“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, legislative and congressional staffers, 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: Thu, Aug. 23, 2012 , 3:01 AM
Joe
Watkins: Concerns over school choice advocate taking charge of Chester
BY WILL BUNCH Philadelphia
IT MIGHT HAVE once seemed unthinkable: Handing the keys to a
large, troubled public-school district over to a high-profile advocate for
increasing privatization, including vouchers and for-profit private schools. But activists said that last Friday's surprise
announcement that Gov. Corbett had named the Rev. Joe Watkins - an MSNBC pundit
who headed the Students First PAC, the pro-voucher group that's dumped millions
of campaign dollars on Corbett and other pols - as chief recovery officer to
run the Chester Upland schools in Delaware County marks a tipping point.
Joe
Watkins: What Will Happen to Chester Upland
Diane Ravitch’s Blog August 21, 2012
Sometimes something happens
that is so astonishing, so breathtaking, and simultaneously so disturbing that
I don’t know how to characterize it.
“Talk about putting the fox in charge of the
henhouse”
Joe Watkins: Taking the
Public out of Public Education
Yinzercation Blog — AUGUST 22, 2012
Talk about putting the fox in charge
of the henhouse. State Education Secretary Ron Tomalis just picked Joe Watkins
to be the Chief Recovery Officer (CRO) for the struggling school district in
Chester Uplands. Under new laws passed with the budget this summer, the state
can now appoint a CRO to develop a “financial recovery plan” for districts like
Chester Upland over in Eastern PA and Duquesne,
right here in the heart of Yinzer Nation.
The CRO has enormous power to close
schools and convert them to charters, to cancel contracts with vendors, and to
renegotiate teachers’ contracts. He can even force local
school boards to raise property taxes. And if school board members don’t go
along with the plan, the state actually now has the ability to prevent
individuals from resigning their posts!
“When asked to evaluate the
school their oldest child attends, an astonishing 77% give it an A or B. This
is the highest rating in 20 years. Only 6% give it a D or F. This question
elicits the views of informed consumers, the people who refer to a real school,
not the hypothetical school system that is lambasted every other day in the
national press or condemned as “obsolete” by Bill Gates.”
What We
Can Learn from the New PDK/Gallup Poll
Diane Ravitch’s Blog August 22, 2012
The
annual Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup poll on education was released today.
The
sponsors characterize public opinion as split, which is true for many issues.
We must
see this poll in the context of an unprecedented, well-funded campaign to
demonize public schools and their teachers over at least the past two years,
and by some reckoning, even longer.
The
media has parroted endlessly the assertion that our public schools are
failures, they are (as Bill Gates memorably said to the nation’s governors in
2005) “obsolete,” and “the system is broken.” How many times have you heard
those phrases? How many television specials have you seen claiming that our
education system is disastrous? And along comes “Waiting for ‘Superman’” with
its propagandistic attack on public education in cities and suburbs alike and
its appeal for privatization. Add to that Arne Duncan’s faithful parroting of
the claims of the critics.
That is
the context, and it is remarkable that Americans continue to believe in the
schools they know best and to understand what their most critical need is.
PDK/Gallup Poll Offers Glimpse into Americans
Views of Public Education
Seventy-one percent of Americans have "trust and confidence" in
our country's public school teachers, 48 percent would give the public
schools in their community an A or B, and three of four people in the country
believe the Common Core State Standards will provide more consistency in the
quality of education between school districts and states. These are just a few
of the findings from the 44th Annual Phi Delta Kappan/Gallup Poll of
the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, which was released
today.
Poll: Americans’ views
on public education
A major annual poll on how Americans view public
education shows divisions on vouchers, charter
schools, evaluating teachers by standardized test scores of students and whether President Obama or Mitt
Romney would be better for public education. Yet Americans largely agree that
they trust public school teachers but want them prepared more rigorously.
As has been true in previous years, Americans
give relatively high grades to the public schools in their own communities —
this year 48 percent gave them a grade of an A or B, compared to 40 percent in
1992. But they give lower to grades to public schools in the nation as a whole.
New Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll
Finds Nation Divided On Education Issues
EdMedia Commons National Education Writers Association Posted
by Emily Richmond on
August 22, 2012
at 8:31am in Education in the News
By Mikhail Zinshteyn, EWA
Americans believe lack of school
funding is the biggest issue facing public schools but balancing the federal
budget should take priority, according to a new Phi Delta Kappa/ Gallup Poll on
public attitudes toward education.
David Shulick, the owner of Delaware Valley High School
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2012
Philly School File Blog by Kristen Graham
The Philadelphia
School District Delaware Valley
High School
Posted: Wed, Aug. 22, 2012 , 7:16 AM
Charter schools drain much needed funds
Roebuck, who represents
the 188th District (West Philadelphia ), is
Democratic chairman of the state House Education Committee.
IN PHILADELPHIA
Their sacrifice has brought an end to one battle
for now. But the larger war against our public schools and the working people
of our state goes on.
Failing grade for Corbett / A new law stomps on the rights of the
Duquesne school district and others
State
Rep. Marc Gergely, D-White Oak, represents the 35th Legislative District.
The financial crisis in the Duquesne City
School District
Property taxpayers in
neighboring school districts should be worried, too. You could be on the hook
for thousands of dollars for every student transferring into your district.
Lawmakers, area school officials
criticize Corbett's education cuts
Published: August 22, 2012
Backed by an army of
about 60 teachers, several politicians, school board members and union leaders
bashed Gov. Tom Corbett's cuts to education at a press conference in front of
the Wyoming Area Secondary
Center McCord ,
Wyoming Mayor Bob Boyer and Ransom Young, who
is running against state Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-Butler Township
Why are tycoons, politicians pushing
‘rigor’ for preschoolers?
Parents
Across America Aug 22, 2012
Parents Across America founding member
An author with whom I collaborate as editor asked me to
write her a brief summary explaining who’s behind the current brand of
education reform. Her topic – and concern – is the increasing academic “rigor”
being imposed on young children.
Here’s the question behind this: Teachers
overwhelmingly – and parents generally – know that mandating academic rigor for
young children is developmentally inappropriate. So if teachers and parents
know that it’s wrongheaded and harmful to impose academic rigor on
kindergartners and preschoolers, who is making it happen?
The 30
Top Education Policy Tweeters, 2012
Top 30 Education Policy Organizations and Individuals for Online
Influence, as Measured by Klout, August 2012
Bios of candidates slated for 2013 PSBA offices 8/15/2012
At its May 19 meeting
at PSBA Conference Center
Upcoming PSBA Professional Development Opportunities
To register or to learn
more about PSBA professional development programs please visit: www.psba.org/workshops/
2012 PASA-PSBA
School
Registration is Now Open! Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Hershey, PA
www.psba.org/workshops/school-leadership-conference/
Registration is Now Open! Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Hershey, PA
www.psba.org/workshops/school-leadership-conference/
EPLC’s 2012 Arts and Education Symposium: Save the Date, Thursday, October
11
Education
Policy and Leadership
Center
Please mark your calendars and plan on joining EPLC, our partners, and
guests on October 11 in Harrisburg Pennsylvania
http://www.aei-pa.org/
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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