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On
deadline, Pa.
Published: Sunday, July 01, 2012
By MARC LEVY, Associated Press
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) —
After days of long meetings and last-minute bills flying, Gov. Tom Corbett
signed a $27.7 billion no-new-taxes budget just before midnight Saturday that was the centerpiece of
several long-term victories for his legislative agenda.
There were defeats for the governor too, though his fellow Republicans who control the Legislature tried to squeeze out as many victories for Corbett as they could in the waning moments of the fiscal year. Minority Democrats staunchly opposed elements of the budget as well.
There were defeats for the governor too, though his fellow Republicans who control the Legislature tried to squeeze out as many victories for Corbett as they could in the waning moments of the fiscal year. Minority Democrats staunchly opposed elements of the budget as well.
“Aid
for public schools and universities will remain flat — several public schools
approaching financial collapse will see a little extra money — after absorbing
more than $1 billion in cuts in the just-ended fiscal year. But more new
education money, $75 million, went toward tax credits approved Saturday night
to reward businesses that contribute to scholarships for students who transfer
to private schools or public schools outside their home districts.”
Scrambling preceded approval of Pennsylvania
Published: Sunday, July 01, 2012 , 6:44
PM
Patriot News By The Associated
Press
Despite Republican domination of the Capitol, the final hours before Gov. Tom Corbett signed his second state budget Saturday night were chaotic.
Despite Republican domination of the Capitol, the final hours before Gov. Tom Corbett signed his second state budget Saturday night were chaotic.
There were late-night votes, 11th-hour negotiations to seal deals and
several senators almost hollering at each other over an obscure natural gas
basin under southeastern Pennsylvania
Corbett signed the $27.7 billion no-new-taxes general appropriations bill15
minutes before midnight Saturday, the centerpiece of several long-term
victories delivered by the Republican-controlled Legislature. The bill went to
his desk Friday, but he waited for passage of companion pieces of legislation
that were integral to the budget, crucial to his agenda or adorned with
lawmakers’ pet provisions.
Posted: Mon, Jul. 2, 2012 , 3:01 AM
By Dan Hardy Inquirer Staff
Writer
Gov. Corbett, who has pushed hard
for a school-voucher program, achieved much of that goal Saturday night through
the expansion of a corporate tax credit that for the first time will pay for
public school students to attend private schools.
As part of the budget deal
concluded just before midnight, the legislature broadened the Educational
Improvement Tax Credit program (EITC), adding $50 million in tax breaks to
businesses that donate money for scholarships to students in the state's
lowest-performing schools.
How
did your State Representative vote on HB 761, the tax code bill that
included
the EITC expansion?
How
did your State Senator vote on HB 761
Roebuck:
New education tax credit just a private-school bailout
Estimates
85 to 90 percent of kids getting voucher would already be in private schools
Press Release June 30, 2012
HARRISBURG, June 30 – State Rep.
James Roebuck, D-Phila., Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee,
said an education tax credit in a bill the General Assembly passed this weekend
(H.B. 761) is little more than a private-school bailout.
"If your student is already
in private school, congratulations because this plan would give your school a
bailout through tax-credit vouchers – but if your student is in a
low-performing public school, you’re probably out of luck. It’s still the
private school’s choice – not the student’s choice. And it’s important to
remember that a voucher will NOT get a child into a charter school since
charter schools are not private – they are considered public schools,"
Roebuck said.
Roebuck said the new legislation
would use the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program to accomplish the same
goals as previous tax-funded private-school voucher bills. Businesses that
donate would receive 90 percent reimbursement with state tax credits.
Citypaper by Daniel
Denvir TUESDAY, MAY
22, 2012
A Pennsylvania
The Times also reported on tax-credit
programs―which are effectively the same as school vouchers, turning over public
money to pay for private school tuition―in Georgia ,
Florida and Arizona
InPennsylvania
In
Chris
Bravacos, a director at the Bravo Foundation, was a member of Governor
Corbett’s Education Transition Team
BRAVO
FOUNDATION
STATEMENT
OF ARCHBISHOP CHARLES J. CHAPUT, O.F.M. CAP.
ON THE PASSAGE OF HOUSE BILL 761 (EXPANSION OF EITC AND CREATION OF EITC 2)
ON THE PASSAGE OF HOUSE BILL 761 (EXPANSION OF EITC AND CREATION OF EITC 2)
"Today is an important day
for students across Pennsylvania
Individuals, Not Corporations, Pick Up the Tax
Tab for EITC Scholarships
PA Budget and Policy Center June 25, 2012
Corporations get triple dip deduction for
contributions to private schools
Individual taxpayers are footing the bill for $9
out of every $10 of corporate contributions for private and parochial school
scholarships made through Pennsylvania
The EITC allows businesses to recover 75% to 90%
of the cost of contributing to an EITC-qualified organization. Companies can
also take state and federal tax deductions for a “charitable” contribution,
amounting to a “triple dip” tax reduction.
Educational
Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC)
State of Pennsylvania
Posted: Sun, Jul. 1, 2012 , 11:39 AM
Troubled
cyber charter school ignores state's demand that it close
By David Gambacorta Daily
News Staff Writer
Board members of the Philly-basedFrontier
Virtual Charter
High School
Board members of the Philly-based
This would seem like unremarkable
news, of course, except for one little thing: state Secretary of Education
Ronald Tomalis made it clear in a June 13 letter to Frontier's CEO, John Craig,
that the school had no
hope of opening in the fall.
Testing mandates flunk cost-benefit
analysis
This was
written by Peter Smagorinsky, Distinguished Research Professor of English
Education at The University
of Georgia
By Peter Smagorinsky
According to Wikipedia, cost–benefit analysis
“is a systematic process for calculating and comparing benefits and costs of a
project, decision or government policy (hereafter, ‘project’). CBA has two purposes:
1.To determine if it is a sound
investment/decision (justification/feasibility),
2.To provide a basis for comparing projects. It
involves comparing the total expected cost of each option against the total
expected benefits, to see whether the benefits outweigh the costs, and by how
much.”
I believe that it would be prudent to apply this
process to the current accountability movement now being administered in public
education, primarily in the form of testing mandates such as No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top. Although I am
not an economist — I’m an old high school English teacher now engaged in
teacher education at the university level — I believe that I understand the
issues at stake as well as anyone currently employed in the U.S. Department of
Education.
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