“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: Mon, Jul. 23, 2012 , 7:03 AM
Education
firm linked to Fattah's son lays off all its teachers, administrators
By Martha Woodall Inquirer
Staff Writer
Without warning, Delaware Valley
High School
Staffers said lawyer David T.
Shulick, whose company operates the schools, owes them each thousands of
dollars for work during the 2011-12 academic year. They had been expecting back
pay last week but got furlough notices instead.
In late February, the FBI raided
Shulick's Logan Square Delaware Valley
Charter schools seek revisions to state funding forms
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh
With charter schools
already costing Pittsburgh Public Schools more than $47 million a year, school
officials are concerned about a charter school challenge that, if successful,
could cost the district more than $2 million a year.
District solicitor Ira
Weiss said five charter schools have filed similar letters with the state
Department of Education seeking to change what is counted under the existing
funding formula for school districts across the state -- a change that could
affect districts throughout the state.
"The point is that
this is a concerted effort. Every letter is the same," Mr. Weiss said.
Inky
Editorial: Charter gamble is no sure bet
Inquirer Editorial Posted: Sun, Jul. 22, 2012 , 3:00 AM
The School Reform Commission may be taking too big a
gamble by investing $139 million in charter-school expansions when there is
evidence that many charters perform no better than traditional schools
academically, and the lack of adequate regulation has birthed charters that
misspend taxpayer dollars.
Charter schools should be made available for
children who desperately need an alternative to city schools that are often
violent and offer a poor education. However,
charters are no panacea and they do nothing to fix the bigger problem — the bad
schools that the bulk of the city's students will still attend.
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY
AND PROGRAMS?
Testimony before the Pennsylvania
Baruch Kintisch, Director of Policy Advocacy, Education Law Center July 17, 2012
Posted: Sun, Jul. 22, 2012 , 11:41 AM
A new Pennsylvania
By Amy Worden Inquirer Staff Writer
When her daughter Kelly joined the field hockey team
at New Hope-Solebury High School
Flynn did not understand why girls' teams couldn't
use that field, especially when there were no scheduling conflicts and it sat
empty.
That started her on a six-year struggle to level the
playing field for girl athletes.
K12 Inc.
Stock Down After Scathing Report
Education Week Marketplace K12 Blog By Jason Tomassini on July
19, 2012
Another big shot in the ongoing debate over virtual
schools was fired Wednesday, in the form of a report showing schools managed by
online education leader K12 Inc. perform worse on average than brick-and-mortar
schools.
The report, "Understanding
and Improving Virtual Schools," was released by the National Education
Policy Center ,
a nonprofit research organization based in Boulder , Colo.
Response to
NEPC Report on k12 Inc.
From k12 Inc. website
Which CEO
made $5 million stealing your kid's lunch money?
YouTube video runtime 4:37 Published on Jul 19,
2012 by bravenewfoundation
ALEC is working to ensure that public education
dollars get diverted to private profits. Their approach is working -- for them.
Not so much for the students who pay the price in the form of a subpar
education and poor performance.
Educator
cited as model for Utah
An expert in cyberspace
education who was featured at the pre-legislative conference of the Utah
Taxpayers Association was raided by the FBI last week, and is being
investigated for allegedly misusing taxpayer money.
Nick Trombetta, who
founded the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter
School in 2000 and had an enrollment
of more than 11,300 students in 2011-12, was the target of FBI raids at his
offices in Pennsylvania and at a consulting
firm he operates in Ohio
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Apply Now!
EPLC’s
2012-13 Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program
Applications are still being accepted for the
2012-2013 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy
Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania
Responses to NYT
Letter to the Editor by Stephen Krashen
The common core standards movement seems to be
common sense: Our schools should have similar standards, what students should
know at each grade. The movement, however, is based on the false assumption
that our schools are broken, that ineffective teaching is the problem and that
rigorous standards and tests are necessary to improve things.
“The conditional waivers
allow states to move away from many of the highly qualified teacher
requirements, as long as they adopt a system of teacher evaluations that takes
student achievement into account. So
far, more than half of the states have been approved for waivers.
Of course, some big ones,
including California , Pennsylvania , and Texas
House Panel OKs Bill to Scrap Race to the Top,
SIG, i3
President Barack Obama's signature education
programs would be scrapped under a bill approved this morning by the House
Appropriations Committee panel that oversees education spending.
The measure would cut about $1.1 billion from
the U.S. Department of Education's roughly $68 billion budget, according to an analysis
by the Committee for Education Funding, a lobbying coalition. The bill covers
fiscal year 2013, which starts on Oct. 1. The Senate Appropriations Committee
has already passed a similar measure. More information about both bills here.
Highly
Suspect?
If TFA
college grads with 5 weeks training are “highly qualified” then I guess I’m
“highly intelligent” and “highly handsome”….
House Extends Labeling of Trainee Teachers as
'Highly Qualified'
The disability advocacy community has been
worried that a provision in federal law about who is considered a highly
qualified teacher would be perpetuated as lawmakers take up new spending bills
for the coming fiscal year.
Earlier this year, the Senate merely left
the door open to extending a provision
that allows teachers still working on their certification to be considered
"highly qualified"—a designation created by 2001's No Child Left
Behind law. The law says teachers must already be certified to qualify, but Education
Department regulations created about the law allowed for teachers in
alternative routes to be considered highly qualified, even if they were still
working on their certification. For example, people in the classroom as part of
the Teach for America
NEPC Best of the Ed Blogs
Best of the Ed Blogs
features a frequently updated selection of interesting and insightful blog
posts on education policy. The views expressed by the bloggers on our blog roll
are thoughtful, original, and entirely their own. We hope you make Best of the
Ed Blogs your first stop for concise takes on today's most important education
topics.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.