Education Stimulus Dollars Used to Fill Budget Holes

In a story by Kelsey A. Kemp, "A survey recently conducted by the American Association of School Administrators reported that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding has prevented school districts nationwide from implementing reform and changes.

The survey, Schools and the Stimulus: How America's Public School Districts Are Using ARRA Funds, reports that while the ARRA funds mean additional dollars in school districts, most of that money is being used to shore up fiscal budget holes and, even then, the stimulus money is often not enough to prevent school districts from eliminating personnel and core subject teaching positions. According to the survey, more than 67 percent of the 160 school administrators said that the stimulus dollars were being directed toward filling state and local budget holes, and 53 percent of the administrators surveyed said they were unable to save teaching positions for either core subjects or special education."

Does it surprise anyone that stimulus money is being used to fill holes created by budget shortfalls? The money from the federal government was supposed to be used for new programs and innovations. What does this mean for the future of our schools? You can bet the opponents of public education will talk about how the stimulus money didn't work without addressing the real issues.

It's time we let President Obama and Secretary Duncan know what is taking place and we need to hold our legislators accountable for the budget mess they've created.

Investing in Education:Economic Recovery

In a quote from the "Oklahoman" Scott Meacham said, "The governor had hoped avoid cutting education, health care, transportation and public safety, but because those agencies make up about 80 percent of the budget that no longer is an option. "

Supporting the economic recovery bill will save jobs and provide funding for all of our districts. Take action and let your voice be heard.

Be Heard: Economic Recovery Bill Moves to “Conference Committee”

Your efforts paved the way for the Economic Recovery Bill to pass the Senate. At one point, education was going to be completely taken out of the bill. Your emails and phone calls replaced the majority of funding.

The House and Senate bills now move to a “conference committee,” which will work out differences between the two bills and bring a final agreement back to the House and Senate for a vote.

Contact your Members of Congress Today! Tell Members of the House and Senate to support as much money as possible for education in the final economic recovery package.

Economic Recovery--Contact Coburn and Inhofe

Senator Coburn and Senator Inhofe need to hear from you-TELL THEM TO PASS THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY BILL.

Thanks to your e-mails from last week, the threatened cuts to education in the Senate economic recovery proposal were largely averted. A compromise reached this weekend leaves much of the education funding that flows directly to local school districts untouched.

This economic recovery package is very important. It will help save jobs and put more money immediately into struggling local economies. It will also reduce pressure on state budgets so more cuts to important programs can be avoided.

The package includes funding flexible funding for local school districts, increased funding for Title I and special education, and tax credits to help school districts finance school modernization and repair.

Encourage Senators to Pass the Economic Stimulus Package

Take action! Tell Members of the Senate to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill. Senators Coburn and Inhofe need to hear from you. Let them know our schools need their support.

More on the Economic Stimulus Program for Education

In this article, there is a great deal of info about the program. Remember to contact our Congressional team. The stimulus will help free up local and state revenues that can be used for our schools.

Stimulus slots more cash for schools

Federal aid for education could grow as much as $140 billion under a two-year economic stimulus bill now taking shape in Congress, where Democrats are proposing a new block grant for states and a $15 billion expansion of annual Pell grants to low-income college students.

Tell Congress to Provide Education Funding in Economic Stimulus Package

The 111th Congress opened this week, with the economic crisis on the top of the agenda. Congressional leaders hope to send a comprehensive stimulus plan to President Obama by mid-February.

NEA is proposing a plan to stimulate the economy and protect/create jobs by providing additional funding to states through existing education funding formulas. Doing this will allow funding to get out quickly to every community across the nation in order to prevent cuts to education, protect jobs, and stimulate economic growth. In fact, for each dollar invested, education typically creates more jobs in communities than any other industry.

Contact your Members of Congress Today! Tell Members of Congress to provide flexible funding for education through state funding formulas as part of any economic recovery plan.

Congressman Lucas Visit

This afternoon, Teaching & Learning Specialist Larry Miller and I met with Congressman Frank Lucas to discuss NEA's Positive Agenda for the reauthorization of ESEA. As you know, we agree with the goals of the law, but we believe in order for it to be successful, positive changes need to be made in order to meet the law's lofty goals for our kids, teachers and schools.

We addressed the areas of Accountability/Assessment, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Teacher Accountability, and Funding. We also told Congressman Lucas that our teachers were against the proposal from the Aspen Institute that would create "Highly Qualified Effective" teachers, thus creating another hoop for teachers to jump through. This proposal guarantees that 25% of all teachers would fail every year.

The Congressman wants to hear your stories and opinions. You can email him at http://www.nea.org/lac/index.html.

