Reform Special Education Funding
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JUNE 1 UPDATE
More than ever, we need you and your friends to contact your state representatives this week and tell them to vote for House Bill 704. With your help, we can win this vote and have some good news for a change! See the details below, including action steps and talking points.
Please enter your name on our online petition to support House Bill 704. It takes two minutes. You can even write a short comment for others to see. Everyone can place their name on the petition, including students, parents, educators, advocates, and others. FORWARD THIS ASAP TO YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES SO THAT WE CAN GENERATE LOTS OF SIGNATURES.
Let us know what else we can do to help.
Hurry up and wait. An unfortunate but sometimes necessary part of human existence, supermarket lines, and political reality in Harrisburg.
HB 704, the bill on special education funding and accountability reforms, was scheduled for a vote in the whole State House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 26. The vote has been rescheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, June 8 or 9.
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE ASAP. We need your help to get calls, e-mails, or letters to every state representative. Click here for talking points and actions that you can take to help the House vote for and pass HB 704 on June 8 or 9.
Click here to see a more detailed explanation of the two-week delay and a list of amendments intended by some representatives for HB 704. If your state representative is sponsoring one of these amendments, you may want to call him or her to express your concerns – HB 704 deserves their support and a vote without amendments.
For extra help, call or e-mail Baruch Kintisch (215-238-6970 x 320) or Sandy Zelno (412-255-6414).
Additional Resources:
Summary of HB 704 (two-page summary)
Q&A on Special Education Funding Reform (4-page detailed information)
Thank you for getting involved and making good things happen for children with disabilities and all children.
HB 704, the bill on special education funding and accountability reforms, was scheduled for a vote in the whole State House of Representatives on Wednesday, May 26. The vote has been rescheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday, June 8 or 9.
The biggest reason for the delay is that there is disagreement within both political parties about a tax increase bill (HB 2435). That bill, along with our special education bill, was scheduled for a vote on May 26. Due to the lack of consensus on the tax bill, no significant bills were allowed to come up for a vote – including our special education bill.
The second reason for the delay is a set of amendments announced for HB 704. Legislators must pre-announce their amendments, and several amendments were listed for consideration on HB 704. Three of these intended amendments – listed below – are not related to special education in any way, but they are being used to get attention for other controversial issues. The House leaders would prefer for these intended amendments to be withdrawn before HB 704 comes up for debate and a vote on the floor of the House. Whether our organizations agree or disagree with the subject matter of these three amendments, we do not want them to stand in the way of the interests of students with disabilities. HB 704 deserves a fair vote on June 8 or 9 without unrelated amendments and without further delay.
Amendment 7143. Announced by Representative Saylor (R-York County). This amendment would stop the new high-stakes graduation tests being implemented by the state.
Amendment 7144. Announced by Representative Clymer (R-Bucks County). This amendment would make changes to pre-kindergarten, Head Start, and other early learning programs.
Amendment 7149. Announced by Representative Miller (R-York County). This amendment would renew and modify state rules for how school districts can ask the Department of Education for waivers from contracting mandates and other legal requirements.
There are also a few additional amendments announced for consideration when HB 704 is debated on June 8 or 9. The following amendments are related to special education funding and accountability. The sponsors of HB 704 are talking to the legislators offering these amendments to reach consensus on the issues or perhaps withdraw the amendments.
Amendments 7145 and 7148. Announced by Representative O’Neill (R-Bucks County). This amendment would remove from HB 704 some of the improvements in the Contingency Fund, which provides resources for districts to help students with very expensive disabilities. The amendment would treat all districts equally, regardless of poverty or best practices.
Amendment 7146. Announced by Representative Rapp (R-Forrest & Warren Counties). This amendment would remove from HB 704 a performance variable that would give school districts additional funding for meeting both inclusion and achievement targets for students with disabilities. (About 110 districts would meet these targets in the first year and on average would each receive a total of about $60,000 as an incentive to continue their improved performance. This modest factor in the new formula would not change IDEA law or the authority of IEP teams for the placement of students.)
Amendment 7147. Announced by Representative Tallman (R-Adams & York Counties). This amendment would remove from HB 704 the entire section on accountability. (The accountability provisions are intended to ensure that state funding for special education is invested by local schools for the benefit of students with disabilities. This part of the bill strengthens the existing three-year plans that districts are already required to file with the state. The General Assembly adopted similar accountability rules for basic education in 2008.)
Amendment 7172. Announced by Rep. Maher (R-Allegheny & Washington Counties). This amendment would remove from HB 704 the three-variable formula for distributing state funding for special education and replace it with a twelve-variable formula. The amendment would give a different funding weight to each kind of disability. (The three-variable formula in HB 704 is designed to accurately distribute state funding based on student and district needs, while protecting against incentives for schools to over-identify children or manipulate the system.)
