INVESTING WHERE IT COUNTS: The McCord Plan for Making Smart Investments in Early Education and K-12 Public Schools

By Robert M. McCord

Pennsylvania is facing a public education crisis. After $1 billion in education cuts, test scores have fallen, and children are crammed into overcrowded classrooms following more than 20,000 teacher layoffs. The state is clearly not living up to its constitutional obligation to provide for a thorough system of public education. Rob McCord intends to change that by making public education his top priority as governor.

That's because $1 billion in classroom cuts have threatened to wipe away promising improvements that were made prior to 2011. For example, after a decade of gains, Pennsylvania students saw scores go down on crucial national 4th grade math and reading exams even as most of the rest of the country saw scores increase.

It is becoming clear that Pennsylvania is not living up to its constitutional promise of providing for a "thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth."

The McCord Approach

As an entrepreneur and business leader, Rob McCord understands that success tomorrow requires smart investments today. Without investing in public education, Pennsylvania is hurting not only its people, but also its future chances at a thriving and competitive economy.

That's why he wants to dramatically reform the way Pennsylvania approaches and invests in public education.

The McCord Plan starts with greatly expanding early childhood learning opportunities so students enter school ready to succeed. It also ensures that students in grades K-12 benefit from targeted investments in critically important areas and in programs that work.

McCord's plan calls for nearly $1.3 billion in new investments that will fully restore Tom Corbett's cuts and give tens of thousands of additional children access to affordable, voluntary, high-quality early childhood education programs that will set them on the path to a more promising future.

Beyond providing much needed financial support, Rob McCord's education agenda includes much needed educational reforms, specifically in the way Pennsylvania supports special education, funds charter and cyber charter schools, and uses high-stakes standardized tests, which are costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars with little to nothing in return.

Education is an Economic Issue

Rob McCord understands that a well-educated workforce is essential to economic development. In fact, one recent survey of the heads of high growth companies found that a skilled workforce base is the single most important factor when a company is deciding where to locate - more important, even, than infrastructure or tax rates. That's why getting education right across the state matters to all Pennsylvanians.

Unfortunately, the state is clearly getting it wrong. A recent study by the Pennsylvania Chamber found that a majority of state employers have trouble finding the right workers and that a majority also expect the difficulty to increase in the next five years.

McCord's education plan aims to reverse these trends by targeting investments in education programs that speak directly to the needs of parents, students, workers, and employers alike.

Early Education: Getting the Right Start Pays Off in the Long Run

The evidence is clear: voluntary, high-quality early childhood education pays dividends for many years, especially for lower income children.

Kids who have had access to high quality preschool and kindergarten programs do better in reading and math throughout their lives, graduate high school at higher rates, and require less remedial instruction during their K-12 years, which has been found to save $3,700 per student in education costs.

In other words, investing in voluntary, high-quality early learning programs is an effective way to improve the state's K-12 system. Furthermore, investments in voluntary, high-quality early childhood education programs have been shown to yield a return on investment of 7%-10%, and can lead to healthier lifestyles, lower crime rates, and lower overall social costs.

All of this leads to lower spending on health care, lower spending on incarceration, and a reduced need for public assistance. Additionally, research shows every dollar in state spending on pre-K education is matched by another $1.06 from other sources, doubling the economic impact for the state. What's more, these investments can lead to a better educated workforce with higher earning capabilities - to the tune of $9.2 billion in Pennsylvania, alone, if just one year's worth of high school dropouts would graduate instead.

McCord's plan would build on Pennsylvania's Pre-K Counts Program by adding an extra $220 million for a total appropriation of about $300 million, which would give approximately 50,000 at-risk three- and four-year-olds from low-income families access to voluntary, high-quality early childhood education.

