From the Inquirer.
Group urges improved teacher quality in Philadelphia
By Martha Woodall Posted on Tue, Mar. 31, 2009
Inquirer Staff Writer
A new coalition of researchers, activists, community groups, parents, and students will kick off a campaign today to press the Philadelphia School District to overhaul its hiring process and make improving teacher quality a top priority in the district.
Called "Effective Teaching for All Children: What It Will Take," the project will urge Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and the Philadelphia School Reform Commission to "recruit, reward, and retain talented school staff, distribute teachers equitably, and support their development in every school."
The Education First Compact, a consortium of local education-reform organizations, and the Philadelphia Cross City Campaign, a collection of community groups, will unveil their campaign today in City Hall at 4 p.m.
Although Ackerman has said she placed a high priority on improving teacher recruitment, streamlining the hiring process, and developing strategies to retain talented staff, coalition members said they were disappointed that teacher quality was not given a top priority in the draft of her strategic plan, Imagine 2014.
Her plan does call for hiring teachers by June instead of August and requiring teachers who want to transfer to inform the district by May.
At a media briefing yesterday, coalition members said the groups had joined together to develop a six-point platform that includes distributing effective teachers more equitably across the district, creating a "deep bench" of teacher applicants, and making sure there were no teacher vacancies when school opened in the fall.
"Every child deserves an effective teacher," said Brian Armstead, director of civic engagement at the Philadelphia Education Fund. "And every school needs a stable workforce of effective teachers."
Coalition members said that the district's cumbersome and lengthy hiring process and seniority provisions in the teachers contract that give teachers the right to transfer to other schools resulted in the least-experienced teachers' being concentrated in the neediest schools.
And, because 70 percent of teachers leave the district within six years, the neediest schools rarely have a chance to develop a stable staff. The lack of stability and the constant influx of new teachers contribute to the gap of student achievement, the group said.
"This issue has been with us for a long period of time," Elizabeth Useem, senior research consultant at Research for Action.
The nonprofit educational research organization based in Philadelphia has released three studies on teacher quality in district schools in the last few years.
Useem said the district had made improvements but needed to do more.
"Right now there was a general agreement that we have a tremendous opportunity to really make significant progress," Armstead said. "We have a new superintendent who has expressed a sincere commitment to eliminating the achievement gap and who understands the importance of quality teaching."
He also said that the time was right because the district was in contract negotiations with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and because President Obama had made a commitment to improving teacher quality in public schools.
PFT president Jerry Jordan said inexperienced teachers could be effective and creative.
The union prefers that schools have a mix of veterans and new teachers.
At schools with large numbers of low-income students, the best incentive for attracting and keeping effective teachers "is having great leadership and good working conditions for teachers," Jordan said. "Those are the things that make the biggest difference."
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Unmanageable
Two views from the BCCT
Pension poison
‘Unmanageable!’
Dramatically higher school district contributions to the state pension fund could push stressed taxpayers over the brink.
We’ve all heard it before: “There are no guarantees in life.” And some of us might have believed it. Wrong. Very wrong.
There is a guarantee in life and it's called the Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS). The state-mandated, taxpayer-funded pension system is as guaranteed as it gets.
We refer to Tuesday's Page 1 story, "Schools face huge pension hikes." The headline, while accurate, is incomplete. What you find out when you read the story is that it's taxpayers who face huge pension costs, because the enormous increases in pension contributions that school districts must, by law, begin making will be passed on to taxpayers.
This is yet another result of the economic meltdown. Like a lot of pension funds that are invested in the market, Pennsylvania's school employees fund has been losing money. A lot of it. Unlike private pension funds, the school employees' fund, or PSERS, is guaranteed.
On its Web site, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, also known as the teachers union, describes it this way: "Unlike private-sector defined benefit pension plans that have made the news in recent years, PSERS pensions are guaranteed by law as contractual agreements between the participants and the state of Pennsylvania. PSERS, essentially, is a separate fund set up by the state to earn investment returns that will help the state pay for the pension benefits. The pension obligations themselves are guaranteed by the state."
