A whopping 23.1% of U.S.
children under the age of 18 live in poverty, putting us second in the world. Among developed nations, only Romania
has a higher relative child poverty rate…..
Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1650
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
Commentary – feedback welcome
How do we, as a nation,
create scalable, sustainable models for effective public schools in high
poverty communities?
That question was asked to Roberto Rodriguez, Special Assistant to President Obama for Education, in
a meeting held a couple weeks ago at the White House with about 40 Pennsylvania education
leaders.
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-do-we-as-nation-create-scalable.html
"Some would argue
that this is a war on public education - that couldn't be further from the
truth," Corbett said Thursday. "This provides school competition.
There's no longer a monopoly, and with competition, we all perform
better."
Posted: Fri, Sep. 14, 2012 , 6:09 AM
EITC 2.0: Philadelphia
Archdiocese school manager sets growth goal
By Jeremy Roebuck Inquirer Staff Writer
The private foundation managing the Archdiocese
of Philadelphia's financially strapped secondary schools announced its goal
Thursday to increase enrollment at its campuses by about 4,000 - to levels last
attained during the mid-1990s.
The initiative, which Faith in the Future
chairman Ed Hanway dubbed "E20K" for the 20,000-student total
enrollment called for under the plan, would be aided in part by a relatively
new school-choice scholarship program state lawmakers established last year, he
said.
The Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit offers
tax breaks to local business that fund scholarships for students who want to
transfer from consistently underperforming public schools.
Patriot-News forum on
education reveals uncertain, changing future
Published:
Thursday, September
13, 2012 , 9:32 PM
One thing everyone agreed on at Thursday's night's Patriot-News forum on education in Camp Hill is whatever public education looks like 10 years from now, it'll be different from what it is today. With increasing pressure on tax-paying property owners, a looming pension crisis, calls for more choice, more funding and more accountability, the landscape of public education in
Allentown Morning Call Opinion
Point/Counterpoint September
10, 2012
EITC 2.0: Should students
in 'low-performing schools' get state grants to go to private school?
Pennsylvania Education Secretary Ron Tomalis and
Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Joseph Roy debate merits of Act
85, a voucher/scholarship program that provides business tax credits so
children in 'low-performing schools' can go to private school.
The Gates Foundation Responds: The Role of the
Marketplace in Education
Guest post by Irvin Scott and Stacey Childress of the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation.
This post can also be read and commented on at
the Gates Foundation's Impatient Optimist blog.
This is the last post in a series of five sets of posts, and responds to this
post from last week: What Happens when Profits Drive Reform?
Irvin Scott: The interaction on this blog began with a spoken agreement and wish between us and Mr. Cody during a conversation this summer: to truly engage with those who have different views from our own. To listen to one other, potentially find common ground, agree where we can and respectfully disagree where we can't. To try and bring some civility to what can sometimes be an uncivil quarter of our education debates. That was our agreement - along with this set of topics reflected in this space over the last few weeks. While I am not sure each post in the series fully met the spirit of the agreement, I do appreciate any effort Mr. Cody made to move in that direction.
Irvin Scott: The interaction on this blog began with a spoken agreement and wish between us and Mr. Cody during a conversation this summer: to truly engage with those who have different views from our own. To listen to one other, potentially find common ground, agree where we can and respectfully disagree where we can't. To try and bring some civility to what can sometimes be an uncivil quarter of our education debates. That was our agreement - along with this set of topics reflected in this space over the last few weeks. While I am not sure each post in the series fully met the spirit of the agreement, I do appreciate any effort Mr. Cody made to move in that direction.
The topic of this final blog per our agreement
is the "role of the marketplace in education."
NEPC: Review of The
Effects of School Vouchers on College Enrollment: Experimental Evidence from New York City
The Effects of School Vouchers on College
Enrollment: Experimental Evidence from New
York City
Brookings Institute August 23, 2012
This Brookings report
examines college enrollment rates of students participating in an experimental
New York School Choice Scholarships Foundation Program, which in the spring of
1997 offered 3-year scholarships worth up to $1,400 annually to low-income
families. The study identifies no overall impacts of the voucher offer, but the
authors report and emphasize large positive impacts for African American
students, including increases in college attendance, full-time enrollment, and
attendance at private, selective institutions of higher education. This strong
focus on positive impacts for a single subgroup of students is not warranted.
