With the 2014 legislative session winding down, a number of issues are yet to be finalized. Proposals that were modified from their original version and subsequently approved in the second house are eligible for a conference committee. Below, read where a number of issues are heading into session’s final days.

What’s a conference committee?>>

High school student athletes would be required to be removed from play because of a suspected concussion or head injury for at least 24 hours under Senate Bill (SB) 222. Current law stipulates that a student athlete may not return to play until the athlete has been evaluated by, and has received written clearance from, a licensed and properly trained health care provider. Under the bill, athletes suffering head injuries would also have to sit out the required 24 hours. Additionally, the legislation would require high school and youth football coaches to take concussion awareness courses at least once every two years beginning July 1, 2014. The bill also stipulates, except in cases of gross negligence, that a coach who completes the required coaching certification training would not be held personally liable if an athlete under the coach’s supervision suffers a concussion or head injury. Some concerns about the bill center round the cost of the program and who would pay. The National Federation of High School Associations certification program is available on-line for a $10 fee. USA Football also has a certification program consisting of two levels. Level 1 costs $25, which includes membership in USA Football. Level 2 consists of age-specific courses for ages 6 to 14 and the cost is $10 per course. According to a USA Football spokesman who testified on behalf of the bill, the money would be used to build the infrastructure of the online education course. USA Football also includes training for “Heads Up Football,” a national initiative supported by the NFL and more than two dozen other entities to promote safety. A conference committee will attempt to negotiate a compromise on differences between the House and Senate-passed versions of the bill.

Joe Bower, a school leader in Canada, joined us in Austin for the first national conference of the Network for Public Education.

Here are his reactions:

I spent the weekend in Austin, Texas at the first Network for Public Education (NPE) and it was fantastic. You can find my day 1 post here and my day 2 post here.

Here are 3 things I learned from The Network for Public Education Conference:

At the conclusion of its first annual conference, the Network for Public Education announced a call for Congressional hearings on testing:

NPE Calls for Congressional Hearings – Full Text

March 2, 2014 NPE News

A teacher writes:

“Diane, I am a special education teacher in Eastern NC. I have taught in some wonderful schools in Buffalo, NY and Richmond VA before coming down here to open my doors to foster children who are involved with the juvenile justice and mental health departments. My teaching role is to work with self contained students with behavior issues.I feel I am a humble person who doesn’t toot their horn much but I will say I have been proud of being involved in more miraculous reclaiming of youth than setbacks. I pay close attention to the politics involved in my former states. Both North Carolina and New York, politically are on opposite ends of the spectrum. However both states, and I’m sure many others, are clearly trying to destroy public education as we know it for the sake of publicly sponsored charter schools, many of whom are owned by huge conglomerates, many invested in by Middle Eastern oil barrens among others. They are doing this by driving out public school teachers to replace with unlicensed, inexperienced teachers in the Charter system and Teach for America. They are doing this by taking the caps off class sizes, and not investing in the buildings and school supplies. They are doing this by forcing a terrible curriculum down our throats on purpose in hopes the parents complain to their local administrators instead of the politicians and policy makers. I am sure I am not saying anything Diane Ravitch has not said before but it is frustrating because I am witnessing all of this happening before my eyes. I push into regular ed classes that have over 40 students in them, we haven’t had new teaching materials or textbooks since the 1990′s and we’re supposed to teach to this new curriculum. There is a feeling classes like social studies will be a thing of the past since it doesn’t translate to national test scores or the Common Core. Our teachers are no longer rewarded for having Masters degrees, we’ve had only a 1% raise in 6 years, and kids in class have no basic writing materials like pencils and notebooks because their parents won’t supply them, the school won’t supply them and teacher won’t pay out if their pocket for them. States up north are fortunate to have unions to slow this stuff down. Our state does not. It seems to me this plan of ultra reform will probably happen first in North Carolina. Parents need to get outraged and voice their displeasure. We all need to march on our state capitals and use our first amendment rights as best we can. We need to become political activists for the first time in some of our lives. We need to express that this is not a Democrat thing or a Republican thing, its the Constitutional right to a free and public education. We also need to expose the ultra rich individuals who are putting their funding and resources into these policies of evil reform.”

A teacher describes the incessant arrival and departure of vendors, each with a different program and remedies:

“From what I noticed as a teacher, the extra money given to the low performing schools was used to pay VENDORS. Our school district paid some company to come in and “help” the teachers. The guy walked around a lot, then hired people from all over the US. My “helper” came to MI all the way from Vermont. She probably made more than me and her plane fare and hotel was paid.
We got a new Algebra program called Carnegie. I went to training for 2 weeks and then once a month. After two years, all the trained teachers were gone. I was the only one left. Then that was abandoned and we got the TI-inspire calculators. I was trained on that and loved it. After all the training, they sent me to an elementary school. I noticed the teacher had the calculators but not the laptop and router that is part of it.

“Now they had me teaching reading and we had 2-3 reading programs going on at once and vendors running all over the schools having meetings. We bought thousands of books and then the school was taken over by the EAA. (Check that state school takeover out).

“My point is that the vendors are making promises and they get money and the kids are the guinea pigs.”

Just hours after last weekend’s ouster of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, one of Pierre Omidyar’s newest hires at national security blog “