Governor McDonnell Continues Commitment to K-12 Education Reform in FY 2015/2016 Budget

Governor of Virginia Bob McDonnell speaking at CPAC. Please attribute to Gage Skidmore if used elsewhere. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

RICHMOND - Building on his commitment to ensure that every child in Virginia, regardless of their zip code, has access to a top quality education, Governor Bob McDonnell today announced that his FY 2015/2016 budget will include $582.6 million in increased funding for the biennium for K-12 and pre-kindergarten education.  Funding is increased by $268.8 million in FY2015 and $313.8 million in FY2016.  This funding includes $38.0 million in anticipated additional Lottery profits each year, for a total of $76.0 million for the biennium. 

 Speaking about the new funding for K-12 education, Governor McDonnell said, “It has been said that providing high quality schools for all children, and thus greater access to the American Dream, is the civil rights issue of our time.  We have made great strides over the last four years to ensure that all students are able to get a world class education.  This started with increasing educational opportunities through college lab schools, charter schools and virtual schools.  We then focused on raising standards for schools and teachers, reducing mandates on local school divisions, enhancing teacher quality, and worked to end social promotion by providing reading intervention for students in third grade.  This year, we established the Opportunity Educational Institution to focus on turning around chronically failing schools in Virginia.  We implemented A-F school report cards so parents can better understand how their child’s school is doing.  We provided the first pay raise in five years and strategic compensation for teachers, authorized Teach For America in the Commonwealth and reduced red tape for school divisions.  Additionally, over the last four years we have directed more money into the classroom, where instruction occurs.  We are seeing the results of our reforms.  Nearly nine out of 10 ninth graders who entered high school in the fall of 2009 earned a diploma within four years, a 7.8 percent increase since 2008.  The statewide dropout rate fell to 5.9 percent for the class of 2013, compared with 6.5 percent for the class of 2012.  And, reading skills for Virginia’s fourth graders have greatly improved, with 43 percent of fourth graders reading meeting or exceeding the National Center for Education Statistics proficiency standard – almost 10 percent more than the national average.”

 Governor McDonnell continued, “My FY 2015/2016 budget continues our commitment to education reform.  Until every child has access to the high-quality education they deserve, our work is not finished.  That is why I am proposing $582.6 million in new funding over the next biennium for K-12 education.  This amount with targeting toward instruction operations moves Virginia from 61 percent to 64 percent of all education dollars going to the classroom over the past four years – just shy of the goal of 65 percent.  The new money includes $20 million to bolster and protect the Literary Fund for school construction loans so that our schools are equipped with the tools our children need to succeed.  Recognizing that math and reading are critical building blocks to success down the road, we will also invest over $4 million to help schools not meeting accreditation requirements by providing additional math and reading specialists and other professional support.  Finally, we will provide more than $500 million over the next biennium to local school divisions.  This funding provides support for the costs associated with rebenchmarking the Standards of Quality, accounting for the growth in student enrollment and increased teacher retirement costs.”

Specific programs and initiatives supported by this funding include:

·         Direct Aid to local school divisions – $233.2 million in FY 2015 and $282.1 million in FY 2016 is provided for the increased costs of the Standards of Quality and related incentive and categorical education programs.  This amount includes support from the increased Lottery profits of $38.0 million per year.

·         Support for school construction loans - $20.0 million in general fund support is provided over the biennium to replace literary funds used for teacher retirement, which has drawn down assets in the Fund.  The freed-up Literary Fund revenues will be used for its intended purpose of school construction loans in order to support the school renovation and construction needs of school divisions.  In addition, the budget continues the 2013 initiative of $6.0 million per year in authorized debt to provide grants to pay for upgrades to security at schools.

·         Pre-kindergarten programs - $7.4 million over the biennium to continue the state’s support of pre-kindergarten programs and an additional $2.0 million to implement kindergarten readiness assessment programs.

·         Opportunity Educational Institution - $600,000 per year to staff the Institution, whose mission is to help unaccredited schools improve the education provided to its students. 

·         Math and reading specialists - $4.3 million over the biennium to help schools not meeting accreditation requirements by providing additional support for math and reading specialists, as well as professional guidance on how to improve their academic outcomes.

·         Community support - $2.8 million to expand effective and innovative programs such as Communities in Schools, PluggedinVA, GReat Aspirations Scholarship Program, Virginia Center for Excellence in Teaching, and the positive behavioral interventions and supports initiative. 

