|
REFLECTIONS FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
 "You cannot solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.” – Albert Einstein
Dear friend of ABEC,
Happy 99th Birthday, Arizona!
Born out of the Wild West – gun slingers and cowboys, stretches of hot desert, rattlesnakes and cacti – a few courageous lawmen and leaders gathered together to bring the territory of Arizona into the organized States on a warm February day in 1912. And we grew.
It was a simpler time. Remember when the Five C’s of Arizona were COTTON, CATTLE, CITRUS, CLIMATE, and COPPER? When cruisin’ Central meant seeing friends at Carnations on Central and Indian School and making the turn through the Bob’s Big Boy? And still we grew…and then we crashed.
Today, Arizona’s Five C’s are scary: CRISIS, CHALLENGE, COMPLEXITY, CONFLICT, and CHAOS. Arizonans haven’t seen the kind of crisis we have now in our state budget. Our growth in population masked some critical misalignments in our tax structure. And now we have challenges in complex systems that pit interests against interests – each and every one worthwhile. We’re seeing these competing interests engaging in the chaos of crowd mentality, shouting, demonstrating, threatening – and even in gunfire. The Arizona of the past has faded. The Arizona of the future cannot be created and brought forward in the politics of chaos.
My hopes for Arizona’s future are that we, as leaders, bring out the best in us. The Five C’s for Arizona’s future must be CONVERSATION, COLLABORATION, COMMUNITY, CREATION, and COMMITMENT. Competing interests must find common ground, and must be willing to move toward each other. They must be able to hear each other’s concerns, create a vision together for their community, and commit to making it happen. For Arizona to prosper and for education to become world class, people of good heart must step forward to take on that commitment.
Sincerely,
Susan Carlson
ABEC executive director
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.” - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD), Meditations
THE BUSINESS AND EDUCATION VIEWPOINT
 ABEC asked two of its members to share their views by responding to the following question:
Arizona celebrated its 99th birthday on Feb. 14, 2011.
As Arizona enters into its 100th year, what will education look like over the next 100 years?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUSINESS VIEWPOINT - Ted Kraver, President, eLearning System for Arizona Teachers and Students Inc.
[Fictitious keynote address to an ABEC gathering in the year 2111 …]
Two centuries ago, my grandmother graduated from high school and took a job teaching high school. In 1898, experts at the Columbus Exposition forecasted for the coming century rail travel – without a hint of automobiles or airplanes let alone space travel. But in 2011, we had a better handle on the future of education and technology – or so we thought.
At that time, I wrote a Viewpoint column for our monthly newsletter that went on and on about how hybrid eLearning would transform education and how we would leave Massachusetts in the dust in a decade or two. I also made it a valedictory, as I planned to move on to a retirement from advocacy to revisit my youth of building and flying model airplanes. Like 1898, wrong again. Due to our innovation in bioscience research, I am “speaking” to you over Mind Book at the age of one hundred seventy two.
I remember when 100 years ago we thought that Watson, the IBM computer that beat two brilliant men in a memory contest called 'Jeopardy', would change education forever. Well it was only the beginning. Rapid advances in computing power, infinite broadband, data systems, and speech recognition integrated with superficial and then true artificial intelligence outraced our primitive understanding of the brain-mind aspects of learning. Teachers raced to learn how to use these new systems, but the thin research base of 300 years of legacy education was not serving them well. Fortunately, our wise national governance leaders saw the need to transform human bio-research from 99% focused on the living body and 1% on the learning mind to a more balanced system. Led by our early twenty-first century dominance in both eLearning research and enterprise, Arizona become the center of the vortex that transformed the world.
We dodged the predicted “singularity” of computers taking over the world because, like humans always eventually do, we bent our innovative tools to benefit mankind and the world in which we live. And ABEC remains proud of our century of leadership. As always – Cheers! Ted.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDUCATION VIEW - Calvin Baker, Superintendent, Vail School District
“At lunch recess we’d often chase the wild horses in the desert.” Why not? There were no playground monitors or grass playing fields.
