MeckEd comes out in support of sales tax referendum

The proposal to boost the Mecklenburg County sales tax to fund teacher pay raises and a lot of other projects has been controversial since county commissioners put it on November's ballot. But it now finds itself with one influential supporter.

MeckEd, a nonprofit advocacy group, put out a formal statement this morning backing the measure. It would boost the sales tax by a quarter cent, with 80 percent of the money going toward raises for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools employees, 7.5 percent for raises at Central Piedmont Community College, 7.5 percent for the Arts & Science Council, and the balance for libraries.

Here's the full statement from MeckEd:

MeckEd is committed to fair and competitive compensation for teachers across North Carolina and in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. While we applaud this year’s statewide teacher salary increase, there is more work to do. Given the increase in teacher turnover rates and the drop in North Carolina students entering colleges of education, it is imperative to invest in teacher salaries in every way possible.

As a community, we must help CMS attract and retain the best educators to our classrooms. MeckEd’s 2014 Public Policy Agenda calls for raising the state’s average teacher salary to the national average, in order to better compete for top teaching talent.

MeckEd endorses the referendum to raise teacher salaries, and we encourage all Mecklenburg County residents to support this important investment in our educators on November 4th.

The Charlotte Chamber may be deciding today whether to support the referendum. The organization has already said it won't be mounting a campaign to push it ahead of the election. Charlotte City Council members have been a little hesitant about it, too.

And of course, there was a little battle in Raleigh over whether to let Mecklenburg vote on it in the first place.

Education activism gears up

After last year's legislative session brought sweeping changes to public education,  no one wants to get caught napping this year.  Here's a sampling of groups that will be pushing their causes and offering reports as local governments and the General Assembly begin their 2014-15 budget talks.

Moral Monday protest last July

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators and Mecklenburg ACTS,  along with teacher associations from surrounding counties,  are sponsoring a rally for teachers and public education at noon Saturday at Marshall Park.  The goals appear to be broad,  such as  better pay and respect for teachers,  as well as undoing "damage done"  last year.  Click here for details.

Meck ACTS is also pushing for changes in the state Read to Achieve program and a reduction in standardized testing.

MeckEd is pushing a  "Get on the Bus"  advocacy campaign that's focused on Mecklenburg and state budgets. The group's online toolkit includes stats that can be used for making points,  tips and contacts for lobbying elected officials and a #onthebusNC hash tag for social media.

CarolinaCAN,  the relatively new NC offshoot of 50CAN,  has posted a 2014 policy agenda that includes changes to teacher pay and the charter school system.  The group carries weight with some of the GOP leaders who will be making decisions in Raleigh.

The Raleigh-based Public School Forum of North Carolina keeps tabs on the state legislature and is pushing teacher compensation proposals that are also backed by the state PTA,  Professional Educators of North Carolina,  N.C. Association of Educators,  N.C. Association of School Administrators,  N.C. School Boards Association and the N.C. Justice Center.

Local families rally for teachers in November

Meanwhile,  NCAE has a  "We Heart Public Schools"  campaign going and is planning a  "day of action"  for May 14,  when the legislature convenes.

Mecklenburg teachers and parents are among a new coalition of  "teachers and their allies"  following legislative actions on TruthforTeachers.org.

CMS lawyer Jonathan Sink says he also plans to revive and update his legislative blog once the session cranks up.

Some will note that this list is heavy on critics of the budget passed by the GOP majority last year and may see that as a sign of my personal agenda.  In fact,  it's more about the nature of these things:  The folks who have power use it and the folks who don't try to sway things their way.  It looks like we'll get competing GOP visions for boosting teacher pay today.  I'm heading to Greensboro to hear one from Gov. Pat McCrory,  while my colleagues at the News & Observer will check in on one coming from Lt. Gov. Dan Forest and Sen. Jerry Tillman at a legislative committee meeting.  Stay tuned.

Talking with and about teachers

With the 2014 legislative session less than three months away,  State Rep. Tricia Cotham is launching a series of forums to talk with teachers about supporting schools and shaping state policy.  The first will be at 2 p.m. Saturday,   Feb. 22,  at the Plaza-Midwood library branch,  1623 Central Ave.

Cotham

She'll hold another session for teachers at 6:30 p.m. March 11 at the Matthews library,  230 Matthews Station St.,  and a third for students and teachers on March 16 at the Independence library,  6000 Conference Drive.  That session starts at 1:30 p.m. for students and 2:30 for teachers,  according to Cotham's web site.

Cotham,  a Mecklenburg Democrat,  was a teacher and administrator in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools before joining the General Assembly in 2007.  She notes that the sessions are not limited to CMS employees;  all teachers are welcome.

Jeter

At 8 a.m. March 6,  MeckEd will host a community conversation on  "Valuing N.C. Teachers,"  with Cotham,  state Rep. Charlie Jeter,  a Huntersville Republican,  and Eric Davis,  an unaffiliated Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board member.  Click here for details and to RSVP.