This investment will be enough to subsidize a high-quality pre-K program for about 80% of all three- and four-year-olds in households that are at 100% of the federal poverty level. By 2020, McCord's goal is to help all families at or below 300% of the federal poverty level - the income eligibility limit for Pre-K Counts and the level at which early childhood education programs may be the second or third greatest household expense - enroll their children in programs that will give them a better shot at competing in the economy, gaining employment, and contributing to their communities.

Equipping Students to Succeed in Pennsylvania's K-12 Classrooms

The $1 billion in cuts to public classrooms have taken a toll on Pennsylvania's students. These cuts to education have coincided with a decrease in the percentage of students scoring "advanced" or "proficient" on PSSA tests.

Conversely, prior to 2011, PSSA scores were trending upward as education funding increased. The increase in funding coincided with Pennsylvania's work to implement a better funding formula so schools had a better shot of receiving a fair and equitable portion of state dollars. The state abandoned the funding formula in 2011 and children have been paying the price ever since in the form of 20,000 fewer teachers, more crowded classrooms, less - if any - tutoring and access to libraries, fewer counselors and support professionals, and fewer classes in the arts or chances to participate in athletic activities.

As governor, Rob McCord's first priority will be to restore the funding cut from to Pennsylvania's K-12 public classrooms, targeting these new resources to programs that benefit all children and that position the state's students on a path for promising futures. In particular, and in addition to the early learning investments mentioned earlier, McCord's plan will direct new funds to:

• The Basic Education Subsidy. This budget line item represents the largest share of funding to Pennsylvania's public school districts.

To ensure public dollars are allocated properly and fairly, McCord will also push to enact a data-driven funding formula that calculates the resources children and schools need to achieve success. The formula will take into account enrollment, academic needs, learning challenges (number of students with special education needs and English language learners), and the tax effort of each district, so residents of lower-income districts are not made to shoulder a heavier burden than residents of wealthier districts.

With more resources, public school districts - regardless of their wealth or ZIP code - will be able to hire more teachers and support professionals to give students more individualized instruction and less crowded classrooms. Reducing class sizes can have an enormous benefit on a child's performance. That is especially true for elementary-age students, for minorities, and for students from low-income families.

• Full-day Kindergarten. While McCord's new investments in early childhood learning can go a long way to improving academic performance for young students, the state risks allowing these children to backslide without full-day kindergarten programs.

The current administration repeatedly tried to eliminate the Accountability Block Grant Program, which many districts used to fund full-day kindergarten programs. The legislature successfully restored funding, but only to $100 million, or slightly more than a third of the total amount appropriated in fiscal year 2008-2009. McCord will invest new money to restore full-day kindergarten, particularly in low- to moderate-income districts that could not otherwise support such a program with their limited tax bases.

• The Dual Enrollment Program, which helps students earn college credits while still in high school. Gov. Corbett eliminated funding for the program in his first budget,7 forcing many students to pay for college- level courses out of their own pocket or forcing schools to divert basic education funding away from the classroom toward reimbursements for dual enrollment students.

• Elementary Education in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Educating students at a young age in these fields is critically important to maintain their interest and encourage them to further their studies in high school and post-secondary education.8 To further underscore this point, 65% of scientists reported that exposure to and education in science while they were in grade school led them to their careers. It is clear that this kind of early science learning will give students a leg up when thinking about careers later in life.

An important component of the new STEM initiative will be for schools to establish learning collaborations and partnerships with the state's employers and research institutions so students can learn directly from experts in the field. Schools could arrange field trips to companies or laboratories where research and development work is taking place, or they could engage in virtual field trips where students interact with these professionals online. Connecting students with these industries directly will help to enhance their understanding of the practical implications for STEM disciplines and increase their level of interest in these areas as a possible career.

• After School Programs. These programs can be immensely beneficial to students, especially when the instruction is aligned to classroom curricula. Studies have found quality after school programs can improve achievement and test scores, reduce absenteeism and dropout rates, and improve social and behavioral problems. Aside from the academic rationale, after school programs can be incredibly important to keeping kids out of trouble, as the period from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. is the peak time for juveniles to be involved in criminal activity, be the victims of crime, or for teenage drivers, to be involved in an accident.

