RFA Contributes to Discourse on Vouchers/Inky: Many area school districts without contracts/PA House Standing Committee Assignments Announced/PR Newswire: National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Releases Annual Ranking of State Charter Laws

RFA Contributes to Discourse on Educational Vouchers

Posted by Briana Pressey on Jan 19, 2011

Research for Action e-news:

As you are well aware, educational vouchers have come to the forefront of policy priorities in Pennsylvania recently. State Senators Jeffrey Piccola and Anthony Williams are set to introduce Senate Bill 1, a bipartisan-supported measure that would dramatically expand the role of educational vouchers as a school reform strategy. Pennsylvania’s new governor, Tom Corbett, has also signaled his intent to support vouchers. To be sure, Pennsylvania’s policy decisions on this issue will have significant implications on school districts across our state.

Research for Action strives to produce timely, relevant research and analysis focused on enduring and emerging educational reform issues.  As such, we produced a briefing paper – Questions and Answers about Educational Vouchers: Facts, Figures, and a Summary of the Research – to enrich the policy and legislative dialogue about this critical issue.

http://www.researchforaction.org/2011/01/19/rfa-contributes-to-discourse-on-educational-vouchers/

Posted on Wed, Jan. 19, 2011

Many area school districts without contracts

By Dan Hardy

Inquirer Staff Writer

As the school year nears its halfway point, more than one in five school districts in Philadelphia's Pennsylvania suburbs remain without teacher contracts.

Thirteen of the 63 districts lack agreements, with talks in two of them dragging on for more than a year. Many show little sign of movement; teachers are working under the terms of their last settlements.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/education/20110119_Many_area_school_districts_without_contracts.html#ixzz1BW3dC5AR

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Releases Annual Ranking of State Charter Laws

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/  

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) today released its second annual report which ranks the nation's charter school laws from the strongest to the weakest.  Measuring Up to the Model: A Ranking of State Public Charter School Laws analyzes the country's 41 state charter laws and scores how well each supports charter school quality and growth based on the 20 essential components from the NAPCS' model charter school law.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-alliance-for-public-charter-schools-releases-annual-ranking-of-state-charter-laws-race-to-the-top-helped-some-states-improve-114202959.html

State Specific report for Pennsylvania:

http://www.publiccharters.org/charterlaws/state/PA