WashACE

Bellevue Teachers' Strike - Some Context

The brief note on the Bellevue School District this afternoon website pretty much says it all.

Public employee strikes are illegal in Washington, but the union has nonetheless called the strike to apply pressure on the District in collective bargaining. Negotiations continue with the assistance of a mediator from the Public Employment Relation Commission. Information about the issues in dispute and the District's contract proposals can be found on the District website.

The Seattle Times doesn't address the legal issue, but makes good substantive points about why the strike is wrong.

First, they point out the economic reality.

... the district's offer of an 8.1 percent pay raise over three years and an additional $1 million in health-care benefits — allowing a third of the teachers to pay nothing and others to pay between $6 and $62 a month — shines amid recessionary gloom. Yet, the Bellevue Education Association demands 14.1 percent raises. The district must say no.

The news story in the Times points out that compensation in the Bellevue district is already among the highest in the state. There may be - and probably is - an argument worth making about improving teacher pay in high-cost districts, but it ought to be explored in a more comprehensive conversation that includes performance pay, increased compensation for math and science teachers, and the like.

The editorial goes on to dismiss the union's demand for curriculum change.

Union cries that the curriculum imposes a one-size-fits-all standard are wrong. Parents ought to know when their children are going to learn fractions. This provides a counterbalance to education reform's emphasis on assessment. Classroom dynamics are constantly changing. Some students come to class half-asleep, others alert and ready to learn. Bellevue has said time and again that teachers can adapt the curriculum to fit individual needs...

Bellevue has spent the past five years creating the curriculum with a $2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — an organization known for vetting academic initiatives. Meanwhile, the district continues to be recognized nationally for its quality schools and its emphasis on getting all students into high-level classes.

Education Week provides valuable context in its examination of how teachers are faring in states hit hard by budget woes. Bellevue looks pretty good.

The episode is sadly reminiscent of the WEA's rejection of grant money to improve math and science education. In Bellevue, you have a curriculum that works. So the union demands it be changed?

High-performing schools play a critical role in our state's economic competitiveness. We hope for a swift conclusion to this disruption of student education in Bellevue.

Massachusetts Math: Paying Too Much for Health Care Plan

The blown cost estimates for the still-struggling Massachusetts health care reform are common knowledge. But last week the New York Times ran an editorial touting the plan's success in reducing the number of uninsured in the state. The State Policy Blog takes a look behind the numbers, though, and finds the touted success comes with a hefty price tag.

... even the figures reported in the editorial lead to the conclusion that this is a massively expensive experiment with miniscule results.  The editorial reports that hospitals' uncompensated care dropped from $166 million in the first quarter of 2007 down to $98 million in the first quarter of 2008.  That's $68 million, or $272 million a year.

The state budget for the program is going to be $869 million this fiscal year.  $272 million in savings for $869 million of costs: that's $3.19 of taxpayers' dollars spent for every dollar of uncompensated care avoided.

Just one of the reasons Massachusetts is among the states facing large budget deficits this year. And if a proposed income tax repeal is approved by the voters in November, Bay State politics could get exciting quickly. In 2002, a similar measure garnered 45 percent of the vote. Astonishing.

Add Maryland and Illinois to the roll call of states in dire fiscal straits.

We're not far behind, with a $2.7 billion shortfall projected last June. With a new revenue forecast due in a few weeks and revenue collections running below projections, the state deficit seems poised to deepen.

And while the Seattle Times reports that economists say a Boeing strike would have "minimal impact" on the economy, I'm sure no one wants to put the premise to a test.

Ask your candidates how they're going to address the shortfall without adding to business costs, taking money from consumers' pockets, and further dampening economic growth.

Salary Negotiations Continue for State Employees ... and Bellevue Teachers

As state budgets continue to be roiled by the double whammy of excessive spending during good times and the feels-like-a-recession revenue slowdown, public employees here continue to bargain for pay and benefits. Adam Wilson reports in the Olympian that the state's largest public employee union wants a better deal than the ones already negotiated with other unions.

