Fifteen things you need to know as a policymaker — or someone who cares about education in your community and state.
1.End “last hired, first fired” practices.
2.Remove class-size mandates.
3.Eliminate mandatory salary schedules.
4.Eliminate state mandates regarding work rules and terms of employment.
5.Remove “seat time” requirements.
6.Merge categorical programs and ease onerous reporting requirements.
7.Create a rigorous teacher evaluation system.
8.Pool health-care benefits.
9.Tackle the fiscal viability of teacher pensions.
10.Move toward weighted student funding.
11.Eliminate excess spending on small schools and small districts.
12.Allocate spending for learning-disabled students as a percent of population.
13.Limit the length of time that students can be identified as English Language Learners.
14.Offer waivers of non-productive state requirements.
15.Create bankruptcy-like loan provisions.
These are Stretching the School Dollar recommendations contained in a brief released yesterday by the Fordham Institute. Sounds like a lot of common sense. Sounds like a lot of topics that are going to be discussed at the Indiana Statehouse in the coming months.
Read the full brief and stay tuned to see what happens.
Two comments: #8 – Many school districts are already pooling their insurance for health care and, very importantly, at a cost lower than the State program.
#11 – IPS and Gary schools receive the highest funding per student from the State of all schools in Indiana. I would hardly consider them to be small schools or districts so, who is receiving the “excess spending”?