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School District Starts Dealing With Real IssuesPosted on January 10, 2012 by Greg R. Lawson The Buckeye Institute.
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We did not notice this interesting nugget of news regarding the Benton-Carroll-Salem school district until our attention was brought to it thanks to an e-mail question. However, this is very interesting. A school district actually opened up its collective bargaining agreement and got real concessions, a 2.5 percent salary reduction.
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We did not notice this interesting nugget of news regarding the Benton-Carroll-Salem school district until our attention was brought to it thanks to an e-mail question. However, this is very interesting. A school district actually opened up its collective bargaining agreement and got real concessions, a 2.5 percent salary reduction.
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The CENTRAL problem besetting K-12 education in the US today is … that FAR TOO FEW KIDS ARE LEARNING NEARLY ENOUGH for their own good or the nations’. Chester E. Finn Jr. writes about the BARRIERS that keep us from making major-league gains in academic achievement. See “Central Problem & Barriers” under “Future Education” section of this weblog
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School standards ‘shocking’
Study: Ohio report cards give districts too much credit
Study: Standards too low
‘Excellent’ not always excellent
Study: Ohio report cards give districts too much credit
Study: Standards too low
‘Excellent’ not always excellent
Source: Cinti Enquirer, November 16, 2011 A1 front page. By Denise Smith Amos
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See page Academic Comparisons – CRUEL HOAX on this blog for more information.
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A new Nov. 1, 2011 Indian Hill Exempted School District teacher contract includes:
- A new standards based evaluation system & formation of a Teacher Evaluation Task Force.
- Formation of a Differentiated Compensation Task Force which will review pay based on the new evaluations.
- A reduction in force based on evaluations rather than just seniority.
- Less paid sick leave for part-time work.
- An increase to 15 percent in the teachers’ contribution to health and dental insurance.
- No automatic salary schedule step increases, althoug tecahers will be able to get additional compensation based on advanced degrees.
- One-time paymnet of 0.75 percent of their base salaries the first year and 1 percent the second.
A new Nov. 1, 2011 Indian Hill Exempted School District teacher contract includes:
- A new standards based evaluation system & formation of a Teacher Evaluation Task Force.
- Formation of a Differentiated Compensation Task Force which will review pay based on the new evaluations.
- A reduction in force based on evaluations rather than just seniority.
- Less paid sick leave for part-time work.
- An increase to 15 percent in the teachers’ contribution to health and dental insurance.
- No automatic salary schedule step increases, althoug tecahers will be able to get additional compensation based on advanced degrees.
- One-time paymnet of 0.75 percent of their base salaries the first year and 1 percent the second.
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10/24/11
See Global Report Card page
“What is more concerning is that these numbers improve (significantly in math) when these districts are measured against just the rest of the United States, meaning the country as a whole is continuing to fall behind other developed nations. This is largely due to the fact that many wealthier suburban school districts are not doing too well either. Chart 2 depicts examples of some of the high-wealth, high-performing suburban districts surrounding Ohio’s big cities and how they compare to their international counterparts.”
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HONEST BUDGET ACT
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. SESSIONS (for himself and Ms. SNOWE) introduced a Bill
To provide for greater transparency and honesty in the Federal budget process.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
Mr. SESSIONS (for himself and Ms. SNOWE) introduced a Bill
To provide for greater transparency and honesty in the Federal budget process.
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Collective Bargaining insights:
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Over 5 Million Searches on Buckeye Institute Government Salary Database. By September 25, 2011 the Buckeye Institute’s public worker salary database reached a major milestone by eclipsing 5 million searches from 543 different cities in Ohio.
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Only 28% of 2011 highschool graduates in Ohio are ready for college - as measured by their passage rates on the ACT college entrance exam. “Test-driven policies which claim to be improving U.S. Public Schools have, in fact, failed by their own standards,” said FairTest Public Edcuation Director, Bob Schaefer. See Acadamemic Comparision page and the National Merit page on this blog.
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Learn how a struggling Cincinnati inner-city school is progressing. View the new page, “STRUGGLING SCHOOL” on this weblog.
