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For February
8, 2013
Wealthy School
Districts Reap Benefits of Governor's Budget Plan
In a replay of previous budgets, Governor's plan shortchanges poorest
communities
Governor Corbett's Feb. 5 proposal to add $90 million to Basic Education
Funding distributes larger percentage increases to wealthy school districts,
shortchanging the state's struggling communities, according to a budget
analysis from the Education
Law Center
The Governor's proposal also shortchanges less wealthy districts with a
significant number of students with a disability by taking a portion of special
education funding targeted directly to school districts and putting it into a
statewide fund that typically benefits only a handful of school districts.
Statement: Governor's Budget Does
Little to Undo Damage of Last Two Years
The Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy
Center
Learn More about the
2013-14 Budget
HARRISBURG, PA (February 5, 2013) – Sharon Ward, director of the
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, issued the following statement on Gov.
Corbett’s 2013-14 budget proposal:
“The governor’s budget does little to reduce the trend of disinvestment
in Pennsylvania
Don't spend that money yet.
Neither the pension reform piece nor the State Store sale assumptions
in this budget are by any means definite. The $90 million increase to basic
education is at risk if pension reform fails.
Additionally, the budgeted amount for PSERS (pension payments) in this
budget is $100 million LESS than required by state law.
While the total special ed budget line is flat, the State's contingency
fund would be doubled from $10 million to $20 million by cutting the special ed
allocations for each school district by 1/2%.
There are $375 million in new tax CUTS in this budget.
Who gets what from Corbett's
education funding plan; Delco districts on board with increase
By JOHN KOPP jkopp@delcotimes.com
@DT_JohnKopp Friday, February
08, 2013
Gov. Tom Corbett’s 2013-14 budget proposal includes public education
funding increases for the first time since he took office two years ago. The $28.4 billion spending plan includes
almost $5.5 billion for public education, including a $90 million increase in
basic education funding. The increased money will be allocated through a
student-focused supplement based on each district’s average daily membership
and state aid ratio.
Sounds like Consol Energy was pleased with this deal. Is this a small inkling of the kind of
potential state tax revenue that the Governor has left on the table?
By Mark Belko / Pittsburgh February
7, 2013 6:16 pm
Consol Energy Inc. will pay an estimated $500 million over the next 20
years for the right to drill for shale gas on land surrounding Pittsburgh International Airport
Editorial: Now Corbett faces tough
job of selling his agenda
Delco Times Published: Thursday, February 07, 2013
Ground Control to Major Tom.
What, is Tom Corbett running for re-election or something? After seemingly making like Punxsutawney Phil for two years, popping out from his burrow in the governor’s mansion from time to time to push his agenda, the Republican is now furiously making up for lost time.
On Tuesday he put the icing on the cake, rolling out a $28.4 billion budget plan that continues – in theory – to stay true to his no-tax-hike pledge, while doing something he has been roundly skewered for not doing the past two years, increasing aid for public education.
But what is most noticeable in Corbett’s spending blueprint is the breadth of the changes he is looking to spark in the Commonwealth.
What, is Tom Corbett running for re-election or something? After seemingly making like Punxsutawney Phil for two years, popping out from his burrow in the governor’s mansion from time to time to push his agenda, the Republican is now furiously making up for lost time.
On Tuesday he put the icing on the cake, rolling out a $28.4 billion budget plan that continues – in theory – to stay true to his no-tax-hike pledge, while doing something he has been roundly skewered for not doing the past two years, increasing aid for public education.
But what is most noticeable in Corbett’s spending blueprint is the breadth of the changes he is looking to spark in the Commonwealth.
Gov. Tom Corbett approval numbers
worst in F&M poll history
By Robert
J. Vickers | rvickers@pennlive.com
onFebruary 07,
2013 at 5:00 AM ,
updated February 07, 2013 at 6:24
AM
on
A new Franklin & Marshall
College poll finds Gov. Tom Corbett's approval rating at the lowest point
in his two-year tenure and the worst for a sitting governor in the 18 year
history of the poll.
