Gap Elimination Adjustment Video: An Explanation

The following is from Education Speaks: Moving the Conversation Forward at http://educationspeaks.org/2013/02/watch-and-learn-wednesday-gea-edition/
 
You’ve heard a lot over the last few months about the Gap Elimination Adjustment, or GEA, and how it has severely impacted school districts across New York state. Introduced in 2010 by then Governor David Paterson, the GEA was supposed to be a temporary solution to closing the state’s $10 billion budget deficit. Instead, it has wreaked havoc on school district budgets, leading to countless program reductions and job cuts. Want to learn why? Check out the video below that explains the GEA and the specific impact it continues to have on schools.

Here’s what each of us in PTA can do:

• Become informed: The Governor proposes an increase of $889 million for education, yet imposes new requirements on eligibility to receive these funds. We have studied this budget and published our analysis on the NYS PTA website, http://NYSPTA.org or read it directly by clicking here.

• Identify local challenges: Your Board of Education is right in the middle of the most difficult discussions they will have had in our lifetime. Get a sense of the most crucial local issues

• Set a priority: Your Board of Education will be deluged with all kinds of requests. See if your units or council can come up with one or two positions that you believe are so critical, it would be difficult for the school to effectively accomplish its mission without them. BUT, keep your priority discussions program related to stay away from specific collective bargaining issues.

• Attend School Board meetings: This is hard. They aren’t always held at convenient times and we all have many other commitments. Keep in mind, however, that others will be there. If your voice isn’t at the table, others’ will be. This is a critical time. Your time will be well spent and the last thing we want is for our children to be “on the menu”.

• Ask questions: Use our resources and don’t hesitate to call or email team members if you have a question. Remember, school board members are people too and for most of them, their primary objective is to make everybody happy.

Don’t be discouraged or intimidated. This is a critical year but it’s also a time of opportunity. Use our resources and insist on being an in-formed and engaged part of the discussion. Our children depend on us and nobody is in a better position to represent them.   

Thank you for your advocacy!

Lana Ajemian, President
Reflect the past, Transform today, Inspire tomorrow!
president@nyspta.org

Mental Health in Schools Act of 2013

National PTA has endorsed the Mental Health in Schools Act of 2013. If enacted, this legislation would increase access to mental health services and supports for students and families.  The bill was introduced in the Senate yesterday and will follow in the House of Representatives next week.  PTA strongly advocates for a comprehensive approach to improved school safety. We addressed gun violence in a previous blog and now follow with our belief that access to mental health services is also key to combating and preventing school violence.

MENTAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS ACT OF 2013

One in five youth in the United States experience mental illness; 70 percent of adolescents with mental health problems do not receive care. Over the last two decades, suicide rates have doubled among Americans between the ages of 10 and 14 and 405 of currently unemployed parents say they have seen behavioral changes in their children due to their unemployment.

We know how to address these terrible facts. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, behavioral and emotional problems decreased among 31 percent of youth with mental health issues after 6 months of receiving mental health care. Within one year of entering a mental health program, both grades and school attendance of youth increased significantly. In addition, the number of students involved in violent incidents decreased by 15 percent within three years of a school implementing a mental health program. But despite comprehensive evidence showing the importance of access to mental health and substance use disorder services, many students struggle to access the care they need.

THE PROBLEM. School staff can play an important role in helping to identify and support children with mental health problems. In a time of tight state budgets, too often support services such as those provided by school counselors end up on the chopping block. The American School Counselor Association recommends employing one school counselor for every 250 students, however, in the 2010-2011 school year, the national average was only one counselor for every 471 students.

THE ACT will:

•  Expand access to mental health services in schools.
•  Establish a grant program to support schools that work with community-based organizations to expand access to mental health services for students and provide assistance to schools to train staff, volunteers, families, and other members of the community to recognize the signs of behavioral health problems in students and refer them for appropriate services.
• SAMHSA will develop standardized quality measures and participating schools are required to collect and submit data on their programs and outcomes.
• Authorizes $200 million in grant funding per year over five years, and eligible schools may apply for up to $1 million per grant year, based on the size of their student population. 

National PTA President Betsy Landers states: ’The time for legislative action to improve access to mental health supports in our nation's schools is now, and we urge enactment of the Mental Health in Schools Act of 2013.” Sign up and Take Action: http://capwiz.com/npta2/home/?navItemNumber=3451  

Thank you for your advocacy!

