Daily postings from the Keystone State Education
Coalition now reach more than 3075 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school
directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers,
Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, 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 and searchable 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?
The
Network for Public Education Press Release
NPE National Conference at University of Texas
at Austin
Madonna: "The major problem I think the governor faces,
certainly in terms of the policy concerns of the voters, would be education
spending."
“The pending Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
The bill would allow any college or university with at least 2,000
students to apply to become an authorizer. If accepted, it could authorize an
unlimited number of charter schools within its home district.
If the college or university offers a bachelor's degree in
education, it could authorize an unlimited number of charters anywhere in its
home county.
If the college or university offers a doctorate degree in
education, it could authorize an unlimited number of charters anywhere in the
state. With this provision in place, the bill would potentially allow,
for instance, the University of Pittsburgh to authorize an unlimited number of
charter schools in Philadelphia
SB1085:
'Research for Action' weighs in on university authorizer debate for PA charter
schools
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY JANUARY 27, 2014
Should the Pennsylvania Senate approve a
measure that would allow
colleges and universities to authorize new charter schools?
On Monday, the nonprofit Research for Action
released a policy note detailing how the idea has played out in the 12 states
that have embraced the notion.
There's not enough evidence to suggest that
allowing institutes of higher education (IHE) to authorize charters will result
in greater student performance, according to the note.
PSBA
white paper recommends changes to charter school funding to account for cyber
schools
PSBA NEWS RELEASE Steve Robinson, Sr. Director
of Communications1/27/2014
The Education Research and Policy Center
Districts are paying to send more students to
cyber than "brick and mortar" charter schools. The net cost to
districts for students attending charter schools increased from $434 million in
2006-07 to $1.145 billion in 2011-12. There
is no way to know if the school district payments exceed the needs of cyber
schools. PSBA is concerned that different school districts pay cyber schools
differing amounts, despite the fact that the level of services provided are the
same for all students.
- See more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=6945#sthash.fQGfi62v.dpuf
"I don't think there's any doubt about it," said pollster
Terry Madonna, Franklin & Marshall College
In
funding formula debate, a new voice: the governor's
Written by Mary
Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Jan 24, 2014 5:23 PM
As the gubernatorial election heats up and
education issues take center stage, a measure that would create a new schools
funding formula is getting a boost from the governor. At an unrelated press conference at the
Capitol Wednesday, Corbett said the current way of divvying up state aid for
public schools needs to change.
"Let's get a true, fair funding system
for all the schools of Pennsylvania
Editorial:
Corbett calls for fair school funding 3 years after he abandoned it
Gov. Tom Corbett, tuning up for this year’s
re-election challenge, last week urged the commissioning of a study to
determine a “true funding system” fair to all public schools in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
In 2006, then-Gov. Ed Rendell spearheaded and
the Legislature authorized a costing-out study to determine a fair funding
formula for Pennsylvania
The formula also recognized the additional
costs associated with educating students in poverty and English language
learners, distributing relatively more funding to districts with higher numbers
of these students.
The system was abandoned in 2011 after Corbett
took office.
"While early childhood education isn't cheap, it is a lot more
cost-effective than trying to fix the problems later on in a child's
education," said Don Bernhard, PPL Corp.'s director of community affairs.
Pre-K
for PA: Pennsylvania
By Sara K.
Satullo | The Express-Times on January 27, 2014 at 6:28 AM
A statewide coalition has kicked of a campaign
to ensure every 3- and 4-year-old in Pennsylvania
Many Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
“Pension costs will continue to wreak havoc on state and local
school district budgets. Short of action by the General Assembly to address
this crisis, school districts have no option but to cover these soaring costs
at the expense of the rest of their budgets. No district wants to raise taxes
or cut programs as a way to deal with the huge increases in pension costs,
especially given the length of time that we are projected to be in this
employer contribution plateau. It won't be long before it is impossible for
most districts to cut enough to pay for the increase and maintain any type of
education program that could be considered high quality.”
Towanda Daily Review Opinion by Chester January 26, 2014
Chester Mummau is the superintendent of the Wyalusing Area School District
Like the inevitable time loop in the movie
Groundhog Day, once again we recognize that Pennsylvania's escalating public
pension crisis has not gone away and that the General Assembly, like anchorman
Phil Connors, has one more opportunity to relieve the growing burden on state
and local school district budgets. Will legislators be able to break the cycle
and finally enact meaningful pension reform?
Conversations about pension reform are not
new. In fact, the issue has been debated over the past few years, even
following the enactment of some initial fixes made under Act 120 of 2010. While
there is agreement that the crisis continues to exist, and differing approaches
have been suggested, no consensus has emerged. But taking no action, or
suggesting that the problem will correct itself over time, cannot be an option.