And while you've got your calendars out,  here are a couple more education-related events coming up.  You can be one of the first to catch the CMS 2014-15 budget overview from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 at West Charlotte High,  2219 Senior Drive.  More sessions around the county will be held through April;  click here for the schedule.  You can also take the CMS online budget survey through Friday.

And for those with an interest in services for students with disabilities,  the N.C. Department of Public Instruction will hold a public hearing on proposed changes to state policies from 5:30 to 7 p.m. March 19 in Davidson.  Click here for details.

Making sense of an education whirlwind

Reaction to the budget N.C. legislators passed last week has been flooding social media and inboxes this week.

For most of the 11 years I've covered education, educational change at the state level has moved at glacial pace. This year it swept in like a summer thunderstorm, and some educators feel like they got soaked.

Plenty of teachers have penned and posted letters expressing dismay. I thought this  "Dear North Carolina"  letter from first-grade teacher Kayla Moran was a nicely written example of the first-hand emotional reaction.  "North Carolina,  you're breaking my heart,"  she begins.  "I wish you could see the faces of my children,  but they're just numbers to you."

Kowal

Julie Kowal of the newly-formed advocacy group CarolinaCAN posted a three-part (so far) series of budget briefings.  She says the state's first steps toward tenure reform replaces one meaningless reward,  career status,  with a $500 annual raise for top performers that is "just insulting,"  and says the legislature's compensation task force has serious work ahead.

Jo Ann Norris,  president of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, offers a detailed analysis of changes in staffing,  teacher pay,  tenure and the N.C. Teaching Fellows program in a piece titled  "What a Difference a Year Makes."

Norris

 "I do not envy principals, personnel directors, or other administrators seeking to hire teachers in the 115 school systems in North Carolina in the coming years,"  Norris writes.  "It will be a state in all likelihood that will drop to the last ranks in both average teacher salary and per pupil expenditure."

Anderson

Bill Anderson,  executive director of the local advocacy group MeckEd,  pulled together a data-based report on changes in the state's education scene since 2006,  looking at staffing,  teacher salaries,  enrollment growth and academic performance.   Anderson,  a former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools principal,  challenges the notion that legislators are fixing a  "broken"  public education system.  Instead,  he contends,  teachers have helped students make gains despite hurdles imposed by spending limits.

"Reduced funding will only continue to damage our local schools,  reduce diversity,  divide communities,  force more cutbacks in classrooms and extracurricular activities,  and fail to provide each and every child with the education necessary for success in life,"  Anderson writes.

Allison

I did find one rave review for the legislature  --  let me know about others I may have missed  --  from Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, which called the budget a victory for low-income and working-class students and families.  That's because it provides opportunity scholarships  based on income and disabilities to help families send their children to private schools.

"Make no mistake about it that this legislative session, North Carolina’s voice was heard loud and clear around the nation that she intends to chart a more comprehensive educational course in how we will educate our neediest children,"  wrote president Darrell Allison.  "Passage of these two scholarship measures amid continued public charter school expansion means parents will have more options within the K-12 process regardless of their income or zip code.”

Billingsville tops Washam? Maps give new twist

MeckEd has updated its map of CMS schools to add data on the percentage of students who made at least a year's gains on state reading and math exams last year, and the results can be surprising. Some high-scoring schools, such as Washam Elementary in Cornelius, fared poorly on those measures, while the low-scoring Billingsville landed near the top on the growth list.

That's because a school like Washam starts the year with most students performing at or above grade level. Those students are likely to stay in the "passing" category,  leading to a high proficiency score (87 percent last year)  even if their scores don't advance as much as expected.  Billingsville, where most kids are poor and some are homeless or refugees,  has the opposite situation:  Even if teachers help them make a year's progress or more,  the students may still fall short of grade level at year's end (last year's pass rate was just under 50 percent).

Bill Anderson,  a former CMS principal who heads MeckEd,  calls the growth ratings one of the most important measures of school success.  The UNC Charlotte Urban Institute worked with MeckEd,  a nonprofit information and advocacy group,  to map the state growth data for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. They included the percent of all students who made a year's gains in reading and math,  and a separate breakout for the students at each school who were on grade level when they arrived.  Anderson said the second measure is designed to provide a look at how stronger students fare at each school.

At Billingsville,  for instance,  only 45 percent of all students made a year's gains in reading, but almost 82 percent of those who were reading on grade level made those gains.  In math,  86 percent of all students and 96 percent of those who started on grade level made a year's growth.

One thing that jumps out,  especially for middle schools,  is the profusion of red dots on the MeckEd maps. The group decided to use the red label for any school where fewer than 70 percent of students logged a year's growth,  with yellow and green for higher levels.  Anderson said that's not intended to pass any kind of judgment on schools, but to get discussion started:  "MeckEd's goal is to provide objective,  clear information."