If your state representative is sponsoring one of these amendments, you may want to call him or her to express your concerns – HB 704 deserves their support and a vote without amendments. Click here for talking points and actions that you can take to help the House vote for and pass HB 704 on June 8 or 9.
For extra help, call or e-mail Baruch Kintisch (215-238-6970 x 320) or Sandy Zelno (412-255-6414).
Additional Resources:
Summary of HB 704 (two-page summary)
Q&A on Special Education Funding Reform (4-page detailed information)
Thank you for getting involved and making good things happen for children with disabilities and all children.
Jeff Hawkes’ piece in today’s Lancaster Intelligencer Journal made a great case for fixing PA’s broken special education funding system.
Here’s the link:
Special education funding formula inequity in action
Here’s an excerpt:
Pennsylvania for too long has stacked the deck against taxpayers in Columbia, Lancaster and other high-poverty communities where schools are burdened by greater than average numbers of students who require special education.
State Reps. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster; Barbara McIlvaine Smith, D-Chester; James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia; and Keith McCall (D-Carbon) were among the 65 co-sponsors of legislation approved today making the state’s special education funding formula more equitable and strengthening accountability for effective investment of new funding.
Representatives Roebuck and McIlvaine Smith were among the 22 Education Committee members approving the legislation. House Bill 704 aims to close the state’s share of the $380 million adequacy gap over a period of six years and to base state funding to school districts on a district’s five-year average of actual students enrolled in special education.
“I am proud to see the House Education Committee today approve House Bill 704,” Rep. Sturla said. “We are one step closer to providing comprehensive accountability and equitable funding for all special education students.”
The Bucks County Courier Times published an Op-Ed on HB 704:
Here’s the link: Special education funding falls short of meeting need
And here’s the article:
Special education funding falls short of meeting need
By: COLLEEN TOMKO AND BARUCH KINTISCH
Bucks County Courier Times
Next week the House Education Committee will vote on legislation fixing the state system for special education funding and accountability. House Bill 704, if enacted into law, would provide increased independence for children with disabilities by giving schools the resources they need to provide them with a quality education.
Pennsylvania last year adopted a landmark school funding formula for basic education, putting more dollars into the neediest schools and implementing rigorous accountability measures for school districts for the first time in 20 years. However, students who receive special education services were left out of the equation.
Our state legislators have heard – loud and clear – the message that it’s time to tackle funding and accountability reforms for students with disabilities, and have introduced legislation addressing many of the long-standing deficiencies in the state’s special education system.
This is it. Big push this week. The House Education Committee will vote on House Bill 704 on Wednesday, July 1 in the morning.
Please contact your committee members and talk with them about voting for HB 704.
With a little more effort, we will be successful in reforming the special education funding and accountability system in Pennsylvania. Wednesday next week is the one and only vote needed for Representative Sturla’s House Bill 704 to be adopted in to law with the budget this year.
If the House Education Committee votes in favor of the bill, the leaders of the General Assembly will start to negotiate about including the bill in the final School Code Bill and Budget for 2009-10.
In addition, Senator Dinniman and 13 co-sponsors recently introduced Senate Bill 940, which is almost identical to House Bill 704. No action is expected on S.B. 940; the House Bill will take the lead.
The House Education Committee members are listed below. Click on the links to find the contact information for each member.
There’s a great column on HB 704 by Jeff Hawkes in today’s Lancaster Intelligencer Journal.
Here’s an excerpt:
State Rep. Mike Sturla calls it “outdated, unfair and … an abuse.”
He could have called it absurd, too.
The target of his scorn is special-education funding in Pennsylvania.
The state, by law, must provide special-needs children with schooling that prepares them for work (or higher education) and for full participation as citizens.
But it appears the law is a weak stick in prodding lawmakers to do the right thing for kids with disabilities that get in the way of learning.
House Education Committee Hearing on HB 704 - Wednesday, May 6
Pennsylvania Legislative Services has a recap of yesterday’s Education Committee Hearing.
COMMITTEE NEWS
House Education Committee
9:00 a.m., 5/6/09, Room G-50 Irvis Office Building
By Matt Hess
The committee held a public hearing on HB 704.
HB 704 Sturla – (PN 1651) Amends Public School Code, in reimbursement by Commonwealth and between school districts, further providing for definitions; and outlining a funding formula for special education for student achievement and instruction of eligible students in regular classrooms; and providing for special education accountability to Commonwealth taxpayers. The Department of Education shall submit a report to the Governor and General Assembly recommending increased standards and the General Assembly shall consider legislation revising the criteria, in any year in which 75% of all school districts meet the criteria and qualify for the 1.15 factor for funding. The Department of Education shall determine the form and manner in which school districts shall submit a special education plan and revisions, updates and amendments to the special education plan.
Continue reading »
The Lancaster Intelligencer Journal ran an Op-Ed Monday, May 4 on HB 704, the story is after the jump:
