Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1750
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent
advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, 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
Meet the
new PA House Republican Representatives for 2013-14
Meet the new PA House Democratic
lawmakers for 2013-14
A state
legislative update from the PA House
Democratic Caucus
http://enews.pahouse.net/q/UI_eLf6NjO9zk1kOAlgCpqUpwv03VKX0meBcMofgTT1B8TAQ5AfVIhhe2
http://enews.pahouse.net/q/UI_eLf6NjO9zk1kOAlgCpqUpwv03VKX0meBcMofgTT1B8TAQ5AfVIhhe2
PSERS board increases rate; unfunded liability
continues to grow
The employer contribution rate for the Public School
Employees' Retirement System, or PSERS, will increase to 16.93 percent from
12.36 percent for the 2013-14 fiscal year that begins July 1 to help cover the
underfunded pension plan.
The PSERS board on Thursday approved the bump, which is expected
to cost state and local school taxpayers $2.3 billion. The increase was no surprise. The plan has $48.8 billion in assets and is only 69.1 percent funded.
The rate would have been much higher without rate caps established under Act 120 of 2010, which reduced benefits for new hires and reamortized unfunded liabilities, delaying steep spikes in state contributions.
The rate would have been much higher without rate caps established under Act 120 of 2010, which reduced benefits for new hires and reamortized unfunded liabilities, delaying steep spikes in state contributions.
When Foundations Go Bad
Yinzercation Blog December 10, 2012
Money talks. And
sometimes money buys contracts with companies that have an agenda to privatize
our public schools. That appears to be the case with Philadelphia School
District of Philadelphia Pennsylvania
From their earliest age,
children must have words
Daniel
Taylor, For The Inquirer POSTED: Monday, December 10, 2012 , 6:31 AM
Some mornings, as I go
out to my porch to get The Inquirer, I trip over a box of gently used books
that some anonymous donor has left during the night for children at my
hospital. This has been happening for years, and the generosity inspires me and
my colleagues to help young children of lower-income families in Philadelphia
As I drive to work with
books in the backseat, my route takes me past Taylor
Elementary School and Roberto Clemente Middle School
“The test designers
included questionnaires for parents about preparation before formal schooling.
Ina V. S. Mullis, an executive director of the International Study Center, said
that students whose parents reported singing or playing number games as well as
reading aloud with their children early in life scored higher on their
fourth-grade tests than those whose parents who did not report such activities.
Similarly, students who had attended preschool performed better.
“What’s remarkable is
that in all the countries, this concept of an early start is there over and
over again,” said Michael O. Martin, the other executive director of the
center. “You can get the early childhood experience in a variety of ways, but
it’s important you get it.”
U.S.
New
York Times By MOTOKO RICH
Published: December
11, 2012
Fourth- and eighth-grade
students in the United
States
Fretting about how
American schools compare with those in other countries has become a regular pastime
in education circles. Results from two new reports, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Progress in
International Reading Literacy Study, are likely to fuel further
debate.
Tweet from Pasi Sahlberg @pasi_sahlberg
Read all results and
background data of TIMSS and PIRLS 2011 at
Philly: District's
voluntary transfer process leaves parents skeptical
Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 ,
5:37 AM
Jennifer Blaine
treasured her diverse, excellent urban public school education, and very much
wanted the same sort of experience for her daughter.
So Blaine, who lives in South Philadelphia , prepped herself for battle.
Objective: getting Lily into one of the handful of top-tier neighborhood public
elementary schools in the city.
Quick Study: Hite must
act fast in a fragile district
Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer
POSTED: Monday, December 10, 2012 ,
6:43 AM
Bill Hite wants to know
what's wrong.
Two months into what is
arguably one of the toughest jobs in the city - school superintendent - Hite
spends much of his time asking people what needs to be fixed, what they need,
how the Philadelphia
School District
During a seven-hour
stretch last week - a little over half of his workday, consisting of a
meet-and-greet with a local nonprofit board, a tea with Girl Scouts of America
officials, two school visits, one keynote address at an awards banquet - the
list was endless.
K-12 Education Advocates Lobby to Avert Fiscal
Cliff
Education Week By Alyson Klein Published Online: December 7, 2012
The coming fiscal cliff—the looming conversion
of tax-break expirations and across-the-board budget cuts aimed at prodding a
long-term federal deficit fix—has education advocates in Washington
The number-one question keeping organizations
that represent school districts and educators up at night is whether Congress
will be able to reach an agreement to head off "sequestration,"a series of
trigger budget cuts that will hit just about every federally funded education
program on Jan. 2, unless Congress averts them by crafting a long-term
agreement to curb the deficit. A number of K-12 programs, including Title I
grants for districts and special education would be cut by 8.2 percent,
although most districts wouldn't feel the squeeze until next fall.
Should
education standards and funding vary by state?
UPDATED DECEMBER
10, 2012 6:28 PM
New York Times Discussion: The American Way
New York
Times – Room for Debate Discussion
The
Common Core State Standards, adopted by48 states and
supported by the Obama administration, have worried liberals who question their
quality and conservatives who fear they erode states’ traditional
responsibility for education. At the same time, the budget pressure of the
impending “fiscal cliff” could reduce federal support for education, which
would add to the state and local responsibility. As these trends collide,
Americans can take a step back and ask: Should education standards and funding
vary by state?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.