And that means, in the union's boastful words, "Current and future PSERS retirees' pension checks are not affected by market conditions."
It would have been nice if state lawmakers had insulated school tax bills from market conditions. But they didn't do that. They did hike their own pensions a whopping 50 percent a few years ago, and simultaneously increased school employees' pensions 25 percent - perhaps a thank-you for all those campaign contributions from the school employees' unions.
But it's taxpayers who have to fund those increases and, likewise, who have to make up for the huge hit the pension fund has taken. Call it a double whammy.
The heavy hits will begin in the 2012-13 school year, when districts' share of the pension contribution, now at 4.78 percent, could jump to 30.22 percent. The rate will hover in the 30 to 35 percent range for a decade. "It could cost us $6.6 million more" in 2012-13, one local school district business manager fretted, adding: "These numbers aren't manageable."
No, they're not. Not for the taxpayers on whose financial backs the school districts ride.
And that means our state lawmakers must do something. They can't ignore this one - or come up with another politically safe but ultimately phony solution like they've done time and again on tax reform. They've got to step up - AND FIX IT!
Here are a couple of ideas: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Wisconsin, which likewise has sustained huge pension losses, will cut public employees' pension benefits. In Virginia, lawmakers are considering a bill that would freeze the current pension plan for public employees and replace it with a 401(k) for all future hires. The Pennsylvania Senate considered a similar bill in 2007, but it went nowhere. RESURRECT IT!
And how about that gluttonous pension hike lawmakers brazenly bestowed on themselves and school employees? It was selfish then - ruinous now. REPEAL IT!
Look, change won't come easy, we know that. The state teachers union for one will fight any alterations to its pot of retirement gold. On its Web site, the union notes that "defined contribution plans, e.g. 401(k) and 403(b), are affected" by the current economic crisis. Those are the retirement plans regular people have. And it urges union members to circle the wagons: "We can expect continued political attacks on PSERS, but at a time when many individual investors have suffered considerable losses on their 401(k) and 403(b) retirement accounts, the merits of a defined benefit pension system have become obvious...
"That's why it is important for us to do everything in our power to protect and strengthen our defined benefit pension plan."
The battle looms. Who will lawmakers fight for?
And the answer?
Blatant conflicts standard fare in corrupt Harrisburg
By TIM POTTS
Tim Potts is executive director of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, a non-profit watchdog organization dedicated to the reform of state government.
When foxes guard the henhouse, the hens lose. Now substitute Pennsylvania lawmakers for foxes, the capitol for the henhouse and citizens for the hens. Guess who loses.
This week, Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV provided yet another example of how lawmakers manage to use their position to feather their own nests with blatant conflicts of interest that are perfectly and shamefully legal. Investigative reporter Jim Parsons documented that a large number of state lawmakers combine outside income from private ventures with assignments on committees that oversee those same ventures. Among the conflicts:
A lawmaker who is employed by a company that is regulated by a committee on which the lawmaker sits. As if that isn’t enough, the lawmaker also rents his district office space from his employer.
A lawmaker who is both on the board of a company that sells insurance and on the House Insurance Committee.
A lawmaker who both owns a firm that consults with agribusinesses and is chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Lawmakers excuse serving two masters by claiming that their outside occupations bring expertise to committee work. But there is no shortage of expertise available to committees without creating such conflicts of interest. To use a timely example, what bankers sitting on the Banking Committee would blow the whistle on financial derivatives from which they and their employers are making tons of money?
As Parsons’ report points out, this kind of self-dealing is not illegal. The lawmakers, after all, are the ones who would have to make it so, and they, like hedge fund managers, have every incentive to let their own good times roll, no matter how much it costs the public.
Don’t we pay lawmakers enough that they should forego outside employment that conflicts with their duties on behalf of the taxpayers? Or at least be barred from committees that most often write the final form of legislation that the full House and Senate consider?
