Education Week - December 10, 2014 - 19

ON THE HORIZON
State Leaders Confront
Full Plate of K-12 Issues
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
rado, Minnesota, and New Mexico.
The number of Republican governors
will also rise next year, from 28
to 31, compared with 18 Democrats.
Testing Gets Scrutiny
Although gop lawmakers in several
states might push hard to expand
choice and revamp education
governance and spending, changes
to assessment policies could attract
significant bipartisan interest.
In Colorado, for example, a Standards
and Assessment Task Force
established through legislation this
year is planning to make recommendations
about statewide and local
assessments by the end of January.
A November study commissioned
by the task force found that local assessments
cost between $16 million
and $25 million in the state annually,
while statewide assessments cost between
$45 million and $53 million, or
roughly $70 to $90 per student.
And last month, members of the
Colorado state school board called
for a reduction in testing down to the
minimum required by federal law.
(Gov. John Hickenlooper is a Democrat,
but control of the legislature is
split between the parties.)
The ways states rethink their
testing policies could take them in
other directions. During its lameduck
legislative session last month,
the Ohio House of Representatives
passed legislation to cap the number
of hours schools can spend administering
standardized tests.
"We might see more states pass
time limits," said Kathy Christie,
a spokeswoman for the Denverbased
Education Commission of
the States.
Issues include whether high-performing
districts should be allowed to
opt out of certain tests, and whether
districts should be permitted to pick
tests they believe are better than
those aligned with the Common Core
State Standards and being developed
with federal money by two multistate
consortia, said Michelle Exstrom, a
program principal at the ncsl.
"We're really going to see how the
states and the feds and the locals
begin to move on the issue of assessment,"
she said.
Then there's the issue of whether
states will seek to cut back testing
programs below federal requirements
in the No Child Left Behind law, the
current version of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act, and
dare Washington to challenge them.
"I don't think we've seen anything
that says a state is getting rid of
summative statewide tests," said
Lynn Jennings, a legislative-affairs
associate with the Education Trust,
a Washington-based advocacy group.
"But there is so much rhetoric going
on about testing that it is something
to keep an eye on."
States may also re-evaluate the
extent to which standardized tests,
and other measures, factor into their
teacher evaluations, she added. (See
Education Week, June 10, 2014.)
In some states, new curbs on testing
could feed off a pushback to the
common core-a state-led initiative
with bipartisan support that has recently
run into sharp opposition, especially
on the political right.
Bills that would require states
to ditch the common standards
have already been filed for 2015 in
South Dakota and Tennessee, both
of which rejected anti-common-core
legislation in their 2014 sessions.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican
who was re-elected last
month, has made repealing the
common core a top priority for 2015.
Arizona Gov.-elect Doug Ducey and
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, both
Republicans, have also expressed
skepticism about or opposition to
the standards.
Pushback to the common core could
also surface in legislatures that have
switched to Republican control, as in
New Hampshire and West Virginia.
Outlook for School Finance
For fiscal 2015, the current budget
year, 46 states raised spending on
K-12 education, and the average increase
was 4.6 percent after adjusting
for inflation, said Dan Thatcher,
a senior policy specialist at the ncsl
who studies school finance. The number
of states that choose to do so for
fiscal 2016 should come close to that
number, he said: "We'll probably see
around 4.6 percent [growth] again,
maybe higher."
This fiscal year, he said, education
spending increases in many states
were tied to rising student enrollment,
as well as formulas that provide
additional resources to traditionally
disadvantaged groups, such
as English-language learners, whose
numbers have grown.
But not all states face a smooth
path to more-robust school budgets.
Kansas lawmakers, for example,
are still waiting for a state supreme
court ruling in Gannon v. Kansas,
a case about whether the state adequately
funds its public schools.
The decision, expected soon, could
dramatically affect budget plans, at a
time when most recent estimates put
the fiscal 2015 budget deficit in the
Sunflower State at $278 million.
Lawmakers in Washington state,
meanwhile, were held in contempt by
the state Supreme Court earlier this
year over what the justices deemed
to be insufficient effort by the legislature
to increase K-12 spending following
a 2012 court ruling. The court
ordered legislators to substantially
increase funding in 2015 or face sanctions.
