Friday Report – April 21, 2017

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Hinchcliffe, K. “In new court filings, NC superintendent says state board has ‘severely limited’ his authority.” WRAL. 4/13/17.

The Senate education committee discussed legislation that would grant extra classroom teachers to two K-12 schools in Macon County to accommodate their geographic isolation.

Sen. Jim Davis, a Republican who represents seven western North Carolina counties, including Macon, explained to members that it is normal for a class to only have eight or nine students at Highlands School or Nantahala School. But, Davis said, because of distance and weather conditions, the separate schools are needed to serve those students.

“To consolidate these schools would not be feasible,” Davis said. “So I’m requesting the opportunity to fund these schools at a different rate.”

Senate Bill 15 would make sure each grade has a classroom teacher, no matter the number of students in the class. Davis said the per-student expense for the K-12 schools in his county is about $2,000 more than the expense for schools in the county seat, Franklin. The funding piece — $1.5 million annually — is no longer a part of the bill. Davis said it is being added to the overall budget instead.

The third traditional K-12 public school is in Ocracoke on an island off the coast. That school received similar treatment, Davis said. “And I’m just asking for the same consideration for the two that are in Macon County,” he said.

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Bell, L. “Senate education committee takes on isolated K-12 schools.” EducationNC. 4/20/17.

An N.C. House committee voted Wednesday to ban school boards from suing their county commissioners over funding disputes.

The bill’s sponsors say the change is needed to avoid costly lawsuits when school boards are seeking a bigger budget than county leaders are willing to provide. “I’ve found that cooperation works a lot better than intimidation,” said Rep. Larry Potts (pictured right), a Lexington Republican and former county commissioner who’s sponsoring the proposal.

Potts’ co-sponsor, Republican Rep. Debra Conrad of Winston-Salem, said that funding disputes arise because county commissioners have to balance the needs of a variety of county services, while school board members are focusing solely on education. “To let this go to a court level and have a judge and jury that does not understand the financial responsibilities of either group,” she said, “can make outrageous awards that county commissions cannot handle.”

The N.C. Association of County Commissioners says the bill is one of its top legislative priorities this year. Lobbyist Johanna Reese pointed to a lawsuit in Union County in which the court awarded the school board $91 million, although that award was overturned on appeal. She said the case required $2 million in legal fees that “did not go to education.” “We have had several cases where a school board comes in, says ‘this is how much we want, if we don’t get it, we’re going to sue you,’” Reese said.

But the N.C. School Boards Association is opposing the bill. Lobbyist Bruce Mildwurf said a legislative study is currently under way to recommend alternative solutions to funding disputes. “This is a contentious issue, it’s emotional,” Mildwurf said. “There’s no urgency here because it’s in a study committee. We just ask that you wait for the recommendation that the House unanimously asked for.”

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Campbell, C. “School boards couldn’t sue county commissioners under NC House bill.” The News & Observer. 4/19/17.

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Bonner, L. “NC charter schools don’t get money for buses. A bill would change that.” The News & Observer. 4/19/17.

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx wants the federal Department of Education to disappear. She wants Washington to stop passing down rules and regulations schools have to follow.

As the new chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, the seven-term North Carolina congresswoman has a powerful forum to talk about all that.

Trouble is, she probably doesn’t have the votes to do much of what she wants. It takes 60 to get most legislation through the Senate, where Republicans control only 52 seats, and she’s up against a powerful education lobby that resists sweeping change in federal policy.

She’s trying. Foxx, who helped lead the writing of the 2016 Republican Party platform and served in House leadership, figures she’ll have to dilute Education Department power bit by bit. Already, she’s championing the use of a rare legislative tactic in Congress to eliminate some Obama administration regulations.

And Foxx is putting pressure on her colleagues in Congress to write the sort of legislation she wants, contending that some past laws were written sloppily and left too much leeway for federal departments to fill in gaps with rules and regulations.

Any federal educational policies, she told McClatchy in an interview, should come from lawmakers – not bureaucrats.

“We’ve got some good laws in place – let Congress do its oversight,” she said. “Sometimes doing nothing from the federal level is good.”

Foxx and her Republican congressional allies have a new favored tool for walking back regulations: Congressional Review Acts, which allow Congress to overturn specific federal rules and regulations and prevent them from coming back up.

A clear majority of justices at the U.S. Supreme Court seemed troubled Wednesday by a Missouri grant program that bars state money from going to religious schools for playground improvement.

Thirty-nine states have state constitutional provisions that bar taxpayer funds from going to religious schools — provisions that have been a major obstacle for the school choice movement. The Missouri case is an attempt to lower that wall separating church and state.

The Trinity Lutheran Church in Columbia, Mo., owns and operates a preschool learning center. It applied for a state grant to rubberize its playground surface, using old and discarded tires.

But because the school’s mission is avowedly religious, the state turned down the application, citing language in the state Constitution that explicitly bars state funds from going directly or indirectly to any religious sect or denomination.

The church challenged the denial in court, appealing all the way to the Supreme Court. “Safety shouldn’t hinge on whether a child is religious, or if they are playing on a playground at a religious school, or a secular, or a public institution,” school Director Annette Kiehne said on the steps of the high court on Wednesday.

But James Layton, representing the state of Missouri, countered that the Supreme Court has never required states to provide direct government grants to churches. “Almost 200 years ago, the people of the state of Missouri, adopting language” used by the Founding Fathers, “decided that we were not going to tax people in order to give money to churches,” he said.

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Totenburg, N. “In Church-State Playground Brawl, Justices Lean Toward The Church.” NPR. 4/19/17.

The Public School Forum is now accepting applications for the 2017-18 cohort of the North Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP).

The Public School Forum has led the North Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program since 1992, and it has continued to be the only statewide program of its kind that focuses on leadership and professional development in the context of education policy. Each new class continues the trend of high caliber participants and is rich in its members’ range of experiences, both professionally and personally. Fellows come from public schools, higher education, community colleges, state agencies, and a diverse array of education organizations across North Carolina. Each class includes a cohort of Fellows who focus on education policy issues and the wide range of factors that influence education in North Carolina. The program is designed for Fellows to learn about issues and perspectives in education that they don’t always encounter in their daily work so that they can be more informed, rounded contributors to the critical education debates that shape the quality and focus of schools. Fellows increase their awareness of how public policy is made, learn whom the key players are in the formation of this policy, and become more confident and involved in the policy-making process. Leadership development is a key focus of the Education Policy Fellowship Program.

Application information for both EPFP Central and EPFP West can be found online at https://www.ncforum.org/education-policy-fellowship-program/.

The second conference of the Women in Educational Leadership Symposium (WIELS) will be held at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina on September 22 through September 24, 2017. The purpose of WIELS is to bring women together to share, learn, and grow in leadership. Women who are interested in learning from others and those who are willing to share skills and expertise are urged to attend. This conference aims to provide personalized learning and mentoring opportunities for those who aspire to become or currently serve as educational leaders. The conference theme is Advancing the Leader Within: Building Capacity. Attendees are urged to submit proposals on salient issues, skills, and experiences affecting women leaders.

Conference proposals are due by May 31, 2017. Visit https://wiels.appstate.edu/about-us/call-proposals to submit a proposal.