Send a Letter to the
President on October 17
Diane Ravitch’s Blog October 3, 2012 /
I got some excellent
suggestions.
To begin with, this is
not an online petition, but an invitation to join together to write your own
individual heartfelt letter to the President and to email the White House on
the same day.
Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1650
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
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Today – “all the PA charter school reform news
that’s fit to print”, including:
- Shielding
mgmt. companies from PA right-to-know laws
- $29
million (fund balance?) purchase of beach front lots
- PA Dept
of Education Reform inflating this year’s charter school AYP scores (and
still only 1 of 12 cybers made AYP)
- Parent
trigger provision in SB1115 would emasculate locally elected school boards
(listen to Helen Gym and Matt Brouilette debate parent trigger on Radio
Times)
- Reminder
that state Auditor General says we could be saving $365M per year
- $10 million of fund balance spent financing
the building of a performing arts
center
- And, Yes
– yet another Philly charter under investigation
- Commentary:
Posted: Tue, Oct. 9, 2012 , 3:01 AM
Controversial charter access provision back
before Penna. Legislature – would exempt private managers of charters from PA
right-to-know laws
By Dan Hardy Inquirer Staff Writer
A controversial proposal that would deny public
access to records of private managers of charter schools has surfaced again in
the Pennsylvania
Disagreement over the proposed exemption to the
state's Right-to-Know law was one of the reasons that a package of charter law
changes submitted in late June was shelved until this fall.
The proposal was part of a 53-page amendment
inserted into a special education funding bill in an effort to get the charter
changes passed along with the budget.
It says the Right-to-Know law applies to
charters, "except records of vendors of local agencies shall not be
accessible." Charter schools are listed as local agencies in the
Right-to-Know law. "Vendors" would include private management groups
that run charter schools.
Do we need more transparency for public dollars
spent on charter schools? Are the
charter school tuition payments excessive?
Here’s some related prior KEYSEC
postings, including details on the $29 million purchase of beach front lots in Palm Beach by the CEO managing the Chester Community
Charter School
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/06/follow-money-contributions-by-vahan.html
“The result is that it looks like charter
schools, in general, are outperforming traditional public schools when, in
fact, they aren’t.”
Washington Post Answer Sheet blog by Valerie
Strauss on October
8, 2012 at 9:36 am
How is this for fair? Charter schools in Pennsylvania
The result is that it looks like charter
schools, in general, are outperforming traditional public schools when, in
fact, they aren’t.
“This is the intersection of
politics and education, where the data are adjusted for political ends.”
Pennsylvania
Diane Ravitch’s Blog October 8, 2012 //
The Pennsylvania
Secretary of Education changed the state testing rules, without federal approval, to boost the
scores of charters. The change involved treating charter schools as if they are
districts, not schools. This reduced the number of charters that failed to make
adequate yearly progress.
Even with inflated scores, of 12 PA cyber charters only 1 made AYP
for 2012 (Why did we authorize more
cybers this year?)
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/11/pa-cyber-charter-pssa-ayp-2007-2011.html
Need another reason to contact your state
legislators with concerns regarding charter school reform?
PA Parent Trigger in SB115 Charter School
Hey Pennsylvania
“(2) In order to convert an existing public school
to a charter school, the applicants must show that:
(i) More than fifty per centum of the teaching
staff in the public school have signed a petition in support of the public
school becoming a charter school; and
(ii) More than fifty per centum of the parents or
guardians of pupils attending that public school have signed a petition in
support of the school becoming a charter school.”
Take a look (only 7 pages) for a reminder of what
PA charter school funding reform that is responsible to the taxpayers should include:
Charter and Cyber Charter
Education Funding Reform Should Save Pennsylvania
Special Report, PA Office of Auditor General, June 12, 2012
If you had kids from your school district
attending PA Cyber your tax dollars helped to finance construction of this
facility using $10 million of PA Cyber Charter’s fund balance. That’s great for the town of Midland ,
but it is 340 miles from my school district to Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park
By Rich Lord / Pittsburgh October 7, 2012 12:14 am
"Considering the
significant growth in enrollment, [school officials] decided to create a
building that would have the capacity to serve the needs of the school and its
students," wrote Christina Zarek, a spokeswoman for the school, in
response to questions. She noted that the building is "highly specialized
space that includes high-end instructional technology, musical technology,
special soundproofing and other studio treatments, climate controls to protect
the investments in pianos and other instruments [and] specialized digital
studio and lab equipment."
Traditional public
school officials, many of whom feel increasingly squeezed by stagnant state aid
and competition from charters, characterized the arrangement as one in which
the assets go to a private entity, while the risks go to taxpayers.
Missed Monday’s WHYY Radio
Times Debate on Parent-trigger laws?
