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An economist on education

Tom — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:49:08 +0000

I caught on TV tonight an education policy presentation by Julian Betts, Chair of the Department of Economics. Originally presented in April of this year, Dr. Betts discusses peer-reviewed research on testing, accountability systems, charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay systems.

No matter where you fall on these issues, I think it’s worth watching.

Trib supports lawsuit against Omnibus

Tom — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:59:52 +0000

A few days ago, District Court Judge Dever granted the defendant’s (AG’s office) motion to dismiss the first two counts of the lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of last year’s (2008) SB2 (2nd substitute). After listening to the Judge ask both parties questions in court (back on March 26th), frankly I’m a bit surprised. According to lawyers for the plaintiffs, the ruling appears to avoid the substantive question, and hinges more on technicalities. (It’s linked below; see for yourself.) An appeal is planned, which is no surprise to either side—this issue will likely see final resolution from the Utah Supreme Court.

The Salt Lake Tribune has another editorial out supporting the lawsuit.

[The appeal] is the right thing to do. The lawmakers, state education officials and others who filed the lawsuit want a definitive ruling on whether legislators violated the Utah Constitution when, in the final hours of the legislative session, they packaged together a dozen bills, some that contained must-pass education funding.

…

Each piece of important legislation — and all laws regarding public education are important — is best considered on its own merits, not lumped together with other bills under the vast “education” umbrella. The more so when some of those bills cater mainly to private interests.

“SB2 Ruling: Plaintiffs should pursue appeal,” Salt Lake Tribune, 2008-05-28

If anyone’s looking for it, here is a copy of Judge Dever’s ruling [pdf, 5 MB] dismissing the first two counts of the complaint.

Many Utah newspapers came out against the omnibus bill, and in support of the lawsuit (all except the Provo Daily Herald, so far as I can tell—and the Herald’s primary argument was along the lines of “It could have been worse”).

“Power and politics: Court should throw light on omnibus legislation,” Salt Lake Tribune, 2008-04-18
“Omnibus bills tip power ,” Deseret News, 2008-04-19
“Forcing the issue: SB2 must not be allowed to set precedent ,” Salt Lake Tribune, 2008-05-30
“Legislative grab-bagging ,” Standard-Examiner, 2008-06-01

(I seem to recall something from the Spectrum too, but I don’t see it in my notes.)

Textbook Wisdom on Performance Pay

Tom — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:12:08 +0000

It’s probably not as much of a hot topic since the State Board of Ed, in an effort to protect other parts of the education budget during these lean times, held back money for district performance pay programs pushed by our peerless legislature, but I suspect the conversation hasn’t wholly died. I may not be spending my copious free hours hanging out at USOE anymore, but I assure you someone in government is thinking about it.

For those wedded to the idea of performance pay and “differentiated compensation” (and not just in public education) may I offer the following nugget from, of all things, an accounting textbook:

Incentive compensation for employees, such as bonuses, can, and probably should, be tied to balanced scorecard performance measures. However, this should be done only after the organization has been successfully managed with the scorecard for some time—perhaps a year or more. Managers must be confident that the performance measures are reliable, sensible, and understood by those who are being evaluated, and not easily manipulated. As Robert Kaplan and David Norton, the originators of the balanced scorecard concept point out, ‘compensation is such a powerful lever that you have to be pretty confident that you have the right measures and have good data for the measures before making the link.’Garrison, R.H., Noreen, E.W., Brewer, P.C. (2008) Managerial Accounting, 12th ed. McGraw-Hill. p 446.
Internal quote references Lori Calabrom “On Balance: A CFO Interview,” CFO Feb 2001, pp 73-78.

Proposed budget reductions in public education

Tom — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:22:06 +0000

Although public education was putatively held harmless during the budget cuts coming out of the recent special legislative session, the Minimum School Program (MSP) budget was reduced for fiscal year 2010 by $73,979,500. The State Board of Education was asked by the legislature to propose ways to achieve this reduction.

Friday in Board meeting, the following proposal was approved:

Ongoing reductions
1. UPSTART	2,500,000
2. USTAR	6,900,000
3. Special education additional days	2,900,000
4. Teach salary supplement (math/science)	4,300,000
Total ongoing reductions	$16,600,000
One-time reductions
1. Differentiated compensation	2,500,000
2. Uniform School Fund Restricted: Growth in Student Population Account	20,000,000
Total one-time reductions	$57,379,500
Total proposed reductions	$73,979,500

The “Uniform School Fund Restricted: Growth in Student Population Account” is a $100 M reserve account, originally designed to protect against education unplanned student growth. The legislature set the $100 M aside this last session “just in case.” This proposal would continue to hold $63 M in reserve—a smart decision, I think.

I think it’s important to add that this proposal was reached after significant feedback from school districts.

There have been expressions of concern that further reductions may be requested; the governor’s office has also requested public education at this time the Board has not been asked to provide additional cuts.

Although not technically public education, the Utah Education Network (UEN) provides a significant amount of technology services to public education; 80% of their funding goes to public education. UEN has stated they need to cut 4% ($900,000) from the first round of cuts. They’re hoping to accomplish the savings by eliminating unfilled staff positions, non-essential travel and professional development, and by postponing network improvements to about 70 elementary or charter schools (fewer if districts will help with payment).

Further, (and I hope there is public outrage at least on this point) the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) has been asked (as it is a state agency) by the legislature to prepare for additional 5% or 10% budget cuts for the next school year. Although they’ve been able to survive a 3% reduction without directly impacting their education programs, further cuts will have a significant impact on students that are underrepresented in the current process.

