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
Public
school groups decry formula for funding charters
The associations, representing
urban and rural schools, school boards, business managers and administrators,
say the state’s calculation for the tuition that districts must pay for charter
school students requires them to pay double the amount they should for employee
pensions.
The problem, according to those
who have studied it, is that school districts pay 50 percent of their pension
costs and the state pays the rest. Charter schools, likewise, are reimbursed 50
percent of their pension costs from the state.
But in addition, school districts
must include the state and the local pension payments in their calculations for
charter school tuition, a formula that theoretically provides charter schools
with 150 percent of pension costs.
As of now, student
tests scores do not factor into a teacher's evaluation. Soon, that will change.
By Marion Callahan, Of The Allentown Morning Call 11:32
p.m. EDT, July 8, 2012
For years, success in school has
been measured by how well students perform on standardized tests. Now the target in the debate about
educational accountability has shifted to teachers.
For the first time in more than
four decades, Pennsylvania
is changing its method for evaluating teachers as part of a measure adopted
with Gov. Tom Corbett's budget package. It's a change in public
education sought by the governor and approved by state lawmakers.
As of now, student tests scores do
not factor into a teacher's evaluation. Soon, that will change.
Charter schools are not
included in the new teacher evaluation plan…..
“If
charter schools are just like public schools when it comes to important matters
of funding and student achievement, they also must be just like public schools
when it comes to assuring their teachers make the grade.”
Charter
omission: All public teachers should be held accountable
Editorial by Pittsburgh Post-GazetteJuly 9, 2012 12:08
am
Editorial by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The idea behind charter
schools in Pennsylvania
is that they're just another form of public school, offering choices for
parents and programming for students that's not available in schools run
directly by elected boards of education. As such, the charters are entitled to
funding comparable to traditional district schools, their students must take
the same standardized assessment tests and the results are available to the
public, which pays for their operations through tax dollars.
But in the final hours
before their summer recess, the Legislature adopted and Gov. Tom Corbett signed
a measure that gives charters a pass on new statewide standards for evaluating
teachers. And that's not right.
LETTER
FROM THE EDITOR: Education funding: Jim Crow in disguise?
Published: Monday, July 09, 2012
Delco Times Editorial By PHIL
HERON editor@delcotimes.com
This is a tale of two school
districts. Both are in the eastern end of the county. Both are facing daunting
budget problems. Both are saddled with an eroding tax base, leaving nowhere for
school board members to go to make the numbers add up, aside from property
taxes. Both are loathe to do that, knowing full well that homeowners already
are facing an enormous tax burden.
Both struggle to meet statewide testing mandates.
They are the poster children for what has been debated for years inPennsylvania , the
so-called uneven playing field that is public education funding in this state.
Both struggle to meet statewide testing mandates.
They are the poster children for what has been debated for years in
Citypaper
SUNDAY, JULY 8,
2012
Republican Gov.
Tom Corbett's administration has signed a $249,660 contract
with a company run by Mitt Romney fundraiser, former state GOP party executive
director, pharmaceutical lobbyist, and school voucher advocate Chris Bravacos to direct a media campaign promoting
the state's Voter ID law.
…..The contract details are interesting.
Bravo
is making a $24,900 subcontract to the Skyler Group, a consulting
outfit run by the African-American former Harrisburg City Councilman Otto
V. Banks. Banks is also the head of the pro-school voucher REACH
Foundation, a recipient of funding from the right-wing group American Federation for Children (yes:
the same group that helps fund campaigns against anti-voucher politicians
like state Rep. James Roebuck). Bravacos also sits on the REACH executive committee―along with a who's who of conservative
state religious and business figures in REACH leadership.
This is
perhaps what passes for minority contracting under the Corbett Administration:
the state Request for Quotation (RFQ) promises “greater consideration” to
projects that include a “Minority Business Enterprise.”
The webs of power and money, as usual, run thick: Bravacos also sits on the board of the pro-charter Philadelphia School Partnership, which City Paper last week reported is set to receive a $15 million grant from the William Penn Foundation―the same foundation that funded the Boston Consulting Group's proposal to dismantle and potentially privatize Philly public schools.
The webs of power and money, as usual, run thick: Bravacos also sits on the board of the pro-charter Philadelphia School Partnership, which City Paper last week reported is set to receive a $15 million grant from the William Penn Foundation―the same foundation that funded the Boston Consulting Group's proposal to dismantle and potentially privatize Philly public schools.
IN DEFENSE OF CURSIVE
The New Yorker Posted
by Judith
Thurman July 5, 2012
As of Independence Day, 2012,
forty-five of the fifty United
States have adopted the Common Core curriculum
in their public elementary schools. Those states are now in the process of
phasing out the teaching of cursive writing, which, apparently, does not accord
with the mission statement of the curriculum’s framers: to impart skills that
are “robust and relevant” to the modern world.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/07/in-defense-of-cursive.html#ixzz205HBNDXY
PSBA:
Key Provisions of New EITC 2.0 Scholarship Program
National Institute for Early
Education Research
State
of Preschool 2011 – Pennsylvania
State Profile
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