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Your Tax Dollars: It’s All About the Kids…..

Posted at 12:15 PM ET, 12/09/2011

K12 Inc. chief executive Ron Packard paid $5 million compensation package in 2011

Washington Post By Emma Brown

Ronald J. Packard, the chief executive of Herndon-based education company K12 Inc., earned a total compensation package worth $5 million in fiscal 2011, according to an amended annual report filed Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

That’s nearly twice the $2.67 million Packard earned in 2010. It includes $551,000 in cash, $4.2 million in stock awards and about $290,000 in other compensation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/virginia-schools-insider/post/k12-inc-chief-executive-ron-packard-paid-5-million-compensation-package-in-2011/2011/12/09/gIQASUiGiO_blog.html

Charles Zogby, PA's Budget Secretary and Former Secretary of Education under Governor Ridge, served as K12's Senior Vice President of Education and Policy prior to being recruited to serve in the Corbett Administration.

“According to disclosures reported in Business Week, Pennsylvania’s Agora Cyber Charter School—K12 Inc.’s online school generated $31.6 million for K12 Inc. in the past academic year."

http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/11/according-to-disclosures-reported-in.html

In PA, K12’s Agora Cyber Charter has never made AYP. Of 12 PA cyber charters only 2 made AYP for 2011 while 8 were in corrective action status.

http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/11/pa-cyber-charter-pssa-ayp-2007-2011.html

Legislature has much to do in little time

Weighty issues still unresolved

Monday, December 12, 2011

By Laura Olson, Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau

The traditional New York gathering of political movers-and-shakers came as the fate of several policy proposals that Gov. Tom Corbett had hoped to sign by the end of his first year remained uncertain: Negotiations over a Marcellus Shale regulatory measure have yet to yield a compromise; his school reform plan has stalled; and some enthusiasm for privatizing state-run liquor sales has faded.

But during the three voting days left for the Senate and the House's half-dozen, lawmakers say they'll be pushing forward on a new congressional district map, a pared-down school voucher pilot program and a measure to require photo identification at the polls.

“our failing public schools”

Participation in AP exams up, especially among minorites

By Dan Hardy Inquirer Staff Writer, Posted: Mon, Dec. 12, 2011, 3:01 AM

The number of high school students taking Advanced Placement exams, which can qualify for college credit, climbed substantially in the last decade or so, with the proportion of minorities and low-income students among them increasing even more.

Nationwide, the College Board named 367 districts in the United States and Canada last month to its "AP Honor Roll," for expanding participation from 2009 to 2011, while increasing or maintaining the percentage that scored 3 or above.

Districts where numbers increased and the 3-or-above percentage was 70 or higher were also included. Pennsylvania has the most honor roll districts - 34.

http://www.philly.com/philly/insights/in_education/20111212_Participation_in_AP_exams_up__especially_among_minorites.html

More info on AP Honor Roll from the College Board: http://press.collegeboard.org/releases/2011/367-school-districts-placed-college-boards-2nd-annual-ap-district-honor-roll-significant-gai

"likely counsel that some, and perhaps many, schools must close or combine,"

Philadelphia Archbishop Chaput warns faithful of ‘painful’ year ahead

December 09, 2011|By David O’Reilly, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A blue-ribbon panel appointed to study the needs of archdiocesan schools will issue its report in January and "likely counsel that some, and perhaps many, schools must close or combine," Chaput wrote in his two-page letter, which is to be read aloud at all parishes.

"The archdiocese remains strongly committed to the work of Catholic education," he continued, but "that mission is badly served by trying to sustain unsustainable schools."

http://articles.philly.com/2011-12-09/news/30498372_1_archdiocesan-priests-parishes-innocent-priests

Posted at 04:00 AM ET, 12/12/2011

A superintendent calls school reformers’ bluff

Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss

This was written by John Kuhn, the superintendent of a small public school district in Texas.

By John Kuhn

As a public school administrator, I have been a steadfast critic of the legacy of No Child Left Behind. But I’ve recently figured out a way that school reformers can get me on their side. It’s very simple.

Let the 50 states disaggregate equality-related data by ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status, and let us rank the states and reward them for closing all the societal inequalities that are truly at the heart of our achievement gap. There should be an incentive for voters to elect lawmakers who will craft policies that minimize inequalities.

Let the states figure out how to close their gaps, but reward results. Citizens in states whose data shows progress toward equality benchmarks should be rewarded with a lower federal income tax rate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/a-superintendent-calls-school-reformers-bluff/2011/12/11/gIQABKBXoO_blog.html

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