The 1.6-, 1.7-percent raises agreed to by the Washington Public Employees Association give you a pretty good idea of where Gov. Chris Gregoire’s negotiators are coming from. Past rounds of bargaining indicate everybody will get the same deal.

But the Teamsters have managed to eek out slightly bigger raises in the past, and the federation, which represents 30,000 general government workers and another 10,000 college employees, has never settled for as little as the WPEA got (even when Gov. Gary Locke was facing a deficit).

Remember, many public employees also receive so-called "step increases" that increase their pay over time. An earlier Wilson story on pensions shows how that works.

The [pension funding] council has assumed salaries would increase by 4.5 percent a year, counting both step increases based on experience and cost-of-living adjustments. But Smith recommended cutting those expectations to 4.25 percent, a move that would reduce costs to public employers by $57 million in the next budget.

Jason Mercier at the Washington Policy Center compares the Bellevue teachers' strike to how the governor handled agency directors' pay hikes.

As bad news about the state housing market increases the probability of another downward revision in the state revenue forecast, any pay hike at all may seem generous. Certainly, there are lots of folks running small businesses and working for beleaguered industries that will go without a raise this year and be thankful they still have work. A possible Boeing strike may also negatively affect revenue collections.

Washington has never endured the calamitous budget gridlock that routinely plagues California (see previous post). But a potential $3 billion shortfall suggests that we should prepare now for hard times agead. The Washington Policy Center recommends a constitutional limit to rein in expenditures and make it more difficult to raise taxes.

In a few weeks, the September forecast will be released. The preliminary economic forecast doesn't give us any reason for sustained optimism. Washington's new chief revenue forecaster joins state government at a particularly challenging time. But then, challenging times are when we most need good forecasts.

Lessons from California ... and elsewhere

California, ranked as the worst state to do business, failed to write a budget before the legislative session ended this weekend. The Sacramento Bee reports this is the first time ever that lawmakers left with the must-do budget bill unwritten. The Bee's Aurello Rojas frames the stalemate:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget, to bridge a $15.2 billion deficit, includes a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase, future spending restraints and an economic stimulus plan.

But Schwarzenegger's plan has not been warmly embraced by Republicans who balk at the temporary tax increase, or by Democrats who oppose key elements of the spending restraints and stimulus plan.

Today, Rojas reports that the budget impasse has pushed some health care providers to the edge. Businesses and nonprofits that rely on Medi-Cal payments haven't been paid since July 1, when the new fiscal year began.

If reimbursements don't start flowing soon - unlikely - expect some agencies to fail. And when they do, the bankrupt California Unemployment Insurance fund won't be much help.

It all makes Georgia's threatened golf courses seem like trivial collateral damage, but I'm sure some readers would disagree.

Hard to know how California's ranking as the worst place for business could fall. But if it could, it would.

New WASL Report: Mixed Reviews

Release of the latest round of WASL scores provides some good news and some, well, needs improvement marks. As Debby Abe writes in The News Tribune, "It's not all gold stars for  WASL test results." She has a good discussion of the test - and the inevitable political implications - in a story worth reading in its entirety. Here are the bullets.

• This fall’s incoming 12th-graders are setting a slightly faster pace at meeting new graduation testing requirements than last year’s seniors did.

• Scores in science, the most recent addition to the WASL, rose 3 to 6 percentage points in the three tested grades. At least 40 percent of fifth-, eighth- and 10th-graders passed that section.

• Reading and math scores appear to have “stalled out” in most grades.

Linda Shaw's Seattle Times story also provides good context for understanding the latest results. She also get the Partnership for Learning reaction.

... the Partnership for Learning, a business-backed group that's long been a WASL supporter, said that even though most scores remained flat this year, improvements are in the works that will change that, especially the plans to significantly shorten the test in all grades but grade 10 next spring.

As Shaw notes, Superintendent of Public Instruction Terry Bergeson also celebrated Washington's top ranking on SATs. Here's Education Week's story on the SAT results - mostly flat with some questions.

The SPI web site has more on both here.

