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
June 21 Tea-Time
Budget Update: Budget details start to emerge.
Morning
Call Capitol Ideas Blog by John Micek
As advertised, House
Republicans were
briefed during their caucus this afternoon on the broad outlines of the $27.66
billion budget framework agreed to by Gov. Tom Corbett and GOP legislative leaders on
Wednesday. And some details are starting to emerge.
Here's what we know
so far:
http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas/2012/06/tea-time-budget-update-budget-details-start-to-emerge.html
Commentary: EITC/EISC - Immaculate
Reception?
In his June 18th guest column in the Delco Times, Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Fitzgerald says that Rep Christiana’s EITC/EISC
bill “would infuse a new $125 million into educational school
choice for this September. Further, it
would be funded by tax-credited contributions targeted to designated
opportunity scholarship organizations, such as BLOCS in Philadelphia, and it
would not take funds away from public schools.”
Just where
would this “new” $125 million come from?
How could it not take money away from public schools? How would private and religious schools
receive these funds? Is it somehow “new”
money when the Governor has been telling us that there is no new money available
for education?
No –
this is tax revenue that would have gone into the state’s general fund and been
available for programs like constitutionally mandated public education – that will
instead be diverted to private and religious schools and won’t be available
come September……
PUBLISHED: JUNE 22,
2012 12:01 AM EST
Education tax credit to expand in new Pa. budget
Education tax credit to expand in new Pa. budget
HARRISBURG -- A
nearly $27.7 billion state budget taking shape in the Pennsylvania Capitol
includes a substantial expansion of a tax credit available to businesses whose
contributions can be used for scholarships to private schools, top state
Republican lawmakers and legislative aides said Thursday.
The Educational
Improvement Tax Credit, which is popular with the school-choice movement, will
potentially double to $150 million from the $75 million set aside in the
current year's budget.
It would be one of the largest expansions of a
discretionary program from the budget that's in force now.
Tax Credit May Replace School Vouchers, Still a Bad Idea
As per this article
from the PA Independent, there’s a movement in the state House to replace
vouchers with a tax credit. For those not following, vouchers would be payments
given to parents who can then pay tuition at private or parochial schools. The
voucher proposal that has the Governor’s backing would directly steer public
dollars to non-public schools. The newly
proposed tax credits, referred to as Education Improvement Scholarship Credits,
are a convenient way to sidestep both criticism and a law that would likely
find itself challenged in court.
Education Voters PA THURSDAY,
JUNE 21, 2012
TAKE ACTION Against EISC and a Statewide Authorizer
On
Monday, the House Education Committee will meet to review HB 2468, proposed
legislation that would create a new Education Improvement Scholarship Credit
(EISC). EISC would re-direct dollars away from revenue collections, therefore
reducing the amount of revenue the Commonwealth has to use for programs and
services. In addition, the proposal calls for an increase in the current EITC
program from $75 million to $100 million next fiscal year and $200 million for
subsequent years. That’s $450 million in tax credits over the next three years
that would be taken out of our coffers, and directed to private schools, even
as we cut current funding for our public schools, which serve the vast majority
of our children. (Learn more about EISC HERE.)
Also being negotiated with the budget is a bill focusing on
“charter reform” (without the reform). It’s imperative that any charter reform
bill includes actual reform to how charters are funded, increases
accountability and DOES NOT
include a statewide authorizer that
will take away local authority and input.
Allentown School
District fights to win back cyber school students through online schooling
Published: Friday, June
22, 2012, 4:50 AM
About 300 Allentown School Districtstudents have opted out of the traditional classroom setting in favor of cyber schools, which has cost the district about $1.2 million annually.
Now, the district is fighting to win those students back. Officials are looking to expand the Allentown Virtual Academy, an online schooling program offered in-house that district officials hope will recruit back some of the parents and students who have chosen cyber charter schools.
"We feel that
these Allentown students are our students," said Thomas
Derhammer, the district's director of technology. "We want them back, and overall we can provide a better education
for them."
The
district can realize savings of $4,274 for every regular education student they
can get back, Derhammer said, and $11,365 for every special education student.
