The Legislative Action Committee will meet briefly tomorrow, Thursday, April 26, from 3:30-4:15 p.m. in the Middle School Library. (The reason the meeting is shortened to only 45 minutes is to allow people the opportunity to attend the Amherst Education Foundation Awards Reception which will be held from 4:00-5:30 p.m. at the Amherst College Alumni House.) A portion of tomorrow's discussion will be to unpack the issues related to NCLB and AYP as well as high-stakes testing and MCAS.
The next two meetings of the Legislative Action Committee have been set for two Wednesday afternoons in May. Please mark your calendar to meet on May 16 and May 30 at 3:30 in the Middle School library.
Dear Friends of the Regional School Caucus,
I write with the happy news that we are one step closer to fully funding Regional School Transportation. This evening the House amended the House Ways and Means budget to increase the appropriation for Regional School Transportation from $55 million to $57.3 million.
At your earliest opportunity, please call or write Rep. Denis Guyer of Dalton http://www.mass.gov/legis/memmenuh.htm and House Education Committee Chairwoman Patricia Haddad of Somerset http://www.mass.gov/legis/member/pah1.htm to thank them for their hard work on the part of regional schools.
Then please contact your senators and Senate Ways and Means and ask them to match or increase spending in their budget.
Again, thank you for your support of Regional Schools.
CLEON H. TURNER
STATE REPRESENTATIVE
1st Barnstable District
617-722-2090
Fax: 617-722-2848
Room 540, State House
Boston, MA 02133
Rep.CleonTurner@hou.state.ma.us
COMMITTEES:
ELECTION LAWS
HOUSING
PUBLIC HEALTH
Late yesterday the House approved a consolidated Education Amendment to the House version of the FY08 budget. Budget debate continues today with completion of the House budget late this week or early next week. Then it is on to the Senate.
The Consolidated amendment increases The House budget for Regional Transportation by $2.3M to $57.3M, adds a Pothole Account of $5.5M not included in the Governor's budget, increases the Circuit Breaker account by $300K specifically earmarked for expansion of the pilot collaborative transportation program, increases the MCAS tutoring support by $1.2M to $12,525,367 with some earmarks to specific programs, increases the Metco funding by $1M to $20,615,313, increases work-based learning programs by $1M to $2.7M, early intervention tutoring by $500K to $3.4M, Adult Education by $1M to $28.9M, After School programs by $500K to $2M, and brings extended learning time grants to the $13M requested by Governor Patrick.
Michael J Gilbert
Mass. Association of School Committees
Field Director - Information & Technology
1 McKinley Square Boston, MA 02109
1-800-392-6023 (office)
508-277-6011(cell)