Press Release: Williams, Piccola Unveil School Choice Plan/Inky:Rendell assails proposed school-voucher plan/School-choice proposal on Pennsylvania Senate fast track/NSBA letter to Congress: Fix ESEA, investigate federal overreach of power/Ravitch at FRN

Senator Piccola Press Release Jan. 11^th, 2011

Williams and Piccola Unveil School Choice Plan

HARRISBURG - Calling school choice "the civil rights movement of this century," state Sens. Anthony H. Williams (D-Philadelphia) and Jeffrey E. Piccola (R-Dauphin and York) announced the details of a highly anticipated "opportunity scholarship" plan today targeting the Commonwealth's worst schools and most impoverished families

http://piccola.org/press/2011/0111/011111-school-choice.htm

List of 144 schools where students would be eligible for vouchers in year 1

 

Inquirer January 12, 2011

Rendell assails proposed school-voucher plan

By Dan Hardy, Inquirer Staff Writer

Gov. Rendell urged his successor Tuesday to not cut education spending in the state's next budget, and came out against a proposed voucher program that would help low-income students from low-performing schools attend either private schools or public schools in other districts.

After touting Pennsylvania's  top-10 national ranking in a report released Tuesday by Education Week, Rendell said at a news conference that there were "going to have to be [state budget] cuts next year, and those cuts are going to be painful."

Read more: Rendell_assails_proposed_school-voucher_plan 

School-choice proposal will be on Pennsylvania Senate fast track

By Jan Murphy, Patriot-News, Published: Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 12:21 AM

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/01/school-choice_proposal_will_be.html

NSBA School Board News Jan. 11, 2011

NSBA letter to Congress: Fix ESEA, investigate federal overreach of power

http://schoolboardnews.nsba.org/2011/01/nsba-to-congress-fix-esea-investigate-federal-overreach-of-power/

View Jan. 7^th Letter to Congress

NSBA has also announced that Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education at New York University, a historian of education and noted author will share her thoughts on the direction of public education and where we are in the historical context of education during the FRN Conference in Washington, DC, Feb. 6-8.