The future is often best viewed from the perspective of the past. So I invited Carlton Wallmark to lunch. Carlton is a savvy, retired federal mediator who started his education in Vail. In 1942 he was one of about 20 students in a small three-room schoolhouse. It probably looked and felt much like the many small schoolhouses that served Vail and many other rural Arizona Communities 100 years ago.
Carlton’s school wasn’t connected to the electric grid until after he graduated. Classrooms were lit with the sun and kerosene lamps. Today, students and teachers at the same school Carlton attended have a mind-boggling level of hand-held access to information, free digital resources and processing power. And, with Internet resources like teacher moodles and blogs, a parent serving in Afghanistan can be better connected to his child’s classroom activities than a parent who lived a mile down the road from Carlton’s school.
How could Carlton or his teacher even begin to imagine such things? How can we begin to imagine education decades from now?
Opportunities for creative approaches to learning are exploding. Available parent and student choices are growing daily as diverse online options are added to expanding charter and open enrollment selections. Great stuff!
Yet, all that “stuff” will not guarantee success. After some fun stories, Carlton became very serious and talked about the dedication and commitment of the two teachers he had for all of his years of schooling in Vail. He also talked about how the school so clearly belonged to the community. They claimed it, supported it, and showed up at every program.
No matter how many exciting opportunities and technologies become available, at the end of the day the quality of education will always be dependent upon relationships and a community’s commitment to education.
Technology innovations and choices cannot be used simply as a way to reduce costs or sidestep community responsibility. Even a hundred years from now, the quality education of our children’s children will still depend on personal relationships with caring, inspiring adults and a society that is willing to sacrificially provide the best for the next generation.
2011 EDUCATION BILLS OF INTEREST
 This session, over 1,300 bills have been introduced by our elected officials, of which roughly 10% deal with educated-related issues in some form or another. However, the majority of these bills never have a chance of making it into law because they are not heard and debated in committee. Those bills that are heard, must still navigate through additional committees, debates and votes before making it to the Governor’s desk for approval. While ABEC may not always take an “official” position on a particular bill, it does monitor the progress of bills of interest. A few bills that are of particular interest to ABEC this year are:
SB1263 – SCHOOLS; ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS; REDUCTION – Also known as the Education Relief Act, this bill addresses issues in public education concerning school district governing boards, charter schools, school district and charter school budgets, bonding, public school tax credits, reporting requirements, personnel policies and other miscellaneous issues. Additionally, this bill makes numerous technical and conforming changes to Title 15.
SB 1451 – HIGH SCHOOLS; BOARD EXAMINATION SYSTEMS – Makes numerous changes to the Grand Canyon Diploma program.
SB1452 – SCHOOLS; E-LEARNING PROGRAMS - Establishes the Arizona Digital Learning Center and specifies program requirements.
HB2002 – SCHOOL DISTRICT MONIES; ASSOCIATIONS; ELECTIONS - Prohibits school districts from spending monies for membership in an association that attempts to influence the outcome of an election.
HB2219 – SCHOOL DISTRICTS; CONSOLIDATION; TEXTBOOKS S/E: STUDY COMMITTEE; UNIFICATION; CONSOLIDATION - The proposed strike-everything amendment to HB 2219 creates the 14-member Joint Legislative Study Committee on School District Unification and Consolidation.
HB2710 – STUDY COMMITTEE; OUTCOME-BASED FUNDING - Establishes the 12-member Joint Legislative Study Committee on Outcome-Based Education Funding (Committee). [NOTE: This is NOT the approach ABEC has been advocating for in its School Finance Reform Initiative. The model ABEC has developed includes setting high expectations for all students, including benchmarks set by districts; having a data system in place that can track expenditures and best practices, using the EVIDENCE-BASED APPROACH to setting the per pupil funding level, allowing school districts flexibility in use of funds, and loss of flexibility if benchmarks are not met.]
ABEC will keep you informed on the status of these and other bills of interest.
 On February 17, 2011, Governor Brewer signed the Arizona Competitiveness Package, also known as the "Jobs Bill," which is a $538 million mix of business incentives and tax cuts designed to restart Arizona's economy. In a statement released shortly after signing the Jobs Bill in a ceremony at a downtown Phoenix hotel, Brewer said, "I’m confident this smart mix of tax cuts and other business incentives will result in long-term economic growth, new jobs and an overall atmosphere of improved prosperity for Arizona citizens. Our message is clear: Arizona is Open for Business.”