OKC Meeting with Congresswoman Fallin

On Tuesday, the OEA leadership team met with Congresswoman Mary Fallin in Oklahoma City to share the NEA's "Positive Agenda" for the reauthorization of ESEA. We presented the Congresswoman a copy of the agenda as we focused on the areas of Accountability/Assessment, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), Teacher Quality, and Funding.

Pictured with Congresswoman Fallin are Legislative & Political Organizer Jerry Johnson, myself, Vice-President Becky Felts, Executive Director Lela Odom and Teaching & Learning Specialist Larry Miller.

Meeting with Congresswoman Fallin

As I mentioned in an earlier post, NEA/OEA members spend time meeting with members of Oklahoma's members of Congress. During the time in DC, we were able to discuss concerns teachers have with the "No Child Left Behind" law. Pictured with Congresswoman Mary Fallin are Lori Burris from Mid-Del, Linda Hampton, Pleasant Grove, Greg and Diane Johnson, Mustang, and me.

Congresswoman Fallin would like to hear your stories and issues with the law. They will enable her to use them during the reauthorization debate. You can email her at http://www.nea.org/lac/index.html. In the box in the upper right hand corner, enter your zip and you're ready to go.

Congressman Boren Receptive to NEA's Positive Agenda

Last October, a group of OEA members met with Congressman Dan Boren to address the "Highly Qualified" issue for special education teachers.

Congressman Boren agreed to address our concerns in a letter to education Secretary Margaret Spellings. During a conference call with the Congressman today, he confirmed the letter had been sent.

We also discussed NEA's positive agenda for the reauthorization of ESEA, or the "NCLB" law. Congressman Boren is very supportive of the positive agenda's amendments and looks forward to supporting them.

Visiting with Congressman Boren last October were Greg Johnson, Mustang; Cheryl Dowell, Comanche; Becki Munholland, Healdton; Janice Stotts, McCloud; Linda Hampton, Pleasant Grove in Seminole; and me.

Special Education Highly Qualified Update

Since my last post on this issue, Senator Coburn was in Edmond to discuss the Special Education Highly Qualified regulations. After the meeting, the OEA co-signed a letter with the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, the Cooperative Council for Oklahoma School Administration, and the Oklahoma Directors of Special Services detailing our concerns and recommended changes. In essence, a special education teacher would be highly qualified if he or she held a bachelor's degree, had not had certification requirements waived, and held state certification as a special education teacher.

Senator Coburn is now assigned to the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. (HELP). Members of the committee had breakfast with Secretary Spellings and Senator Coburn shared your concerns. The Senator wants to change this for you and you need to help him. Please email your stories to him. You can do that by going to www. http://www.nea.org/lac/index.html. Enter your zip code in the upper right hand corner and take it from there.

Flat Stanley

Earlier this year, I participated in a "Flat Stanley" project sent to me by Caleb, a student in Mrs. Chastain's class at Lake Park Elementary School in Putnam City. As the story goes, Stanley was flattened when a chalkboard fell on him. He is now flat enough to be sent in envelopes all over the world. Stanley is used mainly for writing and geography lessons, or, as in this case, a lesson about what work people do in the local community. http://www.flatstanley.com/

The kids will cut out a replica of a small boy and color him. Then they will send Flat Stanley, and a letter with occupational questions, to a person in their community. It's the responsibility of the person receiving the letter to answer the questions, take some pictures of Flat Stanley in his or her work environment, and send them back to the student.

I took Flat Stanley to Washington, D. C. and we were able to take pictures at the Capitol as well as with Congressmen Boren and Cole. The pictures were put into a little booklet and sent to Caleb so he and his classmates could learn about some of the things I do as OEA President.

Today I had the privilege of meeting Caleb. Caleb is a very polite and bright young man. I let him know how much I appreciated him sending me Flat Stanley and how much I enjoyed putting the picture booklet together. Caleb told me that he had fun with it and then he wished me a Merry Christmas.

I want to thank Mrs. Chastain and Caleb for including me in their project. I'm glad that I was able to help out.

NEA Board Meetings

Four times a year, the National Education Association holds its Board of Director's meetings at the NEA headquarters located in Washington, DC. The Directors are elected representatives and the number in each state is based on the membership size of the particular state. The Directors are active classroom teachers, support professionals, students, retired teachers, or administrators. Oklahoma has two Directors, Linda Hampton from Pleasant Grove and Greg Johnson from Mustang. Both Linda and Greg are active classroom teachers.

Directors are elected by the membership and serve three year terms. They are limited to two terms. Linda and Greg will travel across the state to attend a variety of Association meetings. They get input from members to take back to both the Boards of the OEA and the NEA.

I'm also in Washington during those meetings to attend the meeting of the NEA Fund for Children and Public Education. The state president is the elected representative for their particular state. The most recent meeting was last week.

After the "Fund Meeting", Presidents and Directors will lobby their Senators and Representatives on educational issues about schools, children, and teachers. I'll update our lobby efforts in another post.