A letter from Jack Wright

Dear WACAC,

Back in 1984-86, I was the WACAC President and with the help of the counseling and admissions community, LAUSD moved forward to have a full time counselor in each of the districts high schools. It was a major move that greatly benefited students and post secondary institutions.

Today, with the major cuts LAUSD is proposing, the FUNDING for the position of COLLEGE COUNSELOR has been ELIMINATED this current year and next fall as well. The district thinks that the traditional counselors can assume the responsibilities without any detrimental impact on access of the students. With other proposed counselor curtailments, It is projected that the student/counselor load will be 700 to 800 students per counselor. As usual, the district is passing the discretion on to the individual principal to determine the total staffing configuration in each high school.

The board of WACAC has a responsibility to step up to the plate and let it be known that this move to compromise the position of College Counselor will greatly endanger the opportunities of all the students, especially those who live in underserved, first generation immigrant low income communities.

These students have NO VOICE! It is up to us to express the important fundamentals of ACCESS that focus on our high school college counselors and students. Please forward this message to those who can take immediate action.

Sincerely,
Jack L. Wright

All WACAC Members Invited - NCAN and collegebound students of California and the southwest need you!

This came in as an email to one of our

My name is Shameek Robinson and I am the Statewide Network Coordinator at the National College Access Network (NCAN – www.collegeaccess.org)

As a first generation college graduate, I’ve worked in college access over the past decade with underrepresented populations and communities. As a NACAC member, I’m reaching out to you to ask your help and participation as I continue that work with NCAN building college access networks in California and other Southwest states!

NCAN is holding four regional meetings over the next 6 weeks in different parts of the country to gather professionals from the arena of college access to discuss the topics of Policy, Advocacy, and Networking. More information can be found by visiting this website - http://www.collegeaccess.org/2011regional.aspx.

I am working on planning and attending two of the four meetings, and am specifically asking for your assistance and support with members in the southwest region for NCAN’s Albuquerque Regional meeting on April 6th. College access professionals from California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, are invited to attend.

In addition to inviting you to attend this particular event, I need your help to invite WACAC members to the regional meeting as well. Specifically, I am inviting you as a NACAC, WACAC, and College Board staff member, to NCAN’s Regional meeting in Albuquerque. I’m also requesting that you share this invitation with WACAC and it’s members.

H.R. 1 - Kati Swanson

http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/ImpactofHouseFY11SpendingCuts.pdf

Hi all,

You may have seen the Action Alert ASCA blasted out yesterday. I just wanted to give you some background information on H.R. 1.

On Feb. 19th, the House Majority passed H.R. 1. This Resolution would cut education by $10.6 billion or 15.3%, and unprecedented amount. In addition to several competitive grant programs, many formula-funded programs (like IDEA and Title I) would also take a very big hit. ASCA has been making the rounds with the Senate staff to let them know that H.R. 1 would be catastrophic to our nation's schools as well as meeting with House staff to voice our displeasure with the passage of H.R. 1. The Senate, which is still controlled by the Democrats, is not expected to pass H.R. 1 as it is currently written so we're working hard on the Senate to restore as much funding as possible to each of these meaningful programs.

H.R. 1 would eliminate the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program (ESSCP). While we certainly don't won't this program eliminated, if it were to be cut it would not be the end of the profession as we know it. In fact, most school counselors out there won't even know that the federal funding has been cut. A majority of school counselors are funded through district/county and sate funding. Some counselors are funded through federal dollars - and you would probably know if you were one of them (some people are funded or .5 of their position is funded through title 1 dollars, for instance). Even fewer are funded through the Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program (ESSCP) - and you would definitely know if you fall into this category. The ESSCP is a competitive grant program that your district would have had to apply for and win. It is a 3-year continuation grant (meaning if your district won the grant 2 years ago then you still need this program to be funded for the third year). NEA estimates, that if the ESSCP were completely eliminated, approximately 625 counseling jobs would be cut - and those aren't all school counselors as school social workers and school psychologists can be hired from that program as well. To put it in perspective there were approximately 105,000 school counselors in the 2008-2009 school year. That said, we don't want to see 1 school counseling job lost so it is important that we work together to fight HR 1. In addition, as previously mentioned, there are other proposed cuts to education that may certainly impact how your building operates - or how school counseling is funded. Many states use Perkins money (which has been cut) to fund portions of their state school counseling initiatives, services to special education would be reduced drastically and college access to our neediest students would be severely cut.

The reality is that the federal investment on education is already very low. It is estimated that less than 10% of any schools budget will come from the federal government - leaving 90% of the funding up to state and local funding sources. As we know, many of our states are also in a budget deficit so I would encourage everyone to become very active with your state school counselor association because that will impact your job security the most!

Also, I wanted to make everyone aware that ASCA has been working to combat HR 1 for the past several weeks. It was the first resolution introduced by the House this Congress and we've been making Hill visits and reaching out to both House and Senate members to voice our concerns about all of these cuts to education, specifically the ESSCP. Also, ASCA is a member of the Committee for Education Funding (CEF) which is a coalition of over 85 organizations that work year round to increase the federal investment on education. With the work of CEF, ASCA is present at every budget hearing, appropriations meeting and one-on-one Hill visit to ask questions, raise awareness and educate lawmakers about the real life work educators are doing every day in our nation's schools - including the role of the school counselor and the impact each of you has on our students.

-Kati Swanson

Announcing the Call for Volunteers for NACAC Committee Service

VISIT HERE

"Applications are now being accepted for committee service positions. Committee service is an opportunity to help NACAC serve both the profession and students more effectively, and members who have served on national committees will attest to the professional and personal rewards of this leadership experience. Read the full announcement in the February 2nd NACAC Bulletin.

The deadline for submitting your volunteer forms and supporting documents is March 15, 2011. If you are interested in applying for committee service work, please review the Committee Service Guidelines and Volunteer Forms below.

Please note that the NACAC Board of Directors is continuing to review the effectiveness of the committee structure and committee members may be involved in the discussion adn evolution of their own committees."

-From NACAC website

VISIT HERE

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You want to participate in the Montana Counselor Tour!

"One of the best tours I have attended: organized, professional, eye opening, and helpful to my school and me."  -2010 Montana Counselor Tour participant comment 

"Like many, I have dismissed Montana out of hand as great college resources. No excuses. Just an apology! The Tour was a top-notch experience-being both professionally enriching and personally enjoyable.  Not only did I leave with an excellent understanding of the educational opportunities at the four schools but with rich appreciation for the influence of culture, history and natural resources in the region. This tour was exceptionally well organized. And in the true spirit of Montana culture, it provided refreshing balance between work and play through integration of the pre-tour and post-tour activities. As a veteran counselor who has visited many college campuses, I highly recommend this tour to all counselors who are helping students to achieve good fits in their college choices. "  -2009 Montana Counselor Tour participant comment 

It's not too late! There are still some seats available on the 2011 Tour

When:        July 18-22, 2011

Pre-Tour July 17 to Flathead Lake and the Mission Valley
Post-Tour July 23 to Yellowstone National Park

Where:     Four Colleges and Universities

The University of Montana, Missoula
Carroll College, Helena
Montana Tech, Butte
Montana State University, Bozeman

Cost:          $150 per counselor includes accommodations, meals and bus transportation during tour

Participants responsible for travel costs to and from Montana
Limited seats for guests ($300 registration fee for each guest)

Apply today!
(http://www.montana.edu/admissions/counselortour/)

Contact Shannon Marr

Tour Coordinator

montanatour@bresnan.net

(406) 788-7431