2005 Latest News
2003 School Division Annual Report
Presented at the 2004 School Division Annual Conference in Austin,
Texas
February 05, 2004
AAP SCHOOL DIVISION
YEAR-IN-REVIEW
2003 Report
February 5, 2004
In 2003 the states faced their most serious fiscal crisis in more than a half a century. As the year went on the crisis worsened to a point that more than one third of states had to cut millions, in some cases billions, of dollars from public education.
Last year was the third year of hard times for state and local governments and most had drained their rainy day funds or other reserves.
The fiscal problems became so severe that "even K-12 education, a program that had been held sacred and protected" was adversely effected according to a report issued by the National Council of State Legislators.
While the No Child Left Behind Act increased federal funding for education by more than 40%, it was not enough to avert large cuts in funding in many state education programs. Federal funding still accounts for less than 10% of K-12 spending nationally.
Reading First funds of up to $900 million started flowing to the states for reading materials that were proven effective based on scientific research.
There is no way to accurately measure how much all these cuts in education have impacted spending for instructional materials because each state and ultimately each school district had to make trade offs. But with 85% of school budgets tied up in salaries and benefits, the cuts fell heavily on the remaining 15% including instructional materials.
While the economy is improving and state revenues are starting to increase, publishers should be cautious of expecting a quick turn around in K-12 funding. According to a report from the Rockefeller Institute for Government "crunch time" for state budgets will likely continue into fiscal 2005.
Textbooks and printed material were not the only instructional tools affected. According to the "Electronic Education Report," state budgets for education technology were reduced on average by 25% between the 2001-02 and 2002-03 school year.
Given all the cuts in K-12 spending it was inevitable that instructional materials funding was going to get cut. The School Division's goal last year was (1) first and foremost protect categorical funding and (2) try to keep the funding cuts to the minimal amount possible.
Whenever politicians have to cut budgets they often try to "sweeten the medicine" by saying while we have to cut your budget we are also going to give you "greater flexibility on how you can spend your funds." This flexibility is given by eliminating special dedicated funding for things like instructional materials.
AAP was very successful in defeating attempts in California, Florida, New Mexico and other states to eliminate categorical funding for instructional materials.
In Florida we were able to restore $50 million in cuts for instructional materials to maintain funding at the 2002 level.
I always like to point out the value or return on investment publishers get for their AAP School Division dues. In 2003 the School Division spent about $1.5 million. So based on this win in Florida which returned $50 million in funding for instructional materials to publishers, this translates into a 3,333% return on your dues investment.
The School Division staff focused a lot of time, effort and attention last year in dealing with a multitude of state laws, regulations and federal legislation (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA) to make textbooks and other instructional materials more accessible to students with disabilities.
The U.S. Department of Education convinced a diverse panel of experts to recommend a "national file format" which would be used to facilitate conversion of printed materials to accessible formats. AAP staff and members were intimately involved in this process, which produced recommendations in line with publishing legal and technical limitations.
Likewise, AAP was successful in getting good accessibility language in the U.S. House version of IDEA reauthorization. The U.S. Senate version of IDEA, which has yet to pass, has even better accessibility provisions due to AAP's lobbying efforts.
We were also able to negotiate a good accessibility bill for California and defeated a local bill in Arizona. We have now reached an agreement on a bill in Arizona.
AAP had to deal with legislation that would limit the size and weight of textbooks in NY, PA, IL, SC, TN, MD and other states. In the vast majority of these instances we were able to stop such legislation from becoming law.
The School Division was also successful in defeating a number of legislative attempts to require publishers to provide an electronic file (for non disabled students). In GA, where such a law was passed 2 years ago over AAP opposition, we were able to work with the state Department of Education to get reasonable regulations implementing this requirement.
Other major School Division activities included a very successful "Summit on Assessment & Instruction – Putting It All Together Into a Cohesive System," held in Washington, D.C. on September 25, 2003.
The Division's Supplemental Publishing Committee published and widely disseminated a new brochure entitled The "Essential Role of Supplemental Materials in Achieving the Goals of No Child Left Behind."
For a much more detailed discussion of the AAP lobbying efforts in the Big 3 adoption states of California, Texas and Florida, please see the attached report from the AAP lobbyist in each of those states.
For more information contact:
Lydia Sutton
Ph: 202-220-4547
Email: lsutton@publishers.org