Compass Point
A Weekly Collection of Data, Articles and Insights from the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute
A project of the Virginia Commonwealth University's Center for Public Policy
L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs
CEPI in the News









Education Editorial: Ethical Boundaries
NBC 12 (WWBT)
October 19, 2014

"But, many of the ethical issues that we are watching unfold are not about values, what you believe, but about virtues, what you do."

Experts talk safety response after Manchester stabbing
NBC 12 (WWBT)
October 14, 2014
Articles of Interest
State & Local Policy

Richmond School Board member censured and stripped of committee assignment
Richmond Times Dispatch
October 19, 2014

The Richmond School Board removed 9th District representative Tichi Pinkney Eppes from the board’s student disciplinary committee after a two-hour closed session Thursday night following controversy involving a breach of student information.

The board also publicly admonished and censured Eppes — “the strictest action we can take,” said board Chairman Donald Coleman, 7th District. The board instructed its attorney to refer the situation to an “outside state agency” for further investigation but declined to specify the entity.

DRAFT- Support Cost and Staffing at Virginia’s Higher Education Institutions

JLARC Report
October 2014

Spending on support functions has increased, but rate of increase has been declining
Spending on support functions at Virginia’s 15 public higher education institutions increased 28 percent from 1991 to 2010, when adjusted for enrollment and inflation. This increase accounted for 17 percent of the
growth in total higher education spending. The rate of increase varied substantially across insti-
tutions, and some institutions experienced reductions. The rate of increase across all institutions has declined, though, since most of the increase occurred between 1991 and 2000. Support spending increased six percent between
2000 and 2010, less than the 11 percent increase in instructional spending.

Fairfax Schools to Start Screening Students for Ebola

ABC 7 News (WJLA)
October 15, 2014

Airports have started screening passengers for signs of Ebola - but now local students are being checked, too.

Fairfax County Public Schools announced that, amidst growing concern over the deadly virus, it will start screening any child that comes to the health office with a high temperature.

The Northern Virginia district has approximately 186,000 students that hail from all over the world.

"I think that's justifiable," said Joe Nelson, whose son attends Marshall High School in Falls Church. "I don't think that's an over-reaction."

The school will ask any student that shows a fever if they have traveled to any of the Ebola-affected countries in West Africa in the past 21 days. If the student answers yes, once the school confirms that information with the student's parents, the Health Department will follow up with additional screening measures.

Federal Policy

Why poor students do not stay in college
Washington Post
October 20, 2014

It is a Tuesday in October and Terrell Kellam is running late. He usually wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to catch the first of two buses that will take him from southwest Baltimore to Morgan State University, just north of the city. With a good connection, making it to his college classes might take an hour and a half.

But his bus pass has been acting up recently. He spends the morning looking for spare change. He’s going to miss his first class. And, because he forgot to pack food from home, he doesn’t have anything to eat for the rest of the day. He goes hungry pretty often.

Today, more people than ever are going to college, yet the nation’s overall college graduation rate has remained low. Only 59 percent of students who began as freshmen at a four-year college in the fall of 2006 received their diplomas within six years.

Final Changes to Clery Act
Inside Higher Ed
October 20, 2014

The U.S. Department of Education published the final rules to carry out changes to the Clery Act today, requiring colleges and universities to collect and disclose crime statistics about the number of reported crimes that were investigated and determined to be unfounded. Previously, those incidents were not required to be reported, so the rule requires the disclosure of statistics from the past three calendar years as well as those going forward.

"That's the biggest change we've made," Lynn Mahaffie, acting assistant secretary for postsecondary education, said during a press call Friday. "It allows us to better monitor what crimes are being reported, see the extent that reporting is being abused, and provide technical assistance."

10 ed organizations receiving Gates Foundation funding
Education Dive
October 20, 2014

Bill Gates wields a lot of power in the education arena. . .

So who are some of the organizations receiving funding from Gates and what are they focused on? We took a look at 10 listed below, a few of which might surprise you.
What's the difference between prisons and schools?

An antsy eleven year-old looking out at some of the beautiful fall days we've had lately might argue prisons and schools are much the same thing - being confined in here (perhaps in math class) when one would much rather be out there. 

Policy makers might also agree that there are similarities - funding education and prisons are two major chunks of any local, state or federal budget.  The cost of both systems has increased. 

