What will they think of next? A slew of bills on education

[Pamela Treacy]

I was on the Citizen Netmom site and found this link to TN Legl site. This is a long list of bills about education. I plan to study it some more before commenting. But thought I would share with you now. One bill is changing birthdate requirement from September 30 to September 1 for kindergarten. A child must be 5 by September 1. These are just bills -- they have not passed. It's long.

http://www.tsba.net/capitolwatch/legis_scoop_08.asp

What's your favorite??

[Pamela Treacy]

Here are some that caught my eye:

Prohibits any county from using state BEP funds to reduce taxes. YEAH

Implement a college scholarship program to promote civic learning. YEAH

Limits size of new high schools to 1200 max. BOO Not realistic

Allows students to attend public school closest to their residence. YEAH

Require 90 minutes of PE in elementary and secondary schools, not just activity requirement. YEAH

Several bills about adding civics as a requirement. YEAH

Requires start of school year to be Tuesday after Labor Day. BOO

Changes date from 9/30 to 12/31 for child to reach five years old. BOO

Also bill to change date to 9/1 from 9/30 for child to reach five years old. YEAH

Requires student or student's parent to submit proof of health insurance. NOT SURE

Requires summer school for students testing two or more grade levels below expected academic growth in a subject area as measured by TCAP. YEAH

Allows home school students to participate in extra curricular athletic activities of public school in which they are eligible to attend. NOT SURE

Limits term of director of schools contract to match the election cycle of school board. NOT SURE

Allows for election of director of schools. BOO

For every five tardies a student will get one absence. BOO

Create energy efficient schools. YEAH

Decreases from 20 to 15 the max. number of consecutive teaching days a substitute without a teacher's certificate or permit may teach. YEAH

What do you think?

[Cathy McCaughan]

Isn't Netmom great? A few quick thoughts.

• Allows students to attend public school closest to their residence. - Absolutely!!
• Several bills about adding civics as a requirement. - Students should graduate EXPECTING to be contributors to their community. At the very least, that means voting.
• Requires start of school year to be Tuesday after Labor Day. - I think we established on another thread that we don't care WHEN the year starts IF there are educational opportunities during the breaks.
• Changes date from 9/30 to 12/31 for child to reach five years old. OR Also bill to change date to 9/1 from 9/30 for child to reach five years old. - My children were all reading just after their fifth birthday. Staying out an extra year would have been a huge mistake. Don't get me started on the parents who keep their children behind a year so they'll be at the top of their class.
• Requires student or student's parent to submit proof of health insurance. - NO! Parents of children with disabilities reach their lifetime cap all too quickly on insurance policies. We are NOT going to have services at school billed to our insurance.
• Create energy efficient schools. - Shouldn't ALL new construction be built smarter?
• Decreases from 20 to 15 the max. number of consecutive teaching days a substitute without a teacher's certificate or permit may teach. - I don't know how this is worded. Can schools get around this by having a series of DIFFERENT substitutes? As someone whose child had a series of substitutes for a full HALF of a year, who just handed him a pile of worksheets every day, this is a bill that is past due.

[Beth Love]

My two cents:
Requiring sub days to decrease from 20 to 15-absolutely. The job I had last semester had a sub for 20 days, then me-a licensed teacher for the next 7 weeks while the teacher was on maternity leave. My understanding of NCLB is, officials can't go past that 20 days without a certified teacher in that subject area. I think part of the issue is officials trying to find someone who is properly licensed who is willing to just sub long term, especially in math and science.
To move the cut off date from September to December is not a good idea. It was done in Virginia one year and the juniors I had one year that had December birthdays and were allowed to start school were the least mature kids as a whole I had taught until then. The critical thinking skill development and ability to develop it at the 11th grade level was just not there and a lot of those kids really struggled academically and socially.
Never elect a superintendent.
Attend the school closest to you? NO BRAINER

[Jamey Dobbs]

Question in regard to small schools bill limiting the size of high schools: Everything I have read is that small schools are preferable and the movement for smaller schools is large and making headway in all quarters.Can someone direct me to a site or research that says otherwise?

[Pamela Treacy]

Jamey,

The problem with passing a state law mandates the size of a high school is that we do not have the financal resources to back up the decision. This is comparable to the Federal government passing NCLB and requiring all the school boards to comply but not giving them the funds to do so.

If the state decided to build and pay for all the new high schools, then I would say go ahead.

You are right the general trend is to smaller schools, but there are several large schools on the Newsweek's top high school list. FHS and West are on the list.

We know what it took to build a new high school in Knox County and how it split the community. It pitted east against west.

What is going to happen when HVA is full and we still need more classrooms in West Knoxville. If you limit it to 1200 students, you might have to build two schools. Where would we find $50 million dollars? times two?

So, all I can say is Show Me the Money!

[Jamey Dobbs]

I suggest that the SchoolMatters community bring in some experts to Knoxville to teach us about facilities and finance. I would be happy to coordinate this. Anyone else interested? A staffer from TACIR, the state legislature's think tank in Nashville, came here last year to speak on impact fees for school finance, and would likely come again to talk about school finance in general. We also need some discussion of long term planning, innovative school siting and joint use, and investing in existing schools and neighborhoods. The League of Women Voters has a citizen education project and I'm sure would co-sponsor. Contact me at [e-mail]