Candidate Questionnaire - 2014

Candidate Questionnaire - 2014

Candidate Questionnaire - 2014

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on what's important to Vermont-NEA's 12,000 members and their families. In this brief survey, we will outline key issues, followed by our position on them.

We ask you whether you agree or disagree with (or don't know about) our position on eight issues: paid employee leave; Green Mountain Care; school finance; school district consolidation; equal opportunity for all students; recruiting and retaining new teachers; the Common Core; and retirement security.

Again, thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. Your responses will be available to the men and women of Vermont-NEA. Together with our communities, we strive to make our local public schools Vermont's most important resource.

Candidate Information

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

First Name: __Dean______

Last Name: __ Corren______

Email: _____

Phone Number: ___802-864-9916______

Office you are seeking: _Lieutenant Governor__

Party: _Progressive, (possibly Democratic) ___

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Paid Employee Leave

Too many working Vermonters – especially women and workers in low wage jobs– have to go to work sick or lose a paycheck. Too many Vermonters must choosebetween caring for an ill child or parent and foregoing pay. Too many workingVermonters must choose between staying home to care for a sick child andsending that sick child to school. And, too many Vermonters must choosebetween taking time off to seek help against domestic or sexual violence andlosing income and hope for economic independence. It is time for Vermont toaffirm the primacy of worker and family health and safety needs. The cost ofproviding a modicum of paid time to employees to enable them to care forthemselves and family is insignificant compared with the social, health, andproductivity costs of leaving its provision discretionary with employers. Some60,000 Vermont workers are caught between the inevitability of illness and thenecessity for pay. Vermont-NEA believes that all employees should beentitled – in law – to earn a reasonable amount of paid time off to takecare of themselves and their families when illness strikes or safetyrequires.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On paid employee leave, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on paid employee leave?
I will actively work for this legislation and will be mindful of this issue in particular as senate committees are created. ______

Green Mountain Care – Transition for All Employees

Vermont-NEA has been and remains a leading and effective advocate of health care reform,and it supports the vision and goals of Green Mountain Care. Over decades, schoolemployees – and other workers – negotiated for good health care and openly sacrificed wageand benefit gains in order to obtain and retain it. For 20 years, Vermont-NEA and schoolboards have saved taxpayers many tens of millions of dollars through reduced insurancepremiums in a single statewide insurance group (VEHI) for all active and retired schoolemployees and their families. As the State now moves to consider funding and othercomponents of Green Mountain Care, it must protect all Vermont employees fromsubstantial compensation losses in the transition. Absent helpful legislative attention, thecombined impact of separating access to health care from employment and a new broad-basedpublic payment system – which we support – could lead improperly to substantiallosses in compensation for active and retired employees generally, whether in unions or not.Vermont-NEA believes the State must acknowledge the sacrifices employees havemade in compensation over past decades and, in the transition to Green MountainCare, enact provisions to offset possible loss in coverage or increased costs.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On Green Mountain Care, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on Green Mountain Care?
This is one critical aspect of the main reason I am running for Lieutenant Governor. I am eager to be involved in the design and implementation, and will use the office of Lt. Governor to communicatewith the public regarding Green Mountain Care. l would seek VT-NEA’s input into ensuring that no detail in this kind of issue is missed.

It has been my position from well before my first term in the legislature that healthcare costs are always paid by employees. This is the case whether it is through the value they create, the salary or other benefits they forgo, or a combination of the two. Once we have finally divorced healthcare coverage from employment, these dynamics will disappear. But during the transition, recognizing and accounting for the value of those contributions is crucial to successful implementation. I appreciate VT-NEA’s leadership in pushing for universal care despite your members already having quality insurance.