By Sara K.
Satullo | The Express-Times on January 27, 2014 at 9:11 PM , updated January 27, 2014 at 9:31 PM
The Bethlehem
Area School Board tonight tabled a proposal to hire a company to
handle the district's substitute teacher staffing. The board unanimously agreed with Director
Angela Sinkler that it needed to spend more time reviewing
a switch to Substitute Teacher Services and communicate with the
district's substitutes. The board will
revisit the issue at its Feb. 10 meeting.
Superintendent Joseph
Roy has said the district doesn't have the resources to properly
manage and train its pool of substitute teachers. And the Affordable Health
Care Act could mean districts will have to start providing health benefits to
substitutes that average 30 hours or more a week.
If Bethlehem Area hires the company,
substitute teachers would become the employees of the business, not the district.
Such a switch would allow teachers to collect unemployment over the summer. And
they no longer would have to contribute a chunk of their $90-a-day pay to the
Public School Employees' Retirement System.
Substitute Teacher Services proposed a
two-year contract, which would start next school year, and cost the district 28
percent of the wages paid to the subs.
Legislature urged to require Holocaust education in
Pa.
Drive
to collect 6 million pennies for memorial
By Karen Langley and Richard Webner / Pittsburgh January 27, 2014
11:58 PM
Legislators are considering versions of
proposals on Holocaust education -- the state House has approved legislation
that would leave the topic optional, though require the Department of Education
to establish curriculum guidelines on the topic. A Senate committee amended the
bill so as to require education on the topic.
“Should learning about the Holocaust be mandatory for Pennsylvania
Rift
over role of Holocaust lessons in Pa.
AMY WORDEN, INQUIRER HARRISBURG January 28, 2014 ,
1:08 AM POSTED: Monday, January 27, 2014 , 7:48 PM
Pennsylvania
Auditor General DePasquale to audit Pittsburgh Public Schools
By Moriah Balingit / Pittsburgh January 27, 2014 1:16 PM
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto will join him in
a press conference this afternoon.
“It is no secret that the public school system
in Pittsburgh
Scott
Armstrong: Rising costs, poverty burden Allentown School District
Morning Call Opinion by Scott Armstrong 5:58
p.m. EST, January 24, 2014
Scott Armstrong is a member of the Allentown School
Simply put, theAllentown School District
Simply put, the
Three threats to the school district must be
recognized and addressed if catastrophe is to be avoided. They are the
district's increasingly unsustainable employee costs, the flawed charter school
funding formula, and the city's rapidly rising poverty rates.
The primary problem facing the district
annually is balancing the budget. Despite considerable employee furloughs (371
since 2009-10, a 16.5 percent staff reduction) expenditures have continued to
rise at more than 3 percent annually and, according to projections, are
forecast to grow by 5 percent in the next few years.
Prosecutor,
principal save Philly’s Strawberry Mansion High
DAN GERINGER, DAILY NEWS STAFF
WRITER GERINGD@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5961 POSTED: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 , 3:01 AM
FEDERAL prosecutor Robert Reed spent 40 years
putting violent young criminals in prison for life. Linda Cliatt-Wayman spent 30 years teaching
and administering in Philadelphia public
schools, trying to save as many kids as she could from ending up in front of
prosecutors like Reed, or worse, from sudden death on the streets of Strawberry Mansion
From
his Pennsylvania
Post Gazette By Timothy M. Phelps / Los Angeles January 26, 2014
12:00 AM
SAYLORSBURG, Pa.
-- Fethullah Gulen, a frail 75-year-old Islamic preacher with a gift for
oratory, leads an ascetic life in a 26-acre compound tucked into rolling
farmland and woods in Eastern Pennsylvania, far from the political crisis and
international intrigue he is accused of instigating in his native Turkey Turkey
Largest
charter network in U.S.: Schools tied to Turkey
This was written by Sharon Higgins, an
independent researcher andblogger based in California
By Sharon Higgins
The largest charter school network in the United States
The concerns raised about the charter schools
in the GM network have related to questionable admissions practices; the
channeling of school funds to close associates; abuse of contractors;
participation in biased, GM-created competitions; incidents of bribing; using
the schools to generate political connections; science fair projects being done
by teachers; unfair hiring and termination practices; and more. Still,
authorizers continue to approve charter applications, ill-informed parents
continue to use them, and taxpayers keep funding the schools – all without much
discussion.
