The Legislative session has finally come to an end. In virtually last minute votes, the Legislature approved a budget (E2SHB 1087) which is “kind” to gifted programs; enacted the new “minimum instructional program of basic education” and the HCP funding formula in ESSB 5919, effective September 2011; and failed to enact the Recommendations of the Highly Capable Program Technical Working Group (bills 1443 and 2111).

It will take us awhile to sort out the details of what this all means and where it leaves gifted programs for the next school year, but here are some preliminary remarks.

• The budget has two parts. Another supplemental for the current year was part of 1087. It made no changes to HCP funding, beyond what was done in the 5th supplemental (HB 1086).

• In the biennial budget for 2011-2013, enhanced funding is provided under the new formula for HCP. It is both good news and bad. Depending on what base line you use, the funding for districts took a cut of between $200,000 and $250,000. Harder hit were our associated programs. Centrum took a 50% cut in its funding and Future Problem Solving/Destination ImagiNation took a 100% cut in funding.

• ESSB 5919 authorizes the implementation of education reform measures  (the “minimum instructional program of basic education”) beginning September 2011. Among its provisions is the new formula for calculating HCP enhanced funds. See Sec. 2(10)( c ) of the bill. This means that HCP services will be a mandated part of basic education. Nothing in either this bill nor the budget requires districts to offer any particular program or service, only that appropriate services must be provided. Districts remain free to determine what level of services are needed within the district. Districts will need to apply to OSPI for the enhanced funds, as they have for the categorical funds in the past. and submit their plan for approval.

While becoming a mandated part of basic education with an adequate funding appropriation is fulfillment of a long time Coalition goal, in view of the draconian cuts to education and social services, we aren’t celebrating too loudly.

What we do say loudly is a big vote of THANKS to all the advocates in the state whose efforts made this possible. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Below is section 511 of the biennial budget

NEW SECTION. Sec. 511. FOR PROGRAMS FOR HIGHLY CAPABLE STUDENTS

General Fund–State Appropriation (FY 2012) . . . .$8,741,000
General Fund–State Appropriation (FY 2013) . . .  $8,794,000
TOTAL APPROPRIATION…………….   $17,535,000

The appropriations in this section are subject to the following conditions and limitations

(1) Each general fund fiscal year appropriation includes such funds as are necessary to complete the school year ending in the fiscal year and for prior fiscal year adjustments.

(2)(a) For the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years, the superintendent shall allocate funding to school district programs for highly capable students as provided in RCW 28A.150.260(10)(c). In calculating the allocations, the superintendent shall assume the following: (i) Additional instruction of 2.1590 hours per week per funded highly capable program student; (ii) fifteen highly capable program students per teacher; (iii) 36 instructional weeks per year; (iv) 900 instructional hours per teacher; and (v) the district’s average staff mix and compensation rates as provided in sections 503 and 504 of this act.
(b) From July 1, 2011, to August 31, 2011, the superintendent shall allocate funding to school districts programs for highly capable students as provided in section 511, chapter 564, Laws of 2009, as amended through section 1409 of this act.

(3) $85,000 of the general fund–state appropriation for fiscal year 2012 and $85,000 of the general fund–state appropriation for fiscal year 2013 are provided solely for the centrum program at Fort Worden state park.

OUR FOCUS FOR GIFTED EDUCATION DAY AND BEYOND

The Supplemental Budget has passed both the Senate and the House but in different versions which will need to be reconciled. Since both versions provide nearly the same amount for highly capable programming (HCP) as in the original budget for the current school year, it appears that the first hurdle of this legislative session has been successfully – well – hurdled.

The Biennial Budget and SB 5475 lie ahead of us. The fate of SB 5475, introduced on behalf of the Governor, will be basic to the budget.

The Legislature has some important decisions as outlined below.

• Proceed with the scheduled implementation of Education Reform (ESHB 2261 and SHB 2776) and they will write one budget.

• Follow the Governor’s proposal to delay implementation of parts of Education Reform and this requires a different budget.

- Delay implementation to 2013 and the biennial budget needs to contain approximately $18 million in categorical funding for HCP at at least maintenance level. This funding is not a sure thing.

- The Governor’s proposals assume delayed implementation (SB 5475) and $0 in funding in her budget.

The Coalition Position

SB 5475

We request that the words “Beginning with the 2013-14 school year” be removed from Sec. 2 (2)(g), Section 3(10)(c), Sec. 5, and Section 6(1) of SB 5475 as these would delay inclusion of HCP in basic education until 2013.

