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 MEAP
Accreditation Waiver OK'd by House Panel
Gongwer News Service, December 2, 2003
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A House panel
approved a bill Tuesday to waive accreditation scores for public
schools whose Michigan Educational Assessment Program answer
sheets were lost by the state or a state contractor.
A number of schools in the state did not get their winter 2002
MEAP scores on several subjects because all or some of the tests
were lost. If the lack of the grade would mean the school would
fail to meet the federally required adequate yearly progress,
then the Department of Education would have to request a waiver
for that school from the requirements.
"The motivation (of the bill) is to bring relief, or at least no
more harm, to students affected by the loss of MEAP scores,"
said Kelly Bartlett, aide to SB 787 sponsor Sen. Bill Hardiman
(R-Kentwood). Mr. Bartlett said there was quite a bit of
interest in the loss of scores in the Grand Rapids area.
As unanimously reported by the House Education Committee, the
bill would prohibit the Department of Education from assigning
an accreditation score or school report card grade to a district
with 25 percent or more of its answer sheets missing. The
department would be prohibited from including the pupils whose
answer sheets were lost in accrediting districts with less than
25 percent missing.
The panel also heard testimony on HB 5310, a bill to amend the
Third Party Administrator Act by adding a new section requiring
a claims history to be provided to the public school employer if
the sponsor of the benefit plan is a public school employer.
The bill exempts the release of claims data of public school
employees from the confidentiality provisions in existing law,
in the hopes that money would be saved through competitive
health benefit rates offered by other insurance companies.
About 50 percent of public school employees are covered by the
Michigan Education Special Services Association, a non-profit,
third party administrator to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan,
established by the Michigan Education Association.
Opponents say the legislation threatens the confidentiality of
the protected health information of individual employees,
allowing insurers to "cherry pick" school districts with younger
and healthier employees, leaving districts with veteran
employees to pick up heavier costs.
Sponsor Rep. Barb Vander Veen (R-Allendale) said the motivation
behind the bill is to bring money to put in school systems to
help students during the budget cuts, and the legislation would
untie administrators' hands so competitors could attempt to
underwrite current benefit costs.
"We need to exhaust every avenue we can exhaust looking for
money to put in our school systems to help students," Ms. Vander
Veen told the panel. "We are not talking about taking away any
of our teachers' health care benefits."
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