NSBA
host State of the Union Twitter chat on education issues at #EdSOTU
NSBA School Board News Today posted by Alexis
Rice|January 27th, 2014
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) will be
hosting our third annual Twitter
chat during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, starting
at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 28. Join
the Twitter chat by using hashtag #EdSOTU and share your thoughts about the
president’s speech and his plans for K-12 education. By using #EdSOTU in your tweets, you will
become a part of this virtual conversation. To see the entire conversation
stream just go toTwitter and
search #EdSOTU.
“When the speeches are rolled out on
Tuesday, watch out for evidence-free policy promises. President Obama, I fear,
may continue to push for more test-based accountability policies like No Child
Left Behind and may hold out the false hope of so-called high-achieving charter
schools. The Republican response, I fear, will hold out the related false hope
of vouchers, neo-vouchers,
and other policies that shift public money from public to private schools.
Neither charter schools nor voucher programs have been shown to make a
meaningful dent in opportunity gaps or achievement gaps.”
Poverty
and the education opportunity gap: Will Obama step up in SOTU?
President Obama is expected to talk about the
issue of wealth inequality in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday. The
question is whether he will advocate policies that actually address it or
continue to push education policies that ignore the real problems facing poor
children. The following was written by Kevin Welner, director of the National Education Policy
Center
“Even "high-quality" universal preschool would not
measurably reduce inequality. It would, however, efficiently convey funds from
the federal treasury to a new cohort of unionized teachers, then through union
dues to Democratic candidates.”
The
dubious benefits of early childhood education and why the Obama White House is
really plugging them: George F. Will
By PennLive
Op-Ed By George F. Will on January 27, 2014 at 10:00 AM
As undignified as it is unedifying and
unnecessary, the vulgar State of the Union circus is again at our throats. The
document that the Constitutional Convention sent forth from Philadelphia America
"Information"? Not exactly.
Don’t be too concerned about this study; George Will has graciously
offered to find these kids and read to them before they enter kindergarten…..
Eight
in 10 Lower-Income 4th Graders Not Reading Proficiently, Study Finds
Education Week Curriculum Matters By Catherine
Gewertz on January 28, 2014 12:11
AM
A new report on elementary students' reading
proficiency finds that 80 percent of students from lower-income families aren't
reading proficiently by the time they reach 4th grade.
The "data snapshot" released Tuesday
by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which
has long studied reading prowess as a key measure of children's well-being,
also finds that two-thirds of all students, regardless of income, are not
reading proficiently by 4th grade. In defining reading proficiency, it sets a
high bar; the report uses data from the 2013 and 2003 administrations of the
National Assessment of Educational Progress, whose proficiency cut scores are
widely recognized as rigorous. Many states' own standardized measures of
reading ability set proficiency at lower cut points. According to the report, children from
higher-income families have improved their reading skills more in the past
decade than have their lower-income peers. Students who are African American or
Latino, and those learning English, are more likely to fall short of the
reading-proficiency mark in 4th grade than their white and Asian peers.
Senator
to Propose School Vouchers Program
New York Times By MOTOKO RICHJAN. 27, 2014
Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of
Tennessee who served as secretary of education under President George Bush,
plans to introduce a bill on Tuesday that would give 11 million children from
low-income families federal dollars to spend on any kind of schooling they
choose, as long as it is in an accredited institution. Although the bill is likely to face strong
opposition from the Democratic majority in the Senate, it is another sign that
Republicans are staking out school choice as a significant rallying point in an
election year and promoting it on the day President Obama delivers his State of
the Union address. Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia
Key
Republican Senators Introduce School Choice Bills
Education Week Politics K-12 Blog By Alyson Klein on January
27, 2014 5:00 PM
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
The measure would combine almost every program
authorized under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, including those
tailored to educating low-income students (aka Title I), English-language learners,
and homeless children, as well as funds to help states improve teacher quality,
into a $24 billion, more-flexibile funding stream for states. (The one program
that would continue to stand alone would be Impact Aid, which helps districts
make up for tax revenue lost to a federal presence, such as a Native American
reservation.)
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., also has far-reaching
school choice legislation.
Under the legislation, states could opt to
allocate the newly-consolidated funds to low-income parents, giving them much
more say over how their child's share of federal education dollars are spent.
Parents could use the money to help pay for private school, supplement their
public or public charter's school's budget, attend a public school outside
their home district, or cover the cost of tutoring services or home schooling
materials. Each child would get an average of $2,100 in annual federal aid,
under the proposal.
