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
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These daily emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
“Asked
what, if anything, lawmakers and the administration had agreed upon,Scarnati shot back, "Not a god***n thing." Using not quite the same language, House
Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Adolph, R-Delaware,
confirmed Scarnati's diagnosis.”
Dinner Hour Budget Update: Second round of talks
inconclusive, tensions mount.
Capitol
Ideas Blog by John Micek June 19, 2012
A
second round of budget talks ended this afternoon without legislative
Republicans and Corbett administrationnegotiators reaching
agreement on a bottom-line spending number for the fiscal year that starts July
1. Testy Republican bosses stuck to a
contention, voiced during this morning's round
of talks, that the logistics of moving a general fund budget bill
and at least a dozen pieces of enabling legislation through the House and
Senate will require that an agreement be reached within the next 24 hours.
A $100 MILLION JUNE REVENUE
SURPLUS
Third and State Blog June 19 2012
Capitolwire.com reports that there is some hope for the ongoing
state budget talks as officials now expect a $100 million revenue surplus in
June.
Peter
L. Decoursey, Capitolwire.com — Projected $100 million June
revenue surplus hopeful sign in budget talks (subscription required):
While Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Tom Corbett
discussed his 12 legislative priorities, the leaders hailed some good revenue
news: June’s revenues are projected to be $100 million above estimate.
HB1307: Pennsylvania Senate approves financial recovery
bill that could lead to takeover of Harrisburg and other fiscally distressed
school districts
Published: Tuesday, June
19, 2012, 7:05 PM
The Senate today passed legislation that would provide financially struggling school districts with extra funding, but also could lead to the state takeover of the same school districts.
House Bill 1307,
legislation championed by Sen.
Jeffrey Piccola,R-Dauphin County, would appoint a chief recovery
officer to struggling school districts deemed to be in fiscal distress by the
state.
SB1115: Special education funding aims to fund actual number of
students based on need
Published:
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
By
Melissa Daniels | PA Independent
HARRISBURG
— Pennsylvania school districts have received the same proportionate funding
for special education, regardless of the actual number of students with special
needs, but this session, lawmakers want to right-size that funding.
Senate
Bill 1115, sponsored by Majority Whip Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh, would create a
commission to establish a new funding formula based on a three-tiered system
categorizing the severity of disabilities, with more funding going toward those
with more severe disabilities. The formula would take into account the specific
number of students with disabilities, using state Department of Education data.
The
bill unanimously passed through the House Education Committee on Monday and awaits
a final vote in the state House. The state Senate passed the proposal earlier
this month.
SB327: Education Committee
Approves Dinniman School Board Election Reform Bill
Press
Release from Senator Dinniman’s office
HARRISBURG
(June 19) – Today in a 10-1 vote, the Senate Education Committee approved Senator Andy Dinniman’s Senate Bill
327, legislation that would end partisan school board elections for the
betterment of communities and school districts throughout the Commonwealth.
Under
the bill, the names of individuals seeking election to school boards would
appear on ballots without affiliation to political party. School board
elections would occur only at the November general election and would no longer
be part of spring-time primary elections.
Commentary: EITC/EISC “Scholarships”:
My Big Fat Pennsylvania Voucher
Capitolwire
Bureau Chief Peter L. DeCoursey writes there’s still plenty to resolve in
budget negotiations between Republican legislative leaders and Gov. Tom
Corbett, even if the governor told reporters Monday that he’s hopeful the
discussions will yield an agreement on a total spending figure “in a day or
two.” If Jim Christiana’s
EITC/EISC bill HB2468 becomes law, the spending figure next year will be $125
million less; $125 million more in tax revenue will be diverted from the
general fund to private and religious schools, $125 million that will not be
available to fund PA’s constitutionally mandated public schools. One big $125 million voucher…..
Guest Column: Now's the time for
school vouchers
Delco Times Published: Monday, June 18, 2012
By
Auxiliary Bishop Michael J. Fitzgerald, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
Since
the announcement by Archbishop Chaput in February that Monsignor Bonner and
Archbishop Prendergast would remain open, local legislators have heard
overwhelmingly from Catholics in Delaware County about the desire and need for
school choice legislation to be immediately passed. At the urging of the
Archbishop, Catholics have called, written, emailed and rallied to advocate
support for expanded EITC and school vouchers. And in Harrisburg, our voices
have been heard.