School Finance: Adjust, Don’t Discard Current System

Together with our communities, Vermont-NEA members are leading the charge in making ouralready great public schools even better, equipping our students with the tools they need tolive happy, productive and fulfilling lives, no matter what path they choose to pursue. TheState's constitutional obligation is to ensure access to a substantially equal amount offunding for each student, regardless of community. A related purpose of the original Act 60was to enable low wealth communities to level up. It was a striking success, but that levelingup fed a public perception that, coupled with our state's decline in school-aged children, weare spending "too much" on their education. The state is paying no more on schoolchildrennow, as a percentage of total income, than it has, dating back to years prior to theenactment of Act 60. In recent years, the total number of school employees in Vermont hasdeclined by nearly 1000, as school districts continue to acknowledge enrollment declines. It isnot possible to cut costs in lockstep with enrollment declines. Increased costs stem largelyfrom matters outside the control of schools themselves, such as necessary technologychanges, health care, and State and federal initiatives. Vermont-NEA believes the current school funding system is fundamentally and constitutionally sound, but that it can and should be made more overtly related to taxpayer ability to pay.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On school finance, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on school finance?
The Brigham decision that resulted in Act 60 addressed the need for equity with regard to the Constitutionally-required educational spending per pupil, regardless of the location of their residence in the state. It did not get to the fairness to taxpayers. Acts 60/68, in satisfying Brigham, made a great practical step forward in that fairness, but left a lot to be desired, and the problems have necessarily grown worse since its adoption. Further, by continuing to be based on the property tax, even with income sensitivity, it is a distorted, inefficient, and expensive system. Educational funding is a state responsibility that should be based on taxpayer ability to pay, and that means primarily the income tax. Even with Act 60, the massive shift onto the property tax over the years hurts the majority of working Vermonters and pits them against the schools. I will continue to work to shift educational cost from the property tax to the income tax.

______

District Consolidation: Supporting Vermont Communities

Just about every five years over many decades, state-level policymakers have tried to cajole or require the elimination of town-based school districts in favor of about 50-60 consolidated school districts. Every five years, the twin promises of consolidation are reduced costs and increased learning opportunities, but the evidence from states that have "consolidated" or "centralized" shows neither promise fulfilled. And every five years, forced consolidation is rebuffed by Vermont's local communities. Besides missing the mark about efficiency and opportunity, Montpelier overlooks something fundamental about Vermont: Vermonters cherish community, the capacity to elect and hold accountable locally elected school officials, and the accompanying opportunities for civic engagement. Every five years, because the State focuses on "governance" consolidation, we miss the opportunity to address less global, more discrete matters that would improve the quality of our school systems. A few basic examples: making the job of superintendent doable, making the position of principal attractive, making the professional needs of educators paramount, helping communities with increasingly small schools plan their future, using the regulatory process and technology to ensure breadth of learning opportunities, all so that the adults can really focus their complete attention on the needs of all our children. Vermont-NEA believes the current school governance system, despite certain flaws, serves an overriding Vermont value and that the State should focus instead on discrete matters that would improve the quality of our school systems and our communities.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On district consolidation, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on district consolidation?
I agree very closely with the expression of this issue above, particularly with the missed opportunities associated with this recurring theme. My position is that the assumed benefits of consolidation aregenerally unproven, and this focus is off-the-mark. I do support the state helping, with technical and/or financial support, voluntary locally-driven consolidation efforts where benefits are clearly indicated. ______

Equal Opportunity for All School Children

Providing actual equal opportunities for all schoolchildren is important. It just is not somethingthat simply happens by consolidating the structure of school systems. Generally,schoolchildren in Vermont perform better than just about anywhere else. Report after reportconfirms we are doing well by them: Vermont's schoolchildren are among the smartest,happiest, healthiest, and safest in the United States. The general, however, masks thespecific, here and across the nation: students from lower income households, for all ourefforts to spread education resources equitably, typically do not keep up with their better offpeers. While the achievement gap in Vermont is less pronounced than elsewhere, it is andremains the most difficult and intractable problem for us to address as an educationcommunity. While it is a primary focus in our schools, and while a good education remains anessential way out of poverty, we cannot legitimately pretend children are somehow magicallycapable of shedding their socioeconomic conditions at the schoolhouse door. To be "ready tolearn" once through that door, all schoolchildren must have a roof over their heads, food intheir bellies, and security in their daily lives. Vermont-NEA believes the state should engage in constant effort to address the effects poverty has in our schools by constant attention to social programs and fiscal policies that diminish poverty in our communities.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On equal opportunity, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on equal opportunity?
Those state efforts of course need to be integrated as necessary with school activities and programs, with input from VT-NEA. ______