WAMs — The Mother of All Conflicts
One of the things the conviction of former state Sen. Vince Fumo and the latest charges against former state Rep. Mike Veon have in common is the conspicuous conflicts of interest made possible by the largely secret and unaccountable Walking Around Money (WAMs). Among Fumo’s 137 convictions for public corruption were $1.5 million in WAMs that Fumo laundered through a Philadelphia non-profit. The allegations filed against Veon included nearly $10 million in WAMs allegedly laundered through his own non-profit, the Beaver Initiatve for Growth (BIG).
Both cases point out the potential dangers of allowing lawmakers to appropriate money to themselves. While not all such arrangements conclude with illegal acts, it’s hard to know because absent a grand jury investigation, no one’s minding that henhouse either. The Department of Community and Economic Development that is the source of most WAMs allows WAM recipients to choose their own auditors thereby failing to ensure that either Fumo’s or Veon’s high-profile WAMs were being used legally. Does anyone think they do a better job with the less visible WAMs?
Another problem with WAMs is that they come at the expense of other things. When lawmakers get to choose whether to give money to themselves or to food banks, domestic violence prevention, schools or back to taxpayers, who gets the money? How many taxpayers think the best use of $160,000 a year was to pay Veon’s brother to do nothing of benefit for taxpayers? The only way to ensure that lawmakers’ interests aren’t conflicted is to eliminate the conflicts as much as humanly possible.
What’s the solution?
All of this will change when citizens decide to stop wasting their money on corruption and on political leaders who abide corruption.
A year from today, the entire House and half of the Senate will be asking for your vote. If they don’t clean up the capitol, will they get it?
Pension poison
‘Unmanageable!’
Dramatically higher school district contributions to the state pension fund could push stressed taxpayers over the brink.
We’ve all heard it before: “There are no guarantees in life.” And some of us might have believed it. Wrong. Very wrong.
There is a guarantee in life and it's called the Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS). The state-mandated, taxpayer-funded pension system is as guaranteed as it gets.
We refer to Tuesday's Page 1 story, "Schools face huge pension hikes." The headline, while accurate, is incomplete. What you find out when you read the story is that it's taxpayers who face huge pension costs, because the enormous increases in pension contributions that school districts must, by law, begin making will be passed on to taxpayers.
This is yet another result of the economic meltdown. Like a lot of pension funds that are invested in the market, Pennsylvania's school employees fund has been losing money. A lot of it. Unlike private pension funds, the school employees' fund, or PSERS, is guaranteed.
On its Web site, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, also known as the teachers union, describes it this way: "Unlike private-sector defined benefit pension plans that have made the news in recent years, PSERS pensions are guaranteed by law as contractual agreements between the participants and the state of Pennsylvania. PSERS, essentially, is a separate fund set up by the state to earn investment returns that will help the state pay for the pension benefits. The pension obligations themselves are guaranteed by the state."
And that means, in the union's boastful words, "Current and future PSERS retirees' pension checks are not affected by market conditions."
It would have been nice if state lawmakers had insulated school tax bills from market conditions. But they didn't do that. They did hike their own pensions a whopping 50 percent a few years ago, and simultaneously increased school employees' pensions 25 percent - perhaps a thank-you for all those campaign contributions from the school employees' unions.
But it's taxpayers who have to fund those increases and, likewise, who have to make up for the huge hit the pension fund has taken. Call it a double whammy.
The heavy hits will begin in the 2012-13 school year, when districts' share of the pension contribution, now at 4.78 percent, could jump to 30.22 percent. The rate will hover in the 30 to 35 percent range for a decade. "It could cost us $6.6 million more" in 2012-13, one local school district business manager fretted, adding: "These numbers aren't manageable."
No, they're not. Not for the taxpayers on whose financial backs the school districts ride.
And that means our state lawmakers must do something. They can't ignore this one - or come up with another politically safe but ultimately phony solution like they've done time and again on tax reform. They've got to step up - AND FIX IT!
Here are a couple of ideas: According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Wisconsin, which likewise has sustained huge pension losses, will cut public employees' pension benefits. In Virginia, lawmakers are considering a bill that would freeze the current pension plan for public employees and replace it with a 401(k) for all future hires. The Pennsylvania Senate considered a similar bill in 2007, but it went nowhere. RESURRECT IT!