Other sections of this bill move forward with the 2011 inclusion of the Learning Assistance Program (LAP), and the Transitional Bilingual Program (TBL) into basic education and implement the prototypical school funding formula, MSOC (materials, supplies, and operating costs) allocations and the new transportation formula. The Quality Education Council (QEC) has linked HCP with LAP and TBL as programs that close the opportunity gap; this bill removes that linkage.

Educational reform was designed as a whole. Delaying some parts of it will upset the design and make planning difficult. It will be disruptive to districts and students. Local districts have limited funds to continue programs in a delayed implementation. It will be more expensive to reintroduce them than it would be to implement them now.

We understand that implementation cost is high and that funding in full is not likely. Better an underfunded reform than no reform. For HCP, better an underfunded mandate than no mandate. Funding can be adjusted upward as the fiscal situation improves.

Your contacts with Legislators, until further notice, should request that implementation of the new definition of basic education not be delayed beyond the scheduled date of September 2011.

Since the bill is currently in the Senate, contact with your Senators should take place first but both Senators and Representatives will need to be contacted.

The Budget for 2012-2013

If inclusion of HCP is implemented in full in 2011 we hope that some amount of Section 708 funds will be appropriated along with MSOC but have not taken a position on how much this should be. We need to see what is in the budget proposed by the Legislature. (Information on these categories of funds is in the attachment.)

If implementation is delayed (SB 5475), it is our position that we will advocate to obtain as much funding for the current categorical program (which will still exist) as we can. Again, we will signal we are willing to accept a cut but it must be proportional. The budget proposed by the Governor provides no funds for HCP (as a categorical program based on her request to delay implementation of HCP inclusion). This is not proportional.

More Information.

If you are relatively new to gifted advocacy or you just like to dig into the details, please see the (long) attached pdf file which has all the appropriate references and citations.

To hear the perspective of the head of the highly capable program in the Seattle School District, we have attached Dr. Robert Vaughan’s statement to the Senate Ways & Means Committee on January 31 regarding SB 5475. 

The state Legislature has passed the second supplemental budget bill and it restores highly capable funding to the level in ESSB 6444 – $18,377,000 for two years, including $170,000 per year for Centrum and $90,000 per year for Future Problem Solving/Destination ImagiNation. That is, the 6.287% across-the-board-cut ordered by the Governor this fall is rescinded.

This bill plugs only half of the budget hole so there will have to be either another supplemental when the next legislative session starts on January 10, or another round of across the board cuts. For those interested in the details, you can get the bill and the explanation here. Click on Summary.

The Governor’s budget proposal for the 2011-2013 biennium is due out no later than Wednesday, December 15th. When we see what is in it for highly capable funding, we will have a better idea of what advocates will need to do.

This was just an opening skirmish in what is likely to be a bruising contest for limited funds. Your outstanding efforts in contacting Legislators have brought us this far. We will need additional efforts in the coming weeks and months. If you have a newly elected Legislator(s), make every effort to contact him/her to begin their education about gifted. Newly elected Legislators will not have Olympia email addresses or phone numbers until they are sworn in on January 10. Many campaign web sites are still active and contain contact local information.

And do make plans to be in Olympia for Gifted Education Day on February 11, 2011. Your presence is vital to our efforts.

You can follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/wagifted or on our blog at http://wcge.wordpress.com

ABC hopes to have a strong presence in Olympia on Gifted Education Day. We’re fortunate to have legislators in Olympia who have strong ties to our school district, and look forward to working with each them in the coming session.  If you are interested in becoming more involved in our advocacy efforts, please contact president@questabc.org.

Many parents are on the look-out for opportunities for their gifted children outside the classroom. The University of Washington’s Robinson Center For Young Scholars has been offering early entry programs, summer programs, and other opportunities for our students for many years.

If you have a child who is accelerated in math or just plain crazy about math, please check out their new opportunity. At first glance it appears to be expensive, but on a per session cost basis, it is not. Or just consider it a grand Holiday present for your mathematically inclined child.

See this attachment or go to http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/

(Another idea for the math inclined child is Here’s Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math
by Alex Bellos. Subtitled: a surprising excursion through the astonishing world of math, it covers a wide variety of information. This writer suffered from a bad math education so is quite innumerate, but even she understood a lot of it. Check it out from the library to see if it is appropriate for your student.)

If your student is accelerated beyond what your local district offers, look into the opportunities the Robinson Center offers for early entry and summer school. While these opportunities are not be appropriate for every child, for those who qualify they can be invaluable. And remember, for both the Early Entry and Young Scholars programs the state basic education funding follows the student to the UW, thus defraying costs.

