School Superintendents of Alabama (SSA) believes that investing in public schools and increasing local flexibility strengthens local schools. The 2008 Legislative Platform has been adopted by all school superintendents to inform legislators and policy makers about issues that will enable local schools in your community to better serve the children of Alabama.

Other Current Expenses (OCE)

OCE is a high priority with school superintendents. SSA supports state funding for school operations and seeks a long term funding solution to this critically important area. Each year, more than $300M local dollars are spent on utilities; maintenance supplies; maintenance and custodial salaries; and, property repairs. Superintendents support additional state funding for OCE at an increase of $100M in FY09.     

FY09 Funding Priorities

Superintendents believe the basic education program must be state funded prior to starting additional state initiatives.  Your local superintendents have identified the following priorities for the Education Trust Fund appropriations for next year:

Technology Funding—Increase of $103.7M

SSA supports funding school system technology maintenance; network upgrades; and, technology replacement at $125 per student (at a cost of $92.9M) and funding technology administration at $125,000 per system (at an increase of $10.8M).

Extended Contracts for Essential School Personnel—Increase of $13.2M

SSA supports state funding for extended contracts for school personnel essential to the opening and closing of schools and for administering required testing in the summer. FY09 funding should include the 2^nd year funding of the three-year phase-in defined in ACT #2007-284.

School Nurses—Increase of $38.8M

SSA supports fully funding school nurses at the actual cost to the LEA based on the salary matrix.  Nurses should be hired as system employees and assigned to schools according to the health needs of students at a minimum of one nurse per 500 students.

Substitute Allocation—Increase of $5.1M

SSA supports funding substitutes for teachers at $75 ($5.1M) per day.

Additional Teacher Units for Middle & High Schools

SSA supports adjusting the foundation formula to provide additional teachers in grades 7-12 by changing the divisors for grades 7-8 to 19.4 and grades 9-12 to 17.0.  Local principals and superintendents should have flexibility to determine the assignments of the additional teacher units earned to best serve the needs of students.

Alabama Math Science Technology Initiative (AMSTI)

SSA supports full funding and implementation of AMSTI to improve math and science instruction in our schools. Full funding includes state funding for stipends, materials, and other components required for participation in the program. SSA requests that there be uniform payment for required training.

Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI)

SSA supports full funding for ARI in grades K-5 to maintain the program so students receive quality reading instruction. Literacy programs in secondary schools should be implemented by the local systems where needed with support (not funding) from the state.  SSA also supports moving ARI funding into the Foundation Program as Instructional Lead Teachers. SSA requests that there be uniform payment for required training.

ACCESS (Distance Learning)

SSA supports a distance learning program that offers courses that are high in quality, rich in content, and available to students any time, any place. In addition, funding for the required facilitator, the maintenance of the equipment, and the room upgrades should be funded by ACCESS funds and should not be a local expense.

Assessment /Curriculum Personnel  

SSA supports state funding for personnel to fulfill the mandatory state requirements of curriculum accountability and state testing requirements.

Common Purchase

SSA supports increasing common purchase funds to $250 per foundation program unit.

English as a Second Language (ESL)

SSA supports funding ESL at $500 per identified ESL student.

Transportation

SSA supports full funding of the transportation program to address the increased costs of fuel, general operations, and fleet renewal.

Legislative Policy Positions

School Superintendents of Alabama (SSA) is committed to legislative policies that support our ability to provide a quality system of public education for Alabama’s communities.  Superintendents believe the best way to ensure that each citizen is prepared to participate in and contribute positively to our society is by securing strong public education.

Academic Freedom--SSA opposes legislation that allows teachers to teach subjects that are not consistent with board policy or the State Board of Education approved Courses of Study. 

Annual Reappraisals--SSA opposes legislation blocking annual reappraisals of property and other actions resulting in a reduction in funding for K-12 education unless replacement funds are committed to the ETF.

Arbitration--SSA supports changes in the arbitration law that will ensure quality in the classroom for the children served.

Bid Law--SSA supports legislation that raises the minimum amount required to bid projects from $7500 to $25,000 and supports the extension of bid contracts from three years to five years.

