Friday follies

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, October 23, 2015.

Stigmatizing more schools 

One of the least discussed important stories about education this year has been the ongoing scandal of the stigmatizing A-F grading system for public schools. The grades are determined by a formula that counts student performance on standardized tests for 80 percent of the calculation of the grade and growth in test scores for 20 percent.

That predictably has resulted in most low-income schools receiving a low grade, no matter how much students improved from year to year. Last year 97 percent of the schools that received a D or F were schools with more than half of their students eligible for free or reduced lunch.

The grades aren’t a measure of how schools were going. They are a measure of how many schools have a majority of students from low-income families.

And regardless of how hard the students and the teachers at those schools worked and improved, they are almost all branded as failures, with a D or F slapped on their doors.

Even many supporters of the troubling grading system acknowledged that the formula was flawed and unfairly punished low-income schools. The House moved to change the formula to 50 percent performance and 50 percent growth but the Senate refused to go along, so low-income schools and their students will continue to be stigmatized.

And there will be more schools also considered low-performing thanks to changes lawmakers did make in the grading system this session. Schools that received a D or F grade under the flawed grading system did not fall under the low-performing designation if they met growth expectations.

But now those D and F schools will have to exceed growth expectations to avoid the low-performing label and the distinction is important as lawmakers are also considering converting some “low-performing” schools to charters and turning them over to for-profit charter companies to manage.

There’s another way of course. Change the formula to stop punishing low-income schools and start giving them more help. They don’t need to be converted, they need to be supported.

Special rules for Medicaid privatizers

HHS Secretary Rick Brajer this week named the operations director of the new Division of Health Benefits that will oversee the phased in privatization of the state’s Medicaid program passed by the General Assembly this session.

It’s referred to as reform but it’s really privatization, ultimately turning over much of the care of the most vulnerable people in the state to out-of-state for-profit companies.

News accounts of the appointment of Dee Jones, the operations director for the current Medicaid system, as the COO of the new division included the reminder that the new division will operate under different personnel rules from the rest of state government.

The question is why? One of the concerns about allowing for profit companies to run the Medicaid program is that there won’t be adequate oversight in place to protect the people who rely on Medicaid for their health care.

One of the ways to help ensure that is to have career employees in place that don’t have to look over their shoulders worried about the political implications of their decisions about health care rules and regulations.

That doesn’t seem likely if the employees of the new division don’t have the protections offered many other state workers.

McCrory “graciously” blames General Assembly for UNC mess

And finally, after news accounts last week that Gov. Pat McCrory met privately with former U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings after her interview with the UNC Board of Governors, McCrory’s spokesman Josh Ellis issued the following statement to the Carolina Journal confirming the meeting.

Governor McCrory graciously and proudly welcomed a potential candidate to North Carolina at the governor’s mansion. They had a wonderful conversation about the interactions between the governor’s office and the university system with regard to technology and research development, job recruitment, and the Education Cabinet which the governor chairs. The governor has confidence the UNC Board of Governors, which are entirely hand-picked by the state legislature, will select a great candidate to oversee our excellent university system.”

McCrory seems to want to make it clear that he had nothing do with the absurd process used to select the new UNC president, that it is up to the Board of Governors that is “hand-picked” by the General Assembly. In other words, it’s all the legislature’s fault.

And the first sentence is interesting too, as Ellis says that McCrory “graciously” welcomed Spellings to the governor’s mansion.

How else would have welcomed her, rudely?

Thank goodness that McCrory rallied to be gracious to a visitor—and that his spokesperson pointed it out for us.