Last month, state voters approved
Initiative 1351 to reduce class
sizes, which Mr. Thatcher said might
take pressure off the budget decisions
facing Washington's legislature.
Nevada is poised to overhaul a
school funding formula that hasn't
been significantly altered in decades.
Earlier this year, a legislative
panel recommended that lawmakers
change the formula in 2015 to focus
more resources on English-language
ARIZONA
Although state superintendent-elect Diane Douglas, a
Republican and vocal opponent of the Common Core State
Standards, can't repeal the standards on her own, she'll
have a nominal ally in Republican Gov.-elect Doug Ducey,
who has said the state should reconsider its relationship
with the common core. Although the state recently
announced that it had selected a common-core aligned
test for 2014-15, Republican lawmakers who rejected
anti-common-core bills in 2014 could change their minds
next year.
ILLINOIS
The state's pension-overhaul law approved in 2013 was
struck down last month by a state judge, and the case
is now headed to the state Supreme Court. That could
complicate matters as Republican Gov.-elect Bruce Rauner
pushes his own plan to alter pensions for public employees,
which could draw vigorous opposition from Democrats in
control of the legislature.
learners, a fast-rising group of students
in Nevada.
Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, a
newly re-elected Republican, has
pledged to revisit how money is
spent on K-12, and the funding
weights for different groups of students
could change.
And after several years in which
Pennsylvania failed to adhere to a
K-12 funding formula, lawmakers
continue to debate the basics of a new
formula, even as Gov.-elect Tom Wolf,
a Democrat, has pledged a big school
spending increase.
New Territory for Charters?
On a key aspect of school choice,
charter schools, the new year could
bring new state action.
Of the eight states without laws permitting
charter schools, Alabama, Nebraska,
and West Virginia are prime
candidates to change their positions
New and re-elected governors and state
education leaders will grapple with a
range of heated issues as the 2015
legislative season gets underway.
A few states to watch:
MICHIGAN
Perhaps the highest-profile K-12 issue facing re-elected
Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is how to deal with the
Detroit school district. The city's charter schools have been
subject to intense scrutiny and criticism over the past year,
while lawmakers could alter the Education Achievement
Authority, the state-run district that operates several
low-performing schools in the Motor City. The district has a
$127 million budget deficit.
OREGON
Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber, who was re-elected last
month, released an ambitious K-12 agenda for 2015 that
includes additional resources for early education, early
literacy, and English-language learners. The governor also
wants more support for low-performing districts.
WISCONSIN
Republican Gov. Scott Walker, fresh off re-election, has
identified repeal of the common core, a new school
accountability system, and expanding vouchers as
priorities. His hand will be strengthened by Republican
majorities in the state legislature that were increased as a
result of the November elections.
SOURCE: Education Week
in 2015, said Todd Ziebarth, the senior
vice president for state advocacy at
the Washington-based National Alliance
for Public Charter Schools.
Discussions about allowing charters
in Alabama have been getting
prominent attention in recent
months. (See Education Week, Oct.
22, 2014.) In Nebraska, Republican
Gov.-elect Pete Ricketts has expressed
support for charters, as well
as tuition vouchers. West Virginia
Republicans who now control the legislature
have previously pushed for
a law authorizing charters, Mr. Ziebarth
said. (Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a
Democrat, has expressed skepticism
about charters in the past.)
Still, it's unclear to what extent
elected officials' support for charters
will translate into legislative success,
Mr. Ziebarth said. For one thing,
he said, "people overestimate the
amount of support in the Republican
Party for charters."
He also cited complicated politics in
Massachusetts, which he named as
the state where a charter school cap
is likely restricting the most growth
for charters. Gov.-elect Charlie Baker,
a Republican, campaigned on lifting
the cap, but Democrats who remain
in control of the legislature declined
to do so in the 2014 session.
One state where initiatives could
bring together multiple policy
strands, including charters, is Indiana.
In addition to a plan to expand
the role of charters, gop Gov. Mike
Pence announced a proposal last
week to lift the statewide cap on
funds available for vouchers, increase
the state's base per-pupil spending
level, and allow the state school board
to elect its own chairperson.
The latter move would reduce
the power of state Superintendent
Glenda Ritz, a Democrat who has
often battled Gov. Pence and other
gop state leaders on education.
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