And how about that gluttonous pension hike lawmakers brazenly bestowed on themselves and school employees? It was selfish then - ruinous now. REPEAL IT!
Look, change won't come easy, we know that. The state teachers union for one will fight any alterations to its pot of retirement gold. On its Web site, the union notes that "defined contribution plans, e.g. 401(k) and 403(b), are affected" by the current economic crisis. Those are the retirement plans regular people have. And it urges union members to circle the wagons: "We can expect continued political attacks on PSERS, but at a time when many individual investors have suffered considerable losses on their 401(k) and 403(b) retirement accounts, the merits of a defined benefit pension system have become obvious...
"That's why it is important for us to do everything in our power to protect and strengthen our defined benefit pension plan."
The battle looms. Who will lawmakers fight for?
And the answer?
Blatant conflicts standard fare in corrupt Harrisburg
By TIM POTTS
Tim Potts is executive director of Democracy Rising Pennsylvania, a non-profit watchdog organization dedicated to the reform of state government.
When foxes guard the henhouse, the hens lose. Now substitute Pennsylvania lawmakers for foxes, the capitol for the henhouse and citizens for the hens. Guess who loses.
This week, Pittsburgh’s WTAE-TV provided yet another example of how lawmakers manage to use their position to feather their own nests with blatant conflicts of interest that are perfectly and shamefully legal. Investigative reporter Jim Parsons documented that a large number of state lawmakers combine outside income from private ventures with assignments on committees that oversee those same ventures. Among the conflicts:
A lawmaker who is employed by a company that is regulated by a committee on which the lawmaker sits. As if that isn’t enough, the lawmaker also rents his district office space from his employer.
A lawmaker who is both on the board of a company that sells insurance and on the House Insurance Committee.
A lawmaker who both owns a firm that consults with agribusinesses and is chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Lawmakers excuse serving two masters by claiming that their outside occupations bring expertise to committee work. But there is no shortage of expertise available to committees without creating such conflicts of interest. To use a timely example, what bankers sitting on the Banking Committee would blow the whistle on financial derivatives from which they and their employers are making tons of money?
As Parsons’ report points out, this kind of self-dealing is not illegal. The lawmakers, after all, are the ones who would have to make it so, and they, like hedge fund managers, have every incentive to let their own good times roll, no matter how much it costs the public.
Don’t we pay lawmakers enough that they should forego outside employment that conflicts with their duties on behalf of the taxpayers? Or at least be barred from committees that most often write the final form of legislation that the full House and Senate consider?
WAMs — The Mother of All Conflicts
One of the things the conviction of former state Sen. Vince Fumo and the latest charges against former state Rep. Mike Veon have in common is the conspicuous conflicts of interest made possible by the largely secret and unaccountable Walking Around Money (WAMs). Among Fumo’s 137 convictions for public corruption were $1.5 million in WAMs that Fumo laundered through a Philadelphia non-profit. The allegations filed against Veon included nearly $10 million in WAMs allegedly laundered through his own non-profit, the Beaver Initiatve for Growth (BIG).
Both cases point out the potential dangers of allowing lawmakers to appropriate money to themselves. While not all such arrangements conclude with illegal acts, it’s hard to know because absent a grand jury investigation, no one’s minding that henhouse either. The Department of Community and Economic Development that is the source of most WAMs allows WAM recipients to choose their own auditors thereby failing to ensure that either Fumo’s or Veon’s high-profile WAMs were being used legally. Does anyone think they do a better job with the less visible WAMs?
Another problem with WAMs is that they come at the expense of other things. When lawmakers get to choose whether to give money to themselves or to food banks, domestic violence prevention, schools or back to taxpayers, who gets the money? How many taxpayers think the best use of $160,000 a year was to pay Veon’s brother to do nothing of benefit for taxpayers? The only way to ensure that lawmakers’ interests aren’t conflicted is to eliminate the conflicts as much as humanly possible.
What’s the solution?
All of this will change when citizens decide to stop wasting their money on corruption and on political leaders who abide corruption.
