Issue Briefs

Issue Brief: Medicaid Administrative Activities and related payments for school-based services
At Issue: President Bush has repeatedly recommended eliminating Medicaid reimbursement of school-based administration costs for services to Medicaid-eligible students, which can include outreach for enrollment purposes, transporting students to and from school, and the coordinating or monitoring of medical care. In California, this equates to approximately $8 million for transportation services and $95 million for administrative activities.
It’s a complicated situation: Although new federal rules eliminate federal reimbursement for certain outreach and program planning activities, there is also legislation pending in Congress that would put a moratorium on the reimbursement ban until 2009.

CSBA’s position: CSBA opposes any efforts to eliminate Medicaid reimbursement for school-based administration and transportation costs. School districts should not be treated differently than health clinics and should be guaranteed reimbursement for covered services to Medicaid-eligible children.

What California needs: Schools that serve special education students need and are entitled to reimbursement for school-based administration and transportation costs under Medicaid. CSBA strongly urges all members of Congress to co-sponsor legislation to codify school districts’ authority to claim school-based Medicaid expenses. 

Issue Brief: No Child Left Behind
At Issue: Enacted in 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act requires all students to be proficient on state standards by 2014 and enforces strict interventions for schools and districts that fail to make “adequate yearly progress” toward that goal. NCLB also requires schools to ensure a 95 percent participation rate of students on the state’s test. While CSBA strongly supports standards, assessment and accountability for the state’s public schools, it is evident that the definition of AYP under the federal system will ultimately result in all schools and districts failing to achieve proficiency by 2014 because it establishes a criterion that is statistically impossible to reach. This will subject schools to onerous and potentially expensive sanctions and deprive those most in need of assistance of the resources they require. After six years of implementation, it’s clear that many of NCLB’s requirements are unrealistic and have unintended consequences that hurt children and schools.

CSBA’s position: CSBA’s Fix NCLB campaign has been a vital resource for key messages, talking points and advocacy tips that school governance teams can use in their local communities to engage and educate parents, teachers, community leaders and lawmakers on the pitfalls of NCLB — and most importantly, how it can be fixed to ensure that it achieves the laudable goals it was created to meet.
What California needs: Any discussion must begin with full funding to help schools meet mandates. Other needs include:
• local control and flexibility to deal with the unique needs of California students, a quarter  of whom are English learners
• multiple measures to calculate AYP, including rates at which students are improving
• rules that do not require teachers in rural districts, who often must teach multiple subjects, to have an academic degree in each subject they teach
• recognition that NCLB forces a focus on English and math, but that children also need instruction in foreign languages, art, music, physical education history and other subjects

Related link:
Read more about CSBA’s position on NCLB @ www.csba.org/EducationIssues/EducationIssues/NCLB.aspx

Issue Brief: Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act
At Issue: The federal government has a longstanding obligation to compensate communities that lost millions of dollars in logging revenue when the government stopped timber harvests in huge forest tracts set aside as national parks and preserves. The Bush administration has tried on numerous occasions to eliminate this critical federal compensation, but Congress has refused to kill the program. The funds help rural communities pay for roads, school buses and other essential services, and they can amount to a major share of some school districts’ budgets . However, rural advocates have had to fight for funding every year because Congress has continued the program only on a stopgap basis, making it almost impossible for these communities to plan for the future.

CSBA’s position: It’s crucial that Congress authorize a multiyear extension of the Rural Schools Act. Members of Congress must not abandon their obligation—arising from a precedent going back more than a century—to protect the U.S. National Forest counties from economic devastation. 

What California needs: We need reauthorization of the Secure Rural Schools and Communities Act. Failing that, CSBA strongly urges Congress to include at least a one-year extension of the Secure Rural School and Communities Act in the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations bill this year and continue working toward long-term reauthorization.

Issue Brief: State Children’s Health Insurance Program
At Issue: The Bush administration is attempting to eliminate thousands of children from SCHIP—the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a directive to state Medicaid directors last Aug. 17 that imposes daunting new requirements on states like California that have opted to extend coverage to children whose parents earn 250 percent of the federal poverty level, about $44,000 for a family of three. In California, the Aug. 17 directive would cut 34,000 children from the program. Children’s advocates say the directive has already taken a significant toll on states’ efforts to cover children at the very time the number of uninsured children is on the rise.
CSBA’s position: Children need to be healthy in order to learn and thrive in school. SCHIP needs to be expanded, not restricted, in order to help reach children whose families earn too much to qualify them for Medi-Cal, do not have access to insurance through their employers, and cannot afford to pay for insurance themselves. Having medical insurance will help ensure timely medical care for children who suffer from chronic conditions such as asthma or diabetes or who suffer from infection.
What California needs: CSBA supports efforts to expand SCHIP eligibility requirements to ensure that more children have access to medical care. CSBA opposes any efforts to decrease funding for SCHIP, opposes the government’s Aug. 17 directive, and opposes all other efforts to make it more difficult for poor and moderate-income children to get health insurance.