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
Could this
be why we’re hearing a target date of June 13th to seal a budget
deal?......
PA May Revenue Numbers Due by June 15th
More
funding could be available to lessen proposed deep cuts
The Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy
Center June 8, 2012
After lackluster collections in the first half
of the 2011-12 fiscal year, March and April surged past estimates, narrowing
the state’s revenue shortfall to $288 million, or 1.2%. This puts the state on
much better fiscal footing going into 2012-13 – and likely means more funding
will be available to help lessen the deep cuts proposed by Governor Tom Corbett
in February. We will have an analysis of the May revenue numbers next
week. Here is a graphic comparing the revenue shortfall as of May 2012 to the
projected revenue shortfall in the Governor's February budget:
Pennsylvania
By Karen Langley and Laura
Olson / Post-Gazette Harrisburg
It's not going to be as
early a state budget as top Republican lawmakers had hoped, but Pennsylvania
The GOP majorities in
each chamber are working with the governor's office to bridge a $500 million
gap between their plans for next year's spending, which mostly involves
differences for education and welfare.
“Governor
Corbett says he’ll ask the legislature this summer to determine the actual cost
of educating a child online and find an equitable solution.”
Gov.
Corbett To Ask Legislature To Reduce Cyber
School
June
8, 2012 9:16
PM
By Andy Sheehan PITTSBURGH
(KDKA) — A KDKA investigation is getting a response from Governor Tom Corbett. Investigator Andy Sheehan questioned the
performance and funding of cyber schools and whether some
schools are getting money over and above the actual cost of educating a child
online.
Gov. Corbett says it’s
time to reduce the funding for cyber schools.
Conflict
Of Interest Concerns Raised With Pa.
June
7, 2012 6:30
PM
By Andy Sheehan PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – To many, Nick Trombetta is a
visionary who has launched the cyber school revolution in Pennsylvania
“This day and more days
like this are coming will embolden us to continue to fight the fight so that
families in Pennsylvania
Trombetta has built an
empire with a building boom in Midland ,
Pennsylvania
It’s all to the dismay
of neighboring school superintendents who claim they’re footing the bill.
Sensible limits: Fleck’s HB 2364 would reform charter school funding
Editorial - Pittsburgh June 10, 2012 12:17 am
Charter schools don't
offer interscholastic athletics. They don't contribute to the cost of competing
charter schools. And they can get their own state reimbursement for teacher
retirement costs.
Nonetheless, when school
districts are figuring out how much they must pay the charters for each student
they enroll, those three factors -- athletics, charter payments and pension costs
for teachers -- are part of the equation. That's not fair.
House Bill 2364 would
level the playing field, bringing fairness to the funding formula for charters
in addition to more oversight of the operations of these independent yet
publicly funded schools, both the bricks-and-mortar and the cyber varieties.
“Charter
schools are public schools. Mr. Fleck's bill would hold them to the same
financial standards while enabling traditional public schools to better deal
with budget cuts. Lawmakers and Gov. Tom Corbett should implement it for the
2012-2013 school year.”
Times-Tribune Editorial: Fleck’s bill improves accountability for
charters
Public charter schools
have grown exponentially in Pennsylvania
(HB 2364) A
comprehensive bill sponsored by Republican state Rep. Mike Fleck, with broad
bipartisan support, would correct many of the funding disparities and boost
accountability.
“It’s one hell of a step in
the right direction,” he said.
Bill would change funding formula for charter school, cyberschools
By Gary Weckselblatt
Staff Writer | Posted: Friday, June 8, 2012 6:15 am
Jack Myers, the Bensalem School District
So when he heard about
House Bill 2364, which reforms school district tuition payments for students
attending those schools, he smiled.
And the more he
learned about the legislation, introduced Monday by state Rep. Mike Fleck,
R-81, he “smiled a little more.”
“It’s one hell of a
step in the right direction,” he said.
Is your State Rep. on the cosponsor list for HB 2364? Charter
school funding, accountability and transparency
The bill is now posted
on the General Assembly’s website:
Here’s more info on HB
2364 from PSBA:
“His proposal also would
increase the authorized tax credits for the existing EITC program from the
current $75 million to $100 million in the year starting July 1 and $200
million for subsequent years.”
“The proposal would raise the
cap on the total tax credits available each year to businesses participating in
the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, which provides scholarships for
students to attend non-public schools, while creating a parallel program for
students from the lowest-achieving 15 percent of public schools. Like the
existing tax credit program, the proposed Educational Improvement Scholarship
Credit program would provide aid to students with family incomes below a
threshold.”
