Daily postings from the Keystone State Education
Coalition now reach more than 3000 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school
directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers,
Governor's staff, 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
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
The Keystone State Education Coalition is
pleased to be listed among the friends and allies of The Network for Public Education. Are you a member?
Pennsylvanians Want a School Funding
Formula
Press Event Monday September 23rd, 11:30 am Capitol Rotunda, Harrisburg
Every child in Pennsylvania deserves an
opportunity to learn, whether they are from large or small, rich or
not-so-rich, urban, suburban or rural school districts, charter schools or
cyber schools; whether their legislator is a freshman state representative or a
senate officer.
Grassroots Advocacy by
Education Voters PA; Education Matters in the Cumberland
Valley and the Keystone State
Education Coalition
Sign up here if you may be able to join us to represent your
schools and community: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/104e0endYpVYcPxSyfG9V_DOIVAB0J3AVI0-20Q8Yylw/viewform
Have you signed this petition yet?
One thing that all sides in
the education debate in PA seem to agree upon is the need for a fair and
adequate funding formula
“One area
that got consensus among the committee and the audience was the idea of creating
a state-funding formula for schools. Ours is among the few states that don't
take into account differences in wealth, achievement and size among school
districts to make sure that all schools have equitable funding.”
DN Editorial: Tribal warfare
DN Editorial: Tribal warfare
POSTED:
Thursday, September
12, 2013 , 3:01 AM
A STATE
hearing on education funding Tuesday held at the Franklin Institute often
seemed not so much a hearing as a temporary détente among warring factions.
Overseen by Reps. Mike Sturla and Brian Sims, of the House Democratic Policy
committee, the proceedings tapped a variety of voices representing charters,
parents, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the Philadelphia School
Partnership. These factions are rarely in the same room together, and even more
rarely agree on public-education fixes. One area that got consensus among the
committee and the audience was the idea of creating a state-funding formula for
schools. Ours is among the few states that don't take into account differences
in wealth, achievement and size among school districts to make sure that all
schools have equitable funding.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130912_DN_Editorial__Tribal_warfare.html#pM34fJAKQK9DuAJi.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20130912_DN_Editorial__Tribal_warfare.html#pM34fJAKQK9DuAJi.99
PDE: State Board of
Education Approves New Academic Standards and Revised High School Graduation
Requirements
PDE Press
Release September
12, 2013
Harrisburg –
The State Board of Education today approved revised regulations to update the
state’s academic standards and high school graduation requirements.
These
changes in the Academic Standards and Assessments will ensure that Pennsylvania ’s students
are graduating prepared to enter postsecondary education, the workforce and the
military, acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said.
While some
opponents continued to voice objection to the proposed standards, others urged
the board to de-couple the graduation testing requirement from the adoption of
more rigorous standards. They say requiring students to pass a test will lead
to increased drop-out rates. They say it will narrow the curriculum to focus on
test preparation.
And, Sen.
Andrew Dinniman, D-Chester County, among others, was very outspoken on the
unfairness of passing regulations without knowing the cost of implementing them
and without any assurance that the state will provide funding needed to provide
the educational supports for struggling students to pass the exams.
He said all
that is doing is putting an unfunded mandate on school districts that local
taxpayers will have to cover.”
State Board of Education approves Common Core-related
standards and graduation testing requirement
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
on September 12,
2013 at 11:54 AM
The State
Board of Education has signed off on a controversial set of state-developed academic standards that are closely aligned to the Common
Core standardsadopted by other states. With them comes an equally
controversial statewide graduation-testing requirement.
Following
an at-times fiery discussion, the board on Thursday voted 13-4 to advance the
so-called Chapter 4 regulations that spell out the grade-level learning goals
called Pennsylvania Core Standards. The regulations also lay out a framework
for implementing them and assessing students’ mastery of these standards.
The
assessments include a new provision that will require students, starting with
this year's ninth graders, to demonstrate their proficiency in Algebra I,
Biology I and language arts on the Keystone Exams or a state-approved
alternative assessment.
