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.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
SIZE DOESN’T MATTER……..
Student/teacher ratio
at Romney's Cranbrook School (Bloomfield
Hills , MI
Student - teacher
ratio at Arne Duncan's high school, Univ of Chicago Lab School, = 10:1
Posted: Sat, May. 26,
2012, 3:01 AM
Romney sparks a debate on school class size
By Jeff Gammage and
Rita Giordano Inquirer Staff Writers
For years, teachers
and parents have insisted that smaller class sizes are crucial to children's
educational success. On Thursday, Mitt
Romney visited Philadelphia Cherry Hill .
Parents Across America
An open letter to President Obama about Romney’s class size
By Leonie Haimson,
public school parent and Executive Director, Class Size Matters.
Special-needs education is battleground for charters, other districts
in Pa.
By Rich Lord / Pittsburgh
Charter schools, the
vanguard of the educational choice movement, haven't drawn their shares of
special-needs students, especially those with the most challenging
disabilities. The result: Public school officials fear they are being left with
the most challenging students, but with dwindling resources to educate them.
Pittsburgh Public
Schools, for instance, has seen 11 percent of its students opt for charters,
but has held on to more than 97 percent of its hearing impaired, visually
impaired, mentally retarded and autistic students. In two less
resource-intensive special-needs categories -- learning disabled and
orthopedically impaired -- more than 10 percent of Pittsburgh
By contrast, the
Midland-based Pennsylvania
Cyber Charter
School
Posted: Sunday, May 27, 2012 5:50 am
Reserve Funds: Are schools hoarding or planning responsibly?
Phillyburbs.com By
Gary Weckselblatt Staff Writer
When the Corbett
administration and Republican lawmakers criticized school districts for raising
taxes while sitting on fund balances, they were pointing fingers at a district
like Bensalem.
The district in the
southwest corner of Bucks
County
There’s also an
“uncommitted” fund that some people describe as “rainy day” money. Jack Myers,
Bensalem’s business director, calls that one-time cash “to help you out of a
real jam that is not going to recur.”
Is Pennsylvania Gov. Tom
Corbett's administration due for a big shakeup?
Published:
Sunday, May 27,
2012 , 10:54 AM
Republican lobbyists, legislators and power brokers welcomed Gov. Tom Corbett’s
decision to change his top aide. But they’re
also hoping he doesn’t stop there.
Corbett announced Thursday that he was replacing Bill Ward, his chief of staff since becoming governor. He nominated Ward to a post on theAllegheny
County
Corbett named Stephen Aichele, previously his chief counsel, as his new chief of staff.
Though close advisers say the governor decided to make the change about two weeks ago, the switch comes days before he is scheduled to meet with a handful of his most influential party patrons. And the timing has caused many party figures — who mostly spoke on condition of anonymity — to speculate that further shakeups are imminent.
Corbett announced Thursday that he was replacing Bill Ward, his chief of staff since becoming governor. He nominated Ward to a post on the
Corbett named Stephen Aichele, previously his chief counsel, as his new chief of staff.
Though close advisers say the governor decided to make the change about two weeks ago, the switch comes days before he is scheduled to meet with a handful of his most influential party patrons. And the timing has caused many party figures — who mostly spoke on condition of anonymity — to speculate that further shakeups are imminent.
Posted: Sun, May. 27,
2012, 6:39 AM
Cuts threaten Upper Darby
schools’ legacy of arts
By Dan Hardy Inquirer Staff
Writer
Down the hall is the
1,650-seat Performing
Arts Center
Posted: Sun,
May. 27, 2012, 3:00 AM
It's Personal: Tina Fey, the arts,
and big dreams
Maria
Panaritis, Inquirer Columnist
Tina
Fey was Frenchie, I was Rizzo. But the real star of our sold-out performances
of Grease in high school was the Upper Darby School District — a place where
kids like us from humble homes were taught not just English and algebra, but
how to dream big, think big, and make big things happen.
Posted: Fri, May. 25,
2012, 8:19 AM
By Patrick Kerkstra For
the Inquirer
From Corbett, only words
Relax, Philadelphia
Sure, those dire
headlines and the protests in the street might lead you to think city schools
are careering down a seemingly endless fiscal mine shaft. But thanks to an
update this week on Corbett's Twitter feed, we now know otherwise: "the
number one priority in the #pabudget is education."
What's next for Pennsylvania
Published: Friday, May 25, 2012 , 5:00 AM
By MONICA VON
DOBENECK, The Patriot-News
Already, local
districts are slashing programs, furloughing teachers, making students pay for
sports, getting rid of tutors, eliminating pre-kindergarten, foreign languages
and librarians, and making other changes which West Shore School Board member
Ron Candioto said could “chip away at the foundation of what a school district
is supposed to do.”