The signing of this legislation marks the end of a roller coaster ride for the Jobs Bill. Originally introduced by Speaker Kirk Adams last year, the Jobs Bill easily passed the House but stalled in the opposite chamber after the Governor and Senate objected to the composition and timing of certain tax cuts. This year, the Jobs Bill was revised by legislative leaders and easily passed the House, but experienced a few hiccups in the Senate. A handful of Senate Republicans voiced their concerns over not having enough time to read and understand the 217-page package, as well as concerns regarding how the package was being rushed through the legislative processes. In the end, the Jobs Bill passed the Senate by a 18 to 11 vote.
Provisions of the Arizona Competitiveness Package include:
Arizona Commerce Authority: The Arizona Department of Commerce and its duties will be eliminated and replaced by the Arizona Commerce Authority. The Authority, which will be overseen by a 17-member board of private and public officials, will have a single focus of attracting and retaining businesses and jobs in Arizona. The Authority will be funded though growth in existing payroll withholdings.
Deal-Closing Fund: A new Deal-Closing Fund will replace Arizona's inactive Commerce and Economic Development Commission deal-closing fund. The new $25 million fund is intended to secure major projects in high-impact base industries, including aerospace and defense, renewable energy and science-technology. Independent return on investment analyses will be performed on potentially qualifying projects. This fund also contains claw-back provisions that would allow the state to recover funding for underperforming projects.
Job Creation: The legislation replaces Arizona's Enterprise Zone Program with a Quality Jobs Program. The tax credit for each qualified new job created is $3,000 per year for three years. The program limits credits to 400 jobs per employer per year and is capped at 10,000 total jobs annually. The program contains separate eligibility qualifications for rural and urban business and includes claw-back provisions.
Job Training: The Arizona Job Training Program was reauthorized. This program provides for job-specific reimbursable grants for employers creating new jobs or increasing skill and wage levels of existing employees.
Sales Factor: The State's electable corporate income-tax sales factor will incrementally increase by five points per year from 2014 to 2017. In 2017, the sales factor will have increased from 80 percent to 100 percent.
Corporate Income Taxes: The State's corporate income tax level will be incrementally reduced from 6.968% to 4.9% by approximately half of a percent per year over four years, beginning in 2014.
Property Taxes: Between 2013 and 2016, commercial (Class 1) assessment ratios will decrease from 20% to 18%. Agricultural (Class 2) assessment ratios will decrease from 16% to 15% in 2016. In addition, accelerated depreciation provisions will allow businesses to expense an additional 5% of assets beginning in 2012.
R&D Tax Credits: Arizona's existing R&D tax credit will increase by 10% for qualifying expenses on projects performed in collaboration with Arizona universities. The increase will begin in Tax Year 2012.
Small Business Provisions: The small business provisions of the package will, beginning in Tax Year 2014, eliminate capital gains taxes on investment income from Commerce Authority-certified small businesses. The provisions also lessen the eligibility criteria for a small business to become certified by the Commerce Authority.
- Reprinted with permission, courtesy of Triadvocates, LLC
OBAMA'S FY12 EDUCATION BUDGET REQUEST
 President Obama’s Blueprint for Reform envisions a smaller Federal role focused on key priorities aimed at improving educational outcomes for all students, including (1) recognizing and rewarding student academic growth and school progress; (2) ensuring that students complete high school prepared for college and a career, based on rigorous, State-developed standards; (3) putting a great teacher in every classroom and a great principal in every school; and (4) focusing intensive support and interventions on our lowest-performing schools that serve our neediest students and communities. These changes support the goal of ensuring that, by 2020, the United States will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.