Amy
Worden, Inquirer Harrisburg
Bureau LAST UPDATED: Friday, September 13, 2013 , 1:08
AM POSTED: Thursday, September 12, 2013 , 1:28 PM
HARRISBURG
The State Board of Education approved a controversial plan Thursday to require
all Pennsylvania
students to pass proficiency tests in science, math, and language arts before
graduating. The 13-4 vote to approve the so-called Common Core standards came
after state officials said they would limit the proficiency tests to public
schools, and agreed not to impose a statewide curriculum or reading lists, or
expand the collection of students' personal data. "Gov. Corbett believes
that these new academic standards will ensure that our children are graduating
high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to compete with their peers
locally, nationally, and internationally," said acting Education Secretary
Carolyn Dumaresq. Critics have raised concerns about the costs to districts -
as much as $300 million, according to lawmakers - and the schools' ability to
transition to the requirements that could be in place by 2017.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20130913_New_student_testing_standards_advance_in_Pa_.html#eGVSWqmz0PHjqHWV.99
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20130913_New_student_testing_standards_advance_in_Pa_.html#eGVSWqmz0PHjqHWV.99
Roebuck raises concerns
on costs and consequences of state academic standards and assessments
"While
I support the Pennsylvania Common Core Standards and the new Keystone Exams,
today I voted against final adoption of the Chapter 4 regulations regarding
academic standards and assessments because of my concerns about the future
costs to school districts and the consequences for our students of implementing
these new standards -- particularly to my own School District of Philadelphia
that is grappling with a $300 million deficit.
SCHOOL CHOICES – Here’s an update on
PA’s EITC supervoucher program; $100 million in diverted tax dollars that never
enter the state’s general fund and are not available to satisfy the state’s
constitutional mandate of providing a free and appropriate PUBLIC education…….
“The new program is
off to a slow start statewide. The state allocated $50 million for tax credits
sought by June 30 this year. However,
only $16.99 million was requested. Another $50 million in tax credits is being
offered this year.”
EITC: Catholic Diocese raises $446,000 for
scholarships
By Eleanor
Chute / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette September
12, 2013 10:49 pm
As Catholic
school tuition increased this fall, about 150 students so far are getting some
extra financial help through the new state Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit
program.
Through its
own scholarship organization, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has raised
about $446,000 from businesses that receive state tax credits by making
donations to approved scholarship organizations.
“Benninghoff,
a Centre County Republican, said he wanted the group to know that he is not
their enemy, but as chairman of the finance committee he needs to be realistic
about Pennsylvania 's
financial state. "I can't let a
bill out of committee whose last report I got said it causes a $729 million
deficit in the state budget next year and $1.4 billion the following
year," he said. "That's why the bill has not been let out of
committee, whether you agree or disagree."
TAX REFORM: HB 76: Debate on property taxes
disappoints many
Spirited
remarks come from lawmaker introducing program
Reading
Eagle by Stephanie Weaver Originally Published: 9/11/2013
A debate
between state Reps. Jim Cox and Kerry Benninghoff on school property tax
elimination Tuesday night left many in attendance disappointed. For the most part, the event hosted by the
Berks Tea Party at the Deluxe Restaurant in Cumru Township
contained little to no actual debate between the legislators.
George
Guisewhite of Upper
Bern Township
said he felt the whole ordeal was a dog-and-pony show and felt Cox backed down
from confronting Benninghoff. "There
was nothing that was brought up tonight that we didn't already know,"
Guisewhite said. "We're behind this bill but we feel he (Cox) needs to be
more forceful. This being polite thing has got to stop. You got to make
compromises, but you can't back down on your principles."
Cox, a
Spring Township Republican, is the author of House Bill 76, which would
eliminate the current school property tax system and replace it with higher
sales and income taxes.
Benninghoff
is chairman of the House Finance Committee and has not yet allowed the bill to
get out of the committee.
“….Mark
Miller doesn’t think so. The vice president of the Pennsylvania School
Boards Association and a school board member for Centennial schools, Miller
agreed with the audience that “you cannot continue to pay property taxes at the
same rate you’ve been paying. But we have to come at it in a different
way.” “I do not believe HB 76 is the
answer.”
He’s for
taxing Pennsylvania
businesses “earning fortunes and they pay their taxes to another state.” He
also wants an extraction tax on Marcellus Shale gas.
“The gas is
in our ground,” he said. “They’re not going to be drilling for it in Kentucky .”
Miller is
also pushing for a “fair funding formula for education. ... Pennsylvania is one
of three states that do not have one,” he said.”
TAX REFORM: Huge crowd
turns out for property tax forum
Posted: Friday,
September 13,
2013 12:00 am
About 350 showed up Thursday night to hear about the merits of legislation to
fund schools in ways other than property taxes.
State Rep.
