Funding – Funding for education will continue to
be on the front burner. At the state level, we see several key issues that will
impact funding. The state pension system reform will require significant
resources that will eventually have a negative impact on state education funds.
At the national level, the fiscal cliff
deal only delayed sequestration decisions for two months. In addition,
there will be cuts to federal education funds as Congress has to cut $24
billion due to the two month delay in sequestration.
At the state level, we will see
significant discussion over the report by the Blue Ribbon
Commission on Tax Reform. My guess is that this issue will be dealt with in
a special session. Overall, my prediction on education funding is that we will
see continuing reductions in state and federal funds due to the many pressing
issues and lack of willingness to increase revenues.
Programs – Early childhood will be one of the top
priorities at state and federal levels. Investments in early childhood provide
the best return on investment for education dollars. We will also see a state
push to raise the dropout age from 16 to 18. A number of other states will also
have legislation proposed. This will be a year where Title II issues such as teacher preparation and
teacher evaluation gain a lot of momentum and the Secretary of Education will
release new guidelines for Title II funding that will support this reform
agenda. I have absolutely NO hope to see reauthorization of No Child Left Behind in 2013, however, the state waiver
process will inform the debate on reauthorization and lay the groundwork for
reauthorization in 2014.
School safety – Everyone agrees that we need to focus
on school safety, however, there will not be agreement on specifics. Armed
guards have been proposed but funding limitations will hinder that proposal.
More focus on gun control laws will be debated and we will see legislation proposed
to allow teachers to have concealed permits to carry arms on campus. We will
see a lot of debate about reforming mental health. We will also see significant
discussions about a culture of violence promoted by media and video games. In
the end, I am not certain if much will be accomplished due to the polarization
of this issue.
All in all, 2013 does look like a very
busy year and a year that I believe will see some significant reform on several
fronts. As always, Kentucky educators will be leading on key issues and heavily
involved in others.
Thank you for keeping early childhood education a priority! I wish there was more funding for this program, as well as education in general.
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Actually, School safety is one of the hot topics in education today since bullying became more and more serious. Most of the students even commit suicide because of being bullied. This is something that the government needs to solve. Anti-bullying acts will not really be enough.
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