U.S. education chief lauds city schools

By Jodi Weigand, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, September 1, 2011

School districts nationwide should follow the lead of the Pittsburgh Public Schools in initiatives to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said.

"I think you've seen real creativity and people moving out of their comfort zones," said Duncan of the city schools. He plans to meet on Wednesday with Pittsburgh school officials and Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers representatives to talk about how the two groups collaborated.

Follow-up to yesterday's posting on Parental Involvement

In response to yesterday's posting the National PTA 6 Standards for Parent Involvement were recommended to us as a good resource:

http://www.pta.org/National_Standards_Assessment_Guide.pdf;

http://www.pta.org/Documents/National_Standards_Implementation_Guide_2009.pdf.

Does this sound familiar? In PA, major GOP donor and charter operator Vahan Gureghian's Charter School Management Company has been withholding similar information about how millions in public funds are used….

Ohio Judge tells charter-school company to open books

White Hat must reveal how public funds are used

By Catherine Candisky, The Columbus Dispatch Thursday August 4, 2011 11:50 PM

A Franklin County judge ordered major GOP donor and charter-school operator David L. Brennan to turn over a detailed accounting of how his for-profit management company spends the millions of tax dollars it receives each year.

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2011/08/04/judge-tells-charter-school-company-to-open-books.html

Follow the Money: Contributions by Vahan Gureghian 1/1/07 - 5/31/11

http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/06/follow-money-contributions-by-vahan.html

Here's a bit of background on the backers of the pro-voucher Students First PAC that has poured over $6 million into political contributions.

Beating the Odds

Philadelphia Magazine By Robert Huber, Posted on September 2009

Jeff Yass was always a little different from his peers — a brilliant young man taken with poker and horse racing and the power of rational decision-making. He's used all of it to turn his company — Bala Cynwyd's stealthy and mysterious Susquehanna International — into one of the world's most lucrative and powerful financial firms

http://www.phillymag.com/articles/beating_the_odds/

Follow the StudentsFirst PAC Voucher Money Trail

http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/05/follow-studentsfirst-pac-money-trail.html

Here's our previous posting detailing 2010 contributions of just under $6 million:

http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-3-2011-follow-voucher-money.html

Keystone State Education Coalition

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Thursday, September 1, 2011

Are taxpayers entitled to know how public funds are spent?