Tina Davis, D-141, Bristol ,
set up the town hall to help inform constituents who have complained to her
that the taxes on their homes have escalated to a point they can no longer
afford. “Most of the problems I deal
with almost daily are with someone who can’t pay their property taxes,” Davis said. “People are
being forced to forgo their prescriptions to pay their tax bill. I don’t
believe anyone deserves to have that worry at this time of life.”
House Bill
76, The Property Tax Independence Act, would replace the $10.4 billion
collected every year in school property taxes with new revenue generated by
increases in sales and personal income taxes.
Penn-Trafford teachers
union chief calls for changes in cyber-school funding
Tribune-Review By Chris
Foreman Published:
Sept. 11, 2013 ,
9:00 p.m.
In the wake of a federal indictment against the founder of PA Cyber Charter School, the president of the Penn-Trafford teachers union is calling for reforms to the funding formula for cyber schools in the state. Cyber schools have a place in education, but they're getting too much money from local school districts, said Shaun Rinier of the Penn-Trafford Education Association.
In the wake of a federal indictment against the founder of PA Cyber Charter School, the president of the Penn-Trafford teachers union is calling for reforms to the funding formula for cyber schools in the state. Cyber schools have a place in education, but they're getting too much money from local school districts, said Shaun Rinier of the Penn-Trafford Education Association.
Rinier's
comments at the Penn-Trafford School Board meeting on Monday stemmed from the
federal case against Nick Trombetta, who is accused of taking nearly $1 million
from PA Cyber and a foundation he started. Trombetta has pleaded not guilty.
Critics of
the funding formula for cyber schools complain that per-student subsidies are
awarded to the cyber schools based on the varying cost of educating students in
each public district instead of the cyber school's operating expenses.
Philly Students:
"You're destroying the reasons we go to school"
Citypaper By Samantha Melamed
Published: 09/12/2013
| 0
Comments Posted
At age 17,
Zach Kaufmann is used to fighting for his education. Last year, as a
ninth-grader at Charles
Carroll High
School , he joined protests with Youth United for
Change to keep his school open. It closed anyway. On Sunday night, outside Gov.
Tom Corbett’s Philly office, he and YUC were protesting again — this time
against the Philadelphia
School District ’s budget,
which despite a summer of negotiations, is still beyond austere.
Kaufmann,
who plays the guitar, transferred to Kensington Creative and Performing Arts
High School in the hope that he could learn to read music. Now, he says, “With
the School District cutting back music, this basically defeated my whole
purpose.”
Students
from Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School say they’ve been told
their dance program and art classes are gone, and that music education has been
cut. “They cut all the things that make our school what it is and what it’s
supposed to be,” says Deionni Martinez, 16, a 10th-grader at Kensington CAPA.
PCAPS announces new campaign
to fight for school funding
by thenotebook by
Isaac Riddle on Sep
12 2013 Posted in Latest news
The
Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools organized a press
conference Thursday at City Hall to announce a new campaign that would call on
City Council and other elected officials to fully
fund District schools. The
campaign, called Full Funding Fridays, encourages parents, students and
teachers to wear the “fund our schools” sticker or button every Friday in
solidarity with the battle for school funding. Rallies will be held every
Friday at different schools and other “symbolic” locations to call for more
dollars for the city’s schools.
Will They or Won't They?
Politically Uncorrected Column by G. Terry Madonna & Michael
L.Young September 12, 2013
Will they
or won't they? That is the central question before Pennsylvania lawmakers as they return from
their long summer break. Will the Republican-controlled legislature finally
pass any of Governor Tom Corbett's highly touted first-term agenda?
In case you have forgotten what that agenda is -- and you could be pardoned for doing so since a considerable proportion of the legislature seems to have done just that -- Corbett's trifecta of “must-do legislation" includes roads and bridge funding, the privatization of the state's liquor stores, and pension reform for teachers and state employees.
In case you have forgotten what that agenda is -- and you could be pardoned for doing so since a considerable proportion of the legislature seems to have done just that -- Corbett's trifecta of “must-do legislation" includes roads and bridge funding, the privatization of the state's liquor stores, and pension reform for teachers and state employees.
Forbes: Charter School
Gravy Train Runs Express To Fat City
Forbes by Addison Wiggin, Contributor9/10/2013 @ 5:31PM 2,245 views
On
Thursday, July 25, dozens of bankers, hedge fund types and private equity
investors gathered in New York
to hear about the latest and greatest opportunities to collect a cut of your
property taxes. Of course, the promotional material for the Capital
Roundtable’s conference on “private equity investing in for-profit education
companies” didn’t put it in such crass terms, but that’s what’s going on.