K-12 Accomplishments During McDonnell Administration

·         In 2010, Governor McDonnell’s “Opportunity to Learn” package was highlighted by measures to facilitate the expansion of high quality charter schools in the Commonwealth, and further utilize and incorporate virtual and college laboratory schools into Virginia’s public school system.

·         Building on his “Opportunity to Learn” education reform initiatives that passed the General Assembly with broad bipartisan support in 2010, Governor McDonnell continued to work to expand educational opportunities for students in every corner of the Commonwealth in 2011.  The initiatives included a proposal to implement a groundbreaking performance pay incentive pilot program that provided competitive grants for school divisions identified as hard-to-staff. The Governor also advanced legislation which established a tax credit for companies donating to nonprofit organizations that provide scholarships to help lower income students attend nonpublic schools. 

·         The governor’s 2012 “Opportunity to Learn” K-12 education reform agenda focused on raising third grade reading standards for children, increasing incentives for schools and teachers, reducing mandates on local school divisions, expanding educational options like tuition tax credits, charter schools, and virtual schools for Virginia students, and funding for critical education and training programs.

·         The game-changing “All Students” 2013 K-12 education reform agenda generated numerous successful bills and policies focusing on increasing teacher pay, improving the ability to reward good teachers and increasing accountability for poor performing teachers, establishing the Governor's Center for Excellence in Teaching and the Governor's Academies for Excellent Teaching, creating a Teacher Cabinet, bringing Teach for America to the Commonwealth, creating transparent school report cards to provide parents and educators with clear A-F grading measures, reducing red tape for local school divisions, supporting teacher innovation and staffing, guaranteed long-term support for students to achieve key learning milestones in reading and mathematics to strengthen their education, helping students stuck in chronically failing schools by creating a turnaround entity to ensure schools dramatically improve and reach accreditation, providing parents with more public school choice, and continuing to recognize that excellent teaching is key to a great education.

The governor commends House Majority Leader Kirk Cox and former Secretary of Education Jim Dyke and many other legislators and constituent groups for their leadership and hard work in improving public education in Virginia.

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Virginia 4th Graders Among Nation’s Best Readers

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Achievement Up Significantly Since 2009 on National Reading Test 

RICHMOND - Results from the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that the reading skills of Virginia fourth-grade students have improved significantly over the last four years, Governor Bob McDonnell reported today.

Virginia is one of the nation’s 12 highest-performing states in fourth-grade reading. These states have what the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) views as statistically similar percentages of fourth graders earning proficient or advanced scores.

“Developing a strong literacy foundation is imperative to a child's success in school,” said Governor McDonnell.  “In 2012, we passed legislation to end social promotion in order to ensure that all students are reading on grade level prior to moving on to fourth grade. We have seen great improvement in reading scores over the last four years. As more students are impacted by the strategies implemented in our third grade reading program we expect we will see even greater success.”

Forty-three percent of the commonwealth’s grade-4 students met or exceeded the NAEP proficiency standard and 12 percent performed at the advanced level. Nationwide, 34 percent of fourth-grade students demonstrated reading skills at or above the proficient level and eight percent achieved advanced scores.

The improvement in the reading skills of Virginia fourth graders follows an expansion of the commonwealth’s efforts to strengthen the skills of struggling young readers. In 2012, the General Assembly approved Governor Bob McDonnell’s request for funds to provide early reading intervention services for 100 percent of eligible students in grades K-3 and to make the promotion of students who fail the grade-3 reading Standards of Learning (SOL) test contingent on intervention. The 2013 General Assembly approved McDonnell’s request for state funding for an additional reading specialist in elementary schools with grade-3 reading pass rates below 75 percent.

“In recent years, we’ve placed an increased emphasis on strengthening adolescent literacy and equipping students with the reading skills that will prepare them for college or a career,” Secretary of Education Laura Fornash said.

NCES describes the increase in reading achievement among Virginia fourth graders since 2009 — when 38 percent achieved proficient or advanced scores — as statistically significant.

For the first time in the history of the state-level NAEP, a majority of Virginia’s white fourth graders — 51 percent — achieved proficient or advanced reading scores. Twenty-three percent of black Virginia fourth graders earned proficient or advanced scores, as did 25 of Hispanic fourth graders and 65 percent of Asian fourth graders.

Board of Education President David M. Foster said that persistent differences in the performance of student subgroups underscore the importance of the SOL program in detecting achievement gaps and in identifying low-performing schools in need of state interventions and resources.     

“The Board of Education is raising the bar with college- and career-ready standards and innovative assessments that require critical thinking, as well as the mastery of content knowledge,” Foster said. “Helping all students meet these higher expectations — regardless of where they live or the schools they attend — is the surest prescription for narrowing and ultimately closing achievement gaps.”