It doesn’t look like
it will get better. The pension crisis that is one cause of the budgetary woes
is going to get worse. Gov. Tom Corbett is determined to hold the line on
taxes, and although Senate Republicans are talking about restoring some of his
proposed cuts, district officials don’t expect to get much more from the state.
“… the proposed budget for the 2012-2013 school
year is nearly $220 million, cutting 364 jobs, including 170 teaching
positions. That amounts to 14% of the district's teaching staff.”
Reading's preliminary budget cuts 170 teachers,
closes 5 schools
The Reading School Board has signed off on a
preliminary spending plan that eliminates several programs and nearly 15% of
the teaching staff. The vote Wednesday
night came after lots of emotional feedback from parents who are against the
massive cuts.
The decisions the board has had to make have
been the hardest ever, said member Karen McCree. "If any of you walk out of here today
and think that we're okay with this, then something's wrong with every last one
of you," said McCree.
It was a packed house at the meeting as members
signed off on a preliminary budget that is loaded with job cuts. Parents,
teachers and staff were standing for more than two hours just to hear what the
potential cuts involved.
As it stands, the proposed budget for the
2012-2013 school year is nearly $220 million, cutting 364 jobs, including 170
teaching positions. That amounts to 14% of the district's teaching staff.
Neshaminy teachers call strike for June 4
Phillyburbs.com By
Christian Menno Staff writer Posted on May 27, 2012
The Neshaminy
Federation of Teachers has informed the school district that the union intends
to strike June 4. The work stoppage
would be the second this school year, as the bitter contract dispute with the
school board approaches the four-year mark.
But according to union
officials, the strike could be averted if progress is made at an upcoming
negotiation session. State law mandates
that teachers must complete 180 days of service, so depending on the length of
the strike, the end of the school year could be pushed back as far as June 30,
officials said.
LTE: A third-grader’s view of the budget
LehighValleyLive.com
May 25th Letter to the Editor
My name is Zachary.
I’m in third grade at Francis A. March Elementary school in Easton
RESCUE ME!
Huffington Post by Sen.
Daylin Leach State senator from Pennsylvania
Posted: 05/24/2012 3:45 pm
Howdy!
Do you remember the
song "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" It was very catchy. The
song "How Do You solve a Problem Like Chronically Under-Funded Schools?"
is less catchy (except for the Moody Blues version) but still raises an
important question. After all, Maria was fine. She de-nunned herself and
married Captain Georg Von Trapp. Sadly, marrying into fictional Austrian
royalty is rarely an option for Pennsylvania
As anyone who cares
about public education (plus the Corbett administration) knows, Pennsylvania
Commentary: Put the Boston Consulting Group where it belongs -
before the public
The Notebook by Helen
Gym on May 24
2012
It’s hard to imagine a
worse debut in Philadelphia
The
Massachusetts-based multinational firm scored $1.5 million for a six-week gig
that produced the publicly and academically scorned “Blueprint for Transforming
Philadelphia’s Public Schools.” The hardline rhetoric in the plan around school
closings, charter expansion, and so-called “achievement networks” has drawn out
thousands of upset parents and community members to gatherings around the city.
And yet, as Dale
Mezzacappa reported this week, BCG is continuing its role in Philadelphia United Way
FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2012 12:26 PM EDT
Cheating runs rampant
No Child Left Behind has
unleashed a nationwide epidemic of cheating. Will education reformers wake up?
On the Thursday, Mitt
Romney made a visit to a West Philadelphia charter school to tout his education platform, which, as it
happens, looks pretty similar to President Obama’s: more privately
managed schools and a reliance on high-stakes standardized tests to
evaluate teachers.
But on the ten-year
anniversary of No Child Left Behind, the school-reform movement that both
candidates have embraced is in crisis. Rampant and widespread cheating on
high-stakes standardized tests has been uncovered in districts nationwide.
SAVE UPPER DARBY ARTS 2012
Published on May
21, 2012 by SaveUDArts
Sign the
Petition http://ow.ly/b3rR2
This isn't just about theUpper
Darby School District Pennsylvania
We will be inHarrisburg
Please visit www.saveudarts.org to learn more and join the fight.
This isn't just about the
We will be in
Please visit www.saveudarts.org to learn more and join the fight.
Youtube video (runtime
7:32) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8RNhMo4Ks&feature=plcp
STATEWIDE PRESS COVERAGE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT
BUDGETS
Here are more than 700 articles since
January 23rd detailing budget cuts, program cuts, staffing cuts and
tax increases being discussed by local school districts
The PA House Democratic Caucus has been tracking daily press coverage on
school district budgets statewide:
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