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
Thousands take to streets to demonstrate against cuts
to education in Pa.
Published: Thursday, May 24, 2012
Delco Times By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) —
Thousands of demonstrators statewide took to the streets Wednesday to protest
education cuts they say have decimated school districts across Pennsylvania,
and they called for lawmakers to reject further reductions Gov. Tom Corbett
proposes for next year.
A total of 25 people were arrested during massive demonstrations inPhiladelphia and Pittsburgh Harrisburg , and
organizers said similar rallies were scheduled in cities including Doylestown,
Hollidaysburg, Bethlehem , Hazleton ,
and Greensburg
A total of 25 people were arrested during massive demonstrations in
State Sen. Jeffrey Piccola
discusses education funding crisis with Harrisburg
By Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 , 4:38 PM
More than 1,000 students,
teachers, administrators and others from the community participated in the
protest organized by the school district and the Parent Support Network to show
state legislators and Corbett the faces of those affected by cuts to public
education funding.
11 arrested in Pittsburgh
By Jon Schmitz / Pittsburgh
Eleven people were
arrested Downtown this morning after blocking traffic at Fifth Avenue Wood Street Pittsburgh
Financial outlook for Pennsylvania
Districts again plan to increase class sizes,
drop electives, delay purchases.
By John L. Micek, Morning
Call Harrisburg May 22, 2012
HARRISBURG — Buffeted
by the economy and declines in state and federal funding, the financial
condition of Pennsylvania's public schools has reached a crisis stage with
districts making ever deeper cuts to staff and programs to make ends meet, a
new survey of districts by school administrators has found.
"These are,
without question, challenging times for public education," Stacy Gober,
business administrator of the Bethlehem Area School District, said Tuesday
during a Capitol news conference unveiling the results of the third annual
survey by the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officers and the
Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators.
Budget crisis in public schools
State funding cuts, stagnant local revenues and
soaring costs precipitate financial storm for districts, new report warns
David Mekeel Reading
Eagle Originally Published: 5/23/2012
Despite the claims by
some in Harrisburg
The situation is so
bad, the report says, that 3 percent of Pennsylvania
"I think it's a
good report because it shows that the crisis is real," said Dr. Martin D.
Handler, Brandywine
Heights
The Education Policy
and Leadership Center
TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2012
How fracking fortunes are undermining public education in Pa.
The New York Times
lifted up a large rock over Pennsylvania this morning, and the slime they found
underneath was remarkable even by the low muck standards of the Keystone State.
Under the headline " Public
Money Finds Back Door to Private Schools," a remarkable expose by reporter Stephanie Saul (whom I worked with at
Newsday many years ago) reveals a tangled web involving the Corbett
administration, fracking money, and the ongoing crusade to favor private
schools at the expense of public education.
The focus of the article
is private-school scholarship programs now operated in Pennsylvania and seven
other states (around these parts it is better known by the bureaucratically
benign name of EITC, for Educational Improvement Tax Credit, launched here in
2001). Instead of the government providing direct help for parents to send kids
to private or religious schools through vouchers, EITC provides tax credits to
private donors for scholarship money that does essentially the same thing.
The Times article
quotes experts calling this "a shell game" and it's not hard to
understand why: The tax credits that finance the scholarships mean there's less
revenue coming into to Pennsylvania's coffers -- at a time when the Corbett
administration has been slashing spending for public schools.
But it gets better.
Frankly, this looks like the Iran-Contra of the Corbett administration -- one
unifying theory that ties together our governor's ridiculously close ties to
the fracking industry with his jihad against public schools while benefiting people
with close ties to his administration.
“Here's
what oil taxes do for Alaska Alaska
PO GUEST ESSAY: School
funds available, given correct priorities
In a May 22 letter to the editor responding
to Public Opinion's May 21 editorial,
Tim Eller, press secretary for the state Department of Education, tells us,
"Make no mistake about it, the economy is flailing." Really? Flailing? And he goes on, "It's
incumbent for both state and local governments to tighten their belts and live
within available revenues.
Early childhood education pays off: 21st-century skills must start to
be instilled in the first years of school
Post Gazette Opinion By Audrey Russo
Audrey Russo is
president and CEO of the Pittsburgh Technology Council
Even in times of economic hardship, Pennsylvania
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
Romney Considering Big School Choice Expansion
Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney
has been mulling some big changes to federal K-12 policy if elected, including
allowing federal funding to follow students—even if they want to attend private
schools—according to a campaign documentobtained by Politics
K-12.
Disadvantaged families and parents of students
in special education could choose to spend federal funds at any district or
charter public school, tutoring provider, or online course, according to the
document circulated over the weekend. It outlines a series of ideas that have
been considered by Romney and his advisers, which could be announced as
early as this week. Under the proposal, students could also federal money at a
private school, as long as that was consistent with state guidelines.
According to the document, states would also be
encouraged to adopt open enrollment policies, and to eliminate caps on charter
and online schools. The document also indicates that Romney may seek to expand
the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, a federally funded program in the District of Columbia
Romney Calls for Using Title I, IDEA Funds for
School Choice
WASHINGTON—Presumptive GOP nominee Gov. Mitt
Romney called today for making federal funding for special education and
disadvantaged students portable—meaning the money would follow students to any
school their parents choose, including a private school.
Under his proposal, parents could also choose to
use the funds under Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
at charter schools, for online courses, or for tutoring. Title I is funded at
$14.5 billion this year, and IDEA is funded at $11.6 billion, and any proposal
to radically shift the use of that money would be almost certain to face a host
of administrative, budgetary, and political hurdles from the Congress and
statehouses on down.
“The challenge for Mr. Romney is
that many of the ideas he touched on — increasing the number of charter
schools, holding teachers more
accountable for student success — have already been adopted by the Obama
administration, whose education policies have all but co-opted traditional
Republican positions.”
Romney Calls Education ‘Civil Rights Issue of Our Era’ and Urges
Shift
New York Times By TRIP
GABRIEL Published: May
23, 2012
Lamenting that
millions of American children receive “a third world education,” Mitt Romney on
Wednesday called for poor and disabled students to be able to use federal funds
to attend any public, private or online school they choose.
Romney’s education
speech — text
Here is the full text of Mitt Romney’s remarks
on education reform as prepared for delivery on Wednesday at The Latino
Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit in Washington ,
D.C.
Mitt Romney Speech As
Prepared for Delivery to Latino Coalition
Wall Street's Investment in School Reform
Dear Deborah,
You and I used to have lively debates about
standards, curriculum, pedagogy, and a lot of other matters where we disagreed.
Now those debates seem antique compared with the current uncertainty about the
future of public education.
The question today is whether a democratic
society needs public schools subject to democratic governance. Why not turn
public dollars over to private corporations to run schools as they see fit?
Isn't the private sector better and smarter than the public sector?
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:
Education Funding Advocacy Week is not a single event but a series of
activities sponsored by individuals and organizations that oppose the Governor’s
proposed Budget for 2012-2013 because it reduces learning opportunities for
students in Pennsylvania
·
The Media Area NAACP and CU Keystone
Honors Program is hosting 2012 Conference on the State of
Education in Pennsylvania “Calling for a Trauma-Informed Education
System” on Friday, May 25. Click here for
registration details.
More info at: http://www.paschoolfunding.org/
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.