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
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Yesterday, Education Voters Action PA announced
their complete bipartisan list of endorsements for next Tuesday’s election.
If you want legislators who support public education then please support
these candidates with your time, your money and your votes.
Education Voters Action of PA 2012
General Election Endorsements
Education Voters Action
of Pennsylvania
We are
very pleased to announce our endorsements for the 2012 General Election.. Based
on a review of available information, including written materials, public
statements, voting records and candidate interviews, Education Voters has
decided to endorse the following candidates with a goal of having more
legislators who support public education in public office.
These
candidates recognize that if our economy and our communities are going to
improve and remain strong that it starts with our students. We need strong policymakers in Harrisburg
The gang is all here: take a look at just some
of the voucher, EITC & charter money influencing next Tuesday’s election:
(and don’t forget to vote!)
For a Better PA Fund PAC Campaign Finance Report from 9/18/12 through 10/22/12
This PAC collected
money from
Fighting Chance PAC (See
background here)
Students First PAC (See
background here)
and Vahan Gureghian (See
background here)
Fighting Chance PAC Campaign Finance
Report from 5/15/12
through 9/17/12
Here’s background on the Fighting Chance PAC
Big money behind push for education tax credit program
A NEW, big-money political-action committee
turned up on the Pennsylvania radar screen this spring — at exactly the same
time that the Philadelphia Archdiocese launched a full-court press for
legislation in Harrisburg that would pump millions of dollars of scholarship
money into its struggling schools.
The new Fighting Chance PA PAC shares a name
with a self-described grass-roots campaign launched in March by the
Pennsylvania Catholic Coalition, and it shares office space with wealthy King of Prussia developer Brian O'Neill, who spearheaded
a drive to raise $12 million from 10 anonymous donors earlier this year to keep
open four endangered Catholic high schools.
In case you were offline
due to the storm, here’s KEYSEC coverage of carpetbaggers who dumped $400K more
into Pennsylvania Delaware
PA Students First PAC Campaign Finance
Report from 9/18/12
through 10/22/12
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2012/10/while-you-are-waiting-for-hurricane.html
Little opposition for incumbent state lawmakers
this year
With years of voter anger subsiding, many legislative incumbents
face an easy task at the polls this Election Day.
9:29 p.m. EDT, October 31, 2012
That's the 253-member General Assembly where,
thanks to ironclad district lines and a high bar for third-party candidates to
get onto the ballot, many incumbents are unopposed.
Nine of 25 state senators up for re-election to
the 50-member chamber lack competition. And nearly half (96) of the 203 state
House seats up for grabs are also without opposition.
Deficit could close school in North Allegheny
Post-Gazette By Sandy Trozzo November 1, 2012
5:33 am
Closing one of the small
elementary schools in the North
Allegheny School
District
But, if they do close a
school, "change will be felt throughout the system," said Brian Miller,
assistant superintendent for K-12 education. "There is no easy decision;
there are just a series of difficult ones.
"If you remove a
small school from our system, the entire system will be affected."
Mr. Miller presented a
demographics update Oct. 24 that showed there are spare classrooms in each of
the seven elementary schools and other rooms that could be converted to
classrooms.
A consultant recommended
in August that the district close its first and oldest school -- Peebles
Elementary in McCandless. Peebles was built in 1952 and renovated in 1999. Last
year, another consultant recommended closing Bradford Woods Elementary, which
needs major renovations.
The possibility of
closing a school is a long process, board president Maureen Grosheider said. Mr.
Miller's update was the first of several to come.
School Choice? Bad Choice
Online public schools are the latest proof that
“choice” hurts kids
The New York Times had an
extensive article yesterday
on the crappy-ass performance of for-profit online public schools. The companies
that run these schools provide curricula (of sorts) to parents; kids receive
assignments online from teachers who oversee as many as 270 students at a time.
The biggest player in this particular for-profit, to-hell-with-the-kids scheme
is K12 Inc., whose Agora Cyber Charter School will report income of $72 million
this year, according to the Times. And who pays for these schools?
Why, you do, dear taxpayer. What do you get for your dollars?
In a conference in March “sponsored by the investment firm Morgan Stanley,” K12
president Ronald J. Packard told investors that Agora students are “doing as
well or better than the average child in a brick-and-mortar school.”
Uh-oh! Data released shortly after that
conference showed that only 42 percent of Agora students were performing at
grade level or better in math, and only 52 percent in reading. Statewide, 74
percent of the brick-and-mortar kids hit the mark in math, and 72 percent in
reading.
http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2011/12/14/school-choice-bad-choice/#.UJJ3IB5LVCU.twitter
Profits and Questions at Online Charter Schools
New York Times By STEPHANIE
SAUL
Published:
December 12,
2011
Nearly 60 percent of its
students are behind grade level in math. Nearly 50 percent trail in reading. A
third do not graduate on time. And hundreds of children, from kindergartners to
seniors, withdraw within months after they enroll.
By Wall Street
standards, though, Agora is a remarkable success that has helped enrich K12 Inc., the publicly traded company that
manages the school. And the entire enterprise is paid for by taxpayers.
A Chinese Educator
Shares His Wisdom about the Goals of Education
Diane Ravitch’s Blog November 1, 2012 //
Yong Zhao is an amazing
educator who knows why our current obsession with testing is bad for American
society. He spoke recently in Michigan Shanghai
What’s Still Missing in American Education and How to Out-educate China
Yong Zhao 10 MAY 2012
Facts About the No Child
Left Behind Waivers
by Shane Vander Hart –
Jane Robbins, a Senior Fellow for American Principles Project provided some facts that you should
know about the No Child Left Behind waivers. States apply for these in
order, they say, to free themselves from Federal guidelines and standards under
NCLB. What they’re really doing is substituting federal control with more
federal control.
American Association of School Administrators
Sequestration
Resources
In addition to AASA's sequestration
toolkit and economic
impact/sequestration reports, here is a compilation of
other sequestration-related resources you may find helpful. AASA jas actually
made all of these resources available at one time or another, but a special
thanks to our friends at CEF for sharing them all in one list.
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Register Now! 2012 Pennsylvania
The
registration fee is $25 if paid by November 12, and $30 if paid after November
12 or on-site. Click
here to register for the symposium.
Friday,
Agenda here: http://www.eplc.org/events-calendar/eplc-conference/
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