Don't break out the champagne yet

Chris Tessone / July 14, 2011

The Rockefeller Institute has some good news to share: state tax revenue collections were up 9.3% in the first quarter of 2011, recovering nearly to the level they were at in early 2008, prior to the financial crisis. The news is not all good, however. Local tax collections are down 0.6%, meaning school districts are still going to feel the pinch when it comes to local funding. What's more, residential real estate markets in most places have not recovered ? even when they do, tax collections will lag by a few years as property values are reassessed. Even at the state level, increases in collections don't mean happy days if legislators assumed even greater increases in revenue in order to balance budgets.

Economic recovery is not likely to bring an end to the "stretching the school dollar" era. As we and others have reported, many states still have catching up to do in funding their pension promises. The rising cost of health care is also weighing on school budgets. This means that rising revenues will not necessarily find their way into new classroom programs or innovative reforms. Instead they'll be funneled to pay for increasingly expensive fringe benefits that are mostly out of sync with what high-performing young workers expect. School boards and state legislatures will have to implement more sweeping changes to get increased bang for the buck.

? Chris Tessone

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Don't break out the champagne yet

More quality for the money

Chris Tessone / July 6, 2011

Times are tight for school budgets, which is one reason Fordham and others have dedicated new attention and energy to doing more with less. Being conscious of cost-effectiveness is about more than pinching pennies, however; it also enables schools to get the very best quality for the dollars they spend on services.

Nathan Levenson, managing director of the District Management Council and a former district superintendent in Massachusetts, highlights this in an interview today with StudentsFirst, talking specifically about special education and early intervention:

I like to simplify this topic, and assert that only three things really matter in early intervention -- reading, reading, and reading. The stats are clear -- reading is the gateway to all other learning. Children who struggle in reading are over-referred to special education and often never catch up. This is especially sad, since we have "cracked the code" on how to teach reading. The National Reading Panel and the What Works Clearing House spell it out. Some districts feel they don't have enough money to implement a best practice reading program, but our studies have shown that typically it costs 1/2 to 1/5 as much as the current mish-mash of elementary support programs. The obstacles aren't dollars, but focus, turf battles, silos, and other organizational self-imposed barriers.

The mentality that schools don't have enough resources ? despite marked increases in per-pupil spending over decades ? can lead to blaming every failure in education on a

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More quality for the money

Democracy Prep, takeover artist

Chris Tessone / July 5, 2011

Democracy Prep is expanding in a novel way next school year ? by taking over a failing charter school at its authorizer's behest. SUNY was set to deny Harlem Day Charter School's charter but instead asked for proposals to turn the school around. Democracy Prep stepped up.

It's a huge risk. By and large, turnarounds are unsuccessful. For Democracy Prep, which had the city's highest progress report score for a middle school last year, this would be its first attempt at a turnaround. In New York City, the Bloomberg administration has relied largely on shutting failing schools down and re-starting from scratch, a method that critics say disperses the neediest children and destabilizes communities. Under Mr. Lambert's plan, the students stay put, and the management and board are wiped out.

It's great to see "acquisitions" like this one. Democracy Prep is a solid performer, and this gives them a new school complete with kids, parent and community recognition, and some momentum. Clearly it comes with challenges as well, however, with more than 40% of their kids being held back to repeat a grade. The question this raises for me is, why do we wait to talk about these kinds of takeovers until a school is failing?

Entrepreneurs, charter school founders among them, start businesses for many reasons. Not all of them are great long-term managers. Instead, what the most successful of them have is a keen sense of the needs of customers

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Democracy Prep, takeover artist

What are states doing on retirement benefits?

Chris Tessone / June 29, 2011

Only halfway through 2011, a number of states have reformed their laws governing public sector workers' benefits, a few of them in dramatic fashion. The need to close the yawning gap between promises made to workers and the dollars saved for them on states' balances sheets is evident. According to a recent analysis, the average household will have to pay $1,398 in additional taxes every year for the next 30 years to fund retiree benefits, with New Jersey taxpayers on the hook for $2,475 per year per household before that state's recent reforms.?Even more optimistic commentators recognize that the funding ratios reported by states themselves rely on rosy assumptions about investment returns that are not likely to be borne out in reality.?Consequently, states have begun to adjust contribution rates, close loopholes, and otherwise modify pension and retiree healthcare benefits.

It is worth noting that most of these reforms leave public-sector workers, especially those newly-hired, worse off. In many states, this is a necessary evil, with budgets straining and taxes being ratcheted ever higher. Some states have done better than others in making fundamental reforms to address the sustainability of workers' benefits without soaking new workers or taxpayers, however. Here are our best and worst of the year so far, recognizing that actions in New York and Connecticut are still pending. Thanks to our indefatigable research intern, Josh Pierson, for digging up some of the details on states' reforms.

Best:

• Arizona:

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  Category: School Finance / Teachers

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  What are states doing on retirement benefits?