Sunshine
Yinzercation Blog —
Yesterday’s
summer solstice gave Governor Corbett and Republican leaders the extra daytime
they apparently needed to agree on a budget. Only they aren’t letting the
details see the light of the sun. After the longest day of the year, Gov.
Corbett announced Pennsylvania would have a $27.66 billion state budget saying,
“We can put money back into some programs, we’re just not going to go into the
details.” [Post-Gazette, 6-21-12] Why keep us
in the dark?
The
figure announced yesterday matches the one approved by the Senate, which
included a $50 million cut to public education. While Governor Corbett
originally proposed cutting $100 million back in February, we would obviously
prefer to see the plan approved by the House a few weeks ago, which had no
further cuts for K-12 schools still reeling from last year’s massive budget
gutting. (See “Time’s Not Up, But Revenue Is.”)
Education VotersPA 6-20-12 Legislative Update
We have less than two weeks until the budget
deadline of June 30th. There is a lot happening on the topic of public
education and important bills are coming into play. Below is a quick update on
what has happened in the last 2 ½ weeks.
School
Districts Brace for Budget
School may be out for
the summer, but education is at the center of public debate.
Working under the pressure imposed by million-dollar
deficits, school boards across the state are voting on measures to cut costs
and square away their budgets before the fall.
The losses will be painful, and the headlines are
telling.
Posted:
Fri, Jun. 22, 2012, 3:00 AM
Come hear from finalists to run Philly schools
Regina
Medina Philadelphia Daily News
The two
finalists for district superintendent will be announced Friday by the School
Reform Commission's Superintendent Search Team and they will be ready to meet
the public next week at two community forums, district officials said Thursday.
Louisiana Illegally Fired 7,500 Teachers, Judge Says
New York
TIMES By CAMPBELL
ROBERTSON Published: June 21, 2012
NEW ORLEANS — As much as some may wish otherwise,
there is no starting from scratch when rebuilding a city, or a school system. A judge confirmed that here on Wednesday,
ruling that the Orleans Parish School Board and the Louisiana Department of
Education, in laying the groundwork for a school reform movement that has
become nationally recognized, illegally fired 7,500 school employees.
Prepared
commencement address at the Loyola University Chicago School of Education
Economic Policy Institute By Richard Rothstein |
May 10, 2012
Thank you, Dr. Fine, President
Garanzini, Dean Prasse, faculty, parents, and guests.
Congratulations to the graduates. Good luck as you embark on new
responsibilities in one of the most important enterprises with which our
society can entrust you – the preparation of the next generation. Yet you leave here in a national climate of
mistrust for all government, including public education. You are entering a
highly politicized field where facts are too easily ignored.
In medicine, and in all fields, we know you
can’t design proper treatment if your diagnosis is factually flawed.
Yet in education, conventional and widely
shared diagnoses are based on fantasy, with little relation to facts.
Charter School Reform:
Is your State Rep. on the cosponsor list for HB 2364? If not, why
not?
If they tell you that we should
make it easier to authorize charters or that they are already accountable
enough have them read this:
PA
Charter Schools: $4 billion taxpayer dollars with no real oversight
More details
on HB 2364 from PSBA:
http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=3469
Education Voters PA @EdVotersPA
Please take 2 minutes to send
an email to your state reps; ask them to restore public ed funding:
STATEWIDE PRESS COVERAGE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT BUDGETS
Here are more than 800
articles since January 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:
Absentee ballot procedures for election of PSBA officers
PSBA
website 6/1/2012
All
school directors and school board secretaries who are eligible to vote and who
do not plan to attend the association's annual business meeting during the 2012
PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in Hershey, Oct. 16-19, may request an
absentee ballot for election purposes.
The
absentee ballot must be requested from the PSBA executive director in
accordance with the PSBA Bylaws provisions (see PSBA Bylaws, Article IV,
Section 4, J-Q.). Specify the name and mailing address of each individual for
whom a ballot is requested.
Requests
must be in writing, e-mailed or mailed first class and postmarked or marked
received at PSBA Headquarters no later than Aug. 15. Mail to Executive
Director, P.O. Box 2042 ,
Mechanicsburg , PA
17055
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