Legislative Updates
Teacher & Administrator Evaluation Bills Move
The Senate this week passed Senate Bill 103, which would approve new teacher and administrator evaluation standards. The bill passed by a vote of 22-15, with Republican Senators Margaret O’Brien (R-Portage), Ken Horn (R-Frankenmuth), Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge), Tory Rocca (R-Sterling Heights), and Tonya Schuitmaker (R-Lawton) voting no along with Democrats.
As passed by the Senate, SB 103 would base 25% of evaluations on student growth and achievement starting in the 2017-2018 school year, increasing to 40% in the following years. The bill largely reflects the version passed out of committee. However, it was amended on the floor to ensure that student growth and assessment data only be considered when assessment data is available for three consecutive school years, preventing results from the MSTEP to be factored into evaluations until the 2018-2019 school year.
Sen. O’Brien, who worked on this issue over the last four years when serving in the House, offered an amendment that would outline explicit standards for evaluation tools utilized the school districts in an attempt, but that amendment was defeated on a narrow 18-19 vote. The standards Sen. O’Brien attempted to codify in SB 103 were outlined in the report issued a few years ago by the Michigan Council for Educator Effectiveness. However, Sen. Pavlov argued against the amendment saying it would be overly prescriptive, and in favor of the approach contained in SB 103 that provides a great degree of flexibility to local district in selecting an evaluation tool. If SB 103 or similar legislation is not passed before the Legislature adjourns for the summer, current law dictates that student growth and assessment will represent 50% of evaluations starting in the 2015-2016 school year, so time is of the essence, especially given the transition to the MSTEP.
Budget Update
Legislative leaders reached agreement this year on a framework for the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 budget that should be finalized over the next two weeks. As noted last week, state General Fund revenues are expected to beat estimates, and legislative leaders have indicated they intend to utilize most of this “new” money to supplement road funding. Legislators put $284 million in General Fund money into roads in the current year budget, and as last Fridays’ revenue estimating conference indicated the state should see an additional $365 million in General Fund revenue over this and the coming fiscal year, leaders indicated the General Fund contribution to roads will increase by $116 million to $400 million next year. It is important to remember that this is really one-time revenue, and not necessarily ongoing revenue or dedicated revenue to roads. Legislators will continue to meet over the summer to consider new road funding proposals given the failure of Proposal 1. However, going back to the ballot for voter approval of any new proposal has been ruled out at this time.
The news with respect to increased General Fund revenue is welcome news for schools. While the new revenue is not dedicated to education, it certainly eases the pressure for legislators to dip into the School Aid Fund as has been done in the past to address other budget shortfalls, and schools will see varying increases in funding next year. While we will have more details next week when legislators finalize negotiations over individual line-items, the K-12 budget will see an overall 2% increase in year-over-year funding. Here is what we know thus far:
- The foundation allowance will increase more for schools at the base foundation utilizing some version of the “2x” formula as in previous years.
- The Governor will not receive the $75 million he proposed for the new Detroit Public School District.
- There will be an appropriation for the Governor’s Early Literacy Initiative, significantly more than proposed by the Governor
- At-Risk will see an increase utilizing a new formula that will spread the new dollars among a broader population of at-risk children and add boilerplate requiring at least a portion of curriculum be dedicated to literacy.
- Pre-funding of MPSERS obligations will continue, but additional support to reduce the rate for districts is still under negotiation.