Education Week Teacher Beat By Stephen
Sawchuk on January 26, 2014 6:33 PM
The New York State United Teachers' board of
directors on Saturday passed
a resolution withdrawing its support for the Common Core State
Standards in New York
The state's "implementation plan in New York
“By contrast, "school choice" means further segregating
schools by race and class. "School choice" diverts critical resources
from underfunded public schools to for-profit education management
organizations. Courtesy of your efforts, "school choice" means tax
dollars flowing to fundamentalist religious schools through contrived mechanisms,
clearly violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the First Amendment. You
demean the profession by claiming that any young college graduate with a few
weeks training is a "teacher."
An
Open Letter To National
School
Huffington Post by Steve Nelson Head of the Calhoun School
in Manhattan 11/11/2013 11:16 am
In the past two days I received emails from
three individuals associated with National School Choice Week (NSCW). Here's my
response:
Dear Ms. Peek-Brinson, Ms. Weiers and Mr.
Campanella:
Please stop sending me your cheery emails. I'm
not buying what you're selling and, frankly, I'm wondering how you can engage
in such a scheme without some sense of shame. I'm publishing this response
because I hope other school administrators, teachers and families won't fall
for this devious marketing ploy.
Register
Now! EPLC’s 2014 Education Issues Workshops for Legislative Candidates,
Campaign Staff, and Interested Voters
EPLC’s Education Issue
Workshops Register
Now! – Space is Limited!
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program forPennsylvania
A Non-Partisan One-Day Program for
Tuesday, February 25, 2014 in Harrisburg, PA
Wednesday,March
19, 2014 in Monroeville, PA
Thursday,March
27, 2014 in Philadelphia,PA
Wednesday,
Thursday,
Come
to Harrisburg
Show your School Spirit with PCCY!
On February 4th the Governor will introduce
his budget plan for 2014-2015. Based on past performance, the next budget
may do little to meet the needs of Pennsylvania Philadelphia
and the surrounding counties of Bucks, Chester , Delaware and Montgomery Harrisburg
Click here to sign-up and get details. For more
information please email Shanee Garner-Nelson at shaneeg@pccy.org.
PDE
chief Dumaresq LIVE budget presentation, PSBA Conference Center, Feb. 5 at 2
p.m
PSBA’s website 1/13/2014
Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn
Dumaresq will be at the PSBA
Conference Center
Find out how the proposals of the fiscal year
2014-15 Pennsylvania
To register for the LIVE event, Wed.,
Feb. 5, 2 p.m., at the PSBA
Conference Center
To register for the WEB event: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7884287076736574210
- See more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=6842#sthash.6jG84BK0.dpuf
Auditor
General DePasquale to Hold Public Meetings on Ways to Improve Charter Schools
Seeks
to find ways to improve accountability, effectiveness, transparency
The public meetings will be held:
- Northampton
County: 1 to 3 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 27, City Council Chambers, 6th Floor,
City Hall, One South Third St., Easton
Time is limited to two hours for each meeting.
Comments can be submitted in writing by Wednesday, Feb. 19, via email to Susan
Woods at: swoods@auditorgen.state.pa.us.
2014
PA Gubernatorial Candidate Plans for Education and Arts/Culture in PA
Education
Policy and Leadership
Center
Below is an alphabetical list of the 2014 Gubernatorial Candidates and
links to information about their plans, if elected, for education and
arts/culture in Pennsylvania
FEBRUARY 1ST, 2014
The DCIU Google Symposium is an opportunity for teachers,
administrators, technology directors, and other school stakeholders to come
together and explore the power of Google Apps for Education. The
Symposium will be held at the Delaware County Intermediate Unit. The
Delaware County Intermediate Unit is one of Pennsylvania
NPE National Conference
2014
The Network for Public Education
The Network for Public Education is pleased to announce our
first National Conference. The event will take place on March 1 & 2, 2014
(the weekend prior to the world-famous South by Southwest Festival) at The University of Texas
at Austin
Details and
registration here: http://www.networkforpubliceducation.com/conference/
The National School Boards Association 74th Annual
Conference & Exposition April 5-7, 2014 New Orleans
The National School Boards Association 74th Annual
Conference & Exposition will be held at the Ernest
N. Morial
Convention Center in New Orleans , LA. New Orleans
General
Session speakers include education advocates
Thomas L. Friedman, Sir Ken Robinson, as well as education innovators Nikhil
Goyal and Angela Maiers.
We have more than 200 sessions planned!
Colleagues from across the country will present workshops on key topics with
strategies and ideas to help your district. View our Conference
Brochure for highlights on sessions and
focus presentations.
·
Register
now! – Register for both the conference and housing using our online
system.
·
Conference
Information– Visit the NSBA conference website for up-to-date information
·
Hotel
List and Map - Official NSBA Housing Block
·
Exposition
Campus – View new products and services and interactive
trade show floor
Join the National
School Boards
Action Center
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
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.