A year from today, the entire House and half of the Senate will be asking for your vote. If they don’t clean up the capitol, will they get it?
One or more schools must go
From the BCCT.
One or more schools must go
Centennial anticipates uncontrollable costs the next five years and significantly higher contributions by 2013 for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System.
By MANASEE WAGH
STAFF WRITER
To most parents’ delight, the idea of a single elementary school went up in smoke.
However, Centennial’s not out of the woods yet.
A troubling financial outlook means one or more of the six current elementary schools will need to close within the next few years, said board members recently.
If nothing is done, the district’s expenditures would outstrip revenues every school year. By 2013-14 taxes would surpass the state mandated increase by about $7.9 million, according to projections from the district’s business office.
The administration says those numbers are conservative.
Projections even two years out show taxes surpassing the state-mandated limit by $1.4 million, assuming an Act 1 tax index of 3.9 percent for each year after 2009-10.
Under the state’s Act 1 legislation, school districts have to hold a public referendum to raise taxes more than 4.1 percent, which is unlikely since more than 80 percent of district residents do not have kids in public school, said school board operations committee members Cindy Mueller and Mark Miller at a recent meeting of the Courier Times editorial board.
“The Act 1 limit could change year to year. We don’t know,” board President Thomas Reinboth said Tuesday.
Over the next five years, Centennial anticipates uncontrollable costs, including a new professional staff contract next year and significantly higher contributions by 2013 for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Operating and maintaining all the elementary schools currently adds $5.8 million annually.
“A big wild card is the teacher’s contract we’ll be negotiating,” said Reinboth. The current contract expires in June 2010. “That could have a tremendous impact on the numbers, good or bad, but hopefully positively. We as a board will be reviewing these numbers at a finance committee meeting next week. I think it’s important for the whole board to review it,” he said. Total employee salaries and benefits represent about three-quarters of the budget. Teacher salaries and benefits are a large component of the total.
Revenue won’t keep up with expenditures, according to official figures, and the district doesn’t know enough details about how much the federal school stimulus would provide.
To save the most money in the long run, Miller and Mueller, who make up two-thirds of the operations committee, were pushing for a single $91 million elementary campus in Shenandoah Woods, a Warminster housing development for Willow Grove Naval Air Base before it closed. The federal government would have donated the land.
The campus was projected to save $2.2 million yearly, more than any other option that architects Burt Hill formulated, including renovating all schools. Constructing the single school in phases for an opening in 2013 would have reduced the gap in the budget from $7.9 million that year to $4.3 million, according to projections.
The existing elementary setup contains more than 60 unused classrooms altogether, said architects. With uneven class sizes and systems badly in need of renovation, the buildings cause an unnecessary drain on district finances, say board members.
Now the district and architects are going back to the drawing board to formulate other options besides the original 13 the board considered and discarded in the past month.
A more in-depth look at the financial plan will be discussed at an April 20 public finance committee meeting. It takes place at 6:30 p.m. in district offices at 433 Centennial Road, Warminster.
One or more schools must go
Centennial anticipates uncontrollable costs the next five years and significantly higher contributions by 2013 for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System.
By MANASEE WAGH
STAFF WRITER
To most parents’ delight, the idea of a single elementary school went up in smoke.
However, Centennial’s not out of the woods yet.
A troubling financial outlook means one or more of the six current elementary schools will need to close within the next few years, said board members recently.
If nothing is done, the district’s expenditures would outstrip revenues every school year. By 2013-14 taxes would surpass the state mandated increase by about $7.9 million, according to projections from the district’s business office.
The administration says those numbers are conservative.
Projections even two years out show taxes surpassing the state-mandated limit by $1.4 million, assuming an Act 1 tax index of 3.9 percent for each year after 2009-10.
Under the state’s Act 1 legislation, school districts have to hold a public referendum to raise taxes more than 4.1 percent, which is unlikely since more than 80 percent of district residents do not have kids in public school, said school board operations committee members Cindy Mueller and Mark Miller at a recent meeting of the Courier Times editorial board.