Real-life civics ramping up

I enjoy seeing teens step up and take part in this year's school board campaign.  Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students introduced the candidates at an Oct.  3 forum that drew about 150 people to the Stratford-Richardson YMCA.

Students from Youth Voice,  a program of Kids Voting Mecklenburg,  will take part in Wednesday's interactive debate,  sponsored by MeckEd and WFAE,  and helped interview candidates for the WTVI program that will air from 4-6 p.m. Oct.  30.

Of course,  this year's election is a breeze compared to the political hurricane headed for Charlotte in September 2012.  The Youth Voice crew is also taking part in Charlotte Teachers Institute panel tonight on "Exploding Canons: The Changing Landscape of Political Conventions."

I'm sure a lot of teachers,  college professors and youth-group advisors are cooking up ways to tap into the energy the Democratic National Convention will bring  --  not just the president and the country's leading Dems,  but protestors, media and pundits.  If you've got any good real-life civics projects in the works,  please keep me posted.  It's going to be a fascinating year for people across the political spectrum.

Live chat and budget links

Eric and I plan to do a live Q&A on the latest twists of CMS's bleak 2011 budget plan from noon to 1 p.m. Friday. Since Tuesday's presentation on possible cuts, which would eliminate just over 1,500 jobs, we've been trying to get answers to some follow-up questions. We hope to have some clarity on proposals that stand to shake up families, neighborhoods and livelihoods at one of Mecklenburg County's largest employers.

Still, it's a sure bet that our answer to many questions will be "We don't know yet." In some cases, a reader will think of something we haven't asked. In others, Superintendent Peter Gorman and his staff may know the answers but not be ready to make them public. And sometimes even Gorman may not know exactly how some items will play out. Spokeswoman LaTarzja Henry says CMS officials aren't crazy about the rapid-fire format of online chats (we'd love to have had Gorman answering the questions himself), but she has promised to help us track down answers when the session is over.

The pace of all this is challenging. Normally, in January the superintendent and his staff would be starting to draft a budget plan behind closed doors. They might be sounding out board members in private, but public proposals would be months away. This year CMS has has lifted the curtain early to give the public a glimpse, let more people have their say and avoid late-breaking decisions that leave schools and families in turmoil. From that perspective, it's easy to understand why officials aren't ready to roll out exhaustive details of a work in progress.

On the other hand, they lifted the curtain knowing that what it revealed would create a collective gasp from the audience. No one can be surprised that the thousands of people affected by proposed cuts want to know more. So we'll be pushing to make sure the curtain doesn't drop too quickly.

The budget crisis has jarred a lot of people into caring about a process so complicated it can make your eyes roll back. CMS and the state are both posting information to help people understand. We've created a new section of budget links (to the right, under our mug shots). For budget newbies, there's some great "here's how it works" material. For data-divers, there's a lot to be found if you click around (keep checking for updates).

Besides the obvious links, I've included CMSdollars.com, a private site by Bolyn McClung, a certifiable CMS junkie. I can't vouch for every fact on his site, any more than I can promise there won't be errors or spin on official sites. But he's digging out some good stuff and seems to be more interested in informing than opining. The Charlotte Chamber and Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education have announced a campaign to share CMS budget information; we'll be checking the MeckEd site to see when it has anything ready for viewing. If you know of others, let us know.

Change coming at MeckEd

Kathy Ridge, the former banker who has led MeckEd for a little more than two years, has told the group's board she's ready to try something new.

Ridge says she's starting to scout her own options -- something related to education, which could include running for office, writing, producing documentaries or working for another nonprofit -- while harboring high hopes for the public-schools advocacy group.

"I am not grabbing the beers and going out the emergency chute," she said, referring to the fabled farewell of an angry flight attendant.

MeckEd, also known as Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education, evolved out of public angst over Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools leadership five years ago. Business and political leaders created a task force to recommend changes in CMS. Afterward, the task force merged with the Charlotte Chamber's education arm and an existing education-advocacy foundation to create MeckEd. Its goal: To serve as a critical friend to CMS, providing advice and support.

The group got off to a rocky start, with a huge board and a first director who didn't last long. A streamlined board chaired by Krista Tillman of Queens University of Charlotte hired Ridge in May 2008.

Since then MeckEd has raised $3 million for CMS leadership and staffing initiatives, held training sessions for prospective advocates and board candidates, held book clubs and brought speakers to town to get community leaders talking about a vision for education.

Ridge says she's hoping for an unhurried transition, one that gives her time to scout new possibilities and allows the board time to find a strong successor.

Changes in leadership tend to spark new thinking about a group's vision and strategy. It'll be interesting to see how the corporate and advocacy community sees its role in public education evolving.

Tillman, who says she has "an extremely heavy heart" over Ridge's departure, expects to start a search next month.