Report - December 2006

The Electronic Report is sent monthly to administrators of member schools in the Illinois Coalition of Non-Public Schools (ICNS). Its purpose is to provide brief synopses of developments with the Illinois Coalition of Non-Public Schools, legislative updates, and information of interest to our nonpublic school administrators. Additional information may be obtained by following the hyperlinks that are imbedded throughout the Report. Any comments, suggestions and additional submissions from our members are welcomed. You can read past issues at the ICNS web site, www.ICNS.net, under the heading of Electronic Reports. As a nonpublic school administrator, you may also go to the ICNS web page for information on:

EDUCATION IN THE NEWS

BEST EVIDENCE ENCYCLOPEDIA: RESEARCH REVIEW WEBSITE LAUNCHED - Which educational programs have been successfully evaluated in valid scientific research? The Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University has created a free website called the Best Evidence Encyclopedia (The BEE). The BEE contains educator-friendly summaries of research on educational programs as well as links to the full-text scientific reviews. The reviews focus on the programs educators should consider to improve their students? achievement: math and reading programs, comprehensive school reforms, technology applications, and more. http://www.bestevidence.org/

NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS (NCES) REPORT ON PRIVATE SCHOOLS - Charles Glenn, the interim dean of Boston University's School of Education, has written an excellent commentary on the recent NCES report on parents opting out of private schools because results are showing there is no significant difference in test scores. Mr. Glenn suggests that the ? justification for private schools and charter schools is not that they produce superior academic results, so long as their quality is adequate by some objective standard, but that millions of parents want them. In a free society, parents have a right to choose the schools that their children will attend and (within broad limits) the sort of education that they will receive.? http://www.edweek.org/ew/section/commentary/2006/11/29/13glenn.h26.html

CHARTER SCHOOLS AND VOUCHERS MAKE HEADLINES - Charter schools and vouchers made a lot of headlines in recent weeks. There were several stories regarding the growth or expansion of charter schools in Indiana, California, and Ohio, and coverage of voucher-related activities in New Jersey, Arizona, and Utah. To read more about this story, link to the following web site at Leaders Edge

AVAILABLE GRANTS

LAURA BUSH FOUNDATION FOR AMERICA'S LIBRARIES -The foundation awards up to $5,000 to school libraries, preferably those where 90 percent or more of the school population receives free or reduced lunch; the deadline is December 30. For more information visit www.laurabushfoundation.com/web2/index.htm.

GRANTS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND VOLUNTEER SERVICE EXPLORATION - The Target and Tiger Woods Foundation Start Something Program is a free program for youth that addresses three priorities: character development, volunteer service and career exploration. Maximum Award: N/A. Eligibility: youth ages eight to 17. Deadline: January 1, 2007. http://sites.target.com/site/en/spot/page.jsp?title=startsomething

SAFE SCHOOLS GRANT - SchoolSpan is offering a Safe Schools Grant that provides its Anonymous Alert tip line service free of charge to schools. This is a web-based module that enables anyone in the school community to send an anonymous message to school officials, warning them of drugs, guns, violence, unusual student behavior, unauthorized visitors or any potential student crisis that warrants immediate attention. http://www.schoolspan.com/

MOCKINGBIRD FOUNDATION MUSIC GRANTS: - The Mockingbird Foundation offers $50-$5,000 grants for music-education programs; the deadline is February 1. For more information visit http:// www.mockingbirdfoundation.org/funding/guidelines.html.

Another excellent site for available grants can be found at GrantsAlert.com. They make life a little easier for those who devote their time to searching for education grants and identifying new funding opportunities for schools.

You can also link to Education Week, which publishes a listing of available grants for schools to considering applying for along with specific deadline dates. Here is the link to the grant page for Education Week.

CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS

Effective August of 2004, the Illinois School Code requires public school districts to perform a fingerprint-based criminal history records check for all certified and non-certified applicants for employment. There is no present requirement for a nonpublic school to conduct a similar check of new hires. A bill was proposed in the last legislative session to require nonpublic schools to perform a fingerprint-based check but a vote was not called on the bill. As a nonpublic school administrator, you need to be aware that such a bill will again be presented in the upcoming legislative session. If a bill is passed, it will take effect for the start of the 2007-08 school year.