At the same time, as Charles Ogletree notes in a recent article for the Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest, growth in public funding for prisons has generally outpaced public funding for education over the past 40 years.  This indicates an area of difference between the two areas - as the graphic below from CNN shows, total government funding to keep a person incarcerated for a year is often far greater than to keep our eleven year-old friend in school. 


































With that reality in mind, it was interesting to see the decision taken by Virginia's current governor to make up a significant portion of the current budget shortfall by cutting deeply in the Department of Corrections while protecting education funding completely. 

Our poll snapshot this week takes a look at this same issue using the same data shared last week - a comparison of respondents' willingness to pay more in taxes to keep various areas at the same level.  But this week our analysis delves into the comparison between public opinion on public school spending vs. opinion on spending for prisons.  The comparison indicates McAuliffe's decision aligns closely with public preferences.   

Citing an ethical lapse by a local school board member that could lead to criminal charges, Dr. Bosher's weekly editorial mulls over the topic of values and suggests there is a difference between believing something to be right and actually doing the right thing.

Finally, we share another excerpt from Dr. Vacca's most recent Ed Law newsletter which looks at the limits of a teacher's free speech in classroom settings. 

Sincerely,
CEPI
Poll Snapshot:  Support for spending on schools much higher than for prisons
For the past six years, CEPI has asked a representative sample of Virginians whether they would be "willing . . . to pay more in taxes in order to keep the program going at its current level."  Public schools and prisons are two areas of spending listed, alongside mental health services, aid to low-income families, transportation and public universities.  



























Consistently public schools are at the top of the rankings and support has varied from 66% to 79%.  Prisons are always at the bottom - far below any of the other areas.  The percentage of respondents willing to pay more in taxes to keep prison funding the same over the past six years has ranged from a low of 21% to a high of 26%.

Previously we've shares some of the patterns in demographic breakdowns of support for public schools.  For instance, and perhaps unsurprisingly, younger respondents in 2014 were more willing to pay more to keep school funding level - 81% for folks from 18-44 and only 52% for those 65 or older.  Also, there is a definite partisan divide that is stable over the years.  Democrats are overwhelmingly willing to pay more (ranging from 79% in 2009 to a high of 94% in 2012).  Republicans are less willing though still majorities would be willing to pay more in taxes (range runs from 50% to 57%).  Independents are alwasy in the middle (63% to 77% depending on the year).

Prisons, as noted above, are far less popular, but they also lack clear consistent patterns along partisan, age or almost any other line of demarcation.  As indicated below, in two years Republicans have had about the same rate of support as Democrats while in the other four years, Democrats were more willing to pay more in taxes to keep prison funding level (the spread ranged from 4% to 15%).  

Likewise, on this question there really isn't a consistent gender gap (one of the often touted demarcations in politics).  Some years male respondents had higher support, other years women. 

This past year for the first time we provided a white/minority breakout.  It will be interesting to watch whether this gap is consistent.  Perhaps surprisingly, given that a disproportionate number of minorities are incarcerated in the prison system, minorities are more willing to pay more in taxes for this area than whites.  That said, minority respondents were more willing than whites to pay more in taxes for five of the six spending areas (the exception was mental health services.)

From the above, its clear that cutting prisons is likely to be more popular than cutting public school spending.  It will also be interesting to see whether the numbers stay the same now that significant cuts to prisons are in process.

(To read the full results of all six polls, visit our website. In 2014, question 8 is the question reported above - topline results are on page 29; crosstabs are on pages 43-48.)

Ed Law: Teacher Methods and Classrooms Discussions - Policy Issues

Excerpted from Dr. Vacca's October Education Law Newsletter

"Overview
Recent stories in the popular media have once again raised lingering issues involving public school teachers and the inclusion of controversial subjects, teaching methods, course materials, student research, and discussions in the classroom. Here in Virginia, for example, controversy arose in a county public school system when a teacher showed a film in which Muslims present their opinions regarding the attack on The Trade Towers in New York City (“9/11”). Most recently, the Associated Press published a story involving a suburban Denver, Colorado, public school system where there have been protests and heated debate in school board meetings over the content and course materials found in an Advanced Placement history class.

This past month The American Library Association (ALA) celebrated Banned Books Week (September 21 to 27, 2014). The ALA released a list of the Top Ten frequently challenged books of 2013, as a part of the State of America’s Library Report. Reading the list I harkened back to such past court decisions as Mozert v. Hawkins County Board of Education (6th Cir. 1987) . . . "

To read the full newsletter, visit our website.