Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam elaborated on his education initiatives in his State of the State speech Monday night to the Tennessee General Assembly. In doing so, Haslam defended a bill filed by Tennessee State Senator Mark Norris, a Republican from Collierville, TN, that establishes the Tennessee Choice and Opportunity Scholarship Program. Under this program, 5,000 …
States Not Required to Give Credit for Out-of-State Teaching Experience.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week in Connelly v. Steel Valley School District that the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the U.S. Constitution does not require that the same credit be given for out-of-state teaching experience as is given for in-state teaching experience for salary purposes. In this case, the Steel Valley …
Another Week at the Capitol….
It seems to have been a fairly quite week at the capitol. Only a few notable education bills were filed: HB1076 - Requires the Dept of Education to count students being home-schooled as part of a school district’s average daily membership, which I’m assuming will keep at least a few school districts above 350 for …
Legislative Update
Let’s take a look at what happened during the first week of the session. Here are a few bills we knew were coming: SB15 - This bill makes Arkansas a part of the Interstate Military Compact for Education. It most likely will only affect those districts surrounding the air force base. The point of the compact …
What the Affordable Care Act Means to You
While working in Governor Beebe’s administration, I focused a lot of my time on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, what it really does (there are a lot of misconceptions), how best to implement it, and how it affects Arkansas insurance carriers and plans. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the Act …
Legislative Session Preview
While working for Governor Beebe, one of my biggest tasks was reading, analyzing, and tracking all education-related bills as they were filed during legislative sessions. The 2013 session starts Monday, and on this blog, I plan to post frequent updates, as well as my analysis, of many of the education, and some non-education, bills as …
Where are we now?
Because of Lake View, a funding scheme emerged where the first 25 mills, or the URT, collected in each school district were remitted to the State Treasurer and then instantly distributed back to the school districts from which they came. The State then distributed, through the Arkansas Department of Education’s Public School Fund, state general …
The Lake View School District Case: An Overview, Part 3
At the end of the Court’s 2002 opinion, the Court did something somewhat unusual…..it stayed the issuance of its mandate until January 1, 2004. So what’s a mandate? It’s essentially the official notice from the Supreme Court Clerk that the decision is final and that the case is over. The clerk is instructed by rule …
The Lake View School District Case: An Overview, Part 2
Two significant things happened before the 2002 Lake View opinion was decided. First, the trial court certified the Lake View class, which included all public school districts in the state, students and parents of students in all school districts, school board members of all school districts, and school district taxpayers who supported the system. This …
The Lake View School District Case: An Overview, Part 1
There aren’t many educators in this state that haven’t at least heard of the Lake View School District case, but what is that case really all about? In light of the recent Arkansas Supreme Court decision in Kimbrell v. McCleskey, which I’ll discuss in an upcoming post, I think it’s important to give a brief overview of …