Corbett, who released his new $28.4 billion
budget Tuesday, earned good or excellent ratings from 26 percent of Pennsylvania
“Bottom line: This year's $90 million bump to education funding is more
akin to returning a dollar to someone from whom you took $100 - two years ago.”
GOV. CORBETT presented his proposed budget to the Legislature on Tuesday
and boasted that he was making an "historic investment" in public
education.
The only thing that may be historic is how disingenuous this claim is.
The governor's budget calls for a 1.7 percent increase in the state's
$5.4 billion basic subsidy to education, raising it by $90 million statewide. Philadelphia
To put that in perspective, consider the recent past. In his first budget
as governor in 2011, Corbett proposed cutting higher education by 54 percent.
He wanted to carve $1 billion out of the basic public-education subsidy, about
20 percent of the total. Ultimately, higher ed was cut by 19 percent, and the
basic-ed subsidy was cut by "only" $860 million.
The next year, he proposed a 20 percent to 30 percent cut to higher
education and $100 million out of the basic-education subsidy, though much of
that was restored.
“A 2011 study published by the
Pew Charitable Trusts concluded that “the money saved as the result of closing
schools...has been relatively small in the context of big-city school-district
budgets.”
Closing schools: It's not just about
money
Inquirer Letter to the Editor by Lisa Haver POSTED: Thursday, February 7, 2013 ,
6:07 PM
Lisa Haver is a retired teacher and education activist.
The School District
of Philadelphia
Teachers Lead Philly Endorses
Worthwhile Assessments
Teachers Lead Philly website 02/07/2013
Teachers Lead Philly is committed to teachers' stewardship of our
profession. We understand that dynamic assessments engage students and foster
their sense of life-long learning. We support assessment systems that are
designed by teachers to meet the needs of students within their classroom,
school or community.
Some teachers may opt to use standardized testing as a means of assessment. However, high stakes standardized testing de-skills teachers and shifts the locus of educational value away from what is most essential: a love of learning, critical and creative thinking and democratic civic engagement.
Teachers Lead Philly calls on colleagues, parents, students and the larger school communities to support worthwhile assessments that are developed by teachers and address the developmental needs of children.
Some teachers may opt to use standardized testing as a means of assessment. However, high stakes standardized testing de-skills teachers and shifts the locus of educational value away from what is most essential: a love of learning, critical and creative thinking and democratic civic engagement.
Teachers Lead Philly calls on colleagues, parents, students and the larger school communities to support worthwhile assessments that are developed by teachers and address the developmental needs of children.
Sen. Toomey Invites State Senator
Anthony Hardy Williams To State Of The Union
Address
Senator Toomey’s website Thursday, Feb 7 2013
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) has invited
Pennsylvania Senator Anthony Hardy Williams (D-8th District) to be his guest at
the State of the Union address on Tuesday, Feb.12. Senator Williams has
accepted the invitation to witness President Obama's speech. Each member of Congress may have a guest sit
in the gallery that overlooks the House of Representatives chamber.
Traditionally, the First Lady sits in the House gallery with heroes and other
Americans who exemplify the messages in the President's remarks
Investing in Our Children
A Plan to Expand Access to Preschool and Child Care
Center for American Progres By Cynthia
G. Brown, Donna
Cooper, Juliana
Herman, Melissa
Lazarín, Michael
Linden, Sasha Post,
and Neera
Tanden | February 7, 2013
Download the report: PDF
Read it in your browser: Scribd
Endnotes and citations are available in the PDF version of this issue
brief.
After a hard-fought re-election campaign, President Barack Obama and his
team now turn to the work of developing their second-term agenda. Since the
election there has been widespread recognition that America
Demanding fewer standardized tests in their children's schools, and more
test transparency from the district, parents of children in 37 Chicago
“…traditional reform strategies “will not, on
average, enable us to overcome the barriers to student learning posed by the
conditions of poverty.” Reformers also need to take concrete steps to address
the whole range of factors that hold poor students back. That doesn’t mean
sitting around hoping for utopian social change. It means supplementing classroom
strategies with targeted, evidence-based interventions outside the classroom:
working intensively with the most disadvantaged families to improve home
environments for young children; providing high-quality early-childhood
education to children from the neediest families; and, once school begins,
providing low-income students with a robust system of emotional and
psychological support, as well as academic support.”
