Friday News Roundup: Week of February 2-6

Pawlenty Pushes for ‘Q Comp’ Expansion

Granholm Asks Universities to Freeze Tuition

Seniority-Based Layoffs Exacerbate Job Losses

Pawlenty Pushes for ‘Q Comp’ Expansion
Despite cuts to the state’s overall budget, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) would like to boost the state’s education budget. Pawlenty proposed increasing the FY 2010 and 2011 budgets by 2 percent over the budgets from the previous two years. Most of this new spending would go toward expanding “Q Comp,” a program that creates career ladders for teachers and offers bonuses for those who meet specific goals, and “Pay for Progress,” which would offer bonuses to districts making gains in student achievement. The proposal faces some steep criticism, though. Some are disappointed to see money going toward untested programs, and others claim that these programs put too high a priority on testing. More here.

Granholm Asks Universities to Freeze Tuition
During her State of the State address on Monday, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm (D) called upon public universities in Michigan to freeze tuition levels for next year. Noting that increased tuition prices could lower college enrollment rates, Granholm promised rewards for schools that freeze tuition, and penalties for those that don’t. University spokespeople say they support helping students and their families access higher education, but are concerned with the fiscal implications of the Governor’s request. Without additional state aid, they say, a tuition freeze isn’t feasible. More here.

Seniority-Based Layoffs Exacerbate Job Losses
The Center on Reinventing Public Education released Seniority-Based Layoffs Will Exacerbate Job Loss in Public Education, by Marguerite Roza. In the report, Roza explains that “last-hired, first-fired” layoff policies not only ignore teacher quality in favor of seniority, but lead to greater numbers of jobs lost. Because the most junior personnel are usually paid the least, more junior personnel must be let go to meet prescribed budget reductions. Roza calculates that to cut salary expenditures by 5 percent, 7.5 percent of junior-level personnel would have to be cut, rather than 5 percent of all personnel if layoffs were made across all seniority levels. Limiting job cuts to junior personnel would amount to more than 150,000 more jobs lost nation-wide than job cuts across the board. This would raise unemployment rates faster and force students into larger classes at greater rates. More here.