Lobbyists Push Testing and Test Prep Subsidies

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

Behind-the-scenes look at one way the testing industry creates markets 
for its products.

EDUCATION BILL COULD FUND HIDDEN CONTRACT

Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader -- February 2, 2008
by Linda Blackford

If both houses of the General Assembly pass Senate Bill 2, it will 
attempt to help thousands more Kentucky students take Advanced Placement 
classes, college-level courses and tests that can earn high school 
students college credit.

The AP tests that are mandated in the bill would cost the state roughly 
$2.5 million. That money would go to the College Board, the 
not-for-profit company that provides AP course certification and exams.

Representing the College Board in meetings with legislators for the past 
two years have been lobbyist Hunter Bates and his associates, whom the 
College Board has paid roughly $80,000 since 2006.

Bates' group, Commonwealth Associates, has another client that might 
also benefit from S.B. 2.

Prepme Inc. is a private company that offers online preparation programs 
for both the ACT and SAT college entry tests. Tucked deep in S.B. 2's 56 
pages is a small paragraph that orders the Kentucky Department of 
Education to contract with an online test preparation company to help 
students prepare for the ACT.

Prepme Inc. is not specifically named as the company, but Bates' 
partner, John Y. Brown III, says he worked to get the wording included 
because he thinks statewide test preparation would help level the 
educational playing field, whether or not Prepme gets the statewide 
contract.

But that language and the bill's overall leaning toward a specific 
company still bother some legislators who question whether lobbyists and 
individual companies should have so much influence over education 
legislation, pushing the state into specific contracts with designated 
companies.

"I think we need to wrestle with this," said Rep. Frank Rasche, 
D-Paducah, chairman of the House Education Committee. "Every time we 
specify these things, we're locking ourselves in and losing our 
bargaining power."

Senate Bill 2 also specifies funds for International Baccalaureate 
classes, which are college-level testing programs. But the IB program is 
barely a presence in Kentucky. In 2007, 13,246 Kentucky students took 
the AP test. Only four public high schools statewide (including Tates 
Creek High School in Lexington) offered IB classes.

Bates, the former chief of staff for Sen. Mitch McConnell who is also 
the chairman of the Eastern Kentucky University Board of Regents, has 
been successful getting his clients into legislation. In the closed-door 
meetings leading up to the final 2006 budget, legislators provided $2 
million to I Can Learn, a controversial computerized math remediation 
company that Bates represented.

SB 2 is not the first bill to mandate that certain companies be hired in 
Kentucky schools. Last year, the General Assembly mandated every 
eighth-grader, 10th-grader and 11th-grader take one in a series of tests 
produced by ACT Inc. ACT is the main test used in Kentucky to predict 
college success, but it used to be taken only by college-bound juniors 
and seniors at their own expense. That company has been represented by 
former Lexington mayoral candidate Scott Crosbie.

Bates said it would be one thing if SB 2 were trying to present programs 
that are offered by a multitude of companies.

"It's another situation when you have companies that have a very unique 
niche or expertise that offers the state clear value," he said, as the 
AP courses and exams do.

But while AP is widely agreed to be one of the most reputable college 
prep programs in the country, "you don't want education policy to be 
worked out based on a contractor's pitch or a lobbyist's pitch," said 
Bob Sexton of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence. "You want 
it based on what's best for kids."

When students take the courses such as AP and IB, and do well on the 
tests, they can earn college credit. The bill would also provide funding 
for better teacher training and student achievement in the crucial areas 
of math and science.

SB 2 sailed through the Senate and could come up in front of the House 
Education Committee as early as this week. Its future is unclear, not 
because of the contracts, but because the state's severe budget crisis 
is curtailing most non-essential education spending.

An amendment offered by Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, that would 
have paid for the test for only low-income students was defeated. 
Currently, students pay for the tests -- about $84 per test; $54 for 
low-income students -- themselves.

Many other states offer financial help for low-income students on AP 
tests. Four -- Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota and South Carolina -- pay 
for all students.

Others worry why the state is adding more tests when it already has a 
comprehensive statewide testing system.

Last year, S.B. 130 mandated three tests from the ACT at a cost of about 
$1.4 million; SB 2 would add the expense of an online ACT preparation 
company as well. Brown said Prepme would probably bring a $35 million 
value for about $500,000.

"This strikes me as rather problematic because it bypasses all the input 
structures," such as Kentucky's national testing advisory board, said 
Susan Weston, a school council consultant and testing expert. In 
addition, Weston said, some people are concerned about a possible push 
to replace Kentucky's state high school test with the ACT.

"I hear a lot of fear that there's an effort going on to have ACT 
replace Kentucky's state high school test," Weston said. "Since ACT 
doesn't measure our Core Content or our goals for students, I don't see 
how that could work."

Shaughnessy said he thinks the math and science piece of SB 2 is very 
worthy. But the bill would pay for every AP test, not just the 25 
percent devoted to math and science subjects.

Shaughnessy said he was concerned because when SB 2 was discussed on the 
Senate floor, there was no discussion of any online test prep company 
contracts. In addition, he said, he was surprised that the College Board 
-- a highly reputable company -- would need to pay Bates and his 
colleagues $80,000 when the program speaks for itself.

"To me, that's a waste of money," he said.

Linda Owens, director of government relations for the College Board's 
southern region, said because the College Board works in so many states, 
it needs local assistance with pending legislation.

"It's people on the ground who better understand the local context," she 
said.

    http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/306567.html