2009-01-11 More legislation filed

More legislation filed in the Tennessee legislature. Thanks to the updated legislative website the sponsor's names are now hyperlinked to their much more informative web pages. Another nice feature...hover over the bill link in the long list and you'll get the bill sponsor and a hint about what the bill is.

BIG PROBLEM: pointed out by David Oatney---the video archives are AWOL. Not good. I've searched high and low and I can't find the previous session's videos at all. There's no link to the webmaster so no way to easily drop them a note asking when and where they'll return.

From the House:

*HB 0046 by Rep. Joshua Evans (R-Robertson County)

Handgun Permits - As introduced, prohibits department of safety or any department approved handgun safety course employee from requiring applicant for handgun carry permit to furnish any identifying information concerning any handgun the applicant owns or possesses. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

Yes. They only need to examine it to ensure it's safe for the training.

*HB 0047 by Rep. Brenda Gilmore D- Nashville

Taxes, Real Property - As introduced, enacts a property tax freeze for homeowners totally and permanently disabled. - Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 5, Part 7.

*HB 0048 by Rep. Brenda Gilmore D- Nashville

Child Custody and Support - As introduced, allows the court in an order for support and maintenance of the children to set a specific amount to cover uninsured medical expenses and if such amount is not paid by the party within 30 days, the court, other party, state, or IV-D contractor may enforce the payment by any legal action permitted by law. - Amends TCA Title 36, Chapter 5, Part 1.

Don't most divorce documents include a provision for health insurance for dependent children? And doesn't a violation of that decree enable a contempt of court citation?

*HB 0049 by Rep. Brenda Gilmore D- Nashville

Mortgages - As introduced, delays the sale of land to foreclose a loan, mortgage or deed of trust on owner-occupied single family residences for a period of time; requires the parties to enter into good faith negotiations during such period to renegotiate the terms and conditions of the loan. - Amends TCA Title 35, Chapter 5, Part 1.

*HB 0050 by Rep. Brenda Gilmore D- Nashville

Public Health - As introduced, requires the department of health, in coordination with the office of minority health, to develop a plan to respond to the HIV/AIDS crisis in African-American communities throughout Tennessee; authorizes the state treasury to create a special fund designated as the African-American HIV/AIDS Response Fund in which moneys may be deposited, subject to appropriation, to fund implementation of the proposed plan. - Amends TCA Title 68.

I don't see the need for this. Is the health department slighting any segment of the population in this regard? If so, call them on the carpet through the chain of command and let's focus resources where needed. The state legislature doesn't need to create another pocket of money that can only be spent in one area.

*HB 0051 by Rep. Brenda Gilmore D- Nashville

Food and Food Products - As introduced, prohibits in any food service establishment use of trans fats in the preparation of food or food products. - Amends TCA Title 53 and Title 68.

*HB 0052 by Rep. Brenda Gilmore D- Nashville

Public Health - As introduced, requires the department of correction to test all inmates for HIV prior to inmate release. - Amends TCA Title 41, Chapter 21.

*HB 0053 by Rep. Eddie Bass (D-Prospect)

Handgun Permits - As introduced, makes information contained in handgun carry permit applications and renewals, information provided to agencies to investigate applicant, and records maintained relative to the permit application confidential and creates Class E felony of unauthorized publication of permit information or records. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13.

*HB 0054 by Rep. Eric Swafford (R-Pikeville)

Criminal Offenses - As introduced, creates Class A misdemeanor offense of owner or employee of intellectual property seizing property alleged to be counterfeit or imitation but permits seizures by law enforcement officers as currently provided by law. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 14 and Title 47.

*HB 0055 by Rep. Eric Swafford (R-Pikeville)

Nurses, Nursing - As introduced, authorizes the general assembly to appropriate funding for the state school fund to provide for the inclusion of a school nurse in every public school. - Amends TCA Title 49 and Title 68.

I don't agree with the 'every' public school. Let's base it on legitimate need. It's a bit like giving a mouse a cookie. Original intent may be double checking on fevers and skinned knees but mission creep will set in.

*HB 0056 by Rep. Eric Swafford (R-Pikeville)

Tort Liability and Reform - As introduced, provides that a flea market operator is not vicariously liable for damages resulting from flea market vendors' sale of counterfeit merchandise unless operator knew merchandise was counterfeit and failed to report or prevent sale. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 14, Part 1 and Title 47, Chapter 25, Part 5.

Who shops at a flea market and doesn't assume an "as is" purchase? It's the price of getting a bargain--you have to assume a greater risk in purchasing the product.