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“Spending, not funding, Indian Hill schools’ issue
Immediate repeal of the 2009 tax increase, plus an immediate 5 percent spending reduction, were called for by the Committee for Responsible School Spending at the Aug. 16 (2011) meeting of the Indian Hill Board of Education.
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Springboro schools recently had 980 applicants for one open teacher position.
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Obama Administration offers No Child waivers. Duncan has warned that 82 percent of U.S. schools could be labeled failures next year if the law is not changed. 8/9/11 Associated Press
Read more under Federal Government page on this weblog
Read more under Federal Government page on this weblog
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S & P Downgrades U. S. Credit Rating from AAA to AA+ with a negative outlook
August 5, 2011
August 5, 2011
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Only 26% (six of 23) school tax levies were approved around the state on the August 2, 2011 election.
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See new post, Equity losses delay retirees on “Real Estate Transfers” page of this blog.
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Mt. Healthy voters rejected 7.65-mill levy for schools, 77 % to 23 % yesterday.
Source: The Enquirer By Jennie Key Community Press, 8/3/11 B3
Source: The Enquirer By Jennie Key Community Press, 8/3/11 B3
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$1.9 million Montgomery home sells for $1,300,000.
One million, nine hundred thousand dollar, market total value, single family home in Montgomery, Ohio sells for one million three hundred thousand dollars on July 25, 2011.
Source: Dusty Rhodes, Hamilton County Auditor web site http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/realestateii/ROVER30.ASP
One million, nine hundred thousand dollar, market total value, single family home in Montgomery, Ohio sells for one million three hundred thousand dollars on July 25, 2011.
Source: Dusty Rhodes, Hamilton County Auditor web site http://www.hamiltoncountyauditor.org/realestateii/ROVER30.ASP
Note: The July, 27, 2011 NSL (page 11 – REAL ESTATE TRANSFERS) reports “$660,000.”
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‘Bitter medicine’ – nearly 4,000 post offices may close. By Sean Collins Walsh The New York Times. Published in The Enquirer 7/27/11 A2
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. A coalition of tea party organizations, small government advocates and religious groups gathered the signatures to get the health care measure on the ballot and now plan to mount a stateewide campaign in support of it.
. Source: Excerpt from Health-care challenge makes ballot. Issue wants Ohio removed from federal overhaul. By Andy Brownfield Associated Press.
. Source: Excerpt from Health-care challenge makes ballot. Issue wants Ohio removed from federal overhaul. By Andy Brownfield Associated Press.
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. “Out of Whack: Egregious Examples of Government Compensation Packages” listed by The Buckeye Institute For Public Policy Solutions
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. Read Walter E. Williams’’ article, “Blame NCLB for education botch” on this weblog’s “Test Cheating” page.
“In other words, the devil made them do it.”
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. COLUMBUS – Ohio voters will decide in November whether to repeal the state’s new collective bargaining law, which would let public worker unions negotiate wages but not health care, sick time or pension benefits.
. The state’s elections chief said Thursday (July 21, 2011) that opponents had gathered enough valid signatures to put the question before voters. The measure is now suspended from taking effect until voters have their say.
Source: Voters will decide fate of union law. By Ann Sanner Associated Press. Published in The Enquirer 7/22/11 A1
. The state’s elections chief said Thursday (July 21, 2011) that opponents had gathered enough valid signatures to put the question before voters. The measure is now suspended from taking effect until voters have their say.
Source: Voters will decide fate of union law. By Ann Sanner Associated Press. Published in The Enquirer 7/22/11 A1
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. It’s (not quite) official: Ohioans will have the chance to vote yes or no on the controversial public employee collective-bargaining bill known as Senate Bill 5.
. We Are Ohio contends Senate Bill 5 would kill jobs and that public employees are not overpaid to begin with. Building a Better Ohio, the group organized to lead the effort in support of the bill, says the law will protect the middle class and actually keep public employees like teachers and emergency service workers on the job.
. “Ohioans now have a choice to make about whether to keep these reasonable reforms or keep moving in the wrong direction.”Jason Maul said.
