it isn't just me" can be reassuring:

A main factor for slow revenue growth, Moody’s said, is the expiration of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief allocations that helped schools recover from pandemic setbacks. American Rescue Plan allocations under ESSER — which at a total of $121.9 billion were the last and largest of the three COVID emergency aid packages approved by Congress for K-12 schools — must be spent by Jan. 28, 2025, unless districts receive a spending extension

That, coupled with rising staffing costs, means the median operating fund balance ratio — the available fund balance as a percentage of operating revenue — is expected to drop from 26% in 2024 to 24% in 2025. According to Moody’s and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, public education employment now exceeds pre-pandemic levels, and compensation growth in K-12 has outpaced the private sector.

TL/DR on the revenue hearing

 I'd sum it up as "We feel pretty good about where revenue is heading next year EXCEPT for the giant unknown of the federal government, which YIKES."

On the Commissioner's search

 I do not know more than this, but Acting Commissioner Johnston has made it known that he does not plan to apply.

This is a change from what was understood earlier on in the process.

Hey don't sleep on Lynn's fight over charter expansion?

 Hey, all, remember how we in Worcester argued, along with much else, that OSV wasn't a "proven provider" as a charter school, and thus shouldn't be expanded?
And remember how DESE ignored us and did it anyway?

Lynn's currently having a similar argument over a proposed expansion of KIPP Charter in their city. The mayor, superintendent, and teachers' union president were at the Board of Ed last month, arguing this. You can find good coverage in Commonwealth Beacon here. 

The right answer, of course, is for the Acting Commissioner not to recommend the expansion. If it goes to the Board, we'll have to argue that they vote it down.

...which is time to remind us all that the Governor should really appoint three new members...

FY26 Consensus Revenue hearing liveblog

 ...will be starting here, though it appears to be the Senate adjourning right now...
I don't write down all the numbers, because I only get them orally

When what you've heard isn't the case: busting some common misconceptions on the Student Opportunity Act

First required xkcd:

I'd like one of the major issues in education, too, but all I can do is in my little corner of the universe.

With the consensus revenue hearing on Monday, we are about to kick off the FY26 budget season here in Massachusetts, which will be the fifth of six years of implementation of the Student Opportunity Act revision.

...and yet, still I hear some of the same misconceptions and misunderstandings circulating about the SOA. 
So, as we enter that season, here's a counter to some common things I hear.

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

 First, the bad news --some recent headlines in the education press:

• Trump promised mass deportations. Educators worry fear with keep immigrant children from schools. 
  
  
• How trans students and families are preparing for Trump’s second term
  
  
• Her wrestling empire was said to harm children. Trump chose her for education. 

And yes, a bill has now been filed to end the U.S. Department of Education.