Thirty-six percent of Virginia eighth-grade students achieved at or above the proficient level in reading on the 2013 NAEP, the same percentage as in 2011. Four percent achieved advanced reading scores, also the same percentage as in 2011. Nationally, 34 percent of eighth graders achieved proficient or advanced scores and 4 percent earned advanced scores.

Forty-five percent of white eighth graders in Virginia earned proficient or advanced reading scores, as did 17 percent of black students, 26 percent of Hispanic students and 49 percent of Asian students.

In mathematics, 47 percent of Virginia fourth graders achieved scores at or above the proficient level, compared with 46 percent in 2011. Nine percent scored at the advanced level, the same percentage as in 2011. Nationwide, 41 percent of fourth-graders demonstrated achievement at or above the proficient level and eight percent achieved advanced scores.

NCES says the percentage of the commonwealth’s fourth graders achieving proficient or advanced scores in mathematics has improved significantly since 2007, when only 42 percent met or exceeded the NAEP proficiency standard.

Fifty-six percent of white fourth graders achieved proficient or advanced mathematics scores, as did 22 percent of black students, 32 percent of Hispanic students, and 70 percent of Asian students.

Thirty-eight percent of Virginia eighth graders achieved proficient or advanced mathematics scores in 2013, compared with 40 percent in 2011. NCES does not regard this two-point decline as statistically noteworthy. Ten percent of the commonwealth’s eighth graders earned advanced mathematics scores in 2013, compared with 11 percent in 2011. Nationally, 34 percent of eighth graders earned proficient or advanced scores; eight percent achieved at the advanced level.

Eighth graders in only five states — Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Minnesota and Vermont — achieved higher average math scores than Virginia students, compared with seven states in 2011. NCES describes the increase in grade-8 mathematics achievement in Virginia since 2005 — when 33 percent earned proficient or advanced scores — as significant.

Forty-seven percent of white Virginia eighth graders achieved proficient or advanced mathematics scores on the 2013 NAEP, as did 15 percent of black eighth graders, 25 percent of Hispanic eighth graders, and 64 percent of Asians.

NAEP — also known as the Nation’s Report Card — reflects the performance of representative samples of students in each state and nationwide. The 2013 NAEP sampling of Virginia students included approximately 6,100 fourth-grade students and 5,700 eighth graders. NAEP results are not reported by division or for individual schools.

Reading and mathematics tests are administered every two years and provide a means of comparing the progress of states in raising student achievement. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a proficient NAEP score represents solid performance on challenging subject matter — a more rigorous standard than grade-level achievement.

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College is still a great investment. But it’s getting worse.- Better Look Again.

English: Study of rising college costs due to cost shifting from state funding to tuition. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Posted by Dylan Matthews on September 11, 2012 at 2:37 pm

Megan McArdle has a provocative new cover story out in Newsweek arguing that college is no longer a good investment. “For an increasing number of kids,” she concludes, “the extra time and money spent pursuing a college diploma will leave them worse off than they were before they set foot on campus.” McArdle overstates the case. College is still a good deal, but it’s getting to be a worse one.

McArdle is certainly right that tuition costs have been far outpacing the rate of inflation for other goods. Here’s how the cost of college tuition and fees have increased relative to the cost of all goods, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Prices overall have grown by a factor of about 3.6 since 1978, but college tuition has grown by a factor of 12. All told, in the 2010-11 school year, the average cost of college was an astounding $27,435, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

But buried in McArdle’s piece is a curious admission. “Experts tend to agree that for the average student, college is still worth it today,” she writes. “But they also agree that the rapid increase in price is eating up more and more of the potential return.” So college is still worth it! The best numbers on this come from the Brookings Institution’s Hamilton Project, which calculates the return on investment for spending on college. Hamilton’s Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney estimate that the return on investment for an associate’s degree is about 20 percent, and the return for a bachelor’s is about 15 percent (mostly because bachelor’s degrees are much more expensive). That’s enormous compared to returns from the stock market, bonds, or (for you Ron Paul fans) gold:

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story and view the graphs on the next site.

One thing the above story lacks is the cost of paying back the student loans.  If you are unable to get a job right out of college, and have those loans to pay back, you will start getting hit with late fees and penalties that can not be bankrupted away.  Plus the continuing trend of jobs being shifted overseas is NOT going to end.  

The brain drain of the US is well under way and not about to be renewed.  Is college the good investment as reported above after all?

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