Daily postings
from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1500
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, members of the press and a broad array of education advocacy
organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Who’s been bankrolling the attacks
on Pennsylvania Public Education and the kinds of attack ads we have seen
against Republican State Senator Pat Vance, House Education Committee Chairman
James Roebuck and State Senator Daylin Leach?
Read what Wikipedia has to say about
Betsy DeVos:
Elisabeth "Betsy" DeVos (née Prince) is an American politician and school choice activist from the state of Michigan. She is a former chairperson of the Michigan
Republican Party.
Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_DeVos
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Those few of us who are not yet billionaires still
apparently cling to the quaint and outdated notion that public education is
indeed the foundation of our democracy and that Article 3, Section 14 of the
Pennsylvania Constitution clearly indicates that public education is, in fact,
a core mission of our Commonwealth.
PA
Constitution, Article 3, Section 14.
Public school system.
The General
Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and
efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.
It would appear that Mrs. DeVos’ does not share
those sentiments or beliefs; on the contrary, her very well-funded hobby appears
to be the elimination of public education.
A total of $1 million
in new out-of-state “Big Voucher Money” was poured into Pennsylvania by Betsy Devos’ American
Federation for Children (AFC) in two
payments of $500K each on 2/21/12 and 3/2/12 according to Campaign Finance
Reports filed by Students First PAC. In
April 2011 AFC contributed $120,000, and in October 2010 AFC posted 3 payment totalling
$1.2 million to the Students First PAC. Joel Greenberg, one of three Main
Line mega-millionaires who have bankrolled the Students First PAC locally,
also serves on the Board of Directors of DeVos’ AFC.
Last
year Governor Corbett and Senator Anthony Williams were both featured speakers
at AFC’s national school choice summit in Washington D.C.
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“Voucher money—including big-time hedge fund
dollars—could play a major role in Pennsylvania
CityPaper Naked City
Blog by Daniel Denvir FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 2012
A
mysterious third-party group that supports school vouchers, which use taxpayer
dollars to fund private and religious school tuition, has sent out a second
round of mailers attacking West Philadelphia State Rep.
James Roebuck. A Penn
graduate named Fatimah Lorén
Muhammad, backed by the powerful
pro-voucher State Sen. Anthony Williams, is challenging Roebuck in the
188th District. The neighborhood stretching from Penn through Clark Park and
out to 52nd Street is plastered with Obama-fied Shepard
Fairey-style posters of Muhammad's face, but the attack flyers are attributed
only to a shadowy third-party group called Public Education Excellence and do not mention her name.
Voucher money—including big-time hedge fund dollars—could
play a major role in Pennsylvania
http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/Shadowy-pro-voucher-group-continues-attack-on-State-Rep-Roebuck.html
Test scores improve for Milwaukee
Journal Times, Associated
Press | Posted: Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Students who received
vouchers to attend private or religious schools in Milwaukee
The Wisconsin
Department of Public Instruction found that in the second year of testing last
fall, about 40 percent of Milwaukee
On reading scores,
about 56 percent of voucher students were advanced or proficient an increase of
about 1 percent from last year compared with about 58 percent of Milwaukee public school students and nearly 82 percent of
public school students in Wisconsin
School Vouchers Have No
Strong Effect on Student Achievement
According to Review of
10 Years of Voucher Research and Action
Huffington Post By Jack Jennings, President and CEO
for the Center on Education Policy
Posted: 7/27/11
This week, the Center on Education Policy released a report that
reviews ten years of research on voucher programs in Wisconsin ,
Ohio , Florida ,
and Washington , D.C.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-jennings/school-vouchers-no-academic-advantage_b_909735.html
Delaware County
By Laura Wiseley, Delco Times Correspondent
LANSDOWNE — The William
Penn School Board recently adopted a resolution supporting increased state
funding for public education. “The William Penn School District
The resolution cites recent achievements by William Penn students — such as AYP status at five of the district’s schools, students’ above-state-average graduation rates and student participation in Advanced Placement, honors and college-level courses — to forecast the district’s potential should funding be increased. The school board voted unanimously a recent business meeting to pass the resolution, which will be sent to state senators and representatives of theWilliam Penn
School District
The resolution cites recent achievements by William Penn students — such as AYP status at five of the district’s schools, students’ above-state-average graduation rates and student participation in Advanced Placement, honors and college-level courses — to forecast the district’s potential should funding be increased. The school board voted unanimously a recent business meeting to pass the resolution, which will be sent to state senators and representatives of the
http://www.delcotimes.com/articles/2012/04/02/news/doc4f79192988ab2641491302.txt
The Notebook Blog by Erika Owens on Mar 30 2012
In Philly SRC votes: Stanton, Sheppard spared; eight other
schools to close
Last night the School Reform Commission voted on the
proposed school closings, and with that aimed to keep open high-performing
options.
http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/124641/notes-news-mar-30
In Texas
Texas Association of
School Administrators website March 29,2012
The total confirmed number of Texas districts
that have adopted the board resolution concerning high stakes, standardized
testing of Texas
http://www.tasanet.org/adopted-board-resolutions
Read
TASA's sample resolution.
