April 10, 2012

A doomsday budget for our schools?

SINE DIE IN ANNAPOLIS

When the clock struck midnight last night, any bill that had not been passed by both chambers died.  The state met its constitutional obligation to pass a balanced budget, but the General Assembly failed to act on component pieces of the budget, including a revenue bill, that would have avoided deep cuts in state aid for education and other critical state programs and services.  While there is much speculation about a special session to address this unfinished business, chiefly the Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act, revenue package, and possibly a gaming bill, without such a session we are left with a crippling Doomsday Budget.  The programmatic and county-by-county impact of the Doomsday Budget is linked here.

Because of this Doomsday Budget, our advocacy must not stop.  Please send a strong message to Governor O’Malley, Senate President Miller, Speaker Busch, and the other 186 legislators to settle their unfinished business so that we can avoid the hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to education, public safety, and other vital jobs and services.

The budget antics are certainly framing the immediate retrospective on the regular session, but what cannot be lost is that this session yielded many significant victories for public schools, students, educators, and our association.   This report will review key bills we helped pass as well as dangerous bills we helped to defeat.  The success of this session is due to the efforts of our members, leaders, and staff to stay on message and continue advocating for our legislative priorities.  We have a lot to celebrate and a lot to be proud of from this session.  Congratulations to all and thank you for your efforts to educate and mobilize members, contact legislators, and otherwise advance our legislative priorities. 

2012 LEGISLATIVE RECAP

Comprehensive Fix of Maintenance of Effort

• Senate Bill 848 was passed and signed by Governor O’Malley today. As emergency legislation, it is now law.
• The MOE fix is a huge win that strengthens and repairs the state and local school funding partnership and provides predictability and reliability in local aid for education.
• While creating a renewed commitment to local education funding, the legislation also creates new waivers and flexibility for local governments ensuring a fair and transparent local budgeting process.

Unfinished Business: Budget, Budget Reconciliation and Financing Act (BRFA), and Revenue Bills in Limbo

• Conference committees were prepared to report budget and revenue bills that made record investments in education, school construction, job creation, and other vital programs and services.  Failure to act on the BRFA and the revenue bill, however, changes the Budget Bill to a poison pill.
• If the General Assembly is called back for a special session, it is expected that one area of unfinished business will be in sharing teacher pension costs with local governments.  The finalized agreement in conference committee included a four-year phase-in to share the employer portion of normal costs with local school boards.  The plan would be to phase in 50 percent of normal cost in FY13, 65 percent in FY14, 85 percent in FY15, and the full 100 percent of normal costs in FY16.  For each year of the phase-in, county governments will meet their MOE obligation and must pay the cost of the pension bill shifted to the school board.  In FY17, after the phase-in is complete, the MOE calculation will be increased to include the normal costs in that year, thereby creating a new MOE value moving forward.  By shifting to the employer share of normal costs, the General Assembly identified a factor in the pension formula that is both predictable and declining.  The budget deal in total would have included local offsets in the revenue bill to assist counties in the increased costs starting in FY13.
•  An additional topic for special session would be the revenue package.  As finalized in conference committee, the revenue package included adjustments in income tax rates for single filers with net taxable income of $100,000+ or joint filers earning $150,000+.  The bill included changes in income tax exemptions for higher income earners that would yield both state and local revenue.  The breakdown of state and local revenue by source and by county has not been made available, as neither chamber ever acted on this conference committee report.

Table Games and Prince George’s Casino

• The wild card issue in any 2012 special session will be if legislation to expand gaming in Maryland is included.  Legislation offered in the final two weeks of session (SB 26 and SB 892) would create a statewide voter referendum in November 2012, and would ask for voter approval of a sixth gaming facility in Maryland (in Prince George’s County) and of adding Las Vegas-style table games at the licensed slot facilities.  Passage of such a measure would bring full-fledged casinos to Maryland and would generate a projected $1.5 billion in revenue in coming years.
• This issue was a sticking point at Sine Die as the House Ways and Means committee moved an amended version of SB 892, but ran out of time in bringing the bill to the House floor.
• MSEA’s interest in this issue relates to the impact that expanded gaming would have on the revenue and distributions of the Education Trust Fund.  The Senate legislation reduces the portion of gaming-related dollars going to the Education Trust Fund from 48 percent to 33 percent, a significant reduction and an issue for continued discussion and debate if this issue advances in special session.

Legislative Victories – Bills MSEA Helped Pass

Marriage Equality in Maryland

House Bill 438, the Civil Marriage Protection Act, passed the General Assembly to position Maryland as the 8^th state in the nation to recognize same sex marriage.  At the 2011 MSEA Convention, delegates passed New Business Item 16, calling on the association to support passage of the Marriage Equality Act.  The legislative victory was significant, but this issue is expected to be one that will be taken to the ballot in November when voters will be asked to uphold the actions of the General Assembly.

Flexibility and Clarifications in the Five Day Rule for IEP Meetings

House Bill 596 was amended to provide increased flexibility in how IEP meeting documents can be delivered to parents.  The final bill includes MSEA amendments that clarify that parents can opt out of receiving documents five days before the IEP meeting if they will not be useful.  Additionally, the amendments clarify that documents will be translated for blind parents and can be delivered via email or by student backpack, saving educators’ time and school system resources.

Addressing Drop-out Rates by Increasing the Compulsory Age of Education (SB 362)

The compulsory age for education has been an issue for several legislative sessions, but became a priority this year, in part because of our continued support for this measure to address education gaps and drop-out rates.  President Obama used the State of the Union Address to challenge states to set the compulsory age at 18 years old.  This legislation establishes a long-term phase-in to determine interventions that need to be in place locality-by-locality, and prepare for the impact of changing the age from 15 to 17 years old between now and the 2017-2018 school year.

Social Studies Back in Focus (SB 293/HB 1227)

It has been widely reported by educators, and defended by research, that the increased emphasis on reading and mathematics instruction required under No Child Left Behind has greatly reduced social studies instruction time, especially in the elementary grades.  Legislation passed this session establishes social studies as one of the Core Academic Content Areas, along with reading, language, mathematics, and science, and it returns a social studies assessment to Maryland high schools (as part of the budget agreement).  The bill requires that student achievement in social studies for other grade levels be reported to the public annually.

Study of Guidance Counselors and Pupil Personnel Workers (HB 724)

Understanding the important work and unique workload of guidance counselors and pupil personnel workers, the General Assembly passed legislation to issue local school system reports on the duties and activities of these employees that are designed to promote college readiness of students in grades 6-12.

Other Key Bills Passed

• Tax Credit Evaluation Act (HB 764/SB 739)
• Green Product Cleaning Supplies (HB 1019/SB 708)
• Capital Budget with $373 million in FY13 for school construction (SB 151)
• Loan Assistance Repayment Program (Nancy Grasmick Teacher Scholars) (HB 613)

Legislative Victories – Bills MSEA Helped Defeat

Private School Vouchers (HB 1216/SB 844)

A charge of the 2011 MSEA Convention was to aggressively organize a campaign against BOAST, tax credit legislation that would provide a voucher scheme that diverts public money for private schools.  For yet another year, the BOAST bill, this year known as the Partnership for Student Education and Community Investment Tax Credit, didn’t make it out of either the Senate Budget and Tax or House Ways and Means committees.  Our ongoing opposition was critical to overcoming a last-minute push to get the bill to the floor.  One thing we know about this bill…it will be back next session.

Attacks on Collective Bargaining (SB 876/HB 1210)

Legislation seeking to limit elements of collective bargaining related to appeals and layoffs was defeated on the Senate side and never moved in the House of Delegates.  This legislation would have pre-empted local contracts and substituted a one-size-fits-all standard for appeals and layoff policies.

Additional Pension Reforms

Every session brings the recycling of failed ideas.  That was true for proposed pension reforms, as several bills to close out the state’s defined benefit system and move to a defined contribution (HB 645) or cash balance plan (HB 653) were introduced again.  The bills were heard, but never gained any traction.

Financial Literacy Curriculum Requirement (HB 191/SB 307)

MSEA never supports curriculum mandates suggested through the legislative process.  It is not the role of the General Assembly and was a key reason we lobbied against and successfully defeated the development of a financial literacy curriculum as a graduation requirement.  SB 476 was approved to establish a Financial Education Commission.  MSEA will have a representative on the Commission and will continue to advocate for educating students on financial education.

Supplemental Education Service Required Spending (SB 1090/HB 1450)

MSEA actively worked to defeat a bill and budget provision that would mandate spending for Supplemental Education Services, tutoring services provided by vendors outside the school day.  MSEA supports the No Child Left Behind waiver requested by the State Board of Education which would allow local school systems flexibility in how they allocate federal Title I funding.

Other Legislative Notes

Summer of Studies

Several bills passed this year that will make the summer of 2012 the Summer of Studies and Workgroups.  The following summer studies and reports are expected to be taken up in the interim:

• Annual reports association with maintenance of effort waivers (SB 848)
• Financial Education and Capability Commission (SB 476)
• Maryland Advisory Council for Virtual Learning (SB 689)
• Age for Compulsory Public School Attendance (SB 362/ HB 373)
• Study on Maximum Student Enrollment Policy (HB 1214)
• Report on School Guidance Counselors and Pupil Personnel Workers (HB 724)
• Task Force to Explore Incorporating the Subject of Agriculture in Existing Curricular Areas (HB 680)
• State Department of Education - Oral Health Education (SB 867)

The Clock Ran Out on More Than the Budget

Several bills that were moving in one or both chambers died when the General Assembly adjourned Sine Die.  Of particular note as it relates to educators or education policy include:

• Task Force to Study the Improvement of Maryland Public Charter Schools (HB 1218)
• Child Abuse and Neglect - Notice and Reporting Requirements, Disclosure, and Task Force (SB 63)
• Cooperative or Joint Administration of Programs, Baltimore County (HB 1281)
• Baltimore County - Elected School Board (HB 481/SB 407)

Gas Tax and Transportation Trust Fund

While several proposals were discussed, no gasoline or transportation tax initiative ever gained traction this General Assembly session.  Governor O’Malley had hoped to follow through on a Blue Ribbon Transportation Commission recommendation to generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the transportation trust fund.  With so much discussion on other tax initiatives, however, there was no appetite to act during this 90-day session.

Do Your Part for Great Public Schools Campaign

Emails, phone calls, texts, 10-minute meetings, lobby days, townhall meetings, and a statewide day of action were all part of our 2012 legislative campaign.  The combination of quality contacts coupled with a substantial quantity of contacts played a significant role in supporting our legislative priorities and program and our big win on maintenance of effort.  Legislators heard from educators in their district and it reinforced the message they were hearing from MSEA leaders and lobbyists in Annapolis.

Our Advocacy Must Continue

We need one more phone call, email, text, and legislative contact to force the General Assembly and Governor O’Malley to act and ensure the Doomsday budget is not enacted.Send an email with this link, and/or call our legislative hotline at 866-268-MSEA today!