On Friday, Duncan planned to outline some ideas on how schools can use the money in a speech at theUniversity of Northern Iowain Cedar Falls.

"You can identify your best teachers and pay them to coach their colleagues who are having trouble," Duncan said in prepared remarks. "You may have to scale this down after two years, but it can really help your younger teachers get up to speed."

Duncan also recommended adding afternoons, weekends andsummer daysto the school calendar: "Our school day, week and year is too short as it is. Many kids just need more time on task," he said.

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Failing to invest in high quality education is a drag on the U.S. economy, according to a new report from strategic analysis McKinsey and Company (thank you, ECS).

The report, titled The Economic Impact of the Achievement Gap in America's Schools, states, among other things, that if the United States provided a better education to low-income and minority students, we could boost our annual gross domestic product by as much as 16 percent.

The study offers several pearls of wisdom, including:

“By underutilizing such a large proportion of the country's human potential, the US economy is less rich in skills than it could be. The result is that American workers are, on average, less able to develop, master, and adapt to new productivity-enhancing technologies and methods than they could otherwise have been.”

… and …

“ These educational gaps impose on the United States the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.”

Read the full report here.

The report offers the grim details of the U.S. standing on international achievement tests (we're 24th and 25th in math and science), but also makes the point that education spending doesn't, in all cases, translate to better achievement.

The report, however, does underscore the importance of being able to recruit and retain high quality teachers – and makes a specific point to say that school districts without resources get out-bid by those who do. That, of course, has implications for South Dakota.

And now for the broader question – why do we need more resources in K-12 systems in South Dakota.

Open Forum's take: we get outstanding value for the resources we invest now, performing well on state tests and slightly above average on national assessments.

But, keep in mind – being slightly above average compared to a nation that is dramatically below average isn't much of an accomplishment. With the return on investment South Dakota receives, imagine how well our education system could perform if we simply decided to treat education as an investment, rather than an expense.

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It's been ten years since the tragic Columbine High School shootings that took 13 lives, left dozens wounded and sent shock waves throughout the United States.

The anniversary comes strangely close to news of a lock down in Sioux Falls on Tuesday. According to the Argus Leader, a student reported another student carrying a firearm, and the district's safety plan kicked into gear. Law enforcement agents say a student' toy gun triggered the lock down, and that the student may face criminal charges for bringing it on school grounds.

It doesn't take a tragedy to be thankful that school districts make student and staff safety a priority. These efforts – which take careful planning and broad coordination – fall under the scope of administrators, who often don't get the appreciation they deserve for ensuring our schools are safe places to learn.

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Aberdeen has never been penalized, he said. Aberdeen is allowed a reserve of 27 percent now. Its actual reserve on June 30 was 20.6 percent.

The June 30 cash-reserve numbers listed by the state are artificially high, Janish said, because districts receive most of their property-tax revenue in two big batches - one in late spring and the second in late fall. Most of Aberdeen's $4.18 million reserve on June 30 was used to meet expenses (mostly payroll) from July through October, he said.

By the time the next big batch of property taxes comes in, the reserve is down to about $1 million, which serves as a safeguard against having to borrow money to meet expenses, Janish said.

If the state listed districts' reserves in the fall before the second batch hits the bank, the numbers would be considerably lower, he said.

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Consider our eyebrows raised.

Open Forum is watching Oklahoma's legislature as they debate a concept near and dear to our hearts – local school governance.  

For a quick read on the Sooner state's School District Empowerment program, click here or here, or get some more detail from our colleagues at the Oklahoma State School Boards Association(OSSBA).

If you're not so link-happy, here's the gist: up to 20 percent of the state's schools would be eligible for a pilot initiative that exempts the public schools from nearly every state education mandate currently sealed in Oklahoma law.

Essentially, the School District Empowerment program offers traditional public schools the same kind of deregulation that school choice enthusiasts fight to obtain for publicly funded but privately run charter schools. The legislation promises true local public school governance, which is why our friends at OSSBA are backing the effort.

Open Forum has often been curious why strong advocates of school choice have focused their efforts on charter schools. If charter-backers believe government mandates are barriers to student achievement, why not push for broad-based deregulation of public schools? At the very least, doesn't the creation of an entirely new system of publicly funded schools seem…redundant?

We admit – it's bothersome to think that our public education system has moved so far from local governance that state lawmakers have to consider legislation to “empower” local communities. But…with a country focused on education reform and President Obama pushing for additional charter schools, Open Forum thinks Oklahoma's effort deserves to be part of the debate.

Of course, like any education reform measure, the legislation has opposition. In this case, the fight against the legislation is being led by the state's two largest teacher unions, who are concerned that the legislation would, among other things, eliminate collective bargaining (read their take here and here).

So… what's the difference between regulated and unregulated public schools? Well, this chart goes a long way to explaining the legal differences. And, though the body of research is expanding, there's no definitive word on whether charter schools actually improve student achievement.

As always, the Forum is open.

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Open Forum doesn't hide our affinity for public schools. We think it's hard to beat the accountability and responsiveness the public school environment promises, despite some calls for private sector solutions to public school woes.

That's why research coming out of Philly has earned our attention.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Johns Hopkins University has published research comparing student performance in the city's public schools to student performance in numerous privately run, publicly funded schools.

The public school system outlays more than $6 million a year to private companies, who manage more than 20 Philadelphia schools. It's regarded as the largest privatization experiment in the nation.

And, really… the story's lede says it all:

City schools under Philadelphia School District control outperformed those run by outside managers paid millions of dollars to run them, according to a study released today.

Read it all here.

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The index ratio that governs annual increases in per-student state aid inched higher in March, according to the official release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The news tempers concerns that falling consumer prices will negatively impact FY11 state aid to education. According to ASBSD projections, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, known as the CPI-W, will be positive for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.

According to BLS, the CPI-W was 207.218 for March 2009, up 0.2 percent from February. The statistics, released April 15, reflect three consecutive months of CPI-W growth dating back to January.  

According to state law, per-student aid increases each year by the CPI-W or 3 percent, whichever is less. Annual change in the CPI-W for a given year dictates state aid increases two years into the future. For example, the CPI-W for FY09 will be used to calculate FY11 state aid.

Consumer prices plummeted dramatically between July and November of 2008, triggering a fall in the CPI-W index from 216.3 to 204.813. The drop signaled the possibility of negative annual growth, which would have triggered a decrease in per-student funding for FY11.

Taking into account the three-month growth trend, state aid increases for FY 11 will be between .25 percent and 1.15 percent, said ASBSD Director of Communications Brian Aust.

According to Aust, the range in values depends on calculated projection for April, May and June. Using the entire year as a guide, CPI-W growth is .25 percent. If the remaining months are calculated using only the current growth trends, CPI-W growth will be approximately 1.15 percent.

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