Teaching Career: Recruiting and Retaining New Teachers

Too many teachers new to the profession leave it within a short period. That speaks volumesabout the difficulties new teachers face, and it masks untold millions of dollars wasted inpreparing young professionals for a career almost half of them abandon in short order. Thereare proven ways usefully to address this public issue. They include providing each newteacher respectful compensation, ensuring professional mentoring for two years at the startof her career, helping with teachers' own student debt, extending the period of requiredstudent teaching, limiting the range of non-teaching duties for new teachers, ensuringmanageable class sizes for new teachers, and providing useful training for all teachersregarding special needs students. Vermont-NEA believes the most important education policy matter our State faces is to make teaching sufficiently attractive to highcaliber young professionals both before entering and during their initial years intheir own classrooms, and the State should address this issue by investing inproven ways of helping young professionals.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On recruiting new teachers, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on recruiting new teachers?
I’ve seen both sides of this phenomenon in my family – one who left being an educator after a full preparation, and one who came to the profession later, and loves being a teacher. It is axiomatic that quality teachers are our central need, and that proven methods for encouraging and securing them should be our main focus. I expect that some of these can also be highly cost-effective.

______

Common Core: Proper Implementation Necessary

Vermont is among the many states that have adopted the "Common Core," nationalstandards that purport to ready students for college and career. Like so many "new"approaches to education over the decades, the potential for success of the Common Corewill be determined by how well the state chooses to implement it. If teachers are providedadequate training, materials, and the time they need in which to develop new curricula and trythem out, our students will succeed under it. Accompanying the shift to Common Core is anew system of standardized testing requiring up to date technology in every school. If thestate merely directs school districts to implement the Common Core without providingadequate training, materials, and time, nothing much will change, except that student scoreson the new tests will drop. Some states taking Common Core seriously are devotingsignificant new dollars to schools, to provide the technology needed, the training needed, andthe time needed. Vermont-NEA believes the state of Vermont should invest sufficiently in the Common Core to ensure that its implementation is smooth, of high quality, and, most importantly, helpful to our children.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On Common Core, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on Common Core?
As with any change of this magnitude, we need to create an effective feedback loop so that teachers and others can play a key role in improving the new system as we work out kinks and limitations. I have begun to read some of the information on the NEA website, and am interested in VT-NEA’s proposal fortargeting the state’s support forthis implementation.

______

Retirement Security

More than one-third of American retirees lived in poverty as recently as a half-century ago.Social Security and Medicare, along with pensions, dramatically reduced that horrifyingstatistic. State policy has become an increasingly important tool to address the retirementsecurity of its citizens.

a. Policy Commitment to Teachers.In 2010 and 2014, Vermont-NEA reached historicagreements with the State protecting the fiscal security of the State Teachers' RetirementSystem, saving taxpayers more than $1 billion over the course of the next couple of decadesor so (Vermont-NEA and the State reached quieter agreements protecting the MunicipalEmployees' Retirement System.) Vermont's teachers are paying more and working more fortheir retirement. During the prior two decades, the State annually and routinely underfundedthe Teachers' Retirement System by millions, sometimes tens of millions, of dollars. TheState has met its full funding commitment to this system for each of the past 7 years.Vermont-NEA believes the State must continue to meet its annual funding commitment to the State Teachers' Retirement System.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On retirement security for teachers, do you

Agree

Disagree

Don’t Know

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

Anything you want to add on retirement security for teachers?
Now that we are on a path to getting in sync, we must never fall behind again. Political leaders have to resist the urge that created the problem.

______

Retirement Security

b. Policy Commitment to All Vermonters.The retirement security of all workers is a majorpublic policy imperative. 401(k) and similar financial devices were originally designed tosupplement both Social Security and pensions. In recent years, many employers have merelyabandoned offering pensions as part of employees' compensation, leaving employees totheir own devices, thereby increasing rather than addressing the insecurity so many feel asthey approach retirement. Vermont-NEA believes the State should develop ways to improve retirement security for all Vermonters.

Vermont-NEA Candidate Questionnaire - 1

On retirement security for all Vermonters, do you