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directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers,
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members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies,
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Ongoing Budget Coverage; PA House and Senate
back in session Sunday at 11:00 am
As the budget process continues please consider
contacting the legislative leadership listed below regarding the education
budget ; here’s part of their job description:
PA Constitution - Public School System Section 14.
“The General Assembly shall provide for the
maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education
to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”
PA Legislature Republican Leadership 2013
Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi
717-787-4712
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake
Corman
717-787-1377
Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati
717-787-7084
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai
717-772-9943
House Appropriation Committee Chairman William
Adolph
717-787-1248
House Speaker Sam Smith
717-787-3845
Governor Tom Corbett
717-787-2500, Fax: 717-772-8284
Video runtime :00:53
PennLive Opinion editor John Micek talks about the Pennsylvania
By Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com
onJune 29, 2013
at 6:01 PM , updated June
29, 2013 at 6:05 PM
on
While the Pennsylvania budget deadline
is hours away, lawmakers continue to discuss the big topics of late: liquor
privatization, transportation, pension reform and Medicaid expansion. But what
about the spending plan itself?
Lawmakers
risk missing state budget deadline
Governor optimistic after some progress on liquor
privatization but much remains unresolved.
By Megan Rogers and Steve
Esack, Call Harrisburg
HARRISBURG — Progress on transportation funding — and potentially the
entire budget process — came to a screeching halt Saturday, leaving Republicans and Democrats pointing fingers.
House Republican leaders did not have enough support within their caucus
to pass a $1.9 billion transportation bill, one of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's key budget initiatives. The House was
expected to debate transportation Saturday night, but abruptly recessed shortly
after 8 p.m. without discussion. As a
result, the Legislature is planning to be in session Monday — and possibly
Tuesday — to finish a budget bill and attempt to eke out some sort of policy
victory for Corbett.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-state-budget-deal-20130629,0,335826.story#ixzz2XhIpIXuu
PA Budget and Policy
Center June 29, 2013
The Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a 2013-14
state budget (amended into HB 1437) that spends $28.375 billion, roughly $645
million (or 2.3%) more than in the current fiscal year.
…The basic education subsidy will increase by 2% to $5.526 billion. It
is unclear how the additional funds will be distributed across the state’s 500
school districts.
Funding for Accountability Block Grants (providing support for
pre-kindergarten and full-day kindergarten programs, class size reduction, and
tutoring) remains flat at $100 million, still well below the 2010-11 levels of
$254.5 million.
Special education remains flat at $1.027 billion, although a commission
to review the special education formula has been established and is expected to
issue a report late in the fall.
Funding for Pre-K Counts is increased by $5 million (6%) from 2012-13 to
$87.3 million, and the Head Start Supplemental gets a $2 million (5.4%)
increase to $39.2 million – consistent with the Governor’s proposal.
Live
Updates: Pennsylvania
PA Budget and Policy
Center June 29, 2013
PA Independent Budget Live Blog:
Lawmakers plan session days for Monday, maybe Tuesday
By Melissa Daniels, Eric Boehm | PA Independent June 29, 2013
The state House announced plans Saturday evening to hold session on
Monday and possibly Tuesday. The
Senate doesn’t have plans to do that, yet. But Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, said it is
possible the high-profile transportation funding and liquor privatization bills
will get resolved at a later date.
EPLC Education Notebook – Friday, June 28, 2013
Education Policy
and Leadership Center
GOP accuses Democrats of holding
transportation funding plan hostage
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
on June 29, 2013
at 11:12 PM ,
updated June 30, 2013 at 12:33 AM
House Republicans are accusing their Democratic colleagues of holding a
transportation funding hostage and refusing to negotiate the terms for its
release.
The House Republican leadership adjourned abruptly on Saturday night,
hoping that the break might buy the time needed to prod the Democrats to share
what their demands were in exchange for providing the votes needed to pass a
bill out of the chamber.
Corbett agenda down to discarded
House Democrats: column
By Robert J. Vickers |
rvickers@pennlive.com on June 29, 2013 at 7:12 PM , updated June 29, 2013 at 10:17 PM
For nearly three years Pennsylvania Democrats have not had the
governor's office, the state House, or the Senate.
Politically impotent, they've been forced to watch from the peanut
gallery as GOP lawmakers captained the commonwealth in directions liberals and
progressives often found repugnant.
But Saturday, with Republican Gov. Tom Corbett's budget
and 'big three' agenda items hurtling toward the midnight Sunday deadline,House Democrats looked to have Corbett's
whole world in their hands.
