The Senate Education Committee has passed Senate Bill 76, but some amendments will advance with the measure. The committee heard testimony concerning Education Service Agencies earlier this week, but waited until Thursday to speak with the Department of Education before deciding to pass or kill the bill. DOE Secretary Melody Schopp says the department isn’t taking a stance on this bill that would create funding for ESA’s. The agencies were created in 2004 to provide professional development for teachers, but lost funding in 2010 following budget cuts. Schopp says just because there’s a statute for the ESA’s doesn’t mean they’re part of the DOE.
“They’re not part of us, that’s why they’re called Education Service Agencies, they’re outside of the Department of Education. The oversight for the ESA’s fell, previously, within the Department of Education when we had the funding. They did, we directed some of the services that they did, so they were co-ops. We had oversight over them as far as the types of services we requested from them, they were allowed then also to set their own mission and determine how they could best service the schools. But they don’t reside in the department, they’re a branch of that that serve and really support the work that we’re doing,” Schopp says.
Schopp says if money is not appropriated to the programs that fall under the Department of Education, there isn’t much that can be done. The two amendments added make the agencies apply for matching funding from the DOE once other money is obtained, and lower the bill’s asking amount from $500,000 to $150,000 now that matching funds are added. Senator Deb Soholt says she’s in favor of the bill in a lukewarm way.
“It seems as though the ESA’s have a place to play in the state. What I’m concerned about, and as amended it gives us a vehicle to have an on-going conversation versus having them die a slow death over this next year from lack of funding, but I think in relationship to concept, for anything further that we might do in another year would like to see them come together with goals that are directly related to the Department of Education with, you know, a plan versus it’s just a nice idea for our state and funding that doesn’t necessarily get us to the outcome that we’re looking for.”
Soholt says she wants to understand the mission of the ESA’s and see more statistics of their successes in the coming years. The bill will next move to the Senate floor.