House Resolution:

*HJR 0007 by Rep. Brenda Gilmore D- Nashville

General Assembly, Statement of Intent or Position - Expresses profound regret for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans.

Haven't we done this already?

From the Senate:

*SB 0011 by Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro)

Driver Licenses - As introduced, requires all written driver license examinations be given in English. - Amends TCA Title 55, Chapter 50, Part 3.

YES! Until our traffic signs are in the applicant's mother tongue...let's ensure they can read the information on those new TDOT electric signs (and every other road sign) and keep the test in English.

*SB 0012 by Sen. Delores Gresham (R-Somerville)

Military - As introduced, authorizes state employees who are in the military to use sick leave rather than annual leave when called to military duties. - Amends TCA Title 8, Chapter 33 and Title 8, Chapter 34.

Gresham reaches out once again to her military compatriots and suggests this small and common sense accommodation to make their life easier in exchange for keeping us safe.

Construction for Bredesen, but not children

Apparently Gov. Phil Bredesen can find $12 million to fund his party bunker from a very tight state budget but the hundreds of millions of excess lottery dollars just sitting around collecting interest cannot be touched to build classrooms for public school students despite the FACT that the TN Constitution allows this use of those funds.

Bill Hobbs has details and quotes from the Tennessee Journal (subscription needed).

Instead of coming up with another proposal to use some of the lottery surplus to fund school construction, Bredesen appears to be leaning toward a last-minute proposal from House Democrats to divert the money instead to a loan fund for projects that improve the energy efficiency of public school buildings, the TJ reports.

That makes no sense. You want maximum energy efficiency? Replace portables with brick and mortar. And loans? Not grants? Why do we have to further encumber our school districts by requiring them to go into debt for improvements when the cash is available?

Hobbs points out:

Nine school systems have more than 10 percent of their classes in portables.

Last year the best Bredesen could do was to create the Lottery Bank of Tennessee:

Gov. Bredesen has already suggested in his State of the State address that lottery funds be used for loans to local school districts.

So, high on the Governor's list of construction projects is a party facility for himself, the legislators, lobbyists and other unnamed swells. Low on his construction priority is classrooms for children. Oh, he'd loan the school systems the money but an outright grant to the systems to do what is best for the children? No.

Why is this party facility necessary? Why do the swells get more than comfortable accommodations and our school children don't even get safe and secure ones?

Testy, testy

Yeah, that'll work. A couple of weeks before your evaluation tell the Chairman that it's her fault. Apparently MNPS BOE Chair Marsha Warden is peeved that MNPS Director of Schools Dr. Pedro Garcia missed the Council's Education meeting on Monday which then put her in the position of having to defend MNPS. That was something she wasn't prepared to do. The Tennessean tells us:

Garcia fired back an e-mail confronting Warden for her repeated threats to give him a bad evaluation. He also suggested that she take note of questions at future public hearings rather than give out incorrect information.

The Tennessean has copies of the email exchange between Warden and Garcia. You're going to want to read these. Scroll down to see them.

Warden wrote:

There was no financial information available at the
meeting. In consequence, there were a number of allegations of
impropriety that was made to which I cold not respond effectively.
Financial information was not the only thing missing. The most
important thing missing was you. You could have answered the questions
and demonstrated that Metro Schools did not misappropriate funds.

Just my opinion, but it seems to me that as Chairman of the BOE she should have had a handle on a lot of this.

And she gives him a direct order:

I expect you to review the questions asked at the meeting and
present written responses to those questions to Ms. Smith, the members
of the Metro Council, they Mayor, and the local press. I expect this to
be done immediately.

Garcia responds:

I take my job very seriously, but I also make it a practice to have representation from the Administration at every meeting. Sandy Tinnon used to be that representative, and presently those duties are handled by Woody McMillin. The Board has never directed me as to what meetings I need to attend.

Now I like Woody McMillan a lot and wouldn't want his job for all the tea in China, but he's not Sandra Tinnon, or Chris Henson or even Paul Changas, all of whom, I expect, would be better able to handle most of the questions.

I don't see any explanation from Garcia in his email as to where he was or why that was more important than the Metro Education Committee meeting.

Cost of Public Education

Ben Cunningham has a very illuminating chart at his site about the rising cost of public education vs. the cost of oil which he got from Carpe Diem . We're all complaining about the price of gas but we really need to take a hard look at our education dollars.

