The Tennessee Technology Students’ Association annual conference begins tomorrow, and two of my girls are off to compete. Beta’s events are prepared speech, extemporaneous speaking, and chapter team (essentially, a parliamentary procedure competition). She took first and third in the speaking events at regionals a couple of weeks ago.

Delta is signed up for electrical applications, transportation challenge, and cyberspace pursuit (website design). None of those were included in the regional events, so this is her big chance.

The latter of those events — cyberspace — is one in which I have a particular interest, since I’ve been coaching the Robertsville team in the event. On Thursday, I learned that they qualified as finalists in the state competition. On Tuesday evening, four of the kids on the team will undergo an interview with the judges, and on Wednesday, we’ll learn whether they’ve placed at the state level.

Delta is now the proud owner of her very own multimeter, a necessity for the electrical apps event. There are also a couple of new pint-sized business suits, a new dress, new non slip shoes, and other necessary accoutrements for the suitcase (the dress code is rather upgraded from usual school attire).

Beta decided to run for state office this year, and unfortunately, hasn’t gotten around to putting together her campaign materials. I confess that she’d asked me to help, but she hasn’t been home enough (or I haven’t) to really communicate some essentials (campaign theme? colors?). Today was crunch time, and of course she was assigned to driving school all day — penance for her traffic citation back in December, issued for following too closely (while stopped at a traffic light — she was trying to read a bumper sticker).

That left me stuck with ironing her logo onto four campaign t-shirts, then printing up a boatload of lapel stickers and business cards… all while persuading Delta to pack her suitcase.

I’m still not packed. We leave tomorrow morning. I feel like I need a work week to recover from this weekend… and now the washing machine is acting up.

The picture’s a little fuzzy, but that’s what it really looked like to me, since I hadn’t had my first cup of coffee yet when I snapped it.

Actually, it’s a good reflection of the last couple of days. There seems to be a real sense among legislators that some part of the tobacco tax will pass, that some improvements will be made to education funding… just no consensus that the Governor’s proposal will pass as written.

One thought conveyed by someone well-credentialed in his knowledge and influence of fiscal policy was that some part of the tobacco tax will pass — maybe 20 cents, maybe a little more. I asked what would be cut from the Governor’s proposed education funding improvements, and he thought that the funds could be found from cutting other discretionary items, other than education.

I’m comfortable with that.

Of course, there are the usual bills we’ve seen before: elected superintendents, forcing a conversion to the TACIR system-level BEP model, requiring this our that instruction, various things about charter schools… I’ll cover those as they come up.

Time to head home now; I’ll cover it more later.

An AP article in the News-Sentinel a couple of days ago entitled, Officials: BEP Formula Unfair begins:

The state comptroller and a key Democratic lawmaker say Tennessee’s school funding formula is so unfair to city schools that the entire program needs to be remodeled.

Specifically, the first conclusion listed in the Comptroller’s Executive Summary reads,

The BEP does not adequately fund the state’s urban districts in part because it understates the cost of educating at-risk students and English language learners. These deficiencies of the BEP force some districts to raise substantially more local funds for education.
On average statewide, the BEP generates 75 percent of the state and local revenue contribution. However, the formula generates substantially less state and local revenue for the four urban districts in the state. In 2005, state revenues comprised less than 40 percent of total revenues for the four urban districts, with Davidson County receiving a mere 27.55 percent of total revenue from the state. In addition, the BEP understates the costs to educate at-risk and English language learning students. Administrative and legislative action in 2006 increased the enhanced funding to recognize 38.5 percent of at-risk students and reduced the ratio of ELL students to instructors and translators. The increases, however, still fall short of BEP Review Committee recommendations.  [Get the report]

The urban districts receive less than 40% of their funding from the State.

Oak Ridge receives only 37.34% of it’s funding from the State, putting us in the same situation as the urban districts — but without the large tax bases that they enjoy.

There’s good reason to work together, if only the urban districts could back away from the TACIR plan and look for something mutually agreeable.  Maybe tomorrow’s “Day on the Hill” will be a starting point.

The Governor’s proposed 07-08 State Budget is online — 613 pages, a 3.4 MB PDF download (right-click, “save target as”). Certainly, most of us won’t master the details of the mammoth document, but it’s worth a peek. Maybe worth perusing the highlights, keeping the document on hand to reference as the session goes on.