Second Thoughts in NY (family leave) and Wisconsin (health care)

At Olympia Business Watch Don Brunell takes note of the New York legislature's adjournment without passing paid family leave. It was a matter of dollars and sense.

There were many versions of the paid leave circulating around Albany. They were all very costly.  Here is a sample of the proposals:

• One would impose 12 weeks of disability insurance benefits for family leave on ALL businesses for employees of newborns, families adopting children and caregivers of sick parents, spouses and children.
• Another would provide 13 weeks of leave and would have increased the maximum disability benefit from $170 to $550 per week by 2010 and would have permanently indexed the benefit to one-half of the state's average monthly wage.

As for the proposal to pay for it.  Workers would have to pay a mandatory 45 cents per week payroll tax...

In Wisconsin, support for the so-called "Healthy Wisconsin" program proposed last legislative session also seems to be waning. The State Policy Blog reports candidates are in "full retreat" on the pricey "universal health care" plan. Dollars and sense again. The blog links to this story in the Wisconsin State Journal.

"The issue is money and right now, not many legislative candidates are talking about big, broad programs simply because we all understand that practically speaking, there's no money," said Jim Holperin, a new Democratic Senate candidate who praised the Healthy Wisconsin plan but said his focus was on reviving the economy.

Few would deny the importance of improving health care access and affordability, or for helping employees work through difficult times, but the lessons being learned in Wisconsin and New York (they're not the only places) should be heeded here.

How Much Would You be Willing to Pay to Combat Climate Change?

Not much if you're a typical Californian. And are they so much different from typical Washingtonians?

Here's the Reuters story on a recent survey.

Most Californians won't support the state's ambitious efforts to fight global warming if they lead to sharply higher energy costs, according to a survey commissioned by a pro-business group released on Thursday.    

Sixty-three percent of 1,000 registered California voters surveyed this month said they supported the goal of cutting greenhouse gases, but that support fell to 47 percent when the question included the likelihood of higher energy costs.

Power Line understands the dissonance.

Reducing carbon emissions will be popular until someone actually tries to do it, and the consequences become apparent. It's a bit shocking that, as this survey suggests, a considerable number of people don't understand that reducing carbon consumption means higher energy costs.

Right.

WA Business Climate: Contradictions & "All Over the Map"

As we've written before, this "best state for business" business is complicated. Others have reached the same conclusion. In the September Washington CEO, Aaron Corvin provides a good rundown of what he dubs a "state of contradictions." And the Washington Policy Center's small business expert, Carl Gipson has a Puget Sound Business Journal op-ed headed "Washington's business climate is all over the map."

WashACE readers will recognize many of the reports cited, but both articles are worth a full read.

Corvin blends data with interviews.

Don Brunell, president of the Association of Washington Business, says there is little room for comfort in competing with other, lowercost states. And the cost of doing business in the state could go up in a number of new ways, he says, including by way of the Paid Family Leave Act...

Additionally, Brunell doesn't see the state's advantage in low electricity costs lasting for long: Initiative 937, approved by voters statewide in 2006, requires utilities to increase their use of renewable energy. But pre-existing hydropower, which provides about two-thirds of the state's electricity, doesn't count.

And this.

Scott Carson, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, says high unemployment and workers' compensation rates, coupled with rising taxes and energy costs and problems with traffic and education, "make it increasingly difficult for Washington state businesses to compete." No one should assume "Boeing or any other company will remain here just because of history," he says, which makes it imperative to control costs.

Corvin does a great job of touching on all the points business leaders we talk to cite regularly: business taxes, energy costs, regulation, workforce (especially engineers, scientists, and skilled tradespeople), and  more. It's good to see the WashACE 2008 Competitiveness Redbok used as a data-rich source to back up the anecdotal evidence.

Gipson's op-ed reviews the data from several studies and does a good job of sorting through the disparate tax ratings. And he asks the right question:

In 2007 the state's business community paid almost $15 billion in taxes - an increase of 36 percent since 2002. At what point does the business community look for better, cheaper options and friendlier states?

I'm glad to see leading business publications giving competitiveness this much attention. It's timely.

More Paid Leave Mandates Coming?

