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policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and
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advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, members of the press and a
broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional associations and
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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?
Pennsylvania
Education Policy Roundup for October 2, 2013:
Got
$50 grand to learn to sweep “the public” out of public education?
Pa.
advocates gear up for education funding push
SUSAN SNYDER, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER POSTED: September 30, 2013, 2:01 AM
Its music program was eliminated, 12 percent of its
teaching force laid off, and its junior high sports program was slashed. "Cuts at the state level just kill
us," said Jim Duffy, superintendent of the Fannett-Metal School District,
a small system in south-central Pennsylvania.
Duffy stood in Harrisburg last week alongside education advocates from
across the state calling for more public school funding from the state and
fairer distribution of the money. It has
become a common and growing refrain that promises to intensify after an austere
budget cycle in which school districts from Philadelphia to Allentown to York
were forced to cut services and staff.
"It's not a Philadelphia problem," said
State Rep. James Roebuck (D., Phila.), minority chair of the House Education
Committee. "It's a statewide problem. There are districts that are in even
worse financial condition than we are here in Philadelphia."
"The
forces that are behind this effort are all about starving the public
sector," Whitehorne said. They're "promoting what they call school
choice, which, as far as we're concerned is an effort at privatization, taking
away power from our elected school boards and communities and investing it into
these unaccountable boards of hedge fund managers and folks like that."
Protesters say visiting philanthropists want to defund public schools
Protesters say visiting philanthropists want to defund public schools
REGINA MEDINA, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER MEDINAR@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5985 POSTED: Tuesday, October 1, 2013, 3:01 AM
ABOUT
20 PROTESTERS chanted outside a North Philadelphia charter school yesterday
afternoon, claiming a group of visiting philanthropists were "deciding
what education looks like in America, not the parents, not the students." The activists from Fight for Philly and the
Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools protested outside Grover
Cleveland Mastery Charter School on 19th Street near Erie Avenue, where
attendees of a conference, "All of the Above: How Donors Can Expand a City's
Great Schools," were taking a tour.
The
conference is being held at the Union League and is organized by the
Philanthropy Roundtable, a national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., that
describes itself on its website as "America's leading network of charitable
donors working to strengthen our free society, uphold donor intent, and protect
the freedom to give." The
organization counts "individual philanthropists, families and private
foundations" as its members.
Attytood: Millionaire
vultures in Philly to pick over carcass of public education
Philly Daily News Attytood Blog by Will Bunch OCTOBER
1, 2013, 7:28 AM
Remember
how some of us were saying that as soon as the "shock doctrine"
of manufactured budget crises put the fork in any hope of reviving
Philadelphia's public schools in any way, that the vulture capitalists would be
diving in to pick over the carcass?
Don't
bother, they're here. In fact, they're everywhere, they're everywhere! When we
weren't looking, someone apparently decreed that Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, shall
be hereby known as Crush A Teacher Day in the city of Philadelphia.
“The
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which is paying to develop the new report
cards, is coming to the symposium, too.
It's
unclear what else PSP and the Compact have been doing: their meetings and
internal operations are closed to the general public. What is clear is that a
number of conservative and corporate power brokers sit on PSP's board,
including: Janine Yass, BCG donor and wife of Bala Cynwyd-based hedge fund
manager and choice-funder Jeff Yass; investor Michael O'Neill, who paid
$100,000 of the bill for BCG's analysis; and Chris Bravacos, a former state
Republican Party director who now heads the pro-voucher REACH Alliance and
Bravo Foundation, the latter being a middleman for the state's
school-voucher-like tax credit program.
They
might be at the symposium too. Same with the Walmart-fortune-funded Walton
Family Foundation, which recently donated $5 million to PSP. I don't know, of
course, because I'm definitely not invited.
Monday's
event is also closed to the press.”
Wealthy
donors move schools decision-making behind closed doors
Citypaper
By Daniel Denvir Published:
09/29/2013 | 4
Comments Posted
On
Monday, wealthy donors interested in the future of public education will gather
for atwo-day conference at the Union League: "All of
the Above: How Donors can Expand a City's Great Schools." Attendance is restricted to those who make
$50,000 in charitable donations per year. One might hope, given the apocalyptic
state of Philly's resource-starved public schools, that they are here to plot a
campaign to reverse deep state budget cuts — or, at the very least, to cut a
check to rehire some laid-off school counselors.
All of the Above: How Donors Can
Expand a City’s Great Schools
Philanthropy
Roundtable Website
SEPTEMBER
30 - OCTOBER 01, 2013 Union League Club
– Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Co-hosted by Delaware Valley Grantmakers and Cities for
Education Entrepreneurship Trust (CEE-Trust)
How can a
philanthropist increase the number of great K-12 options in their city?
Join
donors from across the country as we examine the most promising strategies to
grow what works in all of a city’s schools—charter, district, and
Catholic/private—and explore the challenges and benefits of a city-based,
multi-school sector strategy. How can donors increase a city’s total number of
high-quality K-12 seats, regardless of the school sector(s) they fund? We’ll discuss
investments that hold the promise of improving multiple types of schools and
learn how donors are uniquely positioned to accelerate city-wide student
achievement.
Pa. House
votes against school tax elimination
Philly.co by THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS POSTED: Tuesday, October 1, 2013, 6:43 PM
HARRISBURG,
Pa. (AP) - A proposal to replace school property taxes in Pennsylvania with
higher income and sales taxes was soundly rejected Tuesday in the House of
Representatives.
The
Republican-controlled House shot down the measure 138-59 after about three
hours of debate in which conservative stalwarts sought to rally their allies. This vote "may very well be our last
chance to cast a vote anywhere near property tax elimination," argued the
sponsor, Rep. Jim Cox, R-Berks. "If this issue is important to you ... I
ask you to stick with me."
Read
more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20131001_ap_98100951b5b744e2aacccfeec5155756.html#J4Cswqe8rJvfquHp.99
Bill
requiring public schools to offer online courses emerges from Pa. House
Education Committee
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
on October 01, 2013 at 6:29 PM
Legislation that seeks to transform the way education is
delivered to sixth- through 12th-graders emerged out of the
House Education Committee on Tuesday.
The
state House Education Committee passed legislation on Tuesday that seeks to
transform the way education is delivered in all Pennsylvania public schools. The bill’s sponsor Rep. Ryan Aument,
R-Lancaster, would mandate public schools to offer online learning
opportunities to students in secondary schools.
The
Shutdown and Education: Your Cheat Sheet
Education
Week Politics K12 Blog By Alyson Klein on October
1, 2013 6:15 AM
So
it's happened: Congress was unable to reach agreement on temporary spending
plan to keep the government open—and the U.S. Department of Education and other
government agencies are on partial shutdown. It's the first time this has
happened since the Clinton administration,
back in 1995 and 1996. While that
means a much quieter day at 400 Maryland Ave, most schools and school districts
aren't going to be immediately affected by a short-term shutdown. A longer-term
shutdown, however, could cause more headaches. See our preview here of the
Education Department's shutdown plan.
Below
are the answers to some frequently asked questions about what happens now:
Interested in keeping the “public” in
public education? Sign up for text
grassroots alerts from the Network for Public Education.
Join
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