These were the remarks District President Marc Lebendig made at the regional public hearing January 8, 2009. Remarks were to be limited to three minutes, and the conversation at the end is Senator Houck asking that the comments be concluded. The full text of the remarks (which were not fully delivered) follows the audio.
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Click below to read the full text of the comments.
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Continue reading 'Comments Before the General Assembly Joint Finance Committee'»
Item #12: Oppose efforts to undermine the security of Virginia Retirement System (VRS).
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The VRS is a traditional pension plan, which means that benefits are predictable and designed to afford an income stream commensurate with members’ years of service. Advantages of these traditional “defined-benefit” pensions include the fact that they are guarenteed, professionally managed, and include cost-of-living adjustments.
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Some legislators and administrative officials support a so-called “defined-contribution” alternative for VRS. Such accounts are more accurately described as “personal risk” accounts. They subject individual investors to market risks, and under such plans, retirement income would depend heavily on how astutely members invested their money. Under certain scenarios, members could outlive their retirement savings.
Item #11: Oppose the use of vouchers or tuition tax credits.
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At a time when Virginia’s state school funding ranks so poorly on the national level, and resource inequities abound, it makes no sense to siphon more money from public schools.
Item #10: Support full funding of the Standards of Quality, including revisions proposed by the Virginia Board of Education
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In the current economic downturn there is great pressure to further erode the Standards of Quality by continuing to alter the formula and by reducing the state level of support. Governor Kaine’s proposed budget attempts this to the tune of $344 million. Diluting the SOQ’s is a sure way to weaken education long beyond the end of the current fiscal crisis. VEA will oppose these efforts.
Item #9: Require that House of Delegates subcommittees publicly record their votes.
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Since the House of Delegates decided in 2006 that bills could be killed in subcommittees, those committees have not been required to publicly record their votes. Votes are taken in a secretive manner so that Delegates do not have to go on record. This practice has come under attack by numerous groups throughout the state.
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It has been recently reported that a deal has been reached, and this will not be the case this year. However, it appears that all that has been decided is that the votes will be publicly recorded if there is a request by a subcommittee member:
At the urging of Democrats and members of his own party, Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, said he has directed the clerk of the House of Delegates to start recording votes taken in House subcommittees.
“The intent is when a recorded vote is requested [emphasis mine], as in a full committee, the clerks will take note of that and we will get that on the [Legislative Information System] as soon as practicable,” said G. Paul Nardo, chief of staff to Howell.
Since this is unlikely to happen, much more needs to be done. The House of Delegates will determine their rules at the beginning of the legislative session, and they need to be pressured to record all subcommittee votes so that citizens can be fully aware of their representatives’ actions.
Item #8: Require changes to methodology of biennial report on public school teacher compensation.
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The VEA will introduce legislation to improve the methodology utilized by the Virginia Department of Human Resource Management’s (DHRM) to produce the Biennial Report on Public School Compensation.
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DHRM should adopt a methodology that values the time Virginia’s teachers devote to their jobs, that offers an informed comparison of teacher salaries to those in comparable professions, and applies a methodology that recognizes that salaries other than entry-level salaries are significant in attracting and retaining qualified teachers.
Item #7: Offer VRS prior service buy-back opportunity.
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Experience makes teachers better, yet the teacher turnover rate is alarmingly high in Virginia. Teachers who remain in the classroom for six years reach a high level of professional competence, and they tend to remain in teaching. To retain high-quality teachers, VEA proposes that the VRS buyback window be reopened to teachers reaching this critical juncture of their professional career.
Item #6: Provide elementary teachers with an average of thirty minutes per day during the school week as planning time.
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State rules require school divisions to proivde unencumbered time during the student week for middle and high school teachers, but not elementary teachers. It is time for the General Assembly to require that all teachers be guaranteed a daily period within the student day or an extended period of time one or more days a week, exclusive of travel time and free from supervisory or instructional duties, for the purpose of instructional planning.
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When VEA asked the General Assembly to codify this during the last legislative session, the school superintendants’ organization lobbied against it, arguing the expense would be too large. In fact, many divisions are already doing this, so there should be very little cost involved. This is a prime example of a way we can strengthen education even in a budget crisis.
In a telephone interview with the August Free Press on Thursday, 12/18, VEA President Kitty Boitnott said,
While the decisions are tough and certainly not anything the Governor or anybody else would have wished for, the ultimate impact is going to be on the various localities, and again, the poorest school divisions are going to be the ones that are hardest hit. The children with the least financial resources are going to be the ones who suffer the impact.
And of course, since the biggest share of the proposed budget cuts are to the Standards of Quality, these cuts will be permanent, far outlasting the current financial crisis. To hear the full interview, click here.
Governor Kaine’s proposed budget will include cuts to teacher salary, school construction, and the Administration and Support components of the Standards of Quality.
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The good news is that education was cut less than any other area, and that Kaine looked at both sides of the ledger, also proposing a tax hike on cigarettes (although a fight is expected in the House over that proposal).
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However, the majority of the cuts ($340 million) are being made to the Standards of Quality, and those cuts will remain even after the current fiscal crisis ends. In other words, these are permanent cuts.
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Virginia curently ranks 37th in the nation in state support. It is a mistake to think cuts in support and administration won’t hurt instruction, although that is surely what we will be told. These cuts will result in larger classes, less training for teachers, and fewer instructional supplies.
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VEA’s complete statement is available here.
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