Remember the Governor who wanted to reduce mandates and get the government's hands out of local issues? Neither do we.
When the General Assembly reconvenes on Wednesday, April 3, to consider amendments proposed by the governor to the budget bills that were approved by the House and Senate conferees, Governor McDonnell will ask them to extend the reach of his Opportunity Educational Institution (OEI) program. This program is modeled after the Recovery School District plan put in place in Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. It allows the State to take over underperforming schools and contract with private companies to provide educational services with none of the accountability required of public schools.
Under this plan, existing teachers at OEI schools would have the option of reapplying for their jobs; however, they would then become subject to the policies of the new school which could include a completely different pay scale, reduction or elimination of benefits, or discontinuing participation in the Virginia Retirement System (VRS), as well as loss of grievance rights. OEI schools would not even be required to hire licensed teachers! Since existing teachers have contracts with their school divisions, if they are not retained at the OEI school, they will still have to be placed in other schools within their divisions based on seniority, thus triggering a Reduction In Force (RIF) of their less-senior colleagues.
How is this likely to improve student achievement? The decade of evidence from Louisiana says that it won't.
Here are the ratings of the 60 RSD schools in their program that began as underperforming in 2003 (they use a letter grading system in Louisiana just like the one the Governor wants to implement here): 7 have been such complete failures that they have been reconstituted again, 29 are still failing a decade later, 16 are graded "D," 4 are graded "C," 4 are graded "B"; there are no "A" schools in the program. Put another way, only 2/15 are average or better, 1/4 are marginally passable, and a full 60% of the schools are still failing or have gotten worse! And this is the plan Governor McDonnell wants to bring to the 4th best school system in the nation. For the record, the 3 states ranked above us--Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York--all have tenure, collective bargaining, and substantially better teacher compensation systems, whereas Louisiana lacks all of those things. Coincidence? Why isn't the Governor proposing an improvement plan modeled after one of the states that ranks higher than Virginia and spends more on public education?The Governor wants to spend more money on companies to run education, rather than on education.
The Senate and the House already limited the scope of this bill when they passed a compromise version from the Conference Committee during the regular session. Now the Governor wants them to give him more money and expand the scope of the program. This doesn't sound like the "everyone has to tighten their belts" rhetoric he's been using to cut other departments' programs. He needs to play by the same rules he imposes on everyone else.Please use this link http://www.veadailyreports.com/ to read the perspective of VEA's Government Relations Director, Robley Jones.
Then use this link http://capwiz.com/nea/va/issues/alert/?alertid=62553976&queueid=9414181721 to send a pre-written message (or you can compose your own) to your state senator asking him/her to oppose the amendment to SB1324S and Budget Amendment 12 that would increase its funding.
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