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Here's an easy $360 million to help
restore past school funding cuts
The Pennsylvania 1:00 PM .
The House currently has voting session days scheduled
for Monday, June 24 through Friday, June 28.
The Senate has voting session days scheduled for
Monday, June 24 through Sunday, June 30.
Send an email to Harrisburg
Education Voters PA
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
Email: governor@state.pa.us
Did you miss our weekend
postings?
Patriot-News PennLive letters: Here's an easy $360
million to help restore past school funding cuts
PennLive Letters to the Editor by Lawrence June 23, 2013 at
9:30 AM ,
LAWRENCE A. Feinberg is Co-chair, Keystone State Education Coalition, Haverford Township School
Board, Delaware Co.
Time is running
out for students across Pennsylvania
“Here's an idea: Hold off
on scheduled cuts in the capital stock and franchise tax, which were suspended
between 2009 and 2011 when the state budget was tight. If the tax stays at its
current level, it could raise $362 million. Even more funds could be generated
by increasing gas-drilling fees and accepting federal dollars to expand
Medicaid. There's no good reason for the state not to meet its responsibility
to schoolchildren.”
Education Funding - Inquirer
Editorial: Buck-passing isn't a strategy
POSTED: Sunday, June 23, 2013 , 3:01
AM
Gov.
Corbett's shaky plan to use city sales-tax dollars, plus federal funds that the
state is unlikely to get, to bail out Philadelphia 's
destitute schools winks at the state's constitutional obligation to provide a
"thorough and efficient" education to Pennsylvania
The scheme
provides no assurance that enough money would arrive in time to stave off a
devastating 3,800 layoffs before the city's state-controlled district resumes
classes in September.
Grim day arrives for those facing school layoffs
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER Monday, June
24, 2013 , 3:01 AM
…..The
district's largest shedding of jobs in decades is wiping out entire categories,
including school secretaries (307) and noontime aides (1,202), and nearly every
assistant principal (127) and itinerant instrumental teacher (76). Most of the 600 other teachers got pink slips
based on seniority and will spend their last day on the job Monday. Their spots
will be filled by instructors displaced from schools that cut staff or are
closing.
Digital Notebook Blog by Evan Brandt Sunday, June 23, 2013
Michael
Stoll is not particularly happy with me.
Stoll is the communications director for the House Appropriations Committee and he contacted me last week to express his displeasure with The Mercury's story analyzing the House of Representatives budget, and how it affected local districts, which first ran on our web site on June 13. "Your story and the headline are incredibly misleading and fails to accurately explain how school funding is distributed to school districts," he wrote in a June 14 e-mail to me after the story appeared in print.
Stoll is the communications director for the House Appropriations Committee and he contacted me last week to express his displeasure with The Mercury's story analyzing the House of Representatives budget, and how it affected local districts, which first ran on our web site on June 13. "Your story and the headline are incredibly misleading and fails to accurately explain how school funding is distributed to school districts," he wrote in a June 14 e-mail to me after the story appeared in print.
The print
headline read "$28.3B House budget stiffs poorer school districts in Pa.
The story
ran with this spread sheet I put together with information released every year
by the House Appropriations Committee.
“Even his dramatic pledge
last week to find "a long-term solution" to the Philadelphia School
District's financial crisis - especially, he said, if its unions accept major
contract concessions - set off grumbling among House Republicans, never a
faction with much interest in sending more money to the state's biggest city.”
Corbett looking for a policy win heading into election
Corbett looking for a policy win heading into election
THOMAS FITZGERALD AND ANGELA COULOUMBIS, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
POSTED: Sunday, June 23, 2013 , 3:01
AM
The
governor's three major policy initiatives? That's a different story.
Already,
his fellow Republicans controlling the legislature have shown little
inclination to give Corbett what he wants on his big three - privatizing the
sale of liquor, cutting public employee pension costs, and creating new funding
for road, bridge, and mass-transit projects.
EPLC Education Notebook Friday June 21, 2013
Education
Policy and Leadership
Center
Edward Donley:
Quality preschool education critical for U.S.
Allentown Morning Call Opinion by Edward Donley, June 22, 2013
Edward Donley, former chairman of Air Products & Chemicals, has been involved in many local, state and national efforts to promote education.
…..Before children enter kindergarten, science tells us, the brain grows rapidly and forms networks that build the foundation for learning and social skills. By age 5, children's brains reach 85 percent of adult weight, developing 700 neural synapses — the connections that facilitate learning — every second. Differences in learning appear as early as age 3, when the children of parents receiving public assistance have vocabularies of about 500 words, compared to 700 words for children in working-class families and 1,100 words for children of college-educated parents. Decades of research show that disadvantaged children who receive high-quality early childhood education are more likely to succeed in school, graduate from high school, go to college or pursue career training, obtain good jobs, and become productive, contributing members of society.