“The Act 1 limit could change year to year. We don’t know,” board President Thomas Reinboth said Tuesday.
Over the next five years, Centennial anticipates uncontrollable costs, including a new professional staff contract next year and significantly higher contributions by 2013 for the Public School Employees’ Retirement System. Operating and maintaining all the elementary schools currently adds $5.8 million annually.
“A big wild card is the teacher’s contract we’ll be negotiating,” said Reinboth. The current contract expires in June 2010. “That could have a tremendous impact on the numbers, good or bad, but hopefully positively. We as a board will be reviewing these numbers at a finance committee meeting next week. I think it’s important for the whole board to review it,” he said. Total employee salaries and benefits represent about three-quarters of the budget. Teacher salaries and benefits are a large component of the total.
Revenue won’t keep up with expenditures, according to official figures, and the district doesn’t know enough details about how much the federal school stimulus would provide.
To save the most money in the long run, Miller and Mueller, who make up two-thirds of the operations committee, were pushing for a single $91 million elementary campus in Shenandoah Woods, a Warminster housing development for Willow Grove Naval Air Base before it closed. The federal government would have donated the land.
The campus was projected to save $2.2 million yearly, more than any other option that architects Burt Hill formulated, including renovating all schools. Constructing the single school in phases for an opening in 2013 would have reduced the gap in the budget from $7.9 million that year to $4.3 million, according to projections.
The existing elementary setup contains more than 60 unused classrooms altogether, said architects. With uneven class sizes and systems badly in need of renovation, the buildings cause an unnecessary drain on district finances, say board members.
Now the district and architects are going back to the drawing board to formulate other options besides the original 13 the board considered and discarded in the past month.
A more in-depth look at the financial plan will be discussed at an April 20 public finance committee meeting. It takes place at 6:30 p.m. in district offices at 433 Centennial Road, Warminster.
Special needs require higher costs
From the Pottstown Mercury
School district reality: Special needs require higher costs
Published: Monday, March 30, 2009
By Evan Brandt/ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
POTTSTOWN — In 10 years, the number of special education students in Pottstown schools increased by more than one third, the number of special education classroom assistants increased three-fold and the number of special education teachers jumped from 26 to 40.
Outlined in a report to the school board Thursday, that information covers the period between the 1996-97 school year and the 2006-07 school year.
Further, in just the last two years, the number of special education students has increased by 64, from 443 to 507 and the district has added nine more special education teachers, bringing the total to 49. And in that same period, seven more special education classrooms assistants have been added, bringing this year's total to 79.
According to a statewide report released just last month, the increases in Pottstown are part of a trend being seen throughout Pennsylvania.
Between 2002 and 2007, special education enrollment in Pennsylvania has jumped by 25,000 students, Batseon said of the report's findings.
Not surprisingly, during that time, the district's special education costs have also grown.
That's because, statewide, it costs 2.3 times as much to educate a special education student on average as it does to educate kids without special needs.
In addition to the additional staff, "hidden costs" come in the form of "extra paperwork and meetings," said Pamela Batseon, the district's director of special education and student services.
The "Costing Out Study" conducted for the Pennsylvania Department of Education and released this year notes that the base cost for educating a student in Pennsylvania is about $8,000 per year.
By contrast, in Pottstown the annual average cost for a special needs student's education is $20,933, the study shows.
Still, Bateson said, that number is less than most other districts in Montgomery County.
Which is not to say it's cheap.
Last year, the district spent $10.1 million on special
education, said Business Administrator Linda Adams. This year, the special education budget is $10.5 million
But numbers don't tell the whole story.
"The numbers are not as simple as they might appear on the surface," Batseon told the school board.
A mind-numbing number of factors affect special education, its costs, its requirements and the manner in which the services are delivered, and not just in Pottstown.
With the state regularly monitoring the district for compliance with the maze of regulations, Batseon identified for the board no less than 23 areas on which the district must maintain constant compliance.
They include things ranging from "assistive technology," to drop-out and graduation rates, to parent participation and ensuring special education students are taught in the "least restrictive environment."