. In recent weeks, two Republican presidential hopefuls have come out in support of Senate Bill 5. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romey, and former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich. Gringrich went on to compare the fight in Ohio to similar battles in Wisconsin and New Jersey.
Source: Bargaining law likely to be on ballot By Ben Geier The Columbus Dispatch. Published in The Enquirer 7/18/11 C2
. We Are Ohio contends Senate Bill 5 would kill jobs and that public employees are not overpaid to begin with. Building a Better Ohio, the group organized to lead the effort in support of the bill, says the law will protect the middle class and actually keep public employees like teachers and emergency service workers on the job.
. “Ohioans now have a choice to make about whether to keep these reasonable reforms or keep moving in the wrong direction.”Jason Maul said.
. In recent weeks, two Republican presidential hopefuls have come out in support of Senate Bill 5. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romey, and former Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich. Gringrich went on to compare the fight in Ohio to similar battles in Wisconsin and New Jersey.
Source: Bargaining law likely to be on ballot By Ben Geier The Columbus Dispatch. Published in The Enquirer 7/18/11 C2
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D. Ademac says “this district will maintain its promise not to go back to the community until at least 2012 for new taxes for operations….”
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. These government entities are facing reductions in revenue from the state and other sources. Sycamore Community Schools – The school district will lose a total of nearly $2.5 million in the 2011-2012 school year and another nearly $4 million in the 2012-2013 school year due to cuts in the state budget, tangible personal-property tax reimbursements, electric deregulation reimbursement and federal stimulus aid. . Blue Ash city to lose $1.3 annually; Montgomery city to lose $1 million annually; Sycamore Township will lose $3 million annually; Symmes Township will lose $400,000 annually due to reduction in local government funds and the elimination of the estate tax, etc.
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Standardized testing
Atlanta school exams fudged
State probe finds educators cheated
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY. Published in The Enquirer 7/7/11 A4
Atlanta school exams fudged
State probe finds educators cheated
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY. Published in The Enquirer 7/7/11 A4
USA TODAY last March examined standardized test scores at District of Columbia schools and found 103 public schools with high erasure rates on penciled-in answer sheets. An investigation is underway. USA TODAY found evidence of test tampering in six states besides Georgia and Maryland, including California, Florida and Ohio.
Adm. Says: See complete article on “Test Cheating” page under “Miscellaneous” of this weblog.
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Gov. John Kasich signed Ohio’s biennial budget today. It’s a 3,262 page bill that not only appropriates funding for the Buckeye State until 2013 but that also includes hundreds of pages of education-policy changes—most of which will move Ohio forward in significant ways.
6/30/11
6/30/11
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Sycamore Board approves plan to spend more than its income in each of the 5 forecasted years. Not yet learned the lesson of living within their means. Rather than spending and taxing more, it’s time to take a different approach.
May, 2011
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May, 2011
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So far, three Sycamore Board of Education candidates vie for two open seats. They are incumbents Kenneth Richter, Jill Cole and newcomer Colleen Greissinger. The final filing date with the Hamilton County Board of Election is August 10th. 6/29/11
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A lawyer said, across Hamilton County, there is likely to be (about) a 7% reduced property value. Even if your assessed value stays the same, you will get (about) a 6 percent dollar tax increase, without a vote of the people. It will automatically go up. It will be included in your next tax bill (after the assessed value is approved). 6/10/11
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U.S. students are less proficient in their nation’s history than any other subject, according to results of a nationwide test released in the Nation’s Report Card this week. Overall, 20 percent of fourth-graders, 17 percent of eighth-graders and 12 percent of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency.
(See History Standards “D” on this weblog 6/14/2011)
(See History Standards “D” on this weblog 6/14/2011)
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HOME page updated given new collective bargaining law and most recent school district five year forecasts.
