Thursday, October 18, 2012

Pa. House pulls the plug on charter reform bill, killing the measure for this year


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Thanks to everyone who contacted their legislators regarding SB1115
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Pa. House pulls the plug on charter reform bill, killing the measure for this year
By JAN MURPHY, The Patriot-News on October 17, 2012 at 11:42 PM
A historic charter school reform bill was all teed up for a House vote on Wednesday, but the vote never happened.  Enough House Republicans peeled away their support from the bill as the day wore on, making it apparent the measure did not have the 102 votes needed to pass. It would have been the first significant reforms to the 1997 charter law that created these independent public schools.   Concerns arose over a charter school funding study commission it would have created and other reforms it contained, said House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/10/pa_house_pulls_the_plug_on_cha.html

 

Charter school bill falls apart in Pa. House

October 18, 2012 12:28 am
By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- An agreement to change charter school regulations this year fell apart Wednesday night when House leaders found themselves short on votes and declined to bring up the bill.  For days, aides to the Republican leaders of the House and Senate had said they and the governor had agreed to set aside controversial proposals for charter reform so they could pass a set of changes to fiscal, governance and academic accountability rules. Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Tom Corbett said he planned to sign the legislation, which he described as a compromise among parties.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/education/charter-school-bill-falls-apart-in-pa-house-658047/#ixzz29e3Z6hrk

 

House Speaker Smith: Too many "moving parts" derailed charters vote.

Capitol Ideas Blog by John Micek, October 17, 2012
The top Republican in the state House said Wednesday that an inability to build consensus among both state lawmakers and interest groups derailed an expected vote on a charter school reform bill.  The state House broke for the year late Wednesday night without voting on the bill, which would have -- among other things -- allowed existing charter schools (with state oversight) to consolidate their operations. The bill would also have created a special state commission charged with studying special education funding issues.

http://blogs.mcall.com/capitol_ideas/2012/10/house-speaker-smith-too-many-moving-parts-derailed-charters-vote.html

 

Pennsylvania charter schools reform bill dies when House fails to take action

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A closely watched proposal to rewrite the state's charter schools law died Wednesday when the House wrapped up its two-year legislative session without putting it to a final vote.  The Senate approved the measure to toughen oversight of the publicly funded, privately run schools on Tuesday, but House Speaker Sam Smith, a Republican, said after adjournment there had not been enough time to deal with the complicated bill, and funding was a sticking point.

SB1115 charter bill dies as House adjourns 
Statement on House SB 1115 October 17, 2012
Ted Kirsch, President, AFT Pennsylvania
“The Pennsylvania House adjourned tonight without taking up Senate Bill 1115, which was amended to include ill-advised charter school ‘reforms’ that would have removed  charter school authority and oversight from parents, local taxpayers and school boards and given it to the state Department of Education.
“Proponents of the charter amendments, which were tacked onto a special education funding bill with broad and bipartisan support, did not have the votes to pass SB 1115.

Seeking Aid, School Districts Change Teacher Evaluations

New York Times  by MOTOKO RICH Published: October 15, 2012
LONGMONT, Colo. — In an exercise evoking a corporate motivation seminar, a group of public school teachers and principals clustered around posters scrawled with the titles of Beatles songs. Their assignment: choose the one that captured their feelings about a new performance evaluation system being piloted in their district.

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