McCord's plan would target state funding to low-achieving school districts and those with high rates of behavioral or criminal problems among students. The programs would be administered by the school district to better align instruction to in-class lessons, give students the ability to continue learning from trained educators, and minimize transportation costs. All programs would need to be developed in cooperation local school boards, administrators, teachers and parents.

• Governor's Schools for Excellence. Prior to the recession, the commonwealth supported a number of programs across the state that offered promising high school students the opportunity to engage in intensive five-week study programs a Pennsylvania universities in programs like science, business, agriculture and the arts among others. While a small number of the schools have been reestablished largely with private funds, McCord's plan would again add state support to leverage additional private funds for programs in STEM fields, business and entrepreneurship, energy and the environment, agriculture, civics, and the arts.

• Charter School Reimbursement. In the 2011-12 school year, alone, payments to charter schools diverted more than $1 billion from public schools, along with tens of millions of dollars more in state and federal subsidies. With enrollment in these alternative schools increasing, the state made the problem worse in 2011 when it cut the $236 million line item that reimbursed public school districts for a portion of the funds they paid to charter schools. Rob McCord will restore funding to help maintain the quality of education in public schools. Additionally, McCord will fight to correct Pennsylvania's flawed charter and cyber school funding formulas, which have resulted in higher costs to school districts for learning environments where students too often have failed to thrive or meet expectations. McCord will advocate for a funding commission to "right size" charter school funding, but he will fight against the short-sighted provisions of current bills such as S.B. 1085 and H.B. 618, which seem to favor the charter industry and would severely diminish the authority of local school districts to oversee charter schools and hold them accountable.

• Teacher Professional Development. Having highly qualified and well trained teachers in the classroom is essential to ensuring students have the opportunity to learn from exceptional educators.

Unfortunately, support for teacher development in the state budget is down nearly 85% since fiscal year 2009-10. With McCord's plan, teachers will have additional resources to improve their skills and school districts will be encouraged to allow teachers release time to engage in these development programs outside the classroom working with their peers in collaborative settings. The state will also monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of training and development programs to ensure resources are targeted in a way to generate the best results for students.

A portion of the funding for teacher development will be dedicated to training and certifying professionals to teach early childhood education programs, an important component in order to ensure qualified teachers are available to meet the increased demand as a result of McCord's early childhood education plan.

McCord will also support the development of a new formula for special education funding in keeping with the recommendations of the Special Education Funding Commission's December 2013 report. With additional resources, McCord will target funding to special education programs that help the more than one quarter of a million Pennsylvania students with learning disabilities. The special education line item in the budget endured a number of years of flat funding.

Lastly, with respect to Pennsylvania's K-12 schools, McCord believes we need to rethink the way the state uses standardized tests. These high-stakes exams, which are not only financially draining to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, but also detrimental to instruction, are overemphasized and should not be used in a punitive way.

Instead, these tests should be used to provide teachers with feedback to help them better meet the needs of individual students. The way tests are used to punish teachers and schools, unfortunately, drives school districts to place too much emphasis on filling in bubble sheets and not enough time or emphasis on actual reading, writing, and learning.

Once in office, McCord will call for a special commission to study the development and use of standardized tests to assess whether these exams are properly aligned to current standards, accurately measure achievement, and ultimately, serve the best interests of students. As necessary, based on the findings, this commission will be tasked with developing recommendations to reform the system.

Investments are Not Handouts

Providing a decent basic education has always been the way to ensure equal opportunity for every child, regardless of the circumstances into which they happen to be born. But that is not the only reason funding quality education is so important.

The definition of an investment is putting resources into something now in expectation of receiving a return later. Rob McCord has made a career of investing, and his education plan builds on that expertise. His education agenda is intended to produce returns not only for the individuals receiving better educations, but also for the taxpayers providing the resources.