Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Senate BRB - K - 12 Education

Oh, this one has a couple of real gems...

This is from a proposed striker to SB1187 (ALL CAPS INDICATES NEW LANGUAGE) -

ARS 15-185, Section B, paragraph 4 is changed to increase charter school equalization assistance -
Equalization assistance for the charter school shall be determined by adding the amount of the base support level and additional assistance. The amount of the additional assistance is one thousand four hundred seventy-four dollars sixteen cents ONE THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED FORTY-TWO DOLLARS FIFTY-ONE CENTS per student count in kindergarten programs and grades one through eight and one thousand seven hundred eighteen dollars ten cents ONE THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED NINETY-SEVEN DOLLARS SEVENTY-SEVEN CENTS per student count in grades nine through twelve.

ARS 15-342 sections 27 and 34 are changed to allow school districts to sell advertising on school buses and school websites.

(Gem #1) ARS 15-502 is change to add - "THE GOVERNING BOARD SHALL REMOVE UNION REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PAYROLL."

(Gem #2) ARS 15-504 is added -

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS WHO ENGAGE IN LOBBYING ACTIVITIES DURING REGULAR SCHOOL HOURS ARE REQUIRED TO REIMBURSE THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OR CHARTER SCHOOL WHERE THEY ARE EMPLOYED FOR THE COST OF HIRING A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER FOR EACH SCHOOL DAY OR PORTION OF A SCHOOL DAY THAT A SUBSTITUTE TEACHER WAS HIRED BECAUSE THAT TEACHER ENGAGED IN LOBBYING ACTIVITY. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS SECTION, LOBBYING DOES NOT INCLUDE CONDUCT THAT OCCURS DURING A FIELD TRIP FOR PUPILS.

ARS 15-821 is amended so that school districts do not receive two years of state aid payments for students who take kindergarten early (before age 5) and then retake kindergarten. (I don't actually have a problem with this one.)

(Gem #3) ARS 15-901, section B, paragraph 2 decreases base-level state funding for public schools from $3291.42 in school year 2008-2009 to $3201.89 in 2009-2010. Remember the increase for charter schools?

ARS 15-910, section K, paragraph 7 is added to cap monies expended on desegregation efforts to no more than the level spent in 2008-2009. Remember, this striker is proposed by the same guy who hates immigrants and sent out links to a white supremacist website as part of his 2006 campaign.

ARS 15-918.04, section C is added to close the career ladder program to new teachers.

ARS 15-923, section E is added to compel school districts to compensate parents who choose to drive their children to school themselves or make arrangements with other transportation providers. Section F adds the restriction that school districts don't have to reimburse parents for the transportation of the students from other districts or attendance areas within the same district unless the student is enrolled in a special education program.

ARS 42-17151, sections C and D are added to limit the ability of school districts to raise tax levies. Which is a nice two-step on the part of the lege - sweep up any fund balances that may have been built up to pay for capital projects and the like, and then inhibit the ability of the public schools to make up the difference the only way that they can.


More later... (maybe one more before I have to head to bed)

1 comment:

Eli Blake said...

All I can say is this:

There are a lot of pissed off parents right now (I know quite a few of them) and I hope that those who don't support these changes are carefully cataloguing all of them (along with budget cuts) so that we can send out a mailer before the next election to every regular voter in the district of those who do support them.

And as far as school bus ads, I can see a great visual right now. Start by pointing out the combined fund sweeps, budget cuts and local tax option restrictions for school district, and then include a picture of what "representative Doe's answer" is:

A picture of a school bus covered with enough ads to look like a NASCAR racecar (mainly ads for stuff parents might not like, unless they are specifically prohibited by the language, such as junk food, tattoo parlors, video game arcades, pregnancy counseling centers, maybe even Budweiser.) Under which put the text of the school bus ad line and say "representative Doe did vote for this method of school funding."