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Well, we are almost in the homestretch of a year that has been one like no other that I have experienced in education. We have been involved in tornado winds from the new Governor and it appears like this is just the beginning with more to come.
As we all know, the news out of Trenton these days has not been good for us. We finally had a win when the state court overturned Executive Order 7, the pay to play legislation that Governor Christies tried to impose telling the NJEA who they could and couldn’t support with PAC funds.
The Governor also introduced his toolkit to districts. The toolkit is just another way for this administration to hit our pocketbooks in a bolder way than they have done thus far. The toolkit’s legislative reforms would require:
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2.5% cap on municipalities limiting annual increases in property taxes imposed by school district, municipalities and counties.
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Collective Bargaining Reform which prohibit salary and benefit cost increases associated with any new labor contract from exceeding a 2.5% cap. This would also call for reinstating the ability for school districts to impose a “last best offer” contract under certain circumstances.
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Pension Reform which would roll back the 9% increase in pension benefits granted by the Legislature in 2001 for all pension service credit earned in the future and cap payouts for accumulated sick leave at $15.000 for current and future employees.
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Executive County Superintendent approval of Contracts which means that the county superintendent would have to sign off on all local school district contracts and approval would be withheld for contracts that increase annual salary and benefit costs more than the 2.5% cap; fail to include cost sharing for health benefits; fail to require at least 5 hours of actual teaching time per day for teaching staff; fail to specify a minimum number of work days or bar the contracting out of ancillary services.
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Election Reform, which would move the school board elections to November.
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Provide Mandate Relief meaning that every education dollar belongs in the classroom and should not be spent on more administrators and additional compliance costs to address onerous requirements that have questionable value and utility in the first place.
If any of this legislation is approved the collective bargaining practices that we know today would no longer exist. These reforms would cripple our ability to negotiate a fair and equitable contract in future years.
And as if this isn’t enough, the state is now reapplying for the “Race to the Top” (RTTT) money, which once again would include merit pay and teacher evaluations based on student’s performance on standardized testing.
(The following is from an article on njea.org)
In a 90-minute late-afternoon press conference on May 7, Education Commissioner Bret Schundler unveiled the Christie Administration’s legislative manifesto for improving public education.
“Anyone concerned about the existing over-reliance on standardized testing that plagues public education should be alarmed at this proposal,” said NJEA President Barbara Keshishian. “This proposal will call for more and more testing, in all subject areas, in all grades, and teachers’ very careers will be riding on the scores.”
Using it as the linchpin for New Jersey’s June 1 application for federal RTTT funding, Schundler introduced “New Jersey’s Plan for Race To The Top.” It seeks to enact legislation by June 1 – the Phase II deadline for RTTT applications – by pushing through a wide-ranging series of “reforms” that will vastly expand standardized testing.
The day before, Keshishian and NJEA Executive Director Vincent Giordano met with Schundler, at NJEA’s request, to share creative approaches for the Phase II application. (See this Star-Ledger web story.) The meeting was described by both sides as “cordial,” but Schundler resorted to misleading reporters on Friday by telling them that Keshishian and Giordano had said there was “no way to measure student learning.”
The Schundler/Christie plan would enact a Master Teacher program, a merit pay system, the elimination of seniority, the “reform” of tenure, weakening of certification, and the vast expansion of standardized testing.
Their Race To The Top Plan details the Christie strategy to get up to $400 million in federal RTTT funding for New Jersey. And, hile NJEA was vilified for weeks by Christie when the poorly conceived and hastily written Phase I RTTT application was rejected by the Obama Administration, Schundler told reporters he didn’t think NJEA’s support was central to approval in Phase II.
The administration promises a “comprehensive approach to assessment” to match up with New Jersey’s high quality academic standards. To make key decisions based on student achievement data, the state will have a “high quality” Longitudinal Data Tracking System (yet to be designed).
As their Outline Document indicates, student test scores will be the be-all and endall of most of their legislation’s objectives. They will require quarterly statewide assessments, presumably in every grade, in every subject. They also promise to “establish a system that includes end-of-year, periodic, and day-today formative assessments.”
According to the administration’s plans, student learning “must represent at least 51% of teacher and school leader evaluations,” even though the RTTT application process does not require such a percentage, and there is no research to back up such a percentage.
The proposal calls for bonuses for “highly effective teachers willing to teach in schools and classrooms with a high proportion of students at risk,” and to provide “tenure ‘retreat rights’ to teachers who answer the call,” which they say would enable teachers to take their tenure and seniority with them to work in challenging districts.
Under the proposal, seniority as we know it would be essentially abolished. On page 5 of the plan document, there is this: “And to the extent that economic conditions require reductions in our workforce, we should use these evaluations, not seniority, as the basis for personnel decisions.”
As for tenure, the proposal wants to “extend the tenure timeline to five years, and require three years of ‘effective’ or better evaluations [translation: raising test scores] for a teacher to be granted tenure.”
Of course, this entire presentation was billed through the media as a “merit pay” proposal, and it certainly is that. It calls for a “state bonus pool to reward teachers for student learning outcomes [higher test scores].” It would “[d]istribute 50% directly to teachers or teacher teams, with the remaining 50% apportioned among school staff and programs.” It would then “[b]ase the amount of bonus awards on both student achievement and student growth, with a special emphasis on growth by our most disadvantaged children.”
While Gov. Christie has said he does not favor “one-time” federal stimulus funding, the RTTT grant would yield, at most, $400 million over four years – or $100 million per year. The RTTT legislation stipulates that half of the money would go to districts, and half to the state DOE. So, we would have to assume that $50 million would be available for the “state bonus pool.” Of that, 50 percent – or $25 million – would go to “teachers or teacher teams.” Based on 125,000 classroom teachers in New Jersey, that’s $200 per teacher (assuming every teacher is “meritorious”).
“This proposal already has two key attributes that characterize every failed merit pay plan,” said Keshishian. “It does not have enough funding, and that funding is not guaranteed over the long run.”
“NJEA leadership and staff will be working to analyze this proposal carefully,” she said, “since the administration is looking for our response by May 25.” (see the full article at njea.org)
Now back to the local level. We are moving forward with negotiations and trying not to think about the impact that the toolkit reform could have on us. We have learned that there is no way for us to save the 1.5% contribution towards health care costs since our contract expires June 30 which is after the May 21 date. Therefore we are negotiating as we have every other year with everything on the table.
Don’t forget the Rally on May 22 in Trenton. We have 16 New Brunswick members going on the bus, and from what I am hearing many more of our members will be meeting us there to show our support in this war against the Governor and his constant attacks on us. Don’t forget to wear a RED, WHITE or BLUE Shirt if you attend.