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advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, members of the press and a
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Yo – Pennsylvania , Michigan
Delay the
cut in the capital stock and franchise tax
We urge the legislature to delay
planned tax cuts rather than making additional budget cuts to schools, health
care, and human services.
Help spread the message of the Pennsylvania School
Funding Campaign for the 2013-2014 State Budget
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2013/03/help-spread-message-of-pennsylvania.html
“With the dramatic cuts that school districts
like Upper Darby are facing, the policymakers
in the state need to look at the mandates placed on schools and start cutting
them back instead of piling them on,” DeVlieger said. “Schools need to put the
focus back on educating students, not providing every kind of imaginable social
and medical need under the sun. So many of these mandates are areas that
parents or the government should be handling, not schools.”
DeVlieger discussed the skyrocketing costs of special education, which has increased from $18 million in his district in 2008-2009 to a projected $32 million in 2013-2014, while the state has flat-lined the funding in each of those years.
“The costs fall directly on the local taxpayers through property taxes or result in the cutting of regular education programs,” he said.
DeVlieger discussed the skyrocketing costs of special education, which has increased from $18 million in his district in 2008-2009 to a projected $32 million in 2013-2014, while the state has flat-lined the funding in each of those years.
“The costs fall directly on the local taxpayers through property taxes or result in the cutting of regular education programs,” he said.
School officials blast education
funding formulas
Published: Wednesday, May 29, 2013
By DANIELLE LYNCH dlynch@delcotimes.com
@dmlreporter
UPPER DARBY — Local school officials and education policy officials
voiced concerns about problems with current public education funding formulas
during a Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee hearing Wednesday. The two-hour hearing, which took place at the
Monsignor Bonner and Archbishop Prendergast High School Performing Arts Center,
was requested by state Rep. Margo Davidson, D-164, of Upper Darby. She was
joined by 11 Democratic legislators from across Pennsylvania
Another
home run from Jessie Ramey @ Yinzercation blog…..
Budget Talk
As we get closer to the end-of-June deadline, our legislators are finally
talking about the state budget. Yesterday, the Republicans in the PA House
proposed their own budget in response to Governor Corbett’s plan, announced in
February. [See “Budget
with a But”] Their version adds $10 million more for education, bringing
the total increase to $100 million. [PA House GOP Proposed 2013-14
Budget] After two devastating years of cuts, any increase is good – but
$100 million doesn’t get us close to the nearly $2 billion our kids have lost.
Perhaps most telling, the Republican plan counts on $85 million in
“savings” from all the teachers who lost their jobs last year (since the state
now won’t have to pay their portion of Social Security and pensions). However,
rather than putting those “savings” fully back into education, the House GOP
shifts $75 million over to other line items. Yet overall, this Republican
budget spends $100 million less than even Gov. Corbett proposed, so there are
plenty of cuts all around – including $32 million less for the Department of
Public Welfare and a $3 million cut to child care services for the working
poor. Meanwhile, the legislature would receive a $4 millionincrease for
itself under this plan. [Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy Center analysis, 5-29-13]
By Kate Giammarise / Post-Gazette Harrisburg May 30, 2013 12:02 am
Better Choices for PA Press
Conference--Local Government Officials Raise Concern About Tax Cuts
Tuesday, June 4th at 1pm ; Main Rotunda, State Capitol, Harrisburg PA
On Tuesday, June 4th, local government officials from across the state
will gather in Harrisburg Pennsylvania
Please RSVP to atkins@pennbpc.org.
“In the absence of new funds to cover a $304
million projected shortfall, schools will open in the fall without new books,
paper, clubs, counselors, librarians, assistant principals, or secretaries.
Athletics, art, and music would be gone.
There could be 3,000 layoffs, including some teachers.
Class sizes would be larger, and schools
would have no aides to help manage them or support staff to monitor lunchrooms
and playgrounds.”
Phila. SRC approves doomsday school
budget
MARTHA WOODALL AND MELISSA CHEA-ANNAN, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
POSTED: Thursday, May 30, 2013 , 9:59
PM
The Philadelphia
School District
Philanthropists stress importance of
arts education on region's economy
by thenotebook on May 30 2013 Posted in Latest news
Philanthropists Carole Haas Gravagno and H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest,
in calling
for more school funding yesterday, emphasized the far-reaching effects that
massive school budget cuts would have on the economy of Philadelphia
From a written
statement by Haas Gravagno:
H. F. “Gerry” Lenfest Press
conference remarks on the Philadelphia
School District Budget Crisis - May 29, 2013
WYNNEALEXANDERMEDIA.COM
“I’m telling you as a business leader and as an humanitarian - we cannot
allow this destruction of the public education system. The consequences will be
very grave. Our schools give us our future in every way. They determine the
quality of life for all of us.”
