By Trudy Stephenson Willis
Schools wishing to compete for funds under the newly enacted Quality Education Investment Act need to be ready to act when the window of opportunity opens in January. It closes at the end of March.
The program, created through a CTA-sponsored bill, uses $2.9 billion in recovered Proposition 98 funds to help targeted low-performing schools reduce class size, improve teacher and principal training, and add counselors. Approximately 1,455 schools have been designated as eligible for grants, but there’s only enough funding for 500 to 600.
“This program will give students a solid foundation of support,” says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. “It’s a major step in CTA’s campaign to help our schools of greatest need.”
The money, which will be paid out over seven years, settles a lawsuit that CTA filed to get the state to repay $2 billion the governor borrowed from education funds two years ago. The amount grew to nearly $3 billion because the state failed to appropriate additional monies for schools when the revenue picture improved.
CTA is working with the California Department of Education as it develops the application criteria and decides how to implement the program.
The program’s goals are to improve the quality of academic instruction and student achievement in schools contending with high levels of poverty; to develop exemplary schools and districts that can attract and retain qualified teachers, administrators and other staff; and to focus school resources in a comprehensive manner on instructional improvement.
Each year for at least seven years, the schools selected for the program will receive $500 per student in grades K-3, $900 per student in grades 4-8, and $1,000 per student in grades 9-12 as long as they meet the program requirements.
A list of eligible schools, all of which are ranked in deciles 1 or 2 of the Academic Performance Index for the 2005 school year, is posted on the CDE website [www.cde.ca.gov].
In order to comply with the bill’s intent, schools will have to:
- Reduce class size in grades 4-12 to 25 students or reduce the class size by five students below the 2005-06 average, whichever is lower. In departmentalized settings, the requirement affects only the four core academic areas.
- Provide relevant professional development for at least a third of the teaching staff and instructional paraprofessionals annually, focusing on strategies to help English learners as well as improve subject matter knowledge.
- Maintain a teacher experience average equal to that of the district as a whole.
- Meet the criteria of the Williams lawsuit settlement in regard to such matters as instructional materials and clean, safe, functional facilities.
- Meet API growth requirements, which will be averaged for the first four years, and then exceed them each year thereafter.
- Comply with the phased-in accountability requirements.
At the high school level, schools will have to maintain a counseling ratio no higher than 300 to 1.
“The presumption is that if these investments prove successful, the Legislature will continue the program and hopefully expand it,” says Kerr. “To put it in perspective, the cost of the program seven years from now will be less than half of one percent of the annual Prop. 98 guarantee.”
Naysayers who would prefer to see the money spread among all schools “should know that this one-time money would amount to less than $61 per student that way, not nearly enough to make a difference.”