Lana Ajemian, President
Reflect the past, Transform today, Inspire tomorrow!
president@nyspta.org

 

Thoughts about Governor Cuomo’s Budget Proposal

   

This past week, Governor Cuomo unveiled his state spending plan for 2013-14, which includes a 3% increase in school operating aid. He hailed his successes over the past two years to bring to $1.3B a budget gap that had been projected to be $17.4B for this year; to pass a state spending and local tax levy cap to reign in property taxes; and to improve educational accountability via adoption by 99% of NY’s school districts of APPR, the teacher/principal evaluation plan. Restoration of dollars to offset the GEA (gap elimination adjustment) and cuts to high tax aid are intended to distribute dollars to high-need areas.

With sensitivity for uncontrollable fluctuations in fixed costs, i.e. health and pension, the Governor proposes a $203M one-time stabilization allocation which will be negotiated with the Legislature. Additionally, in response to the recommendations of the NY Education Reform Commission, he rolled out $75M worth of competitive grant programmatic initiatives for: full day prekindergarten, extended day/week/year learning time, community schools, high performance rewards, and early college high school programs.

There are key provisions that are laudable, and the overall 4.4% increase (averaging $300/student) in educational funding is welcomed. However, as we weigh the pros and cons of varying provisions,
there is concern for districts regarding funding shifts and for those that will be dependent on competitive grants and/or provided support for one year only.

Thank you for your advocacy!

Lana Ajemian, President
Reflect the past, Transform today, Inspire tomorrow!
president@nyspta.org

Keeping Our Children Safe

Dear NYS PTA Members and Friends,

PTA’s mission is to be a relevant voice, a resource for families and communities and a strong advocate for conditions that ensure the well-being of every child.  A significant purpose within that mission is to promote education and secure adequate laws for the care and protection of children and youth. In light of national events involving mass shootings, most recently the horrific events and loss of lives at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut we are compelled to speak out on behalf of those who are the intended beneficiaries our   mission.

Historically, NYS PTA and National PTA have held strong positions on firearms: use, procurement and ownership, safety, storage, and discharge within school districts. We have also fought for mental health support and services that are equal to those of other medical conditions and for school and community-based mental health education and services. We’ve advocated for school safety policies that address violence by reducing/eliminating incidents of bullying and harassment and provide plans that ensure the safety of students and staff within our school buildings. Finally, we have worked to promote policies and practices that support non-violent conflict resolution and digital or electronic exposure to violence.
 

We respect our Constitutional protections.  However, while we recognize these as core to our democratic principles, we must also acknowledge the world is extraordinarily different than when these protections were crafted. The Constitution is a living document -- with change, comes the challenge to adhere to our core principles yet provide the fundamental freedom and protections that the public, especially our children, has the right to expect. To this end, it is time to put our PTA positions to work and take a stand for the well-being of every child, for every adult – each has the right to feel safe whether in a movie theater, a place of worship or in their small, hometown grade school. 

The Newtown tragedy seems rooted in a complex mix of circumstances, much of which we will never fully understand. PTA positions can form a basis for action to address these. Still, we cannot minimize the scope of the tragedy due to the access and use of firearms.  As a constituent association of National PTA, we believe gun violence must decrease and restricting access to firearms is a necessary step to make our schools and communities safer. We must ask our state and federal legislators to take action to enact laws to restrict access to firearms and improve school safety. 

PTA supports recommendations in policies and legislation that: 

• Reenact and expand bans on the sale and possession of military-style assault weapons
• Ban non-sporting ammunition and large capacity magazines 
• Mandate licensing for purchase and periodic license renewal for ownership of a firearms 
• Require a mandatory three-day waiting period and background check to purchase a firearm, regardless of retail venue 
• Prohibit firearm purchase and possession by those convicted of spousal abuse and child abuse
• Place mandatory restrictions on Internet firearms sales, including restrictions on materials used to make/modify guns
• Mandate background checks for any firearm retailer and employees 
• Increase penalties for the transfer of firearms, including handguns and assault weapons, to juveniles for use in a crime

In the words of, Colin Goddard the Assistant Director of Federal Legislation at the Brady Campaign and a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre:      

‘We are better than this. We are better than a nation with mass shootings in movie theaters and schools and on our streets, ... Now it’s time our elected officials show us they know it too because we want our streets to be safe, we want our classrooms to be safe, we want a safer nation for all of us, we deserve better than this, we are better than this.’

Add your voice to Colin’s. Let’s not only speak, let’s act on behalf every child, every family. Please watch for and share PTA’s “calls to action” to STOP VIOLENCE in our schools and communities. In doing so, we will work together to keep all citizens out of harm’s way.

Thank you for your advocacy!

Lana Ajemian, President
Reflect the past, Transform today, Inspire tomorrow!
president@nyspta.org