Carpe Diem's Mark Perry writes in the comment section:

The comparison is between: a) real spending/price to educate one student in a public school and b) real spending/price to purchase one barrel of oil. Even without using oil as a comparison, we can still say that REAL spending to educate one student in a public school has increased by a factor of 10.

and

Since World War II, the real price per public school student has increased by almost 40% each decade. My point was that rising oil prices get a lot of media attention, even though real oil prices are the same today as 1980-1981. During the same period, the real price per public school student has doubled, and receives significantly less attention in the media.

It gets significantly less attention because we're wrongly shamed into silence. To look at the dollars and ask if we're receiving a good return for our money is forbidden. It's for the children, you see. Some would deny us the right to question how this money is spent as if because it's for children it's not possible that's it's being misspent or could be better spent. A 10 minute conversation with a teacher, an aid or even a bus driver will reveal plenty of waste. Likely it will also provide some legitimate insight into how that money could be better spent.

Here's another chart. This one compares dollars to ACT outcome. MNPS is wildly out of line.

Cutting line

Great news for the students at Julia Green Elementary in Green Hills--a Frist family donation of several million dollars will allow this school to cut to the front of the capital improvement budget and move it from 68th on the list for repair/renovation to near first.

I'm looking at the Capital Improvement Budget for 2006-2012 provided to me while on the School Board this summer. This document has a renovation score included in it. A survey was done of facilities and each was given various numerical scores based on its condition. Julia Green Elementary was very near the end of the list at 68 of 76. 67 other buildings were in line before Julia Green Elementary. In the first 8 most needing of repair were 4 schools in East Nashville's District 5 alone-Isaac Litton Middle School whose recent lead levels in the drinking water has made headlines, Rosebank Elementary whose electrical problems literally blew out light bulbs and sent shards of glass showering down on people, Maplewood High and Stratford high where I witnessed a serious water leak in a computer lab among other things. On this chart District 5 schools (BOE member Gracie Porter's responsibility) are highlighted.

And so here we have a perfect example of the tension between the haves and the have nots in what is supposed to be a free and equal public education system. Your mileage will vary. This is what makes suggestions like Councilman and mayoral candidate Buck Dozier's to create a billion dollar endowment for the public schools an idea worth discussing. We have got to seriously consider long term funding for maintenance and building projects. Here we have a school in a wealthy section of town, with merely a 25.7% economically disadvantaged population leap frogging ahead of dozens of other schools with thousands of children who have parents who could never dream of cobbling together $30,000 let alone $3 million.

I know full well that the Frist family has been at the forefront of many worthy public projects--my children have benefited from their donations to the zoo and the museum. I do appreciate their generosity, however, I know full well that we have schools with more serious and immediate needs. Julia Green parents may be rightly concerned about the condition of their school but I challenge them to cross the river and see what other people's children are having to live with and without.

This is good news for 37215 but sobering news for 37206 as we wait in line for our turn.

Education 2.0

This week's must read comes from the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. While I'm wary of business interests helping shape education policy (Chambers of Commerce come to mind) I am certainly willing to at least give their POV a listen/read. I do frame their comments with the fact that their interest is in obtaining worker bees and consumers. Yes, that's a very narrow description but this study group's own site states something similar:

The final report proposes a restructuring that America’s economic preeminence hinges on the preeminence of our educational system. Skills Commission.org

There are certainly some things in this report that I can support and would encourage others to seriously consider. The first being to dump what I call 'time in seat'. Too often the educrats are appalled at the mere mention of the fact that it is possible for a child to obtain a normal K-12 education in less than 13 years. I've advocated for years that these children be allowed to take the appropriate tests to prove their skill level and then be released to go on and get the skills/education they and their parents determine is best for them. There are many children out there that consider K-12 a jail sentence. If they knew that it was possible to shorten the jail term I believe they'd be energized and encouraged to pass those tests in exchange for their freedom. This report echoes my thoughts this way:

One of the biggest proposed changes - the state board examinations that would allow qualified 10th graders to move on to college - would eventually add up to $67 billion in savings that could be reallocated elsewhere, the report estimates. Christian Science Monitor

Further they suggest:

Improve school salaries in exchange for reducing secure pension benefits, and pay teachers more to work with at-risk kids, for longer hours, or for high performance.

I've always advocated for paying great teachers great wages. And I'm all behind allowing people to handle their own pensions. I certainly think that some sort of 'combat' pay to reward teachers for successfully taking on the really hard jobs is right.

The article on this study goes on--

"We've squeezed everything we can out of a system that was designed a century ago," says Marc Tucker, president of the National Center on Education and the Economy, and vice chairman of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, which produced the report. "We've not only put in lots more money and not gotten significantly better results, we've also tried every program we can think of and not gotten significantly better results at scale. This is the sign of a system that has reached its limits."