Pie charts to the left and right illustrate where state revenues come from, and where the general fund revenues go. Click either one to bring up a larger, more readable version.

The largest part of the revenue pie (left), is sales tax revenue. The green slice (right) is funding for education — both K-12 and higher ed. Note that the largest slice of the expenditures pie is health & social services.

If education were a larger share of the pie, I suspect that over time, the health & social services part could shrink substantially, and people would still be better off.

If education were a larger share of the pie, our graduates would very likely have greater earning power, thereby contributing even more to the sales tax revenue part of the State’s general fund.

More money is not the answer by itself, but it’s a crucial part of the first steps needed to begin the process of improvement.

In Oak Ridge, we enjoy good standing in terms of educational quality; as such, we have a bit of experience regarding what works (and unfortunately, a little hard-earned experience with what doesn’t). The examples are many, varied, and quite specific, but the common thread is that all require the services of professional educators. The very best professional educators we can buy.

Just a couple of the programs utilized to gain measurable achievement are the reading recovery program in elementary schools, and the Algebra 1-T class at Oak Ridge High School. Reading Recovery provides one-on-one intervention for struggling readers in the earliest years, to prevent “losing” kids by third and fourth grades. From Kindgergarten to first and second grades, we learn to read; from third grade on, we read to learn.

By third grade, if you can’t read, you’re not learning, and falling faster and faster behind.

Algebra 1-T is a course at Oak Ridge High School for those students who struggle with math to the point that they are identified as being at risk of failing Algebra 1 — the “most often failed subject in the history of learning,” according to Dr. Bailey. Rather than being a one-hour class, as all other classes are, Algebra 1-T meets for an hour and a half (half takes up a “lunch class,” which all Freshmen and Sophomores have since they can’t leave campus for lunch), allowing extra time with the teacher each day, learning at a slightly slower pace.

The results have been outstanding.

The State must elevate education in its budgeting priorities, but perhaps a tiny part of that expenditure should be to catalogue programs that have been proven to work in school systems across the state. What works for one is not necessarily the panacea for another, but to have a list of proven resources available at the state level would be beneficial to all.

First though, we have to be able to begin moving forward rather than backward.

Forgot to mention: today marks one year of posting. Welcome!

Wow — there was even a gift: a link from the venerable AC Kleinheider.  Have to admit that he’s probably right about scattering the primaries out more, rather than less.   I just don’t like the idea of the whole thing being perceptually decided before some get to vote.

Tennessee’s Republican and Democrat party chairmen have found an issue they agree on — and they’re working on it together, the City Paper reports.

They want to make our Presidential Primary earlier, so that Tennessee voters have a greater say in the outcome. The states with the earliest primaries or caucuses really have more influence, because some of the candidates inevitably drop by the wayside after losing the early contests.

The downside though, is that maybe the field of candidates is winnowed too soon, leaving the two major party contenders to duke it out for too long in the post-primary season. It invariably gets ugly, and people are left wondering if they really have the best set of choices.

Can someone remind me why we don’t just have one nationwide primary day for the presidential election? Is it to allow the candidates to devote more individualized attention to smaller states like Iowa, New Hampshire, or Tennessee, rather than just hanging out in New York, California, and Texas?

We’ve all seen the problems associated with calling election results before the polls close; how is this nutty, staggered primary system any different?

Since Fat Tuesday approaches and we really can’t be hanging out late on a weeknight, we kinda-sorta had a taste of Mardi Gras last night.

Gamma and her godbrother (who doesn’t have a cool blog name yet, but soon will) posed in front of the Mardi Gras tree…

as the mudbugs contemplated an escape. They were unsuccessful, and promptly devoured.

This morning brought a peaceful scene, which made for a lovely drive to an uncrowded church service.

In the sermon, our minister told a funny story of a young bride who hadn’t reviewed their wedding vows prior to the ceremony, and when it came to the part about promising to obey, the bride faltered… whereupon the minister quickly resumed the ceremony.

I sat trying to contain my laughter, remembering that I had Cal Maas, who married us, take out the word “obey” and substitute “honor.”

I usually obey, except when he’s wrong.  But even when I disobey, I do try to honor him.

He who tames flying monkeys has admitted that a more docile type might not have been the best match.