Check it out at http://depts.washington.edu/cscy/programs/

Thank you to all the advocates who have picked up our message and contacted your legislators. The number of responses we’ve seen in the last four days has been inspiring.

Members of the Coalition for Gifted Education have been searching for more information about the likelihood of the Governor’s proposed cuts being enacted since the news came in before Thanksgiving. With last week’s weather and the Thanksgiving holiday, it was not easy to get a consensus of opinion until this morning. At this point, it appears unlikely that there are enough votes to enact the cuts suggested late in the day on the 23rd. That does not mean that gifted funding is secure in the next legislative session, only that is unlikely to be eliminated in a special session before the end of the year.

It is still vitally important that you contact your legislators, particularly those who were recently elected, and let them know that you value gifted education and encourage them to join you in supporting our highly capable learners. Remind them that for our gifted students, access to highly capable services is access to basic education. Tell them your stories about the difference highly capable programs have made for your children. If you’ll be joining us in Olympia on February 11, 2011 for Gifted Education Day, let them know you would welcome the opportunity to meet with them and discuss your concerns. Offer to provide more information and contacts if requested (and know that the Coalition is here for you if you need us). Ask for a response in your letters and phone calls. Thank your legislator for his/her time and attention.

Know that this will be an ongoing process, and we will be calling on you for your support again.

It is not clear exactly what the impacts of these proposed cuts would be in the Puyallup School District.  Puyallup currently receives about $160,000 a year from the State to help fund the QUEST and PAGE programs.  Overall funding from the state for education will decrease in the very near future.  That reduction will create additional pressures here in Puyallup for additional cuts and highly capable services remain on the chopping block.  Budget focus groups held by the District last year indicated a low level of support for highly capable services.  If you don’t take this opportunity to speak up for your highly capable learners, no one else will.

Contact your legislators now and tell them what the QUEST and PAGE programs have meant to your children.  Remind them that earlier this year they declared that for highly capable students, access to accelerated learning and enhanced instruction is part of a basic education.  Let them know that highly capable learners require an education that is appropriate to their needs to be able to grow and reach their full potential.  Craft your letter carefully and make it as succinct as possible.  Introduce yourself as a constituent in the first paragraph.  State your case.  Offer to provide more information and contacts if requested. Ask for a response. Thank your legislator for his/her time and attention. 

Pick up the phone or send your e-mail today.  For highly capable funding, there may not be a tomorrow.

The proposal is a significant statement for the future of highly capable programming in Washington. From here, the QEC will forward its recommendation to the legislature for them to debate during the next session. Highly capable programming remains in a very vulnerable funding position at this time. Many discussions of budget cuts have specifically mentioned highly capable programming. Though we won a hard fault battle for inclusion in the state’s definition of basic education during the last session, highly capable funding is not yet protected, and our programs remain at risk of losing state support. The HCPTWG proposal presents a strong case for not only defending our current funding levels, but for building on those for the future to better serve our current students and those from groups who have been historically underserved in our state.

If you have any questions about the work of the Highly Capable Program Technical Working Group, you can contact ABC President David Berg, who served as a parent representative on the HCPTWG.  After viewing the proposal, you can also direct comments to the HCPTWG through the OSPI website.

Highly Capable Program funding is in jeopardy.

• Highly Capable is a categorical program, and is not a part of basic education so is not protected from budget cuts.
• We survived the proposed cut in the First Supplemental Budget for 2009-2010.
• However, we don’t know what will be in the Second Supplemental Budget for our programs.

Therefore:

We need to communicate with the Governor now, before her Second Supplemental Budget proposal is completed.

We need to communicate with Legislators who are currently in office if there is a special session. If no special session, then contact legislators who will be in office in January.

We need to make contact now while options are open.

As a “special interest” group we will be asking Legislators to fund our particular “cause.” We are one group in a long line seeking to influence the budget.

We encourage you to talk to your Legislators as soon as possible about the Second Supplemental Budget and the 2011-2013 Biennial Budget. We encourage you to organize fellow parents and advocates to do so.

We know many of you are involved in gifted issues in local districts but we need you on state level. If the Legislature cuts funding or eliminates support for Highly Capable Programs, there may not be a program at your local school for you to support.

The state constitution calls “ample” education funding the state’s “paramount” duty and court cases have helped define this. Basic education is protected from budget cuts once education reform is implemented in September 2011, and highly capable programs will be sheltered from budget cuts. However, the goal is not yet reality.

