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Education Week - Politics K-12 Obama Talks Fiscal Cliff and Education
11-15-12 Education Week - Politics K-12 Obama Talks Fiscal Cliff and Education
So now that all the big talk in Washington has shifted to the fiscal cliff, the question for school districts is whether education programs will see cuts in any final deal to head off sequestration, aka the automatic, across-the-board cuts set to hit almost every federal agency early next year. Democrats and Republicans will have to come up with a deal to avert those cuts, and head off a host of tax increases, in the next couple months.(Confused by the fiscal cliff? Check out this post.)
President Barack Obama offered some hopeful signs for worried school districts during Wednesday's news conference, his first since winning re-election, but still stopped short of saying he would veto any compromise that would cut K-12.
He said that he was "willing to look at additional work we can do on the discretionary spending side"—the category that includes education. But he also singled out K-12 and college aid as an important area for federal investment.
There are some tough things that have to be done, but there is a way of doing this that does not hurt middle-class families; that does not hurt our seniors; doesn't hurt families with disabled kids; allows us to continue to invest in those things that make us grow, like basic research and education, helping young people afford going to college.
Obama urged lawmakers to extend a series of tax cuts put in place under President George W. Bush for middle-class Americans. That would leave unsettled the question of whether to keep the cuts in place for high-earners—a big point of disagreement between Republicans and Democrats in figuring out how to solve the fiscal cliff puzzle.
Meanwhile, education advocates, who have been sounding alarm bells about the dangers of sequestration for over a year, kicked their lobbying efforts into super high gear this week.
Jill Wynns, the president of the California School Boards Association and a school board member of the San Francisco Unified School District, said it would be tough for districts to absorb the federal cuts on top of already steep state and local reductions.
"This is not abstract, this is [not] about saving money. It's disinvesting in our future," she said on a conference call for reporters about the impact of the cuts, sponsored by the National School Boards Association.
Most school districts wouldn't feel the impact of the cuts until the 2013-14 school year gets started next fall. Does that give districts enough time to prepare?
Not really, said school board members. "This is not a lot of lead time," Wynns said.
The American Association of School Administrators has been gathering information about the impact of sequestration on districts for months. In a survey released in July, AASA asked districts if they were starting to plan for the cuts. More than half said had built the cuts into their budget, although they were still very worried about the long-term impact of sequestration. Superintendents expected that they will have to cutback on professional development, reduce personnel, and boost class size. Read the survey here.
Cerf names three to key posts as part of latest reorganization
Tracey Severns, a Mount Olive middle-school principal a year ago, was confirmed by the State Board of Education to be the new chief academic officer in charge of the department’s instructional programs, including early childhood education, early literacy and the state’s transition to the Common Core State Standards.
She replaces Penny MacCormack, who left the department this month to become Montclair schools superintendent. Severns had been MacCormack’s deputy since August.
In addition, Cerf named a new chief of staff, William Haldeman, and a new chief of operations and legal affairs, Susana Guerrero.
Haldeman had been a special assistant to Cerf for 16 months and was promoted to replace former chief of staff David Hespe, who left to become president of Burlington County College.
Guerrero comes from Gov. Chris Christie as general counsel office and had been one of the governors primary liaisons with the department. She will report directly to Cerf and oversee the departments school finance office, as well as its lobbying and legal affairs functions.
In addition, Cerf said he will add another assistant commissioner to serve as a new “chief school improvement officer❠to oversee the state as seven new Regional Achievement Centers, which are charged with assisting the lowest-performing schools. He said that individual has yet to be chosen.
The new positions and hires were part of a reorganization plan approved by the State Board of Education yesterday in its monthly meeting.
The changes are largely based on the more extensive reorganization that Cerf announced a year ago, but do include some significant shifts in responsibilities. For instance, state testing will now be the responsibility of Chief Performance Officer Bari Erlichson; that was previously the chief academic officer’s role.
Several other high-ranking positions and job descriptions were also confirmed by the board yesterday, some filled by individuals already on the job and others with new personnel.
“Between our existing staff and these new appointments, I remain convinced that we have one of the strongest education teams in the entire country,” Cerf wrote in announcing the reorganization to his department.
The other changes are as follows:
· Justin Barra was named as Chief Policy and External Affairs Officer. Barra has been with the department since Cerf’s start, initially as his communications director. Now he will oversee communications as well as a new policy office to support research and design of new initiatives.
· Barbara Morgan, the commissioner’s press secretary for six months, has been named as the Director of the Office of Public Information.
· Kedda Williams is a new hire who will oversee the new Office of Strategic Communications and Partnerships. Formerly with the Newark school district, she will help direct efforts to work and communicate directly with educators in the schools.
· Barbara Horl was named as the new Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs, the department’s chief lobbyist with the Legislature. She had previously been a lobbyist with the New Jersey School Boards Association.