Even during times of increased revenues, the USDB was not given resources to build a much needed facility. Its students were moved to a handful of ill-suited buildings without ready accommodations for disabilities. (There was a July 13, 2008 Deseret News editorial on the subject. See also Trib, KSL.) Unlike local districts, USDB does not have taxing authority, and thus must rely on the state for the whole of its funding.

College Enrollment (It’s the economy)

Tom — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:04:18 +0000

Two years ago, there was some general concern about declining college enrollment. I posted about it. One one biggest reasons for the decline was the growing economy. I said then that there is an inverse relationship between economic strength and college enrollment.

The Trib has an article about how college enrollment is now increasing:

About 20.5 percent more Utahns enrolled as undergraduates in college during 2007 than in 2000, according to U.S. Census American Community Survey results released today. About 35 percent more enrolled in graduate and professional schools.Salt Lake Tribune, “College is becoming more of an attraction for Utahns,” 23 Sep 2008

Based on the age distribution curve projections from 2005 [pdf], we’re also on the upswing of the college-age population distribution. Given these two significant factors, the increased enrollment shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

Public Ed willing to give back to help balance budget

Tom — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 15:10:00 +0000

The legislature will be called into special session to reduce the current year’s budget by about $200 million. (See senatesite.com, SLTrib)

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, I suspect few in education would miss the $1 million appropriation for UPSTART (from the controversial SB2 second substitute, line 1108), which provides for ~~Waterford~~ a contractor to provide computers and software to preschoolers. This proposition hinges on the expectation that without the appropriation, the code describing the program would be rendered unenforceable.

Seeing as how UPSTART initially failed when it was on its own in a single-subject bill (HB 200 S1), I suspect there may also be a few legislators that wouldn’t be sorry to see it go …

State Board of Education Candidates Named for Election

Tom — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 22:26:06 +0000

The press release from the governor’s office is below. I don’t have time for commentary at the moment, other than to say I’m given to understand the governor simply took the ranked order from the nominating committee as his selection. Sara Brate over at the Accountability blog complied a list of the committee’s votes.

Salt Lake City – Utah Governor Jon Huntsman has announced the Utah State Board of Education candidates as recommended by the State Board of Education Nominating and Recruiting Committee. The candidates’ names have been sent to the Lt. Governor’s office to be included on the November ballot [below].

“These men and women were chosen from an extremely well qualified group of individuals,” Governor Huntsman said. “I am confident that each of these candidates would serve as exceptional board members and I wish them the best in the upcoming election.”

The candidates who were selected are as follows:

District 1
Shelly Locke
Susie Campbell Ashilman

District 4
Dave Thomas
Chris L. Dallin

District 7
Randall A. Mackay
Leslie Brooks Castle

District 8
Janet Cannon
Trent Kaufman

District 11
Ted H. Heap
Dave Crandall

District 12
Mark Cluff
Carol A. Murphy

District 13
Kyle Bateman
C. Mark Openshaw

Filed Version of SB2 Lawsuit

Tom — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:24:37 +0000

The suit suit filed contesting the constitutionality of Senate Bill 2 (2nd Substitute) has been in the news and come up in the bloghive. I haven’t seen anyone post a copy of the complaint—I happen to have one, so here it is.

Complaint [pdf]

The two constitutional sections at play are Article VI Section 22 and Article X Section 3.

Complainants

The news media hasn’t listed all 37 38 of the complainants (the Trib reported there were 38 [UPDATE: The Trib called me on it---their count was correct, the paragraphs were numbered oddly]), which has allowed some defenders of the bill to claim this is a partisan action. Feel free to grab the complaint and read about each of them; I think you’ll find the complaint is a bipartisan effort.

The numbers below don’t add up to 37 38, as some people fall into multiple categories (e.g. Kim Burningham is both a current USBE member and a former Republican legislator).

7 former Republican members of the Utah House of Representatives, including a former Speaker of the Utah House, and a former majority leader of the Utah House
5 current members of the Utah House (4-D, 1-R)
1 current and 1 former member the Utah Senate (both Democrats)
a former Chief Clerk of the House
6 current and 2 former members of the State Board of Education
a former State Superintendent of Public Education
7 current or former members (not including members of USBE) of the Utah School Boards Association, a group comprised of local school board members
2 members of the PTA (a former president, and a former legislative vice-president)
3 current or former members of the UEA former (including a former president)
a former member of Office of Legislative Research and General Council
1 person listed as a “community advocate” for education issues
a former district superintendent and a former school administrator

Editorials

Reader’s should note the following editorials which oppose the omnibus approach and support the suit:

SLTrib, 2008-04-19, “Power and politics: Court should throw light on omnibus”
SLTrib, 2008-05-30, “Forcing the issue: SB2 must not be allowed to set precedent”
DesNews, 2008-04-19, “Omnibus bill tips power”
Standard Examiner, 2008-06-01, “Legislative grab-bagging”
Standard Examiner, 2008-03-09, “2008 legislative report card”

The Herald also put out an editorial (2008-06-01, “Let Omnibus Roll Along”); they’re the only media outlet I’ve seen so far to oppose the suit. I found the editorial poorly written, ignoring facts (like the Utah constitution), and willfully exaggerating in an attempt to make the suit seem ridiculous.

The next closest thing to a media outlet defending the omnibus bill was yesterday’s point/counter-point in the Davis County Clipper