Public Education on
Public Radio
Yinzercation Blog — MARCH 30, 2012
We told the White
House that “public education is a public good,” and now that message is picking
up speed. This week we took to the airwaves with a feature spot on Essential
Public Radio, Pittsburgh March 28, 2012 ):
The Education
Law Center 's
monthly analysis of opportunities to learn in Pennsylvania
Research for Action Posted
by Alison Murawski on Mar 28, 2012
Save the date: April 10 Join us for a forum on RFA’s evaluation of
Philadelphia
We want to hear your
questions and comments, too. You are invited to a public forum to discuss RFA’s
Renaissance Schools report on Tuesday, April 10 from 4:00-5:30 p.m. The forum
is an opportunity to hear from the researchers who conducted the study, as well
as education officials and community leaders.
Space is limited. RSVP
to info@researchforaction.org
Details: RFA’s
Renaissance Schools Forum, Tuesday, April 10 4:00 – 5:30 pm
International House,
South American Room (2nd floor)
Stanford study finds widening gap between rich and poor students
Analysis of standardized tests over a 50-year period shows the
achievement gap between rich and poor has grown steadily.
It's long been known
that the better off your family is, the better you tend to do in school.
Yet despite this
knowledge – and programs to help level the playing field – the classroom
achievement gap between rich and poor students has grown steadily over the past
half-century, according to research by Sean Reardon, associate professor of
education at Stanford.
Updated PA House Republican Caucus
Members List with Facebook pages:
UPDATED DAILY – STATEWIDE PRESS COVERAGE
OF SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGETS
The PA House Democratic Caucus has been tracking daily press coverage on
school district budgets statewide:
http://www.pahouse.com/school_funding_2011cuts.asp?utm_source=Listrak&utm_medium=Email&utm_term=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pahouse.com%2fschool_funding_2011cuts.asp&utm_campaign=Crisis+in+Public+Education
Stand Up for Public Education!
Wed., April 11, 2012 7:00 pm Town Hall Meeting on Education at Bucknell University
Meeting with legislators from Columbia
Where:
The Forum, Room 272, Elaine
Langone Center
Bucknell University Moore Avenue Lewisburg , PA 17837
7
p.m. – School directors and administrators meet with legislators (PSBA
Legislative Meeting)
7:30
p.m. – Town Hall Meeting on Education – Please invite your PTO/PTA and other
parent/ community groups to join us! The
purpose of the 7 p.m. meeting is for school directors and administrators to
discuss the impact of the governor’s 2011-12 budget proposal on their school
districts. At 7:30 p.m., the meeting will be open to all interested parents and
other members of the community who would like to come out in support of their
public schools and ask their legislators to take their message back to Harrisburg
Please
RSVP By April 4, to Kathy Swope, PSBA Region 6 director, at (570)
523-3336 or email swope@ptd.net
Stand Up for Public Education!
Thursday April 12th,
7:00 pm Allegheny County
WHERE: North Hills Senior High School 53 Rochester
Road Pittsburgh, PA 15229
WHEN: Thursday, April
12, 2012 @ 7:00pm
REGISTER for this event: NorthernAreaLegislativeForum.eventbrite.com
All public
education stakeholders are invited to this special event, which will be
moderated by the League of Women Voters.
Join us on Thursday, April 12th at North
Hills Senior
High School at 7PM
for an evening with several key state legislators from Allegheny County
Has your board considered this draft resolution yet?
PSBA Sample Board
Resolution regarding the budget
Please consider bringing this sample resolution to
the members of your board.
http://www.psba.org/issues-advocacy/issues-research/state-budget/Budget_resolution-02212012.doc
PA Partnerships for
Children – Take action on the Governor’s Budget
The governor’s budget plan cuts funding for proven
programs like Child Care Works, Keystone STARS and the T.E.A.C.H. scholarship
program, Pennsylvania Pre-K Counts and the Head Start Supplemental Assistance
Program. These are among the most cost-effective
investments we can make in education. Gov. Corbett’s budget plan also runs counter
to a pledge he made when he ran for governor in 2010. He acknowledged the
benefits of early childhood education and promised to increase funding to
double the number of children who would benefit from early learning
opportunities.
We need your help to tell lawmakers: if you cut
these programs – you close the door to early learning! Click here to tell your state legislators to fund early childhood education programs
at the same level they approved for this year’s budget.
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?
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