Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1875
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 regulatory agencies, professional associations and education
advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Saturday,
March 9, 2013
Recent Pennsylvania
By
Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh March
11, 2013 12:06 am
A new
legislative session in Harrisburg
Both
Republicans and Democrats have introduced legislation in recent weeks, and
school officials are hoping some progress is made this session after the effort
remained unfinished at the end of last year.
Proposals by the state House Republican Caucus two weeks ago focus
largely on changes in how cyber charter schools are funded.
A
wide-ranging bill proposed by state Rep. James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia, last
week is more far-reaching, addressing costs at both bricks-and-mortar charter
and cyber charter schools and including changes in the way charter schools
handle their finances.
PA House Education Committee Public
Hearing:
Cyber Charter Funding Reform
Thursday, March
14, 2013 10:00 AM
Room 140 Main Capitol
Here’s some background on these two bills:
Charter and Cyber Charter Funding Reforms Proposed
Charter and Cyber Charter Funding Reforms Proposed
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai’s website 1/25/2013
In
advance of Thursday’s PA House Education Committee hearings on cybercharters here
are three collections of articles/prior postings that will give you a pretty
broad overview of Pennsylvania
Cyber special: Lancaster
This posting from November 2012 includes a great Lancaster Online series
on cybercharters by Mary Beth Schweigert and Chip Smedley. If you are new to this issue this is a great
place to get a handle on it.
This is a collection of current and prior postings on K12, Inc. from February 14, 2013
Cyber special: Collection of
articles on Pennsylvania cybers and charters, followed by some additional
history on K12, Inc. and Pennsylvania Budget Secretary Charles Zogby’s
involvement with them.
As I See It: Sequester kids from
budget cuts
Patriot-News
Op-Ed By Joan Benso on March 10, 2013
Joan Benso is the the president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children in Harrisburg
One of the wonders of early learning is a young child’s ability to soak
up hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of new words in the span of a few months.
Who could’ve predicted one of those new words might be “sequester?” Yes, those deep, across-the-board federal
spending cuts finally have hit, and their impact could be devastating to our
kids if Congress and President Obama cannot reach a compromise this month to
undo the sequester and adopt a “continuing resolution” (there’s another term
for your vocabulary, kids) to keep the federal government from shutting down.
If the gridlock continues, it’s going to take a harmful - and potentially
irreversible - toll on our youngest Pennsylvanians.
About 2,300 commonwealth children will lose access to Head Start and
Early Head Start services, depriving them of critical early learning
opportunities they can never get back. Up to 1,800 disadvantaged Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
Editorial: City schools need to
adapt to competition from other institutions
THE DEED is done. Amid some of the most well-orchestrated and
well-attended protests from parents and activists in recent history, the School
Reform Commission last week voted to close down nearly two-dozen schools and
consolidate a dozen others. The next
question: What can the SRC and Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. do to prevent
more closings in the future? More to the point, what can parents, teachers and
public-education advocates do to prevent them?
Before we get to answers, we have to look at the problem. The reality is
that in 2013, district schools are losing the competition for students to a
variety of other providers, especially charter schools.
School closings moving ahead, but
...
Kristen A. Graham and Jeff Gammage, Inquirer Staff Writers
POSTED: Sunday, March 10, 2013 , 5:22
AM
Now that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission has ordered 23 schools
shut, the heavy lifting begins. Literally.
After a tense school-closing vote Thursday night, the city School District
EITC: Pennsylvania
has diverted millions of taxpayer dollars each year — and taxpayers deserve to
know where that money is being spent – for education tax credit programs (EITC)
that have virtually no fiscal or student performance accountability.
Last year’s
budget increased the original Education Improvement Tax Credit program funding
by $25 million and LEGISLATION THAT REP. CHRISTIANA SPONSORED created a new $50
million EITC 2.0 supervoucher program. Ironically,
the EITC legislation specifically LIMITS public information on this spending.
Both EITC
programs get an “F” for total lack of transparency.
GUEST COLUMN: Pa.
Delco Times Opinion By JIM CHRISTIANA Times Guest Columnist March 11, 2013
The start of 2013 brought about good news for Pennsylvanians interested
in transparency. According to the 2013 Transparency Report from the Sunshine
Review, a nonprofit organization dedicated to state and local government
transparency, Pennsylvania
EITC: Coming to NH: Education tax
credit scandals from around the nation and around the world!
Advancing New Hampshire
Oops…not from around the word, actually. Only in the United States Finland to Singapore
But we’ve got enough scandal in the U.S.
to forecast the future of education tax credits (vouchers) in New Hampshire
Bethlehem Area Superintendent Joseph
Roy connects with students on Twitter
By Sara K.
