Daily postings from the Keystone State
Education Coalition now reach more than 3250 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?
Keystone State Education Coalition
Pennsylvania Education Policy Roundup
for April 16, 2014:
Money Talks: Are the wealthy
entitled to "more speech" in politics?
PSBA
members in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware Counties - save the date
PSBA
Buxmont Region 11 and Penns Grant Region 15 Combined Region/Legislative Meeting
-- Thursday, May 15, at William Tennent High School
- Buffet dinner/registration, 6 p.m. ($8 charge for
dinner) - Program, 7:30 p.m. -- Minority Senate Education Committee Chair
Hon. Andy Dinniman will introduce guest speaker Diane Ravitch, author and
education historian, and former Assistant Secretary of Education. Retiring House Education Committee Chairman
Paul Clymer will also be honored for his long time (1981) public service.
"The state Department of Education has not said when it
will distribute the money it owes to districts, but that doesn't let the
districts or their local property-tax payers of the hook for the construction
financing. Unless the state government meets its obligations, the districts
will have to get the money somewhere else - from taxpayers through higher property
taxes, or from students through reduced programs and services."
State should pay districts what it owes
Scranton
Times-Tribune Editorial Published: April 15, 2014
State
lawmakers and Gov. Tom Corbett already have demonstrated that they have scant interest
in helping distressed cities such as Scranton, unless tightening recovery
deadlines and limiting options can be considered to be helpful. Why should school districts be any different?
Three
local school districts - Carbondale Area, Mid Valley and Western Wayne - are
among many statewide awaiting promised reimbursements from the state government
for construction projects that the state government approved. The local
districts alone are due $2.6 million for projects, including several that were
completed as long as three years ago. All
of those districts established budgets to pay down the debt resulting from
those projects, with guaranteed state reimbursements figured into the repayment
schedules.
PA-Gov: Corbett Releases New Education-Focused Ad (Video)
PoliticsPA
Written by Jordan Krom, Contributing Writer April 15, 2014
Governor
Tom Corbett, fighting to keep his gubernatorial position, released a new ad in
his Corbett-Cawley campaign touting the increase in education funding under
Corbett’s leadership.
The
video, which stars his wife Susan Corbett, focuses on the $1.5 billion in
education spending that Corbett signed off during his time as governor. Both
Corbett and his wife are former public school teachers.
A Good Start
Politically Uncorrected
Column by G. Terry Madonna & Michael L.Young April 15, 2014
Still
more than a month away, the hotly contested Democratic primary is finally
moving into high gear. Over the next several weeks, Pennsylvania voters will be treated (if
that’s the word) to a veritable barrage of political ads, press releases,
debates and other assorted arcana of political campaigns heading for the wire. So far, it’s been a set piece campaign.
Although it has turned a bit negative, the four surviving candidates have
mostly agreed on the big issues. They all advocate ambitious agendas in
education and economic development as well as protection of the environment and
job creation. As challengers, they’ve mostly avoided dealing with the
precarious fiscal situation faced by the state. None favor, for example,
increases to the currently structured sales tax or the income tax or in fact
any broad based revenue measures, except for a severance tax on the natural gas
industry. Abundantly clear is that
whichever Democrat wins the nomination he or she is going to wage a vigorous
and energetic campaign in the fall. The Democrats intend to win in 2014, and
they intend to govern aggressively, if they do win.
A prior KEYSEC posting noted below details how a handful of
wealthy individuals funded PA's Students First PAC which advocates for
vouchers, charters and tax credits.
Supreme Court campaign
finance case silenced the voices of average Americans: Kyle L. Kreider
By on
April 15, 2014 at 1:00 PM
By Kyle L. Kreider
On April 2, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a
decision in an important campaign finance case, McCutcheon
v. Federal Election Commission, that will have profound negative
consequences for the participatory democracy that our framers envisioned. This decision will hamper the voice and power
of average Americans in the political process, perhaps even leading to a
further decline in participation and interest in voting and politics.