President Obama’s 2012 budget request for the Department of Education is $48.8 billion (excluding Pell Grants), an increase of $2 billion or 4.3% over the 2011 budget, and is organized around the following priorities:
-
Rewarding excellence and promoting innovation
-
Great teachers and leaders in every school
-
Meeting the full range of student needs
-
Supporting early learning
-
Improving stem education
-
All students college- and career-ready
-
Protecting PELL grants and expanding access to student aid
-
Promoting college access and completion
-
Improving outcomes for adult learners
-
Identifying effective practices and increasing transparency
Budget highlights include:
-
$350 million for a new Early Learning Challenge Fund to boost quality or early learning programs.
-
$900 million for a district-level Race to the Top program with a rural set-aside.
-
$300 million for a new round of i3 (Investing in Innovation) grants.
-
$500 million more for Title I (for low-income students) and IDEA (for students with disabilities) formula programs.
-
$150 million for the Promise Neighborhoods program, which integrates educational and social services in targeted communities.
-
$100 million more for after school programs (21st Century Community Learning Centers) for a total of $1.27B.
-
$54 million more ($600 million total) to turn around low-performing schools.
-
$4.3 billion for teacher and principal preparation programs. This includes formula grants to states, alternative certification programs, STEM teacher prep programs, funds to support a well-rounded education, minority teacher recruiting programs and scholarships for high-achieving students to work in high-need schools.
-
$175 million in competitive grants to boost college completion.
-
$90 million for a new education research and development program and $60 million more for research and evaluation programs at IES.
In addition to eliminating 13 programs that will save $147 million next year, President Obama’s plan will cut $265 million in career and technical education (CTE) grants. States will still receive $1 billion in CTE grants next year as well as $3.1 billion for Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants and $635 million for Adult Education grants. Some programs that will be eliminated or consolidated into a new authority include:
-
Teacher Incentive Fund
-
Teach for America
-
National Writing Project
-
Reading is Fundamental
-
Civic Education
-
Excellence in Economic Education
-
Advanced Placement
-
High School Graduation Initiative
-
Elementary and Secondary School Counseling
-
Charter Schools Grants
-
Credit Enhancement for Charter School Facilities
-
Parental Information and Resource Centers
President Obama is also seeking $100 million (almost twice as much as
2011) for Statewide Data Systems. This program will support competitive awards to State educational agencies to foster the design, development, and implementation of longitudinal data systems that enable States to use data on student learning, teacher performance, and college- and career-readiness to enhance the provision of education and close achievement gaps. Most of the funding requested would support new awards to States that would allow them to continue to expand and improve their data systems, including linkages between elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and workforce data systems. In addition, up to $15 million would be used for awards to public or private agencies and organizations to support activities to improve data coordination, quality, and use at the local, State, and national levels.
VIEW Arizona’s "preliminary estimated" share of Obama's budget (pdf link)
NOTE: The totals contained in the document do not reflect all Department of Education funds that a State receives. States and other entities may also receive Department funds awarded on a competitive basis.
EDUCATION NEWS & SPECIAL REPORTS
 EDUCATION NEWS
Arizona's public-school funding still battered by recession - The Arizona Republic, 2/27/11
For the first time in two decades, Arizona is facing two, possibly three, consecutive years of declines in basic per-student funding for K-12 schools.
Read more>
Financial Literacy to Be Tested on International Exam - Education Week, 2/23/11
A prominent international assessment (PISA) of student achievement will include a new topic—financial literacy—when the testing regime is next administered, with results to be released in 2013. Read more>
Rundown of Arizona Legislature's 2011 bills – The Arizona Republic, 2/23/11
Can't keep track of all of the bills making the rounds at the Arizona Legislature? Here is a rundown of some of the more prominent and controversial bills. Read more>
Can You Predict The Future Technologies in Your Classroom? - Education Week, 2/21/11
Which technologies will impact learning in classrooms in one year or less? How about two to three years? How about four to five years?
