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
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Pennsylvania Education Policy Roundup for March 19, 2013 : House Ed Committee Minority Chairman Roebuck will
release a 38 page report Tuesday cataloging instances of fraud, financial
irregularities, mismanagement, and test-score cheating at charter schools
across the state
“No
classes this week due to state assessments.
We
resume your child’s real education in 2 weeks.”
From Cloaking Inequity blog
Answer Sought for PA School Funding
Public
News Service - PA by Tom Joseph | March
18 2013 | Download
audio (runtime 1:49)
SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
"One school district had to eliminate all its music classes, other districts have cut reading teachers and intervention specialists, and these are the skilled professionals who provide a safety net for our youngest students, who are often struggling the most," she said.
"One school district had to eliminate all its music classes, other districts have cut reading teachers and intervention specialists, and these are the skilled professionals who provide a safety net for our youngest students, who are often struggling the most," she said.
“Overall, Roebuck's report documented cases of charter school boards
appointed by founding CEOs and acting as their rubber stamps; inappropriate
business ties between charter schools and related entities; excessive salaries
paid to charter executives; charter schools guaranteeing loans of related
nonprofits; exorbitant fees paid to management companies; and charters
operating as if they were "family businesses" with leadership positions
being passed down.”
Advocate of Pa.
Martha Woodall, Inquirer
Staff Writer POSTED: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 , 3:01 AM
To bolster his argument that Pennsylvania
State Rep. James R. Roebuck's 38-page report details 37 examples of
serious problems that have emerged at charter schools and cyber charters in the
last seven years, including cases of charter officials being sent to prison and
allegations of cheating on statewide standardized tests. Twenty-seven of those
cited occurred in Philadelphia
Related prior Keystone State March 9, 2013
Could Corbett take a pension lesson
from Rhode Island
By Donald Gilliland |
dgilliland@pennlive.com on March 18, 2013 at 10:24 AM
Bill sets up funding panel on
special education
Legislation calling for an examination of how the state funds special
education advanced in the House and Senate this week. The matching bills would establish a
commission to develop a formula for distributing special education funds. The
formula would have to distribute a funding increase proportionally among the
school districts, based on factors such as the number of students requiring
more or less costly services. State
funding is based upon the estimate that 16 percent of the students in each
district require special education.
Editorial: A fast fix to special
education funding that makes sense
By Patriot-News
Editorial Board on March 18, 2013 at 10:55
AM
If you spend any amount of time speaking to an educator or local school
board member about the biggest drag on their budgets, the chances are good that
that the conversation will soon drift around to personnel costs or the mammoth
expense of educating children with special needs.
Let’s ‘Sequester’ Our Kids from
Harmful Cuts
PA Partnerships for Children Blog Posted At : March 18, 2013 1:15 PM | Posted By : PPC
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."
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
“The students who will lose out will be the ones we should be most
careful to protect: children from poor families and special needs kids.”
The Worst Victims of the Education
Sequester: Special-Needs Students and Poor Kids
The Atlantic by Laura McKenna MAR 18 2013 , 8:45 AM ET
The sequester's guillotine has little regard for good or bad programs as
it unselectively slices spending across the country, but perhaps nowhere does
its indiscriminate blade fall more harshly than within education. The students
who will lose out will be the ones we should be most careful to protect:
children from poor families and special needs kids. Federal funding for education will be slashed
by 5.1 percent, until Congress can agree on a new budget. Though the federal
government only makes up about 10 percent
of the total education spending, this share is significant in every town
budget. Schools need Washington
TAMSA responds to charter proponents
in WSJ
Cloaking Inequity Blog March 18, 2013 | Julian Vasquez Heilig
A
few days ago I discussed a WSJ editorial that critiqued the Texas
Legislature’s attempt to reduce the testing in Texas
Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 states
will receive funding to turn around their persistently lowest-achieving schools
through the Department's School Improvement Grant
(SIG) program. Four of the states will receive awards to run a new
competition for previously unfunded schools, and six states will receive
continuation funds for the third year of implementing a SIG model. The states
receiving new awards are: Indiana —$9.2
million; Nebraska —$2.6 million; Colorado —$5.2 million; and Louisiana Alaska —$1.5 million; Iowa —$3.0 million; North Dakota —$1.2
million; Oklahoma —$5.5 million; Texas —$49.7 million; and Wyoming
ALEC Releases Model Education Bills;
Foes Not Satisfied
For those of you who always wondered what exactly was in the American
Legislative Exchange Council's model bills, your time is now. ALEC hasn't been quite as much in the news as
it was just over a year ago, but it is still considered a force in state
policymaking circles. The conservative Washington
WellPoint and Bristol-Myers Squibb
Cut Ties to ALEC, Making 44 Corporations Out
Center for Media and Democracy PRWatch by Rebekah Wilce — March 18, 2013 - 11:12am
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), a New York pharmaceutical
company with $17.6 billion in annual revenue, andWellPoint,
an Indiana health insurance company with $61.7 billion in annual revenue, are cutting ties with
the American Legislative
Exchange Council (ALEC).
This brings the tally to at least 44 corporations that have cut ties to
ALEC in the past year.
How to Join the Network for Public
Education
Diane Ravitch’s Blog By dianerav March 13,
2013
Several readers have contacted me asking how they can join the Network
for Public Education.
Some read about it but don’t know how to find the website.
Here it is: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org
Become a member: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/network-membership/
Subscribe to our
newsletter: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.org/subscribe/
Teachers Lead Philly Spring
Dinner/Workshop
Thu,Mar 21, 2013 ~ 5pm -7pm Franklin
Register HERE!
Thu,
Register HERE!
PSBA opens nominations for the
Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award
PSBA website 3/15/2013
The nomination process is now open and applications will be accepted
until June 21,
2013 .
In 2011, PSBA created a new award to honor the memory of its long-term
chief lobbyist, who died unexpectedly. The Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award
may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school
board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on
behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions
in PSBA�s Legislative Platform. The nomination process is
now open and applications will be accepted until June 21, 2013 . The award will be
presented during the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in October.
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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