“Only public schools, operated by school
districts with elected school boards are open to all children and fully
accountable to all taxpayers.”
Baruch Kintisch, Director of Policy Advocacy,
Education Law Center, in testimony before the PA House Democratic Policy
Committee, July
17, 2012
Daily postings
from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1600
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
Posted: Tue, Jul. 24, 2012 , 1:12 PM
Feds charge Philly charter school mogul in massive fraud
By Martha Woodall INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER
A charter school mogul was charged
today in a multimillion-dollar fraud case by the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Dorothy June Hairston Brown, who
received accolades for students' test scores and gained notoriety for
collecting large salaries and suing parents who questioned her actions, was
indicted on multiple counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and witness
tampering.
Brown, 75, and four executives
from her charter schools, were charged with defrauding three charter schools of
more than $6.5 million in taxpayer funds.
U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger
announced that a federal grand jury had returned a 62-count indictment against
Brown and four of her trusted employees.
Tweet by Philadelphia Inquirer
reporter Kristen Graham @newskag
7/24/2012
66
p. indictment against charter founder june brown and others, announced today
Schools PR effort
includes GOP lobbyist funded by William Penn. Schools chair calls City Paper
exposé a “fantasy.”
City Paper by Daniel Denvir, July 24, 2012
The Philadelphia Public School Notebook has discovered that the William Penn Foundation has
spent more than $160,000 on a public-relations campaign for theSchool Reform Commission,
which faces mounting criticism over a proposal developed by the Boston Consulting Group that
would dismantle the central office, close more than 60 schools, and potentially
put those that remain open under private management.
The Notebook reported that William Penn is paying the Bravo Group, controlled by Mitt
Romney fundraiser
and long-time state Republican leader Chris Bravacos. The money is being
passed through the Greater Philadelphia
Chamber of Commerce.
Penn
Prof Helps Struggling Philadelphia
Phillymag.com by Josh Rosen 7/24/2012
While
politicians and activists argue over budgets and testing, Howard Stevenson
talks to students.
While Philadelphia
“Can We Talk” is the name of a
program run by Howard Stevenson, an associate professor at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, that is aimed at responding to the
emotional needs of young students, particularly young African-Americans. For 25
years, Stevenson’s been the ears for “at-risk youth,” opening a dialogue
between students and teachers in high-stress environments. His “racial
literacy” is a conversation between students and teachers centered on the kinds
of racial, financial and familial anxieties that so often plague students who
go to school in urban communities.
…..Today, 66 percent of African-American children are born to
single-parent families. In Pennsylvania, the number is 70 percent; and most of these
single parents are mothers. Among African-American students in grades six to
12, 43
percent have been suspended from school.
In the city of Philadelphia,
nine of every 10 shooting victims are African-American; most are between 18 and
20 years old. Seventy-five percent of school children, from the ages of 10 to
19, report having witnessed a shooting, stabbing, robbing
or killing of another person.
Despite these tragic figures,
Stevenson believes that our work might not be as hard as we’d expect it to be.
In fact, it’s cut out for us: “It’s easier to bond with kids who are strikingly
emotional,” he says, “because when you do it, it’s such a contrast to other
things they’ve had in their lives, that you stand out.”
271 Pittsburgh
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh July 25, 2012 1:18 am
The board of Pittsburgh
Public Schools is expected to vote tonight to furlough an estimated 271
employees, including 178 teachers and other professional members of the
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers in a cost-cutting move.
In May, about 285
teachers and other professionals received provisional furloughs, but additional
retirements, resignations and other changes have reduced the number by more
than 100.
Even so, the number of
teacher layoffs is larger than any other year in the district's institutional
memory, said superintendent Linda
Lane
What’s missing from
congressional hearing on teachers
Congressional hearings are supposed to provide
lawmakers wth information they need to make policy and legislative decisions.
But sometimes, when you look at the witness lists, it is hard to figure out why
legislators bother to hold them.
Take the hearing being held on Tuesday by the
House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education,
chaired by Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter from California
BY FRAN SPIELMAN, MAUDLYNE
IHEJIRIKA AND LAUREN FITZPATRICK Chicago Sun Times Staff
Reporters July 24, 2012 2:04PM
After months of acrimony
culminating in a 90 percent strike authorization vote, the Chicago Teachers
Union and the city have reached an agreement that could help avert a
strike. Both sides declared victory.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel got his longer
school day — 7 hours for elementary schools and 7 1/2 hours for high schools.
And teachers maintained the status
quo on the length of their workday.
How? Instead of requiring teachers
to work a 20 percent longer day, the Chicago Public Schools have agreed to hire
more teachers to fill the extra instruction time with such classes as art,
music and physical education.
NSBA
Federal Relations Network seeking new members for 2013-14
School directors are invited to
advocate for public education at the federal level through the National School
Boards Association’s Federal Relations Network. The National School Boards Association is
seeking school directors interested in serving on the Federal Relations Network
(FRN), its grass roots advocacy program that brings local board members on the
front line of pending issues before Congress. If you are a school director and
willing to carry the public education message to Washington , D.C.
Click here for more information.
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