Daily postings
from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1000
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators and members of the press via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Book Review: Schools
We Can Envy
Finnish Lessons: What
Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland
by Pasi Sahlberg, with a foreword by Andy
Hargreaves
Teachers College Press, 167 pp., $34.95
(paper)
(Pittsburgh
Budget reductions to school districts
called worrisome
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 By Kaitlynn Riely, Pittsburgh
Several Pittsburgh
students are in Harrisburg
"We're trying to get the love back for
education," said Tia Torres, 17, a University Prep senior who lives in the
Hill District. Tia, a member of student
leadership organization Teen Bloc, and about 50 other Pittsburgh Public Schools
students, parents and community advocates will discuss education funding today
with legislators including state Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks, chairman of the
House Education Committee.
Butkovitz report warns
of Philadelphia School District
By Martha Woodall Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: Wed, Feb.
15, 2012 , 3:01 AM
As expected, City Controller Alan Butkovitz
included a warning Tuesday about the Philadelphia
School District
The comprehensive annual report, sent to
bond-rating agencies and bondholders, includes a paragraph expressing
reservations about the district's financial viability.
School construction
could be on hold in NEPA
Scranton Times tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL
(STAFF WRITER) February
14, 2012
Area school districts are owed millions in
construction reimbursements from the state, superintendents say. The delay in promised payments comes at the
same time Gov. Tom Corbett is proposing a moratorium on reimbursements for any
new construction projects, as well as a review of the program.
Mechanicsburg schools enact fees for
extracurricular activities
Patriot News Published:
Tuesday, February
14, 2012 , 9:14
Booster groups for extracurricular
activities in the Mechanicsburg
Area School District are
going have to pay more for the activities starting in the next school year.
The school board Tuesday night
approved a plan under which booster groups for sports, music and other
activities that receive more than $1,000 of their operating funds from the
district will have to contribute 10 percent of the costs of their operations.
The plan is part of a
belt-tightening based on flat or reduced levels of state funding and higher
costs for energy, personnel and many products and services used by the
district.
Education Voters PA –
Take action on the Governor’s Budget
The Governor’s proposal starts the process,
but it isn’t all decided: our legislators can play an important role in
standing up for our priorities. Last year, public outcry helped prevent
nearly $300 million in additional cuts. We heard from the Governor, and
we know where he stands. Now,
we need to ask our legislators: what is your position on supporting our
schools?
PA HOUSE EDUCATION
COMMITTEE MEETING – CYBER CHARTERS
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 9:00
am Room 39
East Wing
Informational meeting - presentations from cyber charter school administrators
regarding cyber charter school
funding and other operating issues.
WHYY Newsworks.org By Dave Davies February 13, 2012
He said it will take a constitutional amendment permitting
Congress to limit contributions and spending to change the system, and he notes
that action by two-thirds of the states can convene a convention for amending
the constitution. He wants the Pennsylvania legislature to get the movement started, and
he's introduced a resolution in Harrisburg
President Ronald Reagan’s former Budget
Director David Stockman speaks with Bill Moyers on money and politics and the
need for a constitutional amendment like that being proposed by Rep.
Santarsiero above.
Moyers and Company January 20, 2012
Runtime 56:47
Stockman speaks candidly with Bill Moyers about how money
dominates politics, distorting free markets and endangering democracy. “As a
result,” Stockman says, “we have neither capitalism nor democracy. We have
crony capitalism.”
Stockman shares details on how the courtship of politics and
high finance have turned our economy into a private club that rewards the
super-rich and corporations, leaving average Americans wondering how it could
happen and who’s really in charge.
“teachers are penalized for choosing to work with
the students who are most in need”
NCLB waivers: Where's the beef?
By Paul Frysh, CNN February 14, 2012
(CNN) The Obama
administration's announcement that 10 states are being granted waivers from
some demands of the federal government’s controversial No Child Left Behind
policy has some experts asking: Where's the beef? "It's not that different from the
previous policy," said Tina Trujillo, an education policy expert at University of California
School and teacher assessment for the waiver-versions of
NCLB "still centers on standardized test scores because it mandates that
teacher evaluations be based largely on test scores." This can be destructive
because by focusing on test scores, teachers are penalized for choosing to work
with the students who are most in need - encouraging teachers, even those who
want to work with more at-risk kids, to move to higher scoring districts, said
Trujillo.
Obama Budget Touts Selective Boosts in
Ed. Funding
Education Week By Alyson Klein Published Online: February 14, 2012
Education takes a marquee spot in President Barack Obama’s
last, otherwise austere, election-year budget request, with his spending plan
calling for new investments in community colleges, money to prevent teacher
layoffs, investment in school facilities, and funds to spur state action on
teacher quality.
$5 Billion in Grants Offered to Revisit
Teacher Policies
New York Times By WINNIE HU Published: February 15, 2012
The Obama administration will propose a $5 billion competitive
grant program to encourage states to overhaul the teaching profession, federal
education officials said Tuesday, using its Race to the Top school improvement
competition as a model.
“When they go to public school,
they’re in a whole new world, a whole world of different people and different
values, which is what the world is like,” said Lyn Bollen, who grew up in
Birmingham, England, and attended — and taught at — state-run schools.
“Shielding them from that is doing them a disservice.”
Affluent, Born Abroad and Choosing New York’s Public Schools
New York Times By KIRK SEMPLE Published: February 14, 2012
Miriam and Christian Rengier, a German
couple moving to New York , visited some
private elementary schools in Manhattan
At The Chalk Face. Education Talk Radio
SUNDAY MORNINGS AT 9am .
Educated Educators Talking Education.
A new one hour talk show dedicated to education. Hosts Tim Slekar and Shaun Johnson cover the
biggest issues in education. From
standardized testing to No Child Left Behind.
February 16: EPLC Philadelphia 8:00 am
(note: there will be additional EPLC budget
events throughout the state; details as they become available)
Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown Hotel - 201 North 17th Street
Subject: Governor Corbett's Proposed Education
Budget for 2012-2013
RSVP Required: http://www.eplc.org/events-calendar/southeastern-pennsylvania-breakfast-series/
February 29th: at 6PM in the South Fayette High School Theater
Statewide
kickoff meeting of PSEA's Partners for Public Education (PPE) Program
PPE is all about connecting
parents, community leaders, elected officials, and teachers together for one
goal - the support of public education. State
Senator Wayne Fontana, State Representative Jesse White, PSEA President Mike
Crossey, along with
members of the SFEA Representative Council, SF School Board, SF Administration,
and SF Student Government will stand together to recruit parents and other
interested parties add their voices to the chorus of those who care about
public education.
http://partnersforpubliced.org/
http://www.facebook.com/SouthFayettePPE
March 26th: Last day to register to vote in the
April 24th PA Primary Election
You do have the power to change the
direction of education policy in Pennsylvania
The
last day to REGISTER before the primary is March 26 , 2012. Make sure that you, your family and friends
are all registered to vote in the April 24th Pennsylvania
Primary. Forward this reminder to any
and all public education stakeholders.
PA House Democratic
Caucus Website
UPDATED DAILY –
STATEWIDE PRESS COVERAGE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT
BUDGETS
As districts consider their preliminary budgets and we await the
Governor’s February 7th budget
announcement, the PA House Democratic Caucus has begun daily tracking of press
coverage on school district budgets statewide:
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