Senate Appropriations Committee
moves a $28.4 billion budget bill to Senate for a vote
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com on
June 29, 2013
at 8:28 PM ,
updated June 30, 2013 at 12:59 AM
As the midnight
Sunday deadline approaches for getting a state budget done on-time, the Senate Appropriations
Committee took the first step toward meeting that deadline.
It voted 16-10 along party lines to approve a nearly $28.4 billion
spending plan that has been agreed to by Gov. Tom Corbett and GOP legislative
leaders. It now is in a position to be voted by the full Senate on Sunday
morning and then would go to the House for consideration.
View full sizeThe Senate Appropriations Committee voted
16-10 along party lines to approve a nearly $28.4 billion spending plan for
2013-14.Jan Murphy/PennLive
The spending plan that represents a 2.3 percent increase over this
year’s $27.8 billion budget.
It provides $100 million increase in basic education funding for school
districts and $22.5 million for financially distressed and fast-growing
districts.
Philly
schools getting far less than requested as Pa.
WHYY Newsworks By Holly Otterbein, @hollyotterbein June 29, 2013
The Pennsylvania Senate has advanced a budget that increases Philadelphia Philadelphia
Senate Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman (R-Bellefonte) said that the
budget makes a "significant investment" in schools, including about
$120 million in new basic education funding statewide. "As always, there's areas that we would
like to have probably made stronger investments in," Corman said.
"But we can only spend what we have."
Sen. Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) said that the budget is inadequate.
Down to
the wire on schools funding, nonprofit pushes a labor proposal
WHYY Newsworks By Holly Otterbein, @hollyotterbein June 29, 2013
As the state legislature approaches a critical deadline with little
progress toward a funding solution for Philadelphia
The Philadelphia School Partnership has been urging lawmakers for weeks
to impose three conditions on additional state funding for the school district,
which faces a $304 million budget gap next year.
With hours before budget deadline, Pa.
Patriot-News Op-Ed By Sharon Ward June 28, 2013 at 12:00 PM
A decade ago, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
Since then, many of the business tax breaks have become law, but
policymakers have taken no action to close tax loopholes. The cost of business
tax cuts has mounted to close to $3 billion annually and is one big reason why
the state is now facing an education funding crisis.
As the clock ticks toward a new state budget, lawmakers and Gov. Tom Corbett have turned
their attention once again to closing loopholes. This is welcome news. If done
right, it will help balance the scales after a decade of significant business
tax cuts – recovering hundreds of millions of dollars that can be invested in
neighborhood schools and health services.
Unfortunately, lawmakers are under heavy pressure from the business
community to water the plan down, and that could mean Pennsylvania
Defined-benefit
plans should be fixed,not dumped
BY DAVID CRANE Bloomberg News Published: June 29, 2013
Some hedge-fund managers recently came under pressure from the American
Federation of Teachers to quit the boards of certain organizations, such as
Students First and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, that favor the
elimination of public-sector defined-benefit pension plans. Those organizations should reconsider their
view. Defined-benefit plans aren't to blame for the crushing costs of pension
liabilities in the U.S.
Delaying the phaseout of the capital stock and franchise tax cut could
raise $360 million.
Letter
to the Editor: Time running out to delay Capital Stock and Franchise tax cut
damaging to schools
Delco Times LTE by Lawrence June 26, 2013
Time is running out for students across Pennsylvania
Some
estimates say the Delaware loophole causes Pennsylvania
PA Budget and Policy
Center
In the coming days, the Pennsylvania Legislature will be hammering out a
deal to balance the 2013-14 state budget. One piece of the package will be a
budget-related tax plan that may include a provision designed to close
corporate tax loopholes. Specifically,
lawmakers are discussing the creation of a so-called "addback"
rule. Such rules require corporations to add back interest and intangible expenses (such
as for copyrights and patents) paid to related companies — often affiliates in Delaware or Nevada
Save the Date:
Diane Ravitch will be speaking at the Main Branch of the Philadelphia 7:30
pm . Details to come.
October 15-18, 2013 | Hershey Lodge & Convention Center
The
PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference is the largest gathering of elected
officials in Pennsylvania
Registration:
https://www.psba.org/workshops/?workshop=17
The Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel, State College , PA
The state
conference is PAESSP’s premier professional development event for principals,
assistant principals and other educational leaders. Attending will enable you
to connect with fellow educators while learning from speakers and presenters
who are respected experts in educational leadership.
Featuring
Keynote Speakers: Charlotte Danielson, Dr. Todd Whitaker, Will Richardson &
David Andrews, Esq. (Legal Update).
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.
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
Lineup of speakers: https://buildingoneamerica.org/summit/speakers
Information and registration: https://buildingoneamerica.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1
PA Charter Schools: $4
billion taxpayer dollars with no real oversight
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny