“A special endowment designed to provide stable long-term support for the Children’s Initiative Fund has already been raided frequently. From 2001 through 2015, about $180 million was used from the endowment to address budget shortfalls as funds were funneled into the general fund… “The prudent move is to keep the CIF intact, along with the Children’s Cabinet, which is cognizant of funding and has stipulated strong standards for CIF-funded programs. “Consider too the recipients of this funding. They represent the future of Kansas. They are our children. “Too much uncertainty arises when programs designed for the well-being of...
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House committee holds hearing on merit pay
Mark Tallman, associate executive director for advocacy at KASB, said he wasn’t aware of research-based consensus that pay for performance improved overall academic results in the classroom. It is a topic best left to locally elected school boards, he said… “K-NEA lobbyist Mark Desetti said state legislatures wading into the incentive pay “fail to understand the essential nature of teaching… “Desetti said research had established links between the study of music and success in math but merit systems wouldn’t recognize the contribution of a fifth-grade band teacher when evaluating effectiveness of a high school calculus instructor. “Brian Koon,...
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Leave a Comment The Unique Insanity of Teacher Merit Pay
Thank you for this well-done piece, Marcel Harmon. Merit pay was up for discussion in the House Education Committee recently. “Falling back on another trite saying, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” With such a long, unproductive and repeated history, it would seem that teacher merit pay is its own special brand of insanity. The evidence suggests that if you want to positively impact student success, across a wide range of measures, start by providing teachers and staff with a competitive base pay and benefits package, with starting salaries and...
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Leave a Comment Extraordinary need fund swept by governor
So, the “extraordinary need fund,” paid for by school districts, became a state tax, with the state keeping $2.9 million of the $12.3 million raised. “It was fair to wonder in November whether school districts might ever see the $2.9 million remaining of the total $12.3 million in the ‘extraordinary needs fund,’ which the Legislature created (at districts’ expense) to provide additional aid to those experiencing unforeseen hardships from the transition to block grants. Wichita’s USD 259, for example, was charged $1.1 million, requested $980,000 back to help handle its refugee influx and was awarded just $366,000 from...
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