Friday, September 16, 2011

Governor Corbett reaffirms school choice as number 1 legislative priority

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 PA PASS (Parent Advocates for Public Education to Achieve Student Success)
Legislative Forum in Delaware County Thursday October 13th at 7:00 pm
Upper Darby Performing Arts Center, 601 N. Lansdowne Ave. Drexel Hill
If you are in southeastern PA, please consider filling up a car with school parents and attending this meeting.  Please ask attendees to RSVP in advance at delcolegislativeforum.eventbrite.com    If you are not close by, consider joining with your neighboring school districts to hold a similar event.  If you are interested in helping out please contact Marian Rucci, Delco PA PASS County Coordinator at .rucci.papass@live.com

On the air, Corbett calls for impact fee (and reaffirms vouchers as top legislative priority)
By Tom Infield, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER, Posted on Thu, Sep. 15, 2011
Gov. Corbett said on his new monthly radio show Thursday that he will support the imposition of an "impact fee" on companies extracting natural gas from Marcellus Shale regions of the state.
He also said school vouchers are a top legislative priority for him this fall - and voiced support for a Republican move to revamp the awarding of Pennsylvania's electoral votes in presidential races.  …. "If I had to rank them," he said, school choice would be "No. 1."

'Voucher tax' plan OK'd

Choice costs would go on taxpayers' bills

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel By Erin Richards
A Milwaukee School Board member's proposal to make more transparent the tax that citizens pay for the city's private school voucher program was approved Tuesday night and moved forward to the full board.  …..Miller's proposal said MPS was compelled to levy more than $50 million in taxes in 2011 to subsidize schools in the voucher program, over which MPS has no authority or control.

York-area school sports budgets fall on athletes' shoulders

By DICK VanOLINDA The York Dispatch
Updated: 09/14/2011 05:54:14 PM EDT
The only charge for high school sports used to be the one spectators paid at the gate.
No more.
Athletes are paying to play in school districts across the country. Parents are being asked to share some of the cost of athletics and help close budget shortfalls caused by the recession and cuts in state subsidies.
Pay to play, restricted to a few states in the northeastern part of the country as recently as 20 years ago, is now a prominent part of the high school sports landscape.

New PASBO/PASA (September 13, 2011) survey on how funding cuts reduce learning opportunities for students:
Funding Cuts Force School Districts to Reduce Learning Opportunities for Students
Follow-up survey confirms impact of enacted cuts to basic education funding and loss of federal stimulus program

What Works: Graduation Coach Campaign enters second year

by thenotebook on Sep 14 2011 by Avi Wolfman-Arent
At City Hall Tuesday morning, Mayor Michael Nutter kicked off the second year of the city's Graduation Coach Campaign, an initiative that recruits volunteer adult mentors and provides them with resources to help guide young people through high school and onto college.

Philly School Files Blog by Kristin Graham, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
The U.S. Department of Education announced the 2011 National Blue Ribbon Schools today, and Philadelphia's Central High is a winner.
In addition to Central, the other local winners are: Coebourn Elementary School, Brookhaven; Corpus Christi Catholic School, Lansdale; Nativity of our Lord School, Warminster; New Eagle Elementary School, Wayne; Pocopson Elementary School, West Chester; and Rose Tree Elementary School, Media.

Republicans for Education Reform

Education Next blog By Michael Petrilli 09/15/2011
For months—no, years—the ESEA discussion has been nothing short of maddening. While many pundits decry the lack of a "clear route to reauthorization," an obvious bipartisan solution has been sitting there, ready for the picking. It goes something like this: Step away from federal heavy-handedness around states' accountability and teacher credentialing systems; keep plenty of transparency of results in place, especially test scores disaggregated by racial and other subgroups; offer incentives for embracing promising reforms instead of mandates; and give school districts a lot more flexibility to move their federal dollars around as they see fit.
We at Fordham call this "Reform Realism"– a pro–school reform orientation leavened with realism about what the federal government can and cannot do well in K–12 education. But it also describes the spirit of the Obama Administration's ESEA blueprint, released last year.
And now, thanks to a handful of moderately conservative GOP Senators, including former Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander, we have actual legislative language bringing this commonsense approach to life. 




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