The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Virginia's school superintendents took aim at a couple of Gov. Bob McDonnell's key legislative initiatives Tuesday, calling them unfunded mandates that would cause crippling budget cuts in local school divisions across the state.
Particularly onerous, they said, is the Republican governor's proposal to pump an unprecedented $2.2 billion into Virginia's underfunded state retirement system.
About half of that money would have to come from localities. The superintendents said virtually all Virginia school divisions would face drastic budget shortfalls as a result, leading to staff cuts, bigger classes and diminished quality of education.
An ongoing survey of the state's 134 school divisions has turned up numerous estimates of multimillion-dollar budget gaps, Albemarle County Superintendent Pam Moran, president of the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, said at a news conference.
In South Hampton Roads, local school officials have predicted shortfalls as large as $49 million in Virginia Beach, $20 million in Norfolk, $6 million in Suffolk and $1.8 million in Portsmouth.
James Merrill, Virginia Beach schools superintendent, echoed the concerns of the superintendents' association about the governor's proposal on the state retirement system.
Merrill said it would cost the Beach public schools $21 million in its next budget.
"Which is huge," he said.
Statewide, the Virginia retirement system shortfall has grown because state leaders haven't been putting in enough to maintain it properly, Merrill added.
"All of a sudden, the governor wants to fill it in all at once," Merrill said. "That's killing us."
A better approach, the superintendents said, would be shoring up the retirement system with incremental increases over a period of years.
The superintendents also attacked McDonnell's proposal to replace Virginia's current open-ended teacher contracts with a one-year contract tied to teachers' performance evaluations, a measure the governor says would help weed out poor teachers.
Calling the proposal "a clear expansion of state mandates without funding," Gloucester County Superintendent Ben Kiser, president-elect of the superintendents' association, said annual contracts and evaluations would require additional administrative staff without improving the quality of education.
"In the current political environment, teachers seem to be easy targets for criticism," Kiser said. "This rhetoric alone will discourage many capable individuals from considering the profession."
The state is pursuing a wrongheaded course of more testing, fewer resources, punitive measures and more options for parents to desert the public schools, Kiser said.
"Once all of the bad teachers and administrators are fired, and new ones are hired, without quality support to help the new ones to become proficient, they will be fired in a few years as well," Kiser said. "Is this really the cycle for long-term improvement in public education?"
Jeff Caldwell, a McDonnell spokesman, said the governor's proposal for annual teacher contracts "treats teachers like the professionals they are and rewards our best teachers for their success in educating our students."
Caldwell also said McDonnell is proposing nearly $500 million in new funding for K-12 education that willhelp reduce the state retirement system's unfunded liability.
"The governor's proposed budget puts more funding into our schools for our students of today, while also strengthening the retirement system that our dedicated teachers will depend upon tomorrow," he said.
The superintendents also oppose legislative proposals to require daily physical education for K-12 students with no additional funding, require school personnel to investigate the immigration status of students taking English as a second language, allow home-schooled students to participate in interscholastic sports, and take away local school boards' authority over charter school applications.
One McDonnell proposal drew praise from the superintendents: repealing the state law that prohibits schools from opening before Labor Day without getting special permission. That measure would give school divisions needed flexibility in setting their calendars, they said.
Pilot writer Elisabeth Hulette contributed to this report.
Bill Sizemore, 804-697-1560, bill.sizemore@pilotonline.com
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Oddly enough
Washington DC schools are back in the spotlight.
Briefly, they have come to the conclusion that to get and keep young, driven, effective teachers, they need to reward them early.
Big bonuses ($6-10K) and fast track to high pay ($80K+).
I return, they give up tenure and are subject to regular review. The union is fighting them, but it is a voluntary decision by the teacher.
And it is working.
It has a way to go yet, but results are very promising.
The old way had low pay and slow raises in return for job security.
And pay was based on # of degrees and seniority, not effectiveness.
Other systems are trying variations, but the bottom line good people are attracted by good pay.
It works in the private market (mostly).
The Corporate...Is That What We Really Want From Our Schools?
If politicians and other school officials want to use the business model for public schools, then you will get public schools that have the same problems as the corporate world....focus on only the bottom line. Greed. Proliferation of self-interest by teachers...no collaboration. Why should they if the teacher next door might get a bigger "merit raise?" Them against us. Personal service will disappear, instead of talking to a teacher, you get a recording. And don't blame teachers if they want a bigger slice of that money pie....isn't that the corporate world....all about me? And when those corporate hours are over..so is the teacher.
Public Education is not going away
Public education is not going away. Education is just a hot button issue. Not corporation is going to meet state education standards with the same group of lazy mouthy kids public school teachers have to work with. These "students" drag down the test scores for public schools and will drag down the scores for private run schools too. Like all jobs 10% of the problems take 90% of one's time.
By the time their in high school, it's not the teachers or even the parents, it's the kids.
I'm liberal but I couldn't take a day with some of these brats wasting the teacher's time and the other kids education.
New Term: Performance Parenting
If the kids don't have a learning ethic, you can't shove it down their throats at school. Kids have to want to learn and that starts at home.
Adding "Performance" criteria won't fix the problem. Whacking contracts won't fix the problem... Ask Gov Walker! This is a typical political move to deflect the real problems by redirecting the focus.
Are we really to believe that a performance program will add value? Or, are we piling more on teachers for political gain and dodging the real problem?
Follow the money
All the comments here are missing the point. McDonnell and politicians like him do not care about good quality public education AT ALL. The real goal is to privatize education so that all that tax money can be transferred into corporate pockets. They place onerous requirements on public schools and cut funding, then demonize teachers when they can't compensate for their students' dysfunctional lives. When the damage is done, they scream about how lousy the schools are to justify giving the money to for-profit education organizations, most of which have track records that are worse than public schools. But no matter, follow the money trail.
i wonder
Just how many Virginia's school superintendents voted for B.M..
Maybe one of these days they will understand what they are getting before they cast that vote.
Chickens Elected Colonel Sanders
I found your comment interesting. Sad but true. I've said many times: "the chickens are voting for Colonel Sanders and then wondering how they ended up in the bucket!"
I know many folks who voted for Gov. Bob McD and their republican reps that are now kicking themselves after seeing the VRS bills in the General Assembly. You voted for them and you are in the bucket with the rest of us…
AND....
....when the General Assembly was "borrowing" that money from VRS, none of them were asking about how it would be paid back....or asking how are is the Commonwealth keeping taxes low when other states were seeing their tax rates increase to pay teachers, police, firefighters, and for roads, etc.
Really
I am tired of hearing how much time teachers put in, I work in the school system, I am in the building before they get there in the morning and still there after they leave in the afternoon. Most of them are gone before the buses leave. I would bet my entire paycheck that it is the same across the country. There may be a few that stay late but the majority leave. If you cannot afford to be a teacher, get out or stop living above your salary. Custodians and cafeteria workers make far less than you do so what makes you any better than them. O and by the way, you can be paid for 12 months you just have to take that option. You are not victims. You do not need a degree to teach home schooled children get a better education.
Comment deleted
Comment removed for rules violation. Reason: Personal attack, name calling