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
GEE
– this sounds familiar…..
“The voucher-like scheme
would be on top of deep Republican cuts already made to pre-K and K–12 funding
in North Carolina
Add the law enacted last
year to permit an unlimited number of charter schools and you have the Republicans'
three-step privatization plan:
- Cut state spending overall;
- Shift some of the remaining money to charter schools,
where parents may supplement public aid;
- Shift more of the remaining money to private schools,
where parents will supplement what the public contributes.
Actually, it's a
four-step plan. Republicans and their allies argue that as a result of the new
competition, traditional public schools will be forced to improve even though
their per-pupil budgets are reduced and they're left with high numbers of
students from very low-income families—the ones whose parents aren't looking
for charter or private school options.”
GOP plan would send
public funds to private schools
Durham NC May 30, 2012
A year ago, when the Republican-led General Assembly enacted a
small tax-credit subsidy for special-needs kids whose parents transfer them
from public to private schools, critics warned that it was just a foot in the
door. Soon, they said, the GOP would try to divert a lot more public money from
traditional K–12 schools to Christian and other nonpublic schools.
The critics were correct.
The shift would occur as
the result of an indirect voucher scheme. Corporations doing business in the
state and owing income or excise taxes would be allowed to instead pay for
private-school scholarships of up to $4,000 per student. The scholarship money
would be collected by nonprofit "scholarship-granting organizations"
certified by the state; contributing corporations would be given tax credits
from the state equal to the amount of their donations.
Eight other states have
similar programs, all of them controversial and based on a model drafted by the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC), a right-wing group funded by the billionaire
Koch Brothers, among others. ALEC's model was designed to circumvent the
constitutional prohibition against public funding for religious education. Last
year, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold the Arizona
version of ALEC's
legislation.
http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/gop-plan-would-send-public-funds-to-private-schools/Content?oid=3077399
Editorial: Crunch time:
What are Gov. Corbett's priorities?
Published:
Thursday, June
14, 2012 , 5:45 AM
Now would be an opportune time for Gov. Tom Corbett to demonstrate true leadership.
His poll numbers continue to sag — only 36 percent approve of the job he’s doing — and even some in his own party are questioning his inertia.
He has a lot to prove.
It’s crunch time in the
state Capitol.
The budget deadline
looms on June 30, and every lawmaker is trying to make a final push for funding
projects important to his or her district and other initiatives before summer
recess and the campaign season.
House Republican leader
Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny
County R-Beaver County ,
has a new twist on school vouchers, and Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery County
http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/06/true_leadership_gov_corbett_mu.html
Harrisburg shouldn't
consider cutting kindergarten, education reform advocate Michelle Rhee says
Published:
Wednesday, June
13, 2012 , 10:47
Killing kindergarten in the Harrisburg School District is not something the city school board should be considering as it looks to close a $13 million budget gap, a national education reform advocate said.“Given where Pennsylvania is right now with less than 50 percent being proficient, I think the state can ill afford to, and a district can ill afford to, put in place a policy that is going to lessen the amount of time that kids are in school,” said Michelle Rhee, founder and CEO of StudentsFirst, a bipartisan group based in Washington, D.C., during a visit to Harrisburg.
She said the same goes
for other districts that are looking at axing art or muting music.
“Those, I believe, are
integral to any child’s high quality education,” she said.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/06/harrisburg_shouldnt_consider_c.html
What do PA House Republican Policy Chairman Dave Reed (R-Indiana), and PA
House Democratic Policy Chairman Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster), have in common?
Along
with House Majority Whip Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York), and House Education
Committee Minority Chairman Rep. Jim Roebuck (D-Phila), they are among the 43 bipartisan
cosponsors of Mike Fleck’s (R-Huntingdon, Blair, Mifflin) HB2364 Charter School
Reform bill which substantively addresses accountability, funding and
transparency issues.
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
“His district is paying an average of about
$9,000 per pupil to attend charter schools, most of them online cyberschools.
Meanwhile, Solanco spends less than $4,000 per student attending its own
online school, Shrom said.”
Bill targets charter school costs
Intent, sponsor says, is
to bring tuition in line with cost of educating students
Intelligencer
Journal Lancaster Jun
10, 2012 20:05
By
BRIAN WALLACE Staff Writer
To Tim Shrom, the formula used to determine how
much Solanco School District
His district is paying an average of about
$9,000 per pupil to attend charter schools, most of them online cyberschools.
Meanwhile, Solanco spends less than $4,000 per student attending its own
online school, Shrom said.
Reducing that disparity is the intent of a bill
introduced last week to revamp the public charter school funding formula and
impose more financial controls on charter school operators.
Read more: http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/666426_Bill-targets-charter-school-costs.html#ixzz1xnw7i3u6
Posted:
Thu, Jun. 14,
2012 , 12:04 PM
Archbishop: Pass voucher bill now - or else
Philadelphia
When
I decided in February to keep four financially distressed archdiocesan high
schools open, I said that school vouchers and expanded tax credits for
scholarships are urgently needed — and not just sometime in the future, but
right now, during the current legislative session. If such legislation had been
enacted a decade ago, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia would not have had to
consider closing or consolidating elementary and high schools this year.
What
I noted in February is even more pressing today: Without new scholarship tax
credits and school vouchers to relieve costs, more archdiocesan schools will
close soon, and more of the financial burden of educating young people will
fall on the public.
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20120614_Archbishop__Pass_voucher_bill_now__mdash__or_else.html
Rock the Capitol Posted by Terry Shaffer at 19 September, 2011 at 12 : 35 PM
In 2010, the voters of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
While we heard whispers of what was to come
during his first term, it was only after his re-election over some guy in jail,
in which the voters sounded a ringing endorsement of his policies by a margin
of 51% – 49%, that the hero of “Bonusgate” began the process of putting the
Commonwealth’s government where it belonged – back in the hands of the
people…who could afford it. (CEO’s are people, too, you know?) So
let’s take a look at that second term – perhaps the most prosperous four years
in Pennsylvania
http://www.rockthecapital.com/09/19/tom-corbett-%E2%80%93-retrospective/
The Florida
School
Key education
group takes aim at state's FCAT culture
By Leslie Postal, Orlando Sentinel 7:38 p.m. EST, June 13, 2012
TAMPA — Frustrated with the FCATand
a school-accountability system they think tramples educational quality, a key
panel of the Florida School Boards Association on
Wednesday urged state leaders to scale back Florida's use of standardized tests
for important school decisions.
The hour-long discussion before the vote showed
deep discontent with the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test and how the
state uses FCAT scores to judge students, teachers and schools.
School Board members from coast to coast and
from the Panhandle to South Florida said they — and the families they represent
— were upset by a system that over-emphasized test scores and, as a result,
narrowed the curriculum and forced districts to spend "growing
amounts" of money on test-related expenses.
"We're all just fed up," said Joie
Cadle, an Orange County School
Board member who is to become the state association president Thursday.
The association's board of directors voted
unanimously to recommend that the full membership, which meets Thursday, adopt
a resolution that criticizes how the state uses FCAT scores. Given the vote by
the panel of about 30 members, Cadle predicted the resolution likely would win
support from the full association, too.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-06-13/features/os-fcat-school-boards-association-20120613_1_fcat-scores-grade-schools-a-to-f-florida-school-boards-association
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 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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.