Class Size--SSA supports small class size achieved through annual funding by the legislature for sufficient teachers at each school and strongly opposes legislation to establish state class size caps.

Contracted Services--SSA opposes any legislation that would restrict a local board of education’s ability to contract for services and supports removing the penalties for outsourcing. 

Constitutional Reform --SSA supports constitutional reform that recognizes students’ fundamental rights to an adequate education and addresses the inadequacy of current funding of schools.

Drop Out Prevention--SSA recognizes that there is a dropout problem that merits immediate attention and supports a drop out program that is effective and sustainable.

Education Trust Fund--SSA opposes any attempts to use the Education Trust Fund for any non-educational expenditure. 

Equity--SSA supports funding the basics of an adequate education first and prior to new initiatives or new programs that dilute this funding.

Fiscal Year--SSA supports legislation that changes the reporting of the fiscal year for county and city boards of education from Oct 1-Sept 30 to July 1-June 30.

Formation of School Systems--SSA supports legislation that requires a community, prior to forming a new school system, to demonstrate the financial capacity to provide adequate local funds without lowering the current per pupil expenditure of the county schools.

Home Schooling Participation in Electives and/or Extracurricular Activities--SSA opposes legislation that allows parents and children to choose parts of the public school program in which to participate. 

Local Control--SSA supports local control and believes that decisions concerning public schools are best made at the local level where schools are accountable to parents and the community.

Mentoring--SSA supports a mentoring program that advances the teaching profession as a whole and is focused on meeting individual needs, modeling collaborative professional work, and promoting professional growth.

Pre-K (4-year old program)--SSA supports funding a pre-K program after the basic K-12 program has been adequately funded. This program must be accountable to the public.

Professional Development --SSA supports state funding and uniform compensation for state mandated professional development training that also includes funding for travel for the participants and substitutes who must be hired.

Proration --SSA supports the use of any and all Education Trust Fund (ETF) revenues to avoid proration and will continue to support elimination of the funding of non-governmental and non-education agencies from the ETF.

SACS Standards--SSA supports fully funding the Foundation Program using current SACS standards as specified in the foundation law.  This funds counselors, librarians, and assistant principals, and principals at staffing levels that meet the standard in the law.

School Attendance--SSA supports revising the existing school attendance law that lowers the age for students to start school and raises the age for them to drop out of school.

School Safety--SSA supports legislation that strengthens the ability of local boards to keep weapons and drugs off the school campus; to provide safe buildings; and, to provide a state funded emergency communication system.  

School Calendar--SSA opposes legislation that would mandate an arbitrary start date statewide.  The calendar must be based on the instructional needs of the students and local boards can best determine the appropriate instructional school calendar with input from their local community. 

Tax Exemptions--SSA opposes new tax exemptions in the Education Trust Fund (ETF) and supports the review and repeal of some of the existing exemptions.  

Tax Reform--SSA supports tax reform to provide stable and equitable funding for education and legislation to assure that fair and equitable methods are used to assess property.

Unfunded Mandates--SSA opposes any legislative mandates for which costs are not fully funded and supports legislation that would protect local school boards from unfunded mandates just as county and city governments are protected from unfunded mandates.

Federal Legislative Issues

These federal mandates take state and local dollars to implement in the local system in order to remain in compliance with federal regulations—draining dollars from state and local initiatives:

No Child Left Behind

SSA believes that the federal role in education is to ensure equal educational opportunities for all students and to focus on developing capacity through leadership and resources. The focus of NCLB should be on poor children in elementary and middle grades with an emphasis on rural or urban high poverty areas.  SSA believes that growth models should be used in testing and a graduated evaluation model is a better model for determining adequate yearly progress (AYP). SSA believes that annual benchmark testing paired with remediation is the best approach to working with English language learner (ELL) children and we support excluding these students for three years before including them for AYP or excluding them from testing until they leave the ELL program.  SSA believes that students with disabilities should be assessed using modified standards and assessments.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

SSA supports IDEA legislation that improves classroom discipline; reduces paperwork and lawsuits; increases flexibility and local control; and, reaffirms the federal government’s commitment to pay its share of expenses without mandating such increases.