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PA Education Budget: Funding for a Few
Handful of selected schools get a boost, but
most left out
"The
General Assembly and the Governor have delivered education dollars in a way that
cherry-picks a small group of school districts for additional funding, but
ignores the remaining 479 school districts,” said Rhonda Brownstein, Education Law Center
PA Education Budget: Funding for a Few
Handful
of selected schools get a boost, but most left out
The Pennsylvania education
budget adopted June
30, 2013 , fails to address underlying, systemic inequities in the
state's public school funding, locks in the massive 2011 education funding
cuts, and boosts funding to a few select districts, according to an Education Law Center
"The General Assembly and the Governor have delivered
education dollars in a way that cherry-picks a small group of school districts
for additional funding, but ignores the remaining 479 school districts,” said
Rhonda Brownstein, Education Law Center Executive Director.
By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com
on July 08, 2013
at 7:58 AM
Good Monday Morning, Fellow
Seekers.
Although it didn't get much in the way of attention during the recently concluded budget debate, the Corbett administration has never made any secret of its support for school choice and charter schools. But even as charter school kids nationwide surpassed the gains made on standardized tests by their public school comrades,Pennsylvania
Although it didn't get much in the way of attention during the recently concluded budget debate, the Corbett administration has never made any secret of its support for school choice and charter schools. But even as charter school kids nationwide surpassed the gains made on standardized tests by their public school comrades,
Pa. charter students’
skills fall far short, study reveals
TribLive.com By Kate Wilcox Sunday,July 7, 2013 , 10:20 p.m.
Nationally, charter school students surpass gains made on standardized tests by students at traditional public schools but, on average, Pennsylvania's charter students fall behind their public school peers, according to a recent study of charter schools by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University. The study looked at traditional and cyber charter schools.
TribLive.com By Kate Wilcox Sunday,
Nationally, charter school students surpass gains made on standardized tests by students at traditional public schools but, on average, Pennsylvania's charter students fall behind their public school peers, according to a recent study of charter schools by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University. The study looked at traditional and cyber charter schools.
Nationally, the study found,
charter school students posted reading gains equivalent to an additional eight
days of school, compared with traditional public school students. In math, the
two groups were even. In Pennsylvania
Final bill narrows business tax loophole
The loophole allows businesses
headquartered in other states to avoid paying the state corporate net income
tax on their operations here. Businesses use this loophole to shift assets to
an affiliated company in another state where they are not subject to tax. It
derives its name from neighboring Delaware
By targeting very specific business
transactions among close business affiliates, the add-back provision affects
businesses using the loophole to avoid paying taxes, said Rep. David Reed,
R-62, Indiana, the bill sponsor.
Allentown School Board uses extra funds to restore positions, lower tax
rate
By Colin McEvoy
| The Express-Times on July 08, 2013 at 9:47 PM
The Allentown
School Board has used an
$8.2 million windfall from the state to restore 26 cut positions and reduce
the tax hike from 8.2 percent to 5.54 percent.
By a 6-3 vote, the board also voted to restore $4.2 million to district
reserves, which officials warn are still dangerously low and insufficient to
cover future budget deficits. Fifteen of
the restored positions were elementary intervention specialists, who work with
students in areas of improvement as determined by state exams, particularly in
reading.
Legislature effectively part-time
When Pennsylvania
lawmakers hustled out of Harrisburg Pennsylvania
GOP poll shows Corbett re-election at historic low of 24 percent.
Capitolwire.com Under the Dome July 8, 2013
In another new OFF THE FLOOR
column, Capitolwire Bureau Chief Peter L. DeCoursey writes that a new poll
conducted by Harper Polling, run by GOP veteran Brock McCleary, shows Gov. Tom
Corbett with an awfully steep hill to climb if he plans to win
reelection.
CLICK HERE (paywall) to read the column.
Only a quarter of state voters in new poll say Corbett deserves
re-election
By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com on July 08, 2013 at 10:22 AM
There's some serious bad news
for Gov. Tom Corbett in a new Harper poll out today: Barely
a quarter of state voters (24 percent) say
the Republican governor deserves a second term, compared to 56 percent who say
it's time to change horses. And two
key demographic groups, independents (40 percent) and somewhat conservative
voters (45 percent) also say they'd like to see a change at the Governor's
Mansion. The poll of 844 people has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.44
percentage points.
WATCHBLOG: First post-budget poll paints dim picture for Corbett
By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent
July 8, 2013
Harper Polling, a Republican
polling firm, found 24 percent of voters said Corbett deserves re-election, and
56 percent of voters said it’s time to give someone else a chance.
“Federal efforts to reform public education during
the Obama administration have furthered the Bush legacy of delegitimizing the
classical ideal of universal education, while forcing public schools that once
made room for arts, music, and social studies to funnel their dwindling
resources into standardized test preparation.”
