Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1700
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, teacher
leaders, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 education advocacy
organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Thank you to the 121 PA
House Members who decided to Stand Up For Public Education.
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny)
said Thursday that funding for cyber charters, which currently receive the same
amount of money as other charters but do not have many of the same expenses,
was a particular concern.
"I think there has to be choice for
families, for kids," he said. "But I also think there has to be
fairness in how the funding works, particularly for cyber charters."
Rep. Paul Clymer (R., Bucks), chairman of the
House Education Committee, said many items in the proposal had broad support,
from ethics provisions to setting academic standards.But members "felt
there were ways in which the bill was more favorable to the charters and cyber
charters than to [traditional] public schools," he said, adding,
"There was just not a good feeling." In particular, Clymer said,
legislators were concerned that the commission to propose charter funding
changes "was too stacked with pro-charter people."
Posted: Fri, Oct. 19, 2012 , 3:01 AM
By Dan Hardy Inquirer Staff Writer
The clock ran out on the Pennsylvania General
Assembly's two-year legislative session Wednesday with a big surprise: It
failed to pass changes in charter-school law that had been supported by the
Corbett administration and the Senate and House leadership.
The bill had a long list of amendments,
including bringing charters under state ethics laws, requiring annual audits,
standardizing reporting, and creating a commission to propose funding changes.
It had passed the Senate on Tuesday with bipartisan support and by a ratio of
more than 2-1.
The measure, however, did not even come to a
vote in the House. Some House Republicans and many House Democrats said they
felt the bill tilted the playing field toward charters - and away from public
schools - and did not immediately address some pressing funding issues.
"In the end, until you have 26, 102 and one,
you don't have it done," Mr. Turzai said.
Lingering questions sink GOP charter school bill
Lingering questions sink GOP charter school bill
By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg
Some members, wanting
immediate changes to funding for cyber charter schools, were not satisfied with
the bill's creation of a commission to examine funding. Others were concerned
by the appearance of a provision correcting a technical error in a budget bill.
"In
the last two years, public schools have taken a nearly $1 billion cut in state
funding, followed by a second state budget that locked in those cuts. These
cuts have led to program cuts, the loss of 20,000 jobs and property tax hikes.
We need to stop overpaying some charters at the expense of traditional public
schools that have to accept every student."
Roebuck:
Charter/cyber school reform bill gets an 'Incomplete' grade
Press Release House Education Committee Minority
Chairman James Roebuck
HARRISBURG, Oct. 17 – State Rep. James Roebuck, D-Phila.,
Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee, gives a grade of
"Incomplete" to the charter and cyber charter school reform bill
that's expected to pass the House today and head to the governor's desk.
"While
I welcome some of the changes that have been made to this bill, the Republican
majorities in the legislature and the governor could have – and should have –
done much more to ensure accountability for tax dollars," Roebuck said.
"In the last two years, public schools have taken a nearly $1 billion cut
in state funding, followed by a second state budget that locked in those cuts.
These cuts have led to program cuts, the loss of 20,000 jobs and property tax
hikes. We need to stop overpaying some charters at the expense of traditional
public schools that have to accept every student."
As Support Dwindles Among Lawmakers of Both
Parties, Charter School
The much debated charter school reform bill
never made it to vote. The bill, which the Senate passed on Tuesday, made its
way out of the House Rules Committee and was scheduled to move to the House. An
apparent lack of support by House Republicans tabled the bill. Both the House
and the Senate agreed to not take any legislative votes after the November
election, so the issue won't come back up until the new session in 2013.
The charter school reform bill, Senate Bill
1115, would have been a significant change to the charter law and was seen as a
key piece of legislation by Republican leadership and the Governor. However,
criticism of certain parts of the bill prevented its passage.
Charter School
Champions Hit Uncertainty in Pennsylvania
There have been a few interesting developments
in the last few days regarding charter schools in the Keystone State, both
within the state itself and the U.S. Department of Education's view of how the
state has handled charters.
Charter
school news: PA changes way AYP is measured for charters, legislature doesn’t
act on reform legislation
There have been several reports in the past week or so that Pennsylvania
House inaction on
charter school bill has charter and district advocates looking for a different
bill next year
By on October 18, 2012
at 11:58 AM
Disappointed that the third time wasn't the
charm in getting a charter school reform bill passed through the General
Assembly, a coalition representing these independent public schools offered a
biting statement about the House's inaction on Wednesday to fix some of the flaws they see in this 1997 law.
Why almost all school
reform efforts have failed
Why is
it that wave after wave of school reform doesn’t seem to make much of a dent in
the problems that they are designed to address? David C. Berliner of Arizona State
University offers an answer in this new essay entitled
“Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America ’s Youth,” which was just published in
the Teachers College Record at Columbia University
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