"We are comparing for compliance monitoring right now that will take place at the end of the month and we need to be able to demonstrate things like ensuring there are 28 square feet per special education student in each building," Batseon said.
Understanding how those regulations work can save the district from expensive litigation. "In Pottstown, we do not see the level of litigation and due process cases other districts are hit with," Bateson said.
While there is no shortage of state and federal regulation of special education, state and federal funding is scarce.
According to the costing out study, 391 of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts have inadequate special education funding, Batseon said the report concludes. In most districts, the shortfall is about $1 million per year.
Adams said typically, state aid comprises about 30 percent of Pottstown's special education budget and federal funding another 1 percent.
School Board Vice President Robert Hartman said one reason state funding falls so short is a change the state made decades ago in how special education is funded.
Under the previous system, the state reimbursed districts based on how many special education students they actually have.
Then, the system was changed to make reimbursements based on a formula that assumes a similar ratio of special education to nonspecial education students in each district, Hartman said.
But that sort of assumption is expensively inaccurate, as studies show that districts with lower income families have a disproportionately higher number of special education students, meaning the districts with what are often the weakest tax bases are burdened with some of the highest costs.
Despite that evidence "the state never said 'whoops, we were wrong' and changed it back," said Hartman.
For example, one factor that the state's formula fails to take into account is the Catch-22 that the borough's schools actually attract families with special education students because of its expertise with handling special education because of its already high special education population.
"We do a good job with special needs and people do come to this district for that," Hartman said
One of the things at which Pottstown has become expert is handling even difficult cases in-house.
For example, sending a student with extreme needs who attends the "life skills" classes, to the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit would cost a total of $60,000 a year. Taking that same student "in-house" costs taxpayers $15,412.
Bateson said the 35 students Pottstown has taken back, although the action required more staff being hired, ultimately saves Pottstown taxpayers $1.5 million per year.
Similarly, the autism classes the district has established, where 15 students are educated, saves the taxpayers $700,425 a year over sending them to the Intermediate Unit, Bateson said.
Taken together, these efforts to bring students back to Pottstown to be educated have saved the average Pottstown property owner, with an assessment around $80,000, about $160 per year, Business Manager Linda Adams estimated.
Bateson pointed out that the staff in Pottstown is working toward moving students into regular education.
The best way to do that, experts say, is to catch any issues early in a child's educational career.
Perhaps that is why the vast majority of the district's special education students, and accompanying staff, are located in the elementary schools.
Of the district's 507 special education students, 230 are in the elementary schools, along with 23 teachers and 38 assistants.
Another 129 students are in the middle school and 148 in the high school.
Of course, another Catch-22 of special education is that the earlier you identify students as having special needs, the more of them you have.
Never the less, Batseon pointed out that in 2006/07 school year, 105 students were found eligible for specal education services.
This year, only 73 were identified.
"We're not just spending more of the district's money," said Bateson. "We're really trying to do what's best for the students and keep the district out of hot water."
School district reality: Special needs require higher costs
Published: Monday, March 30, 2009
By Evan Brandt/ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
POTTSTOWN — In 10 years, the number of special education students in Pottstown schools increased by more than one third, the number of special education classroom assistants increased three-fold and the number of special education teachers jumped from 26 to 40.
Outlined in a report to the school board Thursday, that information covers the period between the 1996-97 school year and the 2006-07 school year.
Further, in just the last two years, the number of special education students has increased by 64, from 443 to 507 and the district has added nine more special education teachers, bringing the total to 49. And in that same period, seven more special education classrooms assistants have been added, bringing this year's total to 79.
According to a statewide report released just last month, the increases in Pottstown are part of a trend being seen throughout Pennsylvania.
Between 2002 and 2007, special education enrollment in Pennsylvania has jumped by 25,000 students, Batseon said of the report's findings.
Not surprisingly, during that time, the district's special education costs have also grown.
That's because, statewide, it costs 2.3 times as much to educate a special education student on average as it does to educate kids without special needs.
