HB 2742 Funding - $1,000,000
Submitted by Ted on Tue, 2007/06/19 - 10:49am.
k12 | legislature | milestone | news
We are very close to another year of success. Bob Rosenberg and I [Ted Kraver] were at the legislature early yesterday and made a number of contacts with legislators. At 11:30 Representative Mark Anderson called and said the budget reconciliation caucus had adopted the modified instructional technology systems wording of his HB 2742, but dropped the funding to $1,000,000. Later Senate appropriations approved and then the Senate voted on the new version of the HB 2790 Budget Reconciliation; K-12 education. With the House Concur and Final Passage on today’s calendar, the $10.6 billion budget will be ready to send to Governor Napolitano.
Congratulations and a mighty thank you to all who supported this legislationi over the past 5 months!
The funding level is disappointing. But for two years in a row now we have been successful in laying a foundation of policy and pilot programs. Two pioneering legislative leaders have provided enormous support for our efforts: Senator President Ken Bennett last year and House Education Chairman Mark Anderson this year The tide has turned this year. More and more legislators have warmed to the concept that we must take a systems approach to education. The last transformationi of education taxation and funding was lead by a dear friend and legislator David Kret in the 1970’s. His Chapter 15 Title 9.0 has run itsi course.
We must redesign and transform both the tax system for education and the funding for education. In parallel with funding transformation, instructional transformation with eLearningi will produce the dramatic increase in academic, arts, skills and career path education Arizona kids deserve.
The teachers organization and others call this initiative TEF (taxes, education, funding). The Arizona Business and Education Coalition announced yesterday at their annual conference in Scottsdale that transforming the system to finance K-12 education was the prime initiative over the next several years.
The dance was a long time coming. But the band has hit its beat, the mirrored ball is spinning, the floor is filling up and it looks like we are now in full swing to transform Arizona’s K-12 education into the 21st century.
Cutting funding on HB2742
Submitted by Ted on Wed, 2007/10/10 - 5:05am.
The final budget process is behind closed doors in the legislature. A select group of Senate and House majority legislatures negotiate the budget for the agencies, programs and new requests like from HB2742. This group including the appropriation chairs then hands of the buget to the House and Senate leadership for the final negotiations. There is communications with the Governor's budget director to try to craft a budget she will sign.
Except for well connected lobbyists there is no direct input from the public at this stage. The 2007 process had a new wrinkle where once the new money bills such as HB2742 passed their house of origin they were held for the budget process. The Senate never saw or heard the House bills in committee or had floor votes, same with Senate money bills in the House!
The public discussion with a small part of the legislature ends early in the game. That is why year round advocacy is needed with all legislators. Very disappointing.
Cheers
Ted Kraver tkraver [at] qwest [dot] net
Tiny Window
Submitted by admin on Wed, 2007/10/10 - 9:08am.
Ted, thank you so much for this view into the political process. Such revealing comments help me get an idea of where advocacy efforts need to be focused. It's hard to believe that the public window of influence is so small and closes so early.
Obstacles to accessing the Technology Funds ??
Submitted by seanrickert on Thu, 2007/10/04 - 9:59am.
In order for a school to access the $1,000,000 they have to present a plan that will"ensure access to one networked computer with broadbandi Internet access for each pupil in every academic classroom."
How is this part of the "Systemic" solution?
Doesn't this provide a marginal solution which funnels money to small schools, but keeps large schools behind the curve?
Sean Rickert
Director, St. Johns Learning Center
srickert [at] sjusd [dot] net
Obstacles to accessing the technology funds? HB2742
Submitted by Ted on Wed, 2007/10/10 - 4:50am.
Sean
I don't understand the part of the question that addresses small vs large schools.
The $1 million is just a start. It is the result of the budget crunching that took the original recommended $100 million to $10 in the education committee to a dead bill to this small funding in the final hours. The wording for the plan requires all aspects for systemic solution including teacher professional development, technical support and digital curriculum along with computers. eSATSi studies have resulted in the need for $2500 per student to be used over four years for the transformationi of a school. the $1 million would be adequate for one small K-8 school.
Cheers
Ted Kraver tkraver [at] qwest [dot] net
What was the reason given for cutting the funding level?
I think I read somewhere that the house had initially proposed $10 million and then cut the amount to $4 million when it was moved in with the overall budget. Why the additional cut? Was there any public discussion about why the legislature saw this as an area to poorly fund? .
Sean Rickert