Liberal arts fight to survive
Philly.com Opinion POSTED: Tuesday,
July 9, 2013 ,
1:08 AM By Christopher
Moraff
Last month a special commission
wrapped up the first national assessment of the liberal arts since 1980. It
called a vibrant culture of liberal arts education "instrumental to
understanding the past and the future," and recommended increased
government funding for the humanities and social sciences. The report to
Congress couldn't come at a better time. Each year more students abandon the
study of history, philosophy, English, and languages in favor of science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics, fields that they believe - rightly or
wrongly - will offer them lucrative business, technology, and engineering jobs.
Statistics show that nationwide, less than 8 percent of bachelor's degrees were
awarded in the humanities in 2010, half as many as in 1966. In a report issued
in June, Harvard University
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20130709_Liberal_arts_fight_to_survive.html#k4kmjqZeWrXfexJ7.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20130709_Liberal_arts_fight_to_survive.html#k4kmjqZeWrXfexJ7.99
Tweet from Politics K-12 @PoliticsK12
Awesome story on the congressional politics of Common Core
by CQ-Roll Call's awesome edu-reporter @laurenonthehill
Common Core Concerns
Congressional Quarterly by Lauren Smith July 8, 2013 – see pg 1154
in this pdf
Exit Exams Boost the School to Prison Pipeline
Education Week Living in Dialogue
Blog By Anthony
Cody on July 6, 2013 10:28
AM
A new study sheds startling light
on a strong connection between
high school exit exams and rates of incarceration. The authors of the
study, Olesya Baker and Kevin Lang, compared states with exit exams to those
that did not, and found that roughly one percent of students failed their exit
exams and were denied diplomas as a result. This population of young people had
a 12.5% increase in their rate of incarceration. The study found no particular
benefits, in terms of employment or wages, from the exit exams.
“In 2011-2012, her group spent $533,000 on over 60
local politicians, outspending the main teachers’ union by a third and becoming
Tennessee
"They've
become like the gun lobby in Tennessee ,"
a former aide to a top Nashville
Reforming Michelle Rhee: Running the show in D.C. didn't work out. Now
in Tennessee
The New Republic BY JEFF GUO July 8, 2013
John
DeBerry Jr., a veteran House member in Tennessee Memphis
"I'm 62 years old,"
DeBerry says. "I walked, in one-hundred-degree heat, from nine
to five with a crew of five people. We rolled around with my Suburban with the
car filled with water and juice. And we knocked on every door in every
district."
But he also had backup. Michelle
Rhee’s education lobbying group StudentsFirst
dropped $110,000 on canvassing and phone banking to ensure that DeBerry, a rare
Tennessee Democrat who supports vouchers and charter schools, would prevail. It
was a record-setting sum, locals
said, and even DeBerry called it “flabbergasting.” He defeated his rival
4,084 to 2,125—that is, Rhee spent $27 per vote—and went on to win the general
election uncontested.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/113204/michelle-rhee-tennessee-studentsfirst-floods-school-races#
Affordable Care Act Delay Means Reprieve for Districts
Education Week District Dossier
Blog By Jackie
Zubrzycki on July 3, 2013 6:10
PM
School district administrators are
breathing a collective sigh of relief: The Obama administration announced
yesterday that reporting and implementation requirements of some parts of the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be delayed from 2014
until 2015.
Employers will have an additional
year before they are required to report on employees' health care enrollment
status, and those with more than 50 employees have an additional year before
they must either pay for full-time employees' health insurance or face a penalty.
The administration had received complaints that the requirements were too
complex to implement by 2014.
Why schools aren’t businesses: The blueberry story
Larry Cuban’s 2004 book “The Blackboard
and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can’t be Businesses,” is nearly a decade
old but still highly relevant to the education reform debate.
In the introduction, Cuban
introduces readers to Jamie Vollmer, a former ice cream company executive who
became an education advocate and author of the book ” Schools Cannot Do It
Alone.” He quotes Vollmer about “an epiphany” he had in the 1980s: “If I ran my
business the way you people operate your schools, I wouldn’t be in business
very long!
Yinzers - Save the
Date: Diane Ravitch will be speaking in Pittsburgh 6:00
pm . Location and details to
come.
Save the Date:
Diane Ravitch will be speaking in Philly at the Main Branch of the Philadelphia 7:30
pm . Details to come.
October 15-18, 2013 | Hershey Lodge & Convention Center
Important change this year: Delegate Assembly (replaces the
Legislative Policy Council) will be Tuesday Oct. 15 from 1 – 4:30 p.m.
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
James H. Shelton III
is confirmed to participate in a White House panel at the Building One America
Summit, to be held July 18-19 at Georgetown
Law School
in Washington D.C.
PA Charter Schools: $4
billion taxpayer dollars with no real oversight
Charter schools - public funding without public scrutiny
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