There are no statistically significant differences in the estimated impact for
African Americans as compared to other students…
http://nepc.colorado.edu/thinktank/review-vouchers-college
In Chicago ,
It’s a Mess, All Right
New York Times By JOE NOCERA Published: September 10, 2012
There really isn’t much evidence that
introducing choice and competition — an important rationale for charter schools
— has forced the big-city public schools to improve. Until somebody figures out
how to create reforms that work for all, and not just the lucky few, American
public education will continue to suffer. The reform movement hasn’t come close
to that goal.
On the other hand, the status quo, which is what
the Chicago
teachers want, is clearly unacceptable. In Chicago , about
60 percent of public school students graduate from high school. The
percentage who graduate from college before the age of 25 is appalling:
somewhere around
6 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/11/opinion/nocera-in-chicago-its-a-mess-all-right.html?_r=1&src=rechp
Two Visions for Chicago ’s Schools
According
to most news reports, the teachers in Chicago
are striking because they are lazy and greedy. Or they are striking because of
a personality clash between Mayor Rahm Emanuel and union president Karen Lewis.
Or because this is the last gasp of a dying union movement. Or because Emanuel
wants a longer school day, and the teachers oppose it.
None of
this is true. All reports agree that the two sides are close to agreement on
compensation issues—it is not money that drove them apart. Last spring the
union and the school board agreed to a longer school day, so that is not the
issue either. The strike is a clash of two very different visions about what is
needed to transform the schools of Chicago —and
the nation.
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/sep/12/two-visions-chicagos-schools/
Chicago : President Obama and
Education Reform
Huffington Post by Michael
McShane, Education policy research
fellow, The American Enterprise Institute
Posted: 09/13/2012 7:03 pm
Rahm Emanuel isn't the only one
facing a test in Chicago
this week. In reality, the Chicago Teachers Union is fighting back against a
slate of reforms advanced by a new generation of Democratic leaders, including
President Obama.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-mcshane/president-obama-and-educa_b_1882484.html?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education
Chicago Teachers Strike:
Wealthy Base Helps Rahm Emanuel Take On Teachers Union
Huffington
Post/Reuters By Nick Carey Posted: 09/13/2012 Updated: 09/14/2012
CHICAGO, Sept 12 (Reuters) -
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel received far more money in campaign donations from
wealthy financiers and entrepreneurs backing school reform than from unions,
leaving him freer to confront the city's teachers than some fellow Democrats,
an examination of donations to his 2011 campaign shows. The city's 29,000 teachers have been on
strike since Monday, halting classes in the country's third-largest school
district, over contract negotiations that are snagged on job security and
Emanuel's plan to rate teachers based on students' standardized test scores.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/14/wealthy-base-helps-emanue_n_1881468.html?utm_hp_ref=education
Education Voters PA Statewide
Advocate Leadership Session Sept. 22nd
Added by Ian Moran
Time: September
22, 2012 from 8:30am
to 4:30pm
Location: Temple University Harrisburg,234 Strawberry Square
Location: Temple University Harrisburg,
Education Voters of Pennsylvania will be holding
a day-long summit for public education advocates across the state on Saturday
September 22 in Harrisburg ,
PA.
With public education coming under attack on
multiple levels, the goal of this event is to bring together community members
who are standing up for public schools in their own communities for training,
planning and coordinating statewide efforts to maximize the impact that we all
have. We'll have a chance to brush up on and learn more about key policy
issues, get training on effective advocacy tools and techniques and share
stories and idea about local effort and how we bring this work together in a
unified way. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.
CLICK HERE to register: https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6041/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=36412
Click HERE for more details
on parking, directions, etc.
2012 PASA-PSBA
School Leadership
Conference Oct. 16-19, 2012
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
for a full day of events. Stay tuned to aei-pa.org for information about our 2nd Arts and Education
Symposium. Scholarships and Act 48 Credit will be available.
Outstanding speakers and panelists from Pennsylvania
and beyond will once again come together to address key topics in the arts and
arts education and related public policy advocacy initiatives. This is a
networking and learning opportunity not to be missed!
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. ,
FRN membership is a good place to start.
Click here for more information.
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