Listen to the mp3 (runtime 51:45) October
8, 2012
The movie “Won’t Back Down” starring Maggie
Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis is about a crusading single mother and inspiring
teacher who are trying to fix their children’s failing Pittsburgh Pennsylvania
Posted: Mon, Oct. 8, 2012 , 3:01 AM
World Communications charter awaits outcome of Philadelphia
By Martha Woodall Inquirer Staff Writer
The Philadelphia
School District
World Communications at 512 S. Broad St.
The district charter school office in July
recommended against renewing the charter on multiple grounds, including a lack
of employee background checks, failure to document expenses, and high student
turnover.
According to documents The Inquirer obtained
from the district under the state's Right-to-Know law, the charter office found
that World Communications could not document more than $240,000 in expenses
from 2010 to early 2012, including 10 charges on the school's American Express
card.
Commentary: PA charter school reform
should protect taxpayers, not just K12, Inc. CEO Ron Packard and CSM
CEO Vahan Gureghian
OUTRAGEOUS
October 7th Email to Chairmen of the
PA Senate and PA House Education Committees
The PA Legislature is in recess until October 15th
Please contact your state
senator and state rep regarding charter school reform during this break
You can bet that the charter school lobbyists are not taking a
break
“school business officials...
are not extremists with a political agenda.
The radicals in this story are those currently inhabiting the Governor’s
mansion and the Education Department appointees who claim that sharing this
survey data is somehow misinforming the public.”
Cuts Have Consequences
Yinzercation Blog — OCTOBER 8, 2012
This should come as no
surprise. When you cut close to a billion dollars from public education, there
are going to be consequences. Just so we’re all clear on exactly why we’re in
this fight for our schools, let’s take a closer look at what has happened to
them this year.
Last week the
Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) and the
Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA) released the findings
from a survey of the state’s 500 school districts. [PASBO/PASA survey, 10-1-12] The results are not
pretty. With a 53% response rate, the survey clearly shows that our schools are
struggling to deal with massive budget cuts by increasing class size, cutting
programs, and eliminating teaching staff. Here are the highlights:
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Arts and Education
Symposium Thursday, October
11, 2012
We're just 3 Days away from the
Arts and Education Symposium Thursday, October 11, 2012
Option 1 - Register and Attend
The State Museum of Pennsylvania
The State Museum of Pennsylvania
Registration is $25 and includes a continental
breakfast, lunch, and all Symposium sessions.
Act 48 credit will be available to educators
who attend thanks to support from the Capital Area Intermediate Unit.
Option 2 - Participate Remotely
Watch the LIVE WEBCAST at aei-pa.org.
Webcast Schedule:
9:00 a.m. - Welcome by Ron Cowell, EPLC President
9:15 a.m. - Student Performance by Open Stage of Harrisburg Studio/School
9:35 a.m. - Keynote Speech by Ayanna Hudson, Director of Arts Education at the National
Endowment for the Arts
1:00 p.m. - Remarks by Sandra Ruppert, Director of the Arts Education Partnership
1:30 p.m. - Plenary Session about the new Pennsylvania Arts Education Network
Full Symposium schedule and list of speakers is
posted: www.aei-pa.org
Hosted by: The Education Policy and Leadership Center
Co-sponsored by:
The Arts and Education Symposium is supported by
grants from The Heinz Endowments,
Building One Pennsylvania October 13, 2012
Promoting sustainable, inclusive
and economically prosperous communities
Confirmed to attend:
·
Jay
Williams, Deputy Director of the White House Office on Intergovernmental
Affairs
·
Peter
Kovar, Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, U.S.
·
Lisa
Worden, Director, PA Department of Community & Economic Development,
Southeast Regional Office
- Office of Senator Bob Casey
Let's Stand Together to support our diverse,
middle-class communities!
Join
local elected, faith and civic leaders from across the region for a public
meeting to call on state and national policy-makers to act on bi-partisan
solutions to the pressing problems impacting our communities.
- Reduce our local property tax burdens
- Invest in our schools
- Redevelop our infrastructure while creating local jobs
- Promote more balanced housing markets
Organizational Affiliation of Attendees includes:
Chanceford Presbyterian
Church
Chapel of the Good
Shepherd
Drexel Hill United Methodist Church
Jenkintown Borough
Council
Lansdowne Borough
Council
Lansdowne Economic
Development Corporation
Media Borough Council
Morton Borough Council
Phoenixville Borough
Council
Prayer Chapel
St. James Episcopal
Church
The Garden Church
United Methodist Women
United Methodist Women -
Eastern Conference
Yeadon Borough Council
Yeadon Economic
Development Corporation
The
event is free but you must register in advance to reserve your seat. Register at www.buildingonepa.org or by emailing name, title, organizational
affiliation, address, phone and email to info@buildingonepa.org
To
defray the cost of the event, we are accepting donations. Suggested donation:
$5-$10.
Registration is Now Open! Hershey Lodge & Convention Center, Hershey, PA
www.psba.org/workshops/school-leadership-conference/
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