Charter
schools are booming. “There are now more than 6,000 in the United States ,
up from 2,500 a decade ago, educating a record 2.3 million children,” according
to Reuters.
Charters
have a limited admissions policy, and the applications can be as complex as
those at private schools. But the parents don’t pay tuition; support comes
directly from the school district in which the charter is located.
They’re also lucrative, attracting players like the specialty real estate
investment trust EPR
Properties EPR -0.97% (EPR).
Charter schools are in the firm’s $3 billion portfolio along with retail space
and movie megaplexes.
Charter
schools are frequently a way for politicians to reward their cronies. In Ohio , two firms operate
9% of the state’s charter schools and are collecting 38% of the state’s charter
school funding increase this year. The operators of both firms donate generously
to elected Republicans
Fat City in PA #1? – You
decide; here’s info on the man behind Pennsylvania ’s
largest brick and mortar charter school:
Follow the Money: Contributions by Vahan
Gureghian
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2011/06/follow-money-contributions-by-vahan.html
Fat City in PA #2? – You
decide; here’s info on the man behind Pennsylvania ’s
largest cyber charter school:
Former cyber CEO Trombetta allegedly
directed funds to campaign contributions
OPM: School boards are far from perfect but they
provide 9 pairs of eyes to review budgets, check registers and contracts. School board members see the folks that
elected them every day.
Charter schools may be
“public”, but they receive “shrink-wrapped” tax dollars and never have to look
the taxpayers in the eye….As Vince Fumo said, “it’s other people’s money”…..
PA Charter Schools: $4 billion taxpayer
dollars with no real oversight
Schools boards urge U.S.
Senate to rethink No Child Left Behind
NSBA School
Board News Today posted by Alexis Rice September 12th, 2013
The
National School Boards Association (NSBA) is urging the U.S. Senate to take
action on its bill to reauthorize the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the Strengthening America’s Schools
Act, S. 1094.
In a
letter, NSBA asks the chairman and ranking member of the Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee to schedule the bill for a
Senate floor vote within the next 30 days so that the bill could be considered
in a joint conference committee. In addition, further delays could mean that
the U.S. Department of Education would initiate another round of waiver
requests early next year only for local school districts to subsequently have
the new ESEA law take them in a different direction. Reauthorizing ESEA now
would “avoid confusion and waste of resources locally to the extent legislative
policy differs from waiver requirements,” the letter states.
Let's Reverse the Damage
From Race to the Top, EPI Report Says
Education
Week Politics K-12 Blog By Michele McNeil on September
12, 2013 9:05 AM
A new
report by the Economic Policy Institute finds big flaws in the Race to the Top
program and questions how much the $4 billion spent to spur education
improvements in the states will actually narrow achievement gaps and improve
student outcomes.
The report
was released today by the American Association of School Administrators and the
Broader Bolder Approach to Education, a national campaign launched by the
left-leaning EPI. The Race to the Top is the Obama administration's signature
education-improvement tool, funded originally with $4 billion in
economic-stimulus money provided by Congress in 2009. It led to a fierce
competition among states, who provided supposedly ideas to improve data
systems, standards and tests, low-performing schools and teacher-evaluation
systems. Eleven states and D.C. shared the original $4 billion.
New Mathematica TFA Study
is Irrational Exuberance
Cloaking
Inequity Blog September
12, 2013 | Julian Vasquez Heilig
Teach For
America (TFA) has sought to direct attention to a new study recently
released by Mathematica. A
blogger at the Washington Post even argued that my prior critiques of
TFA were “not true anymore.” (See all of my prior posts on TFA here.) Is
that the case? Next week I will start an entire series on the Mathematica TFA
study, but for now, because there is an avalanche of email and media inquiries
about the study, I will discuss several important issues that I have noted in
the study.
How Wal-Mart’s Waltons
Maintain Their Billionaire Fortune: Taxes
Bloomberg.com
By Zachary R. Mider - Sep 12, 2013 12:01 AM ET
“Thanks Alice !” reads one.
“Merci Alice Walton,
pour la vision!” reads another.