He's right. It's been some 100 years since those industrial giants created our current education system for an economy that hardly exists anymore. The trick will be to persuade those whose livelihood or political power depend on the current system continuing as is to put the needs of the children at the forefront.

I do not agree with their recommendation to scrap local school funding for state-wide funding. I am a firm believer in local control of schools. See "Local Control is a Must" regarding our own Tennessee Comptroller's reach.

You can order the entire study here for about $20.

We've got some Nashville mayoral candidates who've already made the education of the children here part of their political platforms--let's hope they're willing to use that bully pulpit to encourage some legitimate reform.

Update: This was done before.

The commission is the second of the same name. In 1990 the first commission released a report similarly detailing the failings of American education, and its influence helped advance the standards movement that culminated in the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which became law in 2002. Stateline.org

Saturday 12/09/06

From here and there--

Bredesen's legacy target: Comprehensive pre-K--

He may devote about $25 million more to continue to expand pre-K in the state’s next budget.

“That would get us to a comprehensive pre-K program by the end of my time as governor,” Bredesen said, “which I would consider a great legacy.” (snip)

But their older brothers and sisters--

The governor wants to add truancy officers in all of the state’s 400 public high schools to improve attendance and, hopefully, result in more high school students graduating.

Adding those positions would cost more than $16 million annually, which Bredesen isn’t 100 percent confident the state can fully afford in its next budget. City Paper

Attendance does not equal education. As I've said many times before--these pre-K children have time yet but there are thousands of near adults leaving the system frustrated and lacking basic skills every year and for too many that directly leads to criminal behavior that endangers us all. THAT's where the focus needs to be. We can't just consider them lost causes and turn our backs on them in favor of toddlers. The mantra 'for the children' usually conjures up images of those cuddly small ones but those high school drop outs are still children too.

We'd save more than $350M I'm sure--

The Alliance for Excellent Education, based in Washington, D.C., estimates that if all Tennessee high school students graduated, the state government would save $350 million a year. The project was funded by the MetLife Foundation and is based on evidence that high school graduation is an essential element in upward mobility. (snip) The savings, calculated for each state, is based on a dropout's utilization of Medicaid and other public expenditures. Tennessee has made huge strides in graduation rates, raising it from 59 percent in 2001 to about 64 percent today. But that's still behind the national average of about 74 percent. Memphis Business Journal

Oversight?

[Hamilton County Mayor Claude] Ramsey said Loftis, as the lobbyist for Hamilton County Schools, has met with the governor, education commissioner, state senators and representatives.

He added "Governor Bredesen says it's a positive thing. He agrees with us, or the four large counties, that we're getting short changed and he's going to make some changes."

While no one disputes Loftis' work has been good for schools it was made public recently that he never registered as a lobbyist with the Tennessee Ethics Commission. (snip)

Tennessee Ethics Commission records show Loftis registered as a lobbyist for Hamilton County Schools last Thursday. WTVC Chattanooga

Core Curriculum--

“A lot of us struggle not with finding a warm body, but a warm body that comes to work every day,” said Gary Dies of Saia-Burgess Automotive Actuators Inc. “When you get [workers] below about 32, there’s a substantial difference in attitude, willingness to take responsibility. There’s a huge gap.” (snip)

There are a number of trends that could be contributing to the decline. Zinkiewicz points first to rising teenage unemployment levels, brought about by more older workers, welfare recipients and immigrants competing for jobs in industries like retail and fast food that were traditionally good places for teens to get their first jobs. (snip)

Herrman said Metro Schools recently received a six-year, $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education that, in part, takes measures to incorporate soft skills into the curriculum by decentralizing and personalizing Nashville’s eight largest schools, which all have at least 1,000 students. City Paper

KY Special Need scholarships--

In Kentucky, a prefiled bill [BR 98] by Lexington Rep. Stan Lee [R-Lexington] would not only make the commonwealth the fifth state to offer such scholarships, it would also be the Bluegrass State’s first statewide school-choice program controlled by parents.

State law currently allows special-needs students to attend schools providing educational services not available in their resident district schools. However, this system is largely ineffective and relatively few students participate because school districts – not parents – control the process. Edpresso

And--

If just 1 percent of Kentucky’s special-needs children – roughly 1,100 students – could have participated in the proposed scholarship program in 2005, state and local school districts would have realized an estimated savings of $5.7 million. Ed News

I hope some Tennessee legislators will consider following suit.