Edward Donley, former chairman of Air Products & Chemicals, has been involved in many local, state and national efforts to promote education.
…..Before children enter kindergarten, science tells us, the brain grows rapidly and forms networks that build the foundation for learning and social skills. By age 5, children's brains reach 85 percent of adult weight, developing 700 neural synapses — the connections that facilitate learning — every second. Differences in learning appear as early as age 3, when the children of parents receiving public assistance have vocabularies of about 500 words, compared to 700 words for children in working-class families and 1,100 words for children of college-educated parents. Decades of research show that disadvantaged children who receive high-quality early childhood education are more likely to succeed in school, graduate from high school, go to college or pursue career training, obtain good jobs, and become productive, contributing members of society.
By
comparison, disadvantaged children who don't receive quality early learning
enter school 12 to 18 months developmentally behind their peers. Of 50 children
who have trouble reading in first grade, 44 will still have trouble by fourth
grade, and if they're well below grade level in reading by fourth grade, they
might never graduate from high school. They are more likely to abuse alcohol
and drugs, require public assistance, and get involved in the criminal justice
system.
By Sara K. Satullo | The Express-Times
on June 23, 2013
at 5:00 AM
Bethlehem Area School District officials
are disappointed that a city charter school is relocating into a special tax
district aimed at boosting the economic redevelopment on former Bethlehem Steel
land. And officials don't want the money
the Bethlehem Redevelopment Authority receives through a special tax deal going
toward building the new school.
"You're
using tax dollars the district is basically refunding to help build a building
that will not be on the tax rolls," Superintendent Joseph Roy said of
district officials' opposition. "It is a vacant lot now but at least it's
on the tax roll."
"It's going to be a
long week. It's not going to come together until they're in a locked room.
That's how it's going to go down,"
Philly Schools Await
State Funding Decision
NBC10 By Sarah
Glover Friday, Jun 21, 2013
On Friday,
some students and teachers are saying goodbye to each other because 23 schools
in the Philadelphia
School District Bok Technical
High School in South
Philadelphia . Will the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
give $120 million to the School
District of Philadelphia
The answer
is going to come in the last hour on Sunday, June 30, according to Senator
Vincent Hughes. "We're trying to
figure out a way to fund these schools and jobs so people can go to work,"
said Hughes.
This bill is a comprehensive
amendment to the Charter School Law, including temporary reduction in funding
for cyber charter schools, the creation of a funding commission, a system of
direct payment to charter schools, accountability provisions and other
improvements to the Charter School Law.
PA Charter Schools: $4
billion taxpayer dollars with no real oversight
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny
Public Education
Suffering from Parasitic Profiteers
Education
Week Living in Dialogue Blog By Anthony Cody on June
23, 2013 4:19 PM
Paul
Krugman's recent column describes the unproductive forms by which
many of our largest and most profitable corporations are making money. As I
read, I got a disturbing image in my head. In education, it seems as if our
leaders are purposely re-engineering the system to introduce a plethora of
profit-seeking parasites into the workings of our schools.
To
understand what I mean, let's begin by defining what is essential to a
wonderful school. Think
of the Lakeside School
Computer Coding Lessons
Expanding for K-12 Students
Educators
develop creative ways to teach coding through gaming
Education Week By Michelle R.
Davis Published
Online: June 11,
2013
Save the Date:
Diane Ravitch will be speaking at the Main Branch of the Philadelphia 7:30
pm . Details to come.
Friday June 28th is the
deadline to submit proposals for PSBA’s 2014 Legislative Platform
There is
one week remaining to submit proposals for consideration for PSBA’s 2014
Legislative Platform.The deadline to submit proposals is Friday, June
28. Guidelines for platform submissions and submission forms are
posted on PSBA’s Web site. Boards may submit new proposals as well as revisions
to the current platform and should include a brief statement (about 50 words)
of rationale for each proposal submitted. The rationale should include a
summary of the reasons why your board believes this issue should be addressed
in the platform, any specific problems your district has encountered, and how
your board believes the problem could be resolved. In addition, your
board is encouraged to submit any data related to the issue as it affects your
district, or any draft language that could be crafted into proposed
legislation. This information will be shared with the PSBA Platform Committee.
All submissions should be directed to PSBA’s Office of Governmental and Member
Relations. All items submitted must be verified by the board secretary. The
PSBA Platform Committee under the direction of Chairman Mark B. Miller will
review proposals and rationale submitted for the platform on Aug.
10.
The items
recommended by the Platform Committee will be presented to the new PSBA
Delegate Assembly for final determination by the voting delegates
present. Next week, PSBA will be mailing to all school board
secretaries a memo and response form for the appointment of their voting
delegates to the Delegate Assembly. Selection of voting delegates for
the Delegate Assembly meeting is the same as it was for the Legislative Policy
Council. Each PSBA member entity has the opportunity to participate in
the meeting the debate and vote on all of the agenda items.
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
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