Pottsgrove preliminary budget would
raise taxes 2.2%
Pottstown Mercury By Evan Brandt ebrandt@pottsmerc.com Wednesday, 05/29/13 02:58 pm
LOWER POTTSGROVE — Although it took three different attempts, the
Pottsgrove School Board managed to adopt a $61.5 million preliminary final
budget Tuesday night that would raise property taxes by 2.2 percent, or $95 for
the average household.
“A cursory examination of tax records revealed that out of 80 private
properties occupied by charter and alternative schools, 13 were tax
delinquent.”
Charter Schools, Landlords Owe City
and Schools $762K
Why is Philly letting
deadbeats keep their contracts?
City Paper by Ryan Briggs Posted: Thu, May. 30, 2013, 12:00 AM
This February, before turning its attention to begging the city and state
to plug a $300 million budget deficit for the Philly School District
“If you’re contracting with us, you must be up to date on your taxes,”
says School District spokesperson Fernando
Gallard, adding that the new regulations require vendors to obtain tax
certification from the city’s Revenue Department.
That mandate, however, doesn’t extend to charter or alternative schools
or the companies they contract with, despite the explosive growth of such
institutions in recent years.
Separate and unequal treatment for
cyber-charter students: As I See It
Patriot-News
Op-Ed By Monica Allison on May 30, 2013
Monica Allison is president of PA Familes for
Public Cyber Schools.
My child is a second-class student.
This school year, the budget for my child’s public education is almost a
third lower than the education budget for his peers in our school district.
That’s because my child attends a public cyber school. My child’s public education, like your
child’s, is funded by the school district in which I live in and pay taxes. At
the beginning of each school year, the district determines how much money they
can spend per child.
If
you follow the money going to cyber schools it is clear that the lack of a fair
PA education funding formula results in “excess” tax dollars being used for purposes
other than educating our kids:
Millions flow to Beaver County-based
PA Cyber School
By Rich Lord and Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh July 15, 2012 12:04 am
The Beaver County-based Pennsylvania
Cyber Charter
School
According to minutes from 12/18/12 Agora
Cyber Board mtg, your PA tax $$$ paid for 19,298 local TV commercials
As of February, 2013 Agora Cyber was
serving 2,857 Philly students, the most of any PA cyber
Agora has never made AYP. Agora 2012
grad rate was 45%; Philly SD
In 2011, Agora parent company K12,
Inc. CEO Ron Packard’s total compensation was $5 million
Early Childhood Education Caucus to
discuss state budget at June 4 news conference
Rep. Phyllis Mundy’s website May
30
The Early Childhood Education Caucus will hold a news conference at 10
a.m. Tuesday, June 4, at the Capitol
Media Center
- State Rep. Phyllis
Mundy, D-Luzerne, and state Sen. Pat Browne, R-Lehigh/Northampton/Monroe,
co-chairmen of the caucus;
- Lloyd Lamm, regional
banking executive for the capital region of First National Bank of
- Cumberland County
District Attorney David Freed;
- Retired Army Brigadier
Gen. Jerry G. Beck who will represent Mission Readiness; and
- Members of the caucus.
The 125-member Early Childhood Education Caucus is a bipartisan,
bicameral alliance of legislators who advocate for the continued funding and
development of high-quality early childhood care and education programs in Pennsylvania
The caucus has worked together on many issues with the Pennsylvania Early
Learning Investment Commission, whose co-chairman is Peter Danchak of
northeastern Pennsylvania
With $65M increase, Michigan
The
Center for Michigan
The
$65 million increase in funding for the Great Start Readiness Program, allowing at least 10,000 more 4-year-olds to attend
high-quality, publicly funded preschool, is the biggest increase in the nation
this year and leads an emerging trend to invest in children before
kindergarten.
In Raising Scores, 1 2 3 Is Easier
Than A B C
New York Times By MOTOKO RICH Published: May 29, 2013
A quiz, he recalls, could quickly determine which concepts students had
not yet learned. Then, “you teach the kids how to do it, and within a week or
two you can usually fix it,” he said.
Helping students to puzzle through different narrative perspectives or
subtext or character motivation, though, can be much more challenging. “It
could take months to see if what I’m teaching is effective,” he said.
Educators, policy makers and business leaders often fret about the state
of math education, particularly in comparison with other countries. But reading
comprehension may be a larger stumbling block.
The number of high-poverty schools
increases by about 60 percent
Hechinger Report by Jill Barshay May 29, 2013
Poverty is getting so concentrated in America that one out of five public
schools was classified as as a “high-poverty” school in 2011 by the U.S.