UPDATE: This afternoon, Monica Guzman, the PI's online reporter, blogs on the story mentioned below, asking her readers "Should Washington mandate paid sick days?"  Guzman's summary says "We did just pass a law making sure employers pay workers who are out taking care of brand new kids."   We did?  She might mean 2007's unfunded, unimplemented paid family leave law but it is important to note that law purports to provide paid family leave through a state-run social insurance program.  Its mandate is that employers make due with the absent employee for six weeks; thus far, the employer doesn't have to pay (directly) for it.

-----------------------------

The Seattle PI today runs an AP story out of Connecticut on the push by a handful of states and the federal government to mandate employers provide a minimum number of paid days off to employees. 

Senator Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines, who incidentally sponsored the state's so-far unfunded, unimplemented paid family leave mandate, floated this idea a couple years ago but it didn't get very far.  The bill's purported purpose was to protect workplaces from workers down sick with the Avian flu.  But the predicted pandemic never happened (knock on wood).

The proposal could be back next year in Washington.  In her Everett Herald column yesterday, paid leave advocate Marilyn Watkins laid the familiar rhetorical foundation:

The last few years have seen the beginnings of change, with Washington and New Jersey joining California in adopting paid family leave, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., passing minimum sick days ordinances, and similar bills introduced in other states and Congress.

We still have a long way to go, in our state and nationally.

Not so fast.  Advocates ought to wait and see what happens in Ohio this fall, where an SEIU-led ballot measure on mandated paid leave is before the voters.  Just today, it was announced that Democratic governor Ted Strickland came out opposed to the measure, claiming the initiative is "unworkable, unwieldy and would be detrimental to Ohio's economy."   

(Cross-posted at Olympia Business Watch)

Public Schools Get Lower Grades than the Post Office?

The valuable Joann Jacobs blog recently pointed to the 2008 Eduction Nex-PEPG Survey of Public Opinion report showing that Americans give the public schools a not-so-respectable C on performance. Although the nationwide survey of 2,500 adults and an oversample of 700 public teachers reveals "an abiding commitment to public education," this might hurt.

Local public schools receive lower marks than they did a year ago. More significantly, perhaps, survey respondents claim that their local post offices and police forces outperform their local schools.

The survey contains an abundance of good information. For example,

Though support for No Child Left Behind is dwindling, Americans continue to believe that schools should be held accountable through national standards and tests. No less than
69 percent ofthe public think the federal government should set standards for the country and administer tests in math, science,and reading. (Page 17)

As they did in 2007, a plurality of the overall public and every subgroup continue to support charter schools.Indeed, supporters of charter schools outnumber opponents more
than two to one.The modal response, however,continues to be “neither support nor oppose.” (Page 20)

The schools seem to be doing better than the nation.

A slight majority of those surveyed, nonetheless, think that the public schools in their community are improving. Fifty-six percent ofthe public say that the local public schools
are heading in the right direction,compared to 44 percent who believe they are on the wrong track.In this respect, Americans’ views of the nation’s education system appear to be considerably more optimistic than their views about the affairs ofthe
nation more generally.When Gallup,NBC and the Wall Street Journal,and the Associated Press used the same language to ask Americans about the direction ofthe nation as a whole
while our survey was in the field,less than one-quarter reported that it is on the right track achievement... (Page 16)

Most of that seems to square with perceptions of Washington schools. The national souring on NCLB has not eroded support for accountability. Neither has Washingtonians' growing apprehension about the WASL diminished enthusiasm for standards. The challenge, of course, is that its easier to embrace accountability and standards in the abstract than it is to agree on a particular set of criteria against which to judge. Tossing NCLB and the WASL in hopes of coming up with something better sometime in the future seems self-defeating.

For an excellent account of California's unrealized Scharzeneggerian education reform, see No Country for Strong Men. Daniel Weintraub documents how caution, budget woes, and the lack of a comprehensive and coherent reform vision doomed the governor's plans for major improvements in that state's public schools.

And, to end this on a positive note, George Will writes today of a successful charter school in Oakland, California.