In addition to the additional staff, "hidden costs" come in the form of "extra paperwork and meetings," said Pamela Batseon, the district's director of special education and student services.
The "Costing Out Study" conducted for the Pennsylvania Department of Education and released this year notes that the base cost for educating a student in Pennsylvania is about $8,000 per year.
By contrast, in Pottstown the annual average cost for a special needs student's education is $20,933, the study shows.
Still, Bateson said, that number is less than most other districts in Montgomery County.
Which is not to say it's cheap.
Last year, the district spent $10.1 million on special
education, said Business Administrator Linda Adams. This year, the special education budget is $10.5 million
But numbers don't tell the whole story.
"The numbers are not as simple as they might appear on the surface," Batseon told the school board.
A mind-numbing number of factors affect special education, its costs, its requirements and the manner in which the services are delivered, and not just in Pottstown.
With the state regularly monitoring the district for compliance with the maze of regulations, Batseon identified for the board no less than 23 areas on which the district must maintain constant compliance.
They include things ranging from "assistive technology," to drop-out and graduation rates, to parent participation and ensuring special education students are taught in the "least restrictive environment."
"We are comparing for compliance monitoring right now that will take place at the end of the month and we need to be able to demonstrate things like ensuring there are 28 square feet per special education student in each building," Batseon said.
Understanding how those regulations work can save the district from expensive litigation. "In Pottstown, we do not see the level of litigation and due process cases other districts are hit with," Bateson said.
While there is no shortage of state and federal regulation of special education, state and federal funding is scarce.
According to the costing out study, 391 of Pennsylvania's 501 school districts have inadequate special education funding, Batseon said the report concludes. In most districts, the shortfall is about $1 million per year.
Adams said typically, state aid comprises about 30 percent of Pottstown's special education budget and federal funding another 1 percent.
School Board Vice President Robert Hartman said one reason state funding falls so short is a change the state made decades ago in how special education is funded.
Under the previous system, the state reimbursed districts based on how many special education students they actually have.
Then, the system was changed to make reimbursements based on a formula that assumes a similar ratio of special education to nonspecial education students in each district, Hartman said.
But that sort of assumption is expensively inaccurate, as studies show that districts with lower income families have a disproportionately higher number of special education students, meaning the districts with what are often the weakest tax bases are burdened with some of the highest costs.
Despite that evidence "the state never said 'whoops, we were wrong' and changed it back," said Hartman.
For example, one factor that the state's formula fails to take into account is the Catch-22 that the borough's schools actually attract families with special education students because of its expertise with handling special education because of its already high special education population.
"We do a good job with special needs and people do come to this district for that," Hartman said
One of the things at which Pottstown has become expert is handling even difficult cases in-house.
For example, sending a student with extreme needs who attends the "life skills" classes, to the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit would cost a total of $60,000 a year. Taking that same student "in-house" costs taxpayers $15,412.
Bateson said the 35 students Pottstown has taken back, although the action required more staff being hired, ultimately saves Pottstown taxpayers $1.5 million per year.
Similarly, the autism classes the district has established, where 15 students are educated, saves the taxpayers $700,425 a year over sending them to the Intermediate Unit, Bateson said.
Taken together, these efforts to bring students back to Pottstown to be educated have saved the average Pottstown property owner, with an assessment around $80,000, about $160 per year, Business Manager Linda Adams estimated.
Bateson pointed out that the staff in Pottstown is working toward moving students into regular education.
The best way to do that, experts say, is to catch any issues early in a child's educational career.
Perhaps that is why the vast majority of the district's special education students, and accompanying staff, are located in the elementary schools.
Of the district's 507 special education students, 230 are in the elementary schools, along with 23 teachers and 38 assistants.
Another 129 students are in the middle school and 148 in the high school.
Of course, another Catch-22 of special education is that the earlier you identify students as having special needs, the more of them you have.
Never the less, Batseon pointed out that in 2006/07 school year, 105 students were found eligible for specal education services.
This year, only 73 were identified.
"We're not just spending more of the district's money," said Bateson. "We're really trying to do what's best for the students and keep the district out of hot water."
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