Satullo | The Express-Times on March 10, 2013
As soon as the weathermen start talking about snow falling, the pleas
start popping up onJoseph
Roy's Twitter feed. "Is there a possibility of a
delay?" "Are we getting out early?" "Give me an
excuse not to do this English project and give us off tomorrow."
"Sorry, no decisions until early morning," the Bethlehem
Area School District superintendent replied. "Do the English project,
you'll feel good when it's done."
‘Storm of reform’ — principal
details damage done
Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog posted by Valerie Strauss on March 11, 2013
at 5:00 am
Principal Carol Burris’ recent
post on why she is no longer a fan of the Common Core stirred wide
interest and lively debate — enough that Carol decided to follow up with a
piece that addresses some of the questions voiced in the comments following the
piece, as well as in the emails she received after its posting. Burris,
principal of South Side High School
in New York New
York
“Lessons from the Heartland” Barbara
Miner book signing and discussion Thursday, March 14th, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Defending Public Schools,
Defending our Democracy
Interviewed by Helen Gym
Hosted by Media Mobilizing Project, TAG-Philly, Philadelphia
Media Mobilizing Project, 4233
Chestnut Street , Philadelphia
Please RSVP to parentsunitedphila@gmail.com.
ANNOUNCING THE LAUNCH OF THE NETWORK
FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
The Network for Public
Education is an advocacy group
whose goal is to fight to protect, preserve and strengthen our public school
system, an essential institution in a democratic society. Our mission is to
protect, preserve, promote, and strengthen public schools and the education of
current and future generations of students. We will accomplish this by
networking groups and organizations focused on similar goals in states and
districts throughout the nation, share information about what works and what
doesn’t work in public education, and endorse and rate candidates for office
based on our principles and goals. More specifically, we will support
candidates who oppose high-stakes testing, mass school closures, the
privatization of our public schools and the outsourcing of its core functions
to for-profit corporations, and we will support candidates who work for
evidence-based reforms that will improve our schools and the education of our
nation’s children.
Become a member: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/network-membership/
Subscribe to our
newsletter: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/subscribe/
Spaceweather.com Comet PanSTARRS: Sky map looking west after sunset on Tuesday, March 12
BRIGHT COMET: This weekend, bright Comet Pan-STARRS is making a close
approach to the sun inside the orbit of Mercury where fierce solar heat is
helping the comet reach naked-eye visibility. Observers in the northern
hemisphere are making their first sightings now as the comet emerges from solar
glare low in the western sky after sunset. Soon, the comet could be
widely visible to casual sky watchers--no telescope required. Visit http://spaceweather.com for
images, sky maps and observing tips. Dates
of special interest include March 12th and 13th when the comet passes not far
from the crescent Moon.
Spaceweather.com Comet PanSTARRS:
Sky map looking west after sunset on Wednesday, March 13
Honoring Valor: National History Day
Student Competition
Letters of intent due by April 1, 2013
The Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Army Heritage Center
Foundation, and the Pennsylvania
State Museum
High School to demonstrate how and why societies honor valor. Inspired by
the valor exemplified by Soldiers at Gettysburg September
11, 2001 , and the responses of individuals battling disease or
injustice, the competition will recognize students who demonstrate
excellence in identifying and describing how and why societies honor
their valiant men and women.
PSBA officer applications due April
30
PSBA’s website 2/15/2013
Candidates seeking election to PSBA officer posts in 2014 must file an
expression of interest for the office desired to be interviewed by the PSBA
Leadership Development Committee.
This new committee replaces the former Nominations Committee. Deadline
for filing is April 30. The application shall be marked received at
PSBA headquarters or mailed first class and postmarked by the deadline to be
considered timely filed. Expression of interest forms can be found online
at www.psba.org/about/psba/board-of-directors/officers/electing-officers.asp.
Edcamp Philly 2013 at UPENN
May 18th, 2013
For those of you who have never gone to an
Edcamp before, please make a note of the unusual part of the morning where we
will build the schedule. Edcamp doesn’t believe in paying fancy people to come
and talk at you about teaching! At an Edcamp, the people attending – the participants
- facilitate sessions on teaching and learning! So Edcamp won’t
succeed without a whole bunch of you wanting to run a session of some kind!
What kinds of sessions might you run?
What: Edcamp Philly is an"unconference" devoted
to K-12 Education issues and ideas.
Where:University
of Pennsylvania
Where:
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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