Department of Education. To win this unwelcome designation, 75 percent or more
of an elementary, middle or high school’s students qualified for free or
reduced-price lunch. About a decade earlier, in 2000, only one in eight public
schools was deemed to be high poverty. That’s about a 60 percent increase in
the number of very poor schools! This
figure was part of a large data report, The Condition of
Education 2013, released by the National
Center May
23, 2013 . There’s a lot to chew on in it. But school poverty
jumped out at me as a really depressing data point showing the growing income
inequality in America
This fits nicely with the Walton Family Foundation’s funding of $159
million per year to dismantle democratically governed American public
schools staffed by professional educators….would you like some fries with your
standardized test?
Low Wages at a Single Wal-Mart Store
Cost Taxpayers about $1 Million Every Year, Says New Committee Staff Report
Committee on Education and the Workforce May 30, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – The price of Wal-Mart’s low wages and benefits at just
one Wal-Mart store not only costs families in lost income and economic
security, but it also may cost taxpayers about one million dollars in higher
usage of public-assistance programs by Wal-Mart employees and their dependents,
according to a report released today by the Democratic staff of the U.S. House
Committee on Education and the Workforce.
While up-to-date data on Wal-Mart’s wage and employment practices are not
always readily available, new demographic data released by Wisconsin Wal-Mart
Supercenter in Wisconsin Wisconsin
High school students would need to take ACT test annually
The
Joint Finance Committee also voted to require high school students to take a
suite of age-appropriate ACT tests twice their freshman year and once every
year after that.
Why I Want to Choose the ‘Disadvantaged’ Local School
When
I ask other parents of preschoolers in my urban San Diego
Need to feel good about the Common Core and Keystone Exams?
What would it take for us to see similar events focusing on high quality
early childhood education and community
schools? Generous sponsors?
“The Pennsylvania Education Summit is
co-sponsored by the Pennsylvania Business
Council Education Foundation, Pennsylvania Partnerships for
Children and Team Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Education Summit Pennsylvania
Agenda
and registration here: http://educsummit.eventbrite.com/
“What’s the least bad option going forward?
Who should bear the brunt of this legacy of fiscal irresponsibility? Current
retirees? Today’s teachers? New teachers? School districts? Taxpayers? The
students themselves?”
Live
or Webinar June 6, 2013 at 10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. EDT
The
Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 1016
16th Street NW
America’s teacher-pension systems (with up to a trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities according to some estimates) present a raging public-policy dilemma. Career teachers absolutely deserve a secure retirement, but lawmakers promised them benefits that the system cannot afford, as those promises were based on short-term political considerations and bad math. Now the bill is coming due, and someone’s going to get soaked.
America’s teacher-pension systems (with up to a trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities according to some estimates) present a raging public-policy dilemma. Career teachers absolutely deserve a secure retirement, but lawmakers promised them benefits that the system cannot afford, as those promises were based on short-term political considerations and bad math. Now the bill is coming due, and someone’s going to get soaked.
Panelists:
- Sandi Jacobs, vice president
and managing director of state policy, National Council on Teacher Quality
- Josh B. McGee, vice president
of public accountability, Laura and John Arnold Foundation
- Charles Zogby, secretary of
the budget,
- Leo Casey, executive director,
Albert Shanker Institute
Moderator:
Chester
This event will be webcast.
Visit our website,www.edexcellence.net, at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday,
June 6, to watch the proceedings live.
Register
now to join the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the National Council on
Teacher Quality for a timely look at the teacher-pension crisis and various
state efforts to address it.
Info
and registration: http://www.edexcellence.net/events/no-way-out.html
EPLC Education Policy Fellowship Program –
Apply Now
Applications are
available now for the 2013-2014 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP). The Education Policy
Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania
With more than 350
graduates in its first fourteen years, this Program is a premier professional
development opportunity for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates,
and community leaders. State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are
available to certified public accountants.
Past participants
include state policymakers, district superintendents and principals, school
business officers, school board members, education deans/chairs, statewide
association leaders, parent leaders, education advocates, and other education
and community leaders. Fellows are typically sponsored by their employer
or another organization.
The Fellowship Program
begins with a two-day retreat on September 12-13, 2013 and
continues to graduation in June 2014.
Turning the Page for Change
celebration, June
11, 2013
Please join us for the Notebook’s annual Turning the Page for
Change celebration on June 11, 2013 , from 4:30 - 7 p.m. at the University of The Arts 320 S. Broad Street
Building One America 2013 National Summit July 18-19, 2013 Washington , DC
Brookings Institution to present
findings of their “Confronting Suburban Poverty” report
Building One America’s Second National Summit for
Inclusive Suburbs and Sustainable Regions will involve local leaders and
federal policy makers to seek bipartisan solutions to the unique but common
challenges around housing, schools and infrastructure facing America America
Information and registration: https://buildingoneamerica.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1
PA Charter Schools: $4 billion taxpayer dollars with no real
oversight Keystone State May 2,
2013 )
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny; Proposed
statewide authorization and direct payment would further diminish
accountability and oversight for public tax dollars
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