The bill will most likely require individuals who apply for employment in a nonpublic school to submit to a national fingerprint-based criminal history check before the individual begins employment. The criminal history check must be initiated prior to employment; but the individual may be hired and begin employment, pending the outcome of the criminal history records check. The bill would apply to all employees who would have regular contact with children. This would include not only teachers but also secretaries, lunchroom personnel, bus drivers, custodians and instructional assistants. Current employees would not be required to undergo a fingerprint-based criminal history records check. As a member of ICNS, you will be kept informed about any legislative action that is being considered. Once a bill is passed, you will also receive information related to the logistics associated with the implementation. The Catholic Conference and ICNS are working closely together on this issue in order to provide complete and accurate information and resources to all nonpublic schools.

HOUSSE RULES

In the November issue of the Electronic Report, information was shared on how The No Child Left Behind Act now requires that teachers be identified as highly qualified in the subject areas in which they teach. The Illinois State Board of Education has automatically assigned this status to teachers in their system based primarily on information they have from state testing of teachers. The problem is that veteran teachers who were certified before teacher testing was required may find they are not identified as Highly Qualified in any area. Teachers have the opportunity to correct this and add areas for which they are highly qualified.

In a recent issue of Teacher Magazine, veteran teachers are told that the States? alternate routes to becoming ?highly qualified? under the No Child Left Behind Act might not be on the books much longer. A provision of the law called the High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation, which allows states to use their own systems to determine which experienced teachers are highly qualified, is likely to hit the cutting-room floor when NCLB is reauthorized, which could happen as early as next year.

Those teachers may want to take advantage of the HOUSSE rules as soon as possible because, for now at least, the writing seems to be on the wall. In case you missed the process for veteran teachers to update their Illinois files, the information has been posted on the ICNS web site. The link is: Highly Qualified Teachers.

ILLINOIS EDUCATIONAL FACTS
Illinois Enrollment:

There were 2,368,900 enrolled K-12 students in Illinois for 2005-2006
10.9% of these students, 257,194, were educated in nonpublic schools

Illinois Education Budget

The education budget for ISBE was $8.75 billion in FY 07.
ISBE provided funding of $5,334 for each public school student (this is called the foundation level) for the 06-07 school year.

Cost of Public School Education

Public schools are supported with state aid, local property taxes and federal education programs. The state only funds an average of 40% of public school education. In the majority of Chicago suburbs that figure is significantly less as due to property wealth, the significant portion of school support comes from the local property tax.
The median per pupil operating expenditures for 04-05 was:

            $7,676 for elementary school districts
            $10,405 for high schools
            $7,297 for Unit (K-12) school districts

As you know, nonpublic schools receive no direct funding from the state. Yet, their parents are paying state taxes, which are included in the ISBE budget. In addition, parents are paying local property taxes to support the local public school district.

Programs Assisting Nonpublic School Education

Illinois Textbook Loan Program ? The purpose of the program is to provide textbooks to public and nonpublic school students. The program rotates each year to fund textbook purchases for different grade levels. (K-4, 5-8, ad 9-12). The 2006-07 textbook loan program funds Grades 9-12 with an appropriation of approximately $29.1 million. This amount equates to about $30-$40 per pupil.

Parental Transportation Reimbursement Program ? The purpose of the program is to provide financial assistance to Illinois parents/guardians of children, grades K-12, to who free bussing is not provided. For 2005-06, the transportation reimbursement program appropriation was $14.4 million equating to $125 per qualifying pupil.

Education Expense Tax Credit ? The program provides a state tax credit for Illinois residents who are the parents/guardians of one or more qualifying students. The credit is for qualified education expenses paid at an Illinois elementary or secondary school ? public or nonpublic. The tax credit, against Illinois income tax, is 25% of qualified education expenses ? tuition, books, fees and lab fees, over $250. However, the tax credit cannot exceed $500 per family. For the tax year 2004, 205,883 taxpayers claimed the education expense tax credit totaling almost $67 million.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions, comments or need information related to our efforts in supporting nonpublic schools, feel free to communicate with us by sending an e-mail to ICNS.