No, Seriously: No Excuses
New York Times By PAUL TOUGH Published: July 7, 2011
In the early days of the education-reform movement, a decade or so ago,
you’d often hear from reformers a powerful rallying cry: “No excuses.” For too
long, they said, poverty had been used as an excuse by complacent educators and
bureaucrats who refused to believe that poor students could achieve at high
levels. Reform-minded school leaders took the opposite approach, insisting that
students in the South Bronx should be held to the same standards as kids in Scarsdale
Ten years later, you might think that reformers would be feeling
triumphant. Spurred in part by the Obama administration’s Race to the Top initiative,
many states have passed laws reformers have long advocated: allowing for
more charter schools, weakening
teachers’ tenure protections, compensating teachers in part based on their
students’ performance. But in fact, the mood in the reform camp seems
increasingly anxious and defensive.
NSBA joins state and local
government groups to push for ESEA reauthorization
NSBA School Board News Today by Joetta Sack-Min February 7, 2013
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) has signed on to aletter urging
key members of Congress to pass a comprehensive reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) this year. The Feb.
4 letter was coordinated by the National Governors Association (NGA)
and was signed by nine groups representing state and city leaders and elected
officials. It was sent to leaders of the House and Senate education committees.
Dan Rather Reports, "Teaching
to the Test" Promo for February 12, 2013
HDNET·309 videos YouTube runtime
31 seconds Published on Feb 6, 2013
Saying it's a waste of time, teachers in Seattle 8pm ET on AXS
TV. "Teaching to the Test" airs February 12, 2012 .
Yinzercation Blog January 28, 2013
Come RALLY FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION on Sunday,
February 10, 2013 . 3PM at
the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in East
Liberty (5941 Penn
Avenue , Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania 15206
SAVE THE DATE: 2013 Pennsylvania
Budget Summit
Many Pennsylvanians have
sent a clear message to Harrisburg Policy Center
for an in-depth look at the Governor's proposal and an update on the federal
budget -- and what they mean for communities and families across Pennsylvania
2013 Pennsylvania
Budget Summit
Thursday, February 21, 2013 ,
9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
HiltonHarrisburg , 1 North Second Street, Harrisburg , PA
Hilton
EPLC 2013 REGIONAL WORKSHOPS
FOR SCHOOL
The Education Policy and Leadership Center, with the Cooperation
of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) and Pennsylvania
Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), will conduct A Series of Regional Full-Day
Workshops for 2013
Pennsylvania School Board Candidates. Registration is $45 and includes
coffee/donuts, lunch, and materials.
Harrisburg Region Saturday, February 9,
2013– 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Pennsylvania School Boards Association Headquarters, 400 Bent Creek Boulevard, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Pennsylvania School Boards Association Headquarters, 400 Bent Creek Boulevard, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Pittsburgh Region Saturday, February 23, 2013 – 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh/Monroeville, 101 Mall Blvd., Monroeville, PA 15146
Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh/Monroeville, 101 Mall Blvd., Monroeville, PA 15146
2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on
Advocacy and Issues
April 6, 2013 The Penn Stater Convention Center Hotel; State College, PA
Strategic leadership, school budgeting and advocacy are key issues facing today's school district leaders. For your school district to truly thrive, leaders must maintain a solid understanding of these three functions. Attend the 2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on Advocacy and Issues to ensure you have the skills you need to take your district to the next level.
April 6, 2013 The Penn Stater Convention Center Hotel; State College, PA
Strategic leadership, school budgeting and advocacy are key issues facing today's school district leaders. For your school district to truly thrive, leaders must maintain a solid understanding of these three functions. Attend the 2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on Advocacy and Issues to ensure you have the skills you need to take your district to the next level.
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