Read more>
Ed. Dept. Creates Commission on School Finance Equity - Education Week, 2/17/11
Twenty-eight advocates, researchers, corporate leaders, and lawyers have been asked to serve on a commission that will "examine the impact of school finance on educational opportunity," the U.S. Department of Education announced today. Read more>
Arizona history curriculum gets a 'C' – The Arizona Republic, 2/17/11
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank, recently rated each state's history curriculum, and Arizona scored a 'C.' Read more>
Governors set the agenda for a lean 2011 - Stateline 2/17/11
For many states, 2011 is the most trying budget year of a fiscal crisis now in its fourth year. Revenues generally remain lower than what they used to be; widespread joblessness is putting unprecedented strains on safety-net programs like Medicaid; and all this is happening as federal stimulus money runs out. Read more>
Arizona schools lose lawsuit over funding for inflation - The Arizona Republic, 2/12/11
Judge rules state obligation to pay costs merely implied; education groups are vowing to appeal their loss in a court battle over school funding. Read more>
SPECIAL REPORTS
A powerful policymaking tool to drive education leaders to use data in decision making. It is a series of analyses that provides transparency about state progress and key priorities they need to take to collect and use longitudinal data to improve student success.
More students are participating and succeeding in AP than ever before. Educators across the United States are increasingly providing high-quality AP experiences to diverse populations of students. Their work is playing a vital role in preparing our nation’s students to be successful in college.
Closing the Expectations Gap - Achieve, Inc
Each year, on the anniversary of the 2005 National Education Summit on High Schools, Achieve releases a 50-state progress report on the alignment of high school policies with the demands of college and careers.
Through an intense focus on middle school improvement (grades 6-8) that leverages the best available research and practice, the Bush Institute seeks to dramatically increase the number of students who are well-prepared to enter high school and are ready to earn a meaningful diploma.
A new educator toolkit with lesson plans that teachers can use to help students prepare for the 2011 National Financial Capability Challenge. The toolkit addresses five core competencies of financial education: earning, spending, saving, borrowing, and protecting against risk. It covers, among other topics, developing a personal spending plan, balancing checking and savings accounts, understanding the costs and benefits of buying insurance, using credit wisely, minimizing exposure to identify theft, and making investments in the future through education.
|
|
IN THIS ISSUE:
2011 Education Bills of Interest
OBAMA'S FY12 Education Budget Request
READ Past Issues of eNews Spotlight
Wish to COMMENT on the ABEC eNewsletter?
| |
|
|
On the Move ... After nine gratifying years, Dr. Carol Peck has announced that she will step down and retire as the president and CEO of the Rodel Charitable Foundation of Arizona, effective July 31, 2011.
... Rebecca Gau has been named Director of the Governor’s Office of Education Innovation. In her new role, Gau will help lead state efforts to improve student performance. She will work with Brewer’s P-20 Education Council, which aims to track classroom progress, increase transparency and help schools maintain local control. Gau most recently was the vice president of the Arizona Charter Schools Association, where she focused on strategic planning, business development and data analysis. Gau received her master’s degree in public policy from Duke University, where she wrote her thesis on charter schools. |
Cox Communications, in partnership with Expect More Arizona, has produced a show titled, "Education and the Economy" which explores some of Arizona's key education issues and the direct link between Arizona's education system and our economic stability and future growth. Featuring interviews with business leaders, education professionals and profiles of schools that are expecting more, "Education and the Economy" is an interactive show that offers you the opportunity to provide input. Click Here to watch the video, and have your cell phones ready to text your answers to several questions about education in Arizona (standard text messaging rates apply). |
|
|
ABEC 2011 ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Monday, June 6, 2011
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
--------------------------------
Desert Willow Conference Center
4340 East Cotton Center Blvd
Phoenix, AZ 85040
--------------------------------
Featured speakers include:
Craig R. Barrett
Retired CEO & Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation
Paul Kihn
Partner, McKinsey & Company
Lawrence O. Picus
Director, Center for Research in Education Finance, USC Rossier School of Education
Paul H. Koehler
Director, Policy Center, WestED
For more information on upcoming ABEC events, go to www.azbec.org.
|
|
|
|
UPCOMING EVENTS OF ABEC
MEMBER ORGANIZATIONS |
The Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry
28th Annual 'The Classic'
Golf Tournament
Friday, May 6th, 2011
Silverado Golf Club
7605 E. Indian Bend
Scottsdale, Arizona 85250
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ABEC SIGNIFICANT SUPPORTERS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