Wal-Mart Stores
Inc. (WMT) heiress Alice Walton founded Crystal Bridges in 2011 in a
wooded ravine next to her childhood home, supplying dozens of paintings from
her personal collection. Bankrolled by more than $1 billion in donations from
her family, the museum attests
to the Waltons’ generosity and vast wealth. It’s also a monument to their skill
at preserving that fortune across generations.
America ’s
richest family, worth more than $100 billion, has exploited a variety of legal loopholes to avoid the estate tax,
according to court records and Internal Revenue Service filings obtained
through public-records requests.
Elvis has left the
building…..
NASA says Voyager 1 probe has left the solar system
Post
Gazette By Alicia Chang / Associated Press September 13, 2013 12:18 am
LOS ANGELES
-- NASA's Voyager 1 probe has left the solar system, boldly going where no
machine has gone before. Thirty-six
years after it rocketed away from Earth, the plutonium-powered spacecraft has
escaped the sun's influence and is now cruising 11 1/2 billion miles away in
interstellar space, or the vast, cold emptiness between the stars, NASA said Thursday.
And just in
case it encounters intelligent life out there, it is carrying a gold-plated,
1970s-era phonograph record with multicultural greetings from Earth, photos and
songs, including Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," along with
Beethoven, Bach, Mozart and Louis Armstrong.
Featuring
Morris Dees and honoring education advocates Barbara Minzenberg and the
Philadelphia Student Union. Wednesday,
Sept. 18th at 5:30 p.m., Crystal Tea Room, Wanamaker Building 100 Penn Square East , Philadelphia
Details and
registration: http://elc-pa.givezooks.com/events/copy-of-morris-dees-a-passion-for-justice
PA Special Education Funding Formula Commission
Upcoming Meeting Has Been Rescheduled to Sept 26th in Reading
Was
originally scheduled for September 19. No
venue announced yet
To consider
charter and cyber special education funding
Diane Ravitch will be speaking in
Philly at the Main Branch of the Philadelphia
Free Library on September
17 at 7:30 pm ..
Diane Ravitch | Reign
of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America 's
Public Schools
When: Tuesday,September 17,
2013 at 7:30PM
Where: Central Library
Cost: $15 General Admission, $7 Students
Ticket and Subscription Packages
Tickets on sale here:
When: Tuesday,
Where: Central Library
Cost: $15 General Admission, $7 Students
Ticket and Subscription Packages
Tickets on sale here:
Yinzers - Diane Ravitch will be
speaking in Pittsburgh on September
16th at 6:00 pm at Temple Sinai
in Squirrel Hill.
Free and open to the public; doors open at 5:00 pm
Hosted by Great Public Schools (GPS) Pittsburgh :
Action United, One Pittsburgh , PA
Interfaith Impact Network, Pittsburgh
Federation of Teachers, SEIU, and Yinzercation.
Co-sponsored byCarlow Univ. School
of Education, Chatham Univ. Department of Education, Duquesne
Univ. School
of Education, First Unitarian Church
Social Justice Endowment, PA State Education Association, Robert Morris Univ.
School of Education & Social Sciences, Slippery Rock
Univ. College
of Education, Temple Sinai , Univ.
of Pittsburgh School of Education ,
and Westminster College Education Department.
Children’s activities provided by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh andCarnegie Mellon University ’s
HearMe project.
Co-sponsored by
Children’s activities provided by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and
Join the National School Boards
Action Center
Friends of Public Education
Participate
in a voluntary network to urge your U.S.
Representatives and Senators to support federal legislation on Capitol Hill
that is critical to providing high quality education to America ’s schoolchildren
PSBA members will elect
officers electronically for the first time in 2013
PSBA 7/8/2013
Beginning
in 2013, PSBA members will follow a completely new election process which will
be done electronically during the month of September. The changes will have
several benefits, including greater membership engagement and no more absentee
ballot process.
Below is a
quick Q&A related to the voting process this year, with more details to
come in future issues of School Leader News and at
www.psba.org. More information on the overall governance changes can be found
in the February 2013 issue of the PSBA Bulletin:
Electing PSBA Officers:
2014 PSBA Slate of Candidates
Details on each candidate, including
bios, statements, photos and video are online now
PSBA Website Posted 8/5/2013
The 2014 PSBA Slate of Candidates is being officially published to the
members of the association. Details on each candidate, including bios,
statements, photos and video are online at http://www.psba.org/elections/.
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
and offers an impressive collection of professional development opportunities
for school board members and other education leaders.
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).
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