House GOP shops around hybrid school choice plan
House GOP shops around hybrid school choice plan
By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg June 8, 2012 12:14 am
While Republicans in
both chambers have sought to provide students with alternatives to public
schools, the Senate has supported creating a program of taxpayer-funded
vouchers for students in the worst-performing schools. The House has preferred
expanding the tax credit program.
But leaders in that
chamber are now arguing for a framework proposed by Rep. Jim Christiana,
R-Beaver, that contains aspects of both approaches.
Commentary:
While the
PA Constitution clearly says that the state is responsible for providing a
public education, there is nothing mandating the state to provide private or
religious education. As I listened to
Chairman Adolph of the House Appropriations Committee last week make it clear
that there was no additional money available for the proposed budget, it helped
to put “school choice” more clearly in focus.
The legislature has chosen to forego $75 million in revenue in order to
fund private and religious schools through the current EITC program. If we do not have the money to provide
kindergarten programs in Harrisburg
That being said, here
is Rep. Christiana’s cosponsorship memo which provides some details of his
proposed legislation.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Pennsylvanians
Opposed to Vouchers Letter to all Members of the PA House of Representatives June 4, 2012
Along with 28 other statewide organizations, Keystone State Education
Coalition is a member of Pennsylvanians Opposed to Vouchers. POV sent this letter to all members of the PA
House on June 4th. The
Keystone State Education Coalition is faxing a copy to all members of the PA
General Assembly on June 10th.
Butterflies
and Stinkbugs
Yinzercation blog — JUNE 8, 2012
It’s been a beautiful
June week and the insects, both good and bad, are out in full force. For our
Friday news wrap-up, we present some virtual awards complete with small flying
critters.
Education Voters PA @EdVotersPA
Please take 2 minutes to send an email to
your state reps, ask them to restore public ed funding:
“The
NCLB testing bubble should have burst several years ago, and probably would
have done so had not the billionaire technocrats intervened with the Common
Core testing bailout. Now it looks like we are in for a few more years of
glorious predictions of the wonderful equitable outcomes the latest and
greatest testing technology will deliver, until it doesn’t. But in the
meantime, our public schools continue to be undermined, and resources continue
to be diverted away from classrooms and into the testing/data infrastructure.”
The trouble with
‘Groupthink’ in school reform
By
This was
written by educator Anthony Cody, who worked for 24 years in the Oakland
By Anthony Cody
A disturbing thought came to mind as I was
looking at the latest report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, which criticizes schools of
education for failing
to jump on the “obsessed with data” bandwagon. You can just feel the irritation
in the words of NCTQ president Kate Walsh when she says: A lot of schools of education continue to
become quite oppositional to the notion of standardized tests, even though they
have very much become a reality in K-12 schools. The ideological resistance is
critical.
This reminds me of a phenomenon called “Groupthink.” What we
are experiencing in education is actually a virulent and coercive strain of
Groupthink, and it is harming our students.
The value of test data has been inflated way
beyond its true worth, in a manner similar to real estate prices during the
bubble of the past decade. Once this bubble is launched, many people begin to
depend on it for their livelihoods.
Audits for 3 Georgia Charter Schools Tied to Turkish Movement
New York Times By STEPHANIE
SAUL Published: June 5, 2012
A group of three
publicly financed charter
schools in Georgia run
by followers of Fethullah Gulen,
a prominent Turkish imam, have come under scrutiny after they defaulted on
bonds and an audit found that the schools improperly granted hundreds of
thousands of dollars in contracts to businesses and groups, many of them with
ties to the Gulen movement.
Steven Malanga: State Politicians and the Public Pension Cookie
Jar
Wall Street Journal By
STEVEN MALANGA
Scott Walker's victory
in Wisconsin
Legislators in dozens
of states have crafted retirement perks that are even more generous than those
of their government employees. As states and municipalities confront the
crushing cost of pension promises, these elected officials are being asked to
rein in a system they benefit from.
Diane Ravitch on PBS Newshour June 5th,
2012
NSBA asks for flexibility
for local Race to the Top grants
NSBA’s School Board News
Today Blog by Joetta Sack-Min|June 7th, 2012
The National School
Boards Association (NSBA) is concerned that the federal government’s proposed
criteria for a new, $400 million Race to the Top (RTTT) district competition
could stifle innovation and local control.
“Several of the draft
requirements threaten to diminish the program as an [local education agency]
grant in name only, including first time requirements that represent alarming
precedents for the future,” NSBA wrote in a June 8 letter to the U.S. Department of Education.
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:
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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