On June 12, Representative Jim Christiana introduced House Bill 2468, which is aimed at expanding Pennsylvania’s current EITC Program by $25 million (Raising it from $75 million to $100 million) as well as establishing the Educational Improvement Scholarship Credit (EISC). Co-sponsored by Representatives Bill Adolph and Thomas Killion, this new program would create a second pot of “opportunity scholarship” funding -- beyond traditional EITC -- at $100 million in 2012-13. EISC funding would only be available to students within the bottom 15 percent of “failing schools” in the state. If this bill is passed before June 30, it 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.
On June 12, Representative Jim Christiana introduced House Bill 2468, which is aimed at expanding Pennsylvania’s current EITC Program by $25 million (Raising it from $75 million to $100 million) as well as establishing the Educational Improvement Scholarship Credit (EISC). Co-sponsored by Representatives Bill Adolph and Thomas Killion, this new program would create a second pot of “opportunity scholarship” funding -- beyond traditional EITC -- at $100 million in 2012-13. EISC funding would only be available to students within the bottom 15 percent of “failing schools” in the state. If this bill is passed before June 30, it 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.
TUESDAY, JUNE
19, 2012
Sense and Sensibility
Education
Voters PA Blog
Yesterday, the House Education
Committee unanimously passed Senate Bill 1115. The bill establishes
a legislative commission to create a funding formula that would distribute
special education funding to schools in a more equitable manner. This bill has
been around for a few years now and has been a bipartisan effort.
During the meeting, Rep. O’Neil
mentioned that this bill stems from the costing out study that was commissioned in 2007 to
determine the “cost” to educate a student. The study concluded that
Pennsylvania was under-funding K-12 education by more than $4 billion and that
the system then in place relied too heavily on local property taxes.
Facts
vs. Truth
Yinzercation Blog— JUNE 19, 2012
Facts
lie. And as Mark Twain said, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies,
and statistics. Tim Eller, Press Secretary for the PA Department of Education,
was feeling defensive in a letter to the editor on Sunday, writing, “Let’s face
it, the media’s attacks on the governor’s budget are nothing more than a call
for higher taxes. Facts seem to be ignored when the argument is made that more
money is needed.” [Penn Live,
6-17-12]
Charter Schools Still Enroll Fewer Disabled Students
New
York Times By MOTOKO RICH Published: June 19, 2012
Charter
schools in most states continue to enroll proportionately fewer students with
disabilities than traditional public schools, a new government report shows.
Across
the country, disabled students represented 8.2 percent of all students enrolled
during the 2009-10 year in charter schools, compared with 11.2 percent of
students attending traditional public schools, according to a Government
Accountability Office analysis of Department of Education data.
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:
Diane Ravitch on PBS
Newshour June 5th, 2012
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:
June 29 is deadline to submit proposals for PSBA’s 2013
Legislative Platform
Your school board is invited to submit proposals for consideration for PSBA’s 2013 Legislative Platform. The association is accepting proposals now until Friday,June 29, 2012 . Guidelines
for platform submissions are posted on PSBA’s Web
site. The PSBA Platform Committee will review proposals and
rationale submitted for the platform on Aug. 11. The
recommendations of the committee will be brought before the Legislative Policy
Council for a final vote on Oct. 18.
Your school board is invited to submit proposals for consideration for PSBA’s 2013 Legislative Platform. The association is accepting proposals now until Friday,
PSBA accepting nominations for the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy
Award
Last year, PSBA created a new award to honor the memory of its long-term chief lobbyist, who died unexpectedly. The Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions in PSBA's Legislative Platform. The nomination process is now open and applications will be accepted untilJune 22, 2012 .
The award will be presented during the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference
in October. For more information and criteria details, see the Allwein
Advocacy Award page. To obtain an application form, see
the Allwein
Advocacy Award Nomination Form. Completed forms should be
returned no later than June 22 to: Pennsylvania School Boards Association,
Advocacy Award Selection Committee, PO
Box 2042 , Mechanicsburg , PA 17055-0790
Last year, PSBA created a new award to honor the memory of its long-term chief lobbyist, who died unexpectedly. The Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions in PSBA's Legislative Platform. The nomination process is now open and applications will be accepted until
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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