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New employee contracts announced in 2011:
Three Rivers- 3 yr pay freeze teacher and support. June 28
Kings- 1 yr pay freeze, 1%, 1.75%, 1.75% other years. June 22
Lebanon- 3 yr pay freeze, adminstrators took 3% pay cut June 21
Fairfield- 3-year pay freeze June 16
Williamsburg 2-year pay freeze, limits step inc. to half a step in FY13. Cuts pay by 3 % for aides, etc. thru 2013 Teachers will pay 20% of health care compared to 10 percent now. June 16
Princeton- 1% salary reduction, 3-year pay freeze, reduce cost/pupil by $2000 June 7
Lockland-3-year pay freeze on pay June 7
Bethel-Tate- pay freeze
CPS- cut 226 jobs May 26
Lakota– 3-year pay freeze May 24
Sycamore- 1-year pay freeze May 19
Indian Hill– 1- year pay freeze May 18
Forest Hills- 2- year pay freeze, cut 23 jobs May 18
Mariemont- 1-year pay freeze, cut 7 jobs May 12
Deer Park- 3-year pay freeze “will live within our means” May 12
Mason- 2-year pay freeze, cut 53 jobs May 6
Oak Hills- 2-year pay freeze, cut 30 jobs. “Our target is to not spend more than we take in” May 5
Reading- 2 year pay freeze April 20
Southwest- 2 year pay freeze, cut 47 positions April 16
West Clermont- 2 year pay freeze April 8
Loveland- 2-year pay freeze April 6
NCH- 1 year pay freeze, 1% incr. each of next 2 years; no step increases
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New page added. “Federal Government” listed under Z Miscellaneous. We will explore the role of the Federal Government in public education with a focus on the Sycamore School District.
Your comments are encouraged! 6/3/11
Your comments are encouraged! 6/3/11
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Ratio of US kids shrinking. Hamilton County, 18 and under, in 2000 and 2010 compared. 6/3/11 (See “5.1.1 Enrollment Lesson” on this webblog)
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Senate budget restores funds for education. 6/1/11
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Ohio may reward top schools. Senate budget would pay for ratings. 6/1/11
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Friends of SB5 muster forces. Mission: Overcome opposition in Ohio. 5/31/11
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School Funding in Review (Kasich, House at odds over spreading wealth) School budget cuts lead to a look at how money’s doled out. 5/30/11
That’s right, an actual reduction, not a “freeze” that still includes step increases and longevity. To be fair, this contract may still include those, but by embracing an actual cut, the Benton-Carroll-Salem school district shows that it understands it must take serious action and not just pay lip service to the concept of reform.
Unfortunately, these moves are not enough to drag the district out of a nearly $8 million hole by 2016. But, just imagine what the hole would be like without this move.
Granted, part of the savings achieved by Benton-Carroll-Salem is through staff reductions, but the news shows that the message of reform, as painful as it is to hear, is beginning to resonate. Last year, Middletown Schools did something similar.
These are isolated cases, but they show the way forward.
The Buckeye Institute has long maintained that real compensation reform would mean more closely aligning public sector pay and benefits with that found in the private sector. Our Six Principles for Fixing Ohio report from last year goes into a great deal of detail on how to accomplish this.
We also ran an exercise last year where we looked at five-year projections from all of Ohio’s school districts using numbers submitted to the Ohio Department of Education in October of 2010 (before the change from the Strickland to the Kasich Administration).
During that effort, we found that roughly 91 percent of the school districts projected a deficit in their ending cash balance by 2015. The aggregate deficit for all schools exceeds $7.6 billion. By 2015, compensation package costs would swallow 96 percent of projected revenues. We then applied a 10 percent compensation package cut to each school district’s financial projections and then allowed the compensation package costs to grow by 3.2 percent each year. Those calculations, in most though not all cases, got school budget projections back in the black.
By the way, that was without laying teachers off. Just something to keep in mind.
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Teacher Salary data searches exceeds 6 million hits in January 2012 on the Buckeye Institute web site
Nationally, according to the new Census estimates, income for all Americans fell 8.9 percent from $54,964 in 1999 to $50,046 in 2010.
In the 15-county Cincinnati region, median income for all households decreased 12.3 percent from $58,876 in 1999 to $ 51,572 in 2010.
Source: “Income disparity: Blacks lag here” “Census looks at incomes by household” By Mark Curnutte, The Enquirer C1
Springboro schools recently had 980 applicants for one open teacher position.