These articles highlight the issues:

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/11/06/1429659/all-cuts-budget-message-received.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013366174_budget07m.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorials/2013349173_edit05education.html

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/nov/07/leaders-see-tighter-coffer-bipartisan-tilt/

The following is from the Legislature web site.

Getting Your Opinions to Your Legislators

Toll-Free Hotline
Do you want to send a message to your Senator or Representative? Call the HOTLINE at 1-800-562-6000 (TTY for Hearing Impaired 1-800-635-9993). Callers to the Hotline can leave a brief message for their district legislators or for the Governor or Lt. Governor on issues of concern or on questions they may have about bills or laws. These messages are forwarded electronically to the appropriate individuals. When leaving a message with the Hotline, please be prepared to give your name and street address. For non-English speaking callers we offer interpreter services for many languages.

During the Legislative session, the Hotline is open from 8AM to 8PM Monday through Friday and from 9AM to 1PM on Saturday.
When the Legislature is not in session the Hotline is open from 8AM to Noon and from 1PM to 4:30PM Monday through Friday.

E-mail Forms
If you prefer e-mail, you may use the website’s e-mail forms to send messages to your legislators at any time. From the Member E-mail List page, you may click a legislator’s name to go to the e-mail form for that legislator.

Newly elected Legislators will not be on the web site until sworn in January 11, 2011, and you will have to contact them through their campaign web sites or local offices before that date.

To contact the Governor, go to http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/default.asp and complete the form you find there.

This message has been sent to you by The Washington Coalition For Gifted Education. Comments or questions can be sent to  wagifted@earthlink.net or barbaragmaurer@yahoo.com.  If you wish to have your name added to their mailing list, send a notice to wagifted@earthlink.net.

This is a multi part message. Parts one and two are about two outreach efforts of OSPI and the State Board of Education. Although both these efforts contain the word “Core” they are about entirely different subjects. Both are important to our students and deserve your attention and participation. Both are time-limited so check them out soon. Parts three and four are about the activities of the Coalition.

Part 1. There are multiple opportunities for people across the state to participate in the OSPI webinars and public forums regarding adoption of the Common Core Standards. For a brief listing of dates and time, go to the OSPI web site at
http://www.k12.wa.us/CoreStandards/WebinarsForums.aspx

For a more detailed description of the background to this effort, go to
http://www.k12.wa.us/Communications/PressReleases2010/CommonCoreForums.aspx There is also an on-line survey link on this site.

Part 2. Meanwhile, the State Board of Education is conducting a survey on the proposed changes for Graduation Requirements (Core 24). You can participate in this on-line survey at
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/360308/117eca90ef81

Part 3. The Coalition is working hard to keep up with all the activities going on right now. 

• We are studying the proposed new SBE rule on math credits to make sure it fits the needs of accelerated math students.
• We are closely following the work of the Highly Capable Program Technical Work Group which will make recommendations to the Quality Education Council and the Legislature which will affect the future of these essential programs. You can see the materials which the TWG members are using by going to
  http://www.k12.wa.us/HighlyCapable/Workgroup/Meetings.aspx  Several individuals who are active in the leadership of the Coalition are members of this work group.
• We are working to establish partnerships with other education advocacy groups and soliciting their support for full implementation of the inclusion of gifted programs as a part of basic education, now scheduled for September 2011. We are also soliciting their support for full funding of these programs as contemplated in the education reform bill.
• We are working with the Data Governance Work Group to assure that the necessary data is gathered on participation in highly capable programs so that they can be properly evaluated.
• We keep a weather eye out on a daily basis for other actions which could impact the education of our gifted students and respond as needed.
• We have begun planning for Gifted Education Day, February 11, 2011. Due to the difficult fiscal situation in which the state finds itself. both the second supplemental budget for 2009-2010 and the biennial budget for 2011-2012 are going to be important issues for gifted programs. We need you and your children in Olympia on February 11 to talk with your legislators in support of full funding for highly capable programs.

Part 4. We know money is tight for everyone these days, but it is especially tight for your Coalition. We do not have funds sufficient to pay our skilled lobbyist for her services in October. Please become a member or renew your membership in the Coalition as soon as possible. You can join all three Washington Gifted Organizations — the WCGE, the Northwest Gifted Child Association (NWGCA), and the Washington Association for Educators of the Talented and Gifted (WAETAG) at once using the Joint Membership Application, or you can choose to join WCGE by itself. Whichever you choose, we thank you in advance for your support.