Blogger 's note: PSP also has a
strong link to the Students First PAC via board member Janine Yass
When Ed Reformers speak: “Schools
shouldn’t have a right to exist”
Parents
United for Public Education Posted on April 14, 2014 by PARENTSUNITEDPHILA
The
Philadelphia School Partnership was founded with a mission “to accelerate” the
pace of education reform in Philadelphia
and to raise $100 million to wield its agenda. So why has PSP in its short
tenure here become such a polarizing institution? Hmm . . could it be the
fact that they:
- Have prominent voucher advocates on their board of directors?
- Cheered 24 school closures which our own
Supt. conceded may not benefit students?
- Hired a lobbying firm to robocall Philadelphians to support Governor Corbett’s
“doomsday” school budget for Philly schools?
- Supported the linking of additional funds for Philadelphia tied to undermining
teacher professionalism?
- Lobbied to assume private control of student enrollment?
In
addition to all that, let’s not forget that the Philadelphia School Partnership
convenes and is fiscal agent for and staff to the Great Schools Compact which
brings together top level Distirct, SRC and City officials in regular private
meetings with assorted school operators to press its ideas.
"State Rep. Brendan Boyle, who is running
against Leach, also received $11,300 from PSEA in 2012, and nearly five times
that amount from Students First, a group that advocates for expanded school
choice, including charter and magnet schools."
Largest teachers union endorses Leach in primary
Largest teachers union endorses Leach in primary
LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, April 15, 2014, 1:08 AM
Here are prior Keystone
State Education Coalition postings on Pennsylvania
January
9, 2012 FOLLOW THE MONEY: Contributions to Students First PAC - Not Exactly
Grassroots $6.66 Million from just 19 donors
October 22, 2011: Students First PAC Contributions to Senate Ed Committee Members
April 22, 2011: Students First PAC Ramps up ...
January 3, 2011 - Follow The Students First PAC Voucher Money
October 22, 2011: Students First PAC Contributions to Senate Ed Committee Members
April 22, 2011: Students First PAC Ramps up ...
January 3, 2011 - Follow The Students First PAC Voucher Money
School advocates file brief
to support teachers union
THE ALLIANCE for Philadelphia Public Schools has
filed a brief in support of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers' legal
fight to block the district from eliminating teacher seniority.
The advocacy group said
that as citizens of Philadelphia, they "will be most affected and impacted
by any decisions of the School Reform Commission to unilaterally impose working
conditions and work rule changes upon the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers," according to the filing.
"Simply stated - the working conditions of Philadelphia 's teachers are the learning
conditions of our schoolchildren," the filing read.
Philly poll indicates
unhappiness with SRC, Corbett's positions on education
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, April 16, 2014, 1:07 AM
POSTED: Tuesday, April 15, 2014,
11:59 PM
Most Philadelphia voters disagree with the way the
School Reform Commission is handling its responsibilities. They're dissatisfied with Gov. Corbett's
positions on public education. And they
side with teachers in an ongoing contract dispute with the Philadelphia School
District Philadelphia School District
High and low points from the AERA education conference
the
notebook by James H. Lytle on Apr 14 2014 Posted
in Commentary
I had
to go to a national conference to find out what was happening in my own city’s
schools. Conveniently, the American Educational Research Association Annual
Meeting was held in Philadelphia
this year, the first time this gathering of 15,000 academics and policy folks
has met in our city. The conference
lasted for five days, and at any time there may have been as many as
50 different sessions going on. In deference to the host
city and in recognition of how much experimentation is going on in our
public schools, a number of the sessions focused on Philadelphia , covering such topics as
portfolio management and parent engagement. There were also planned visits to
local schools and communities to meet with locals and plan or share research. My own highlights and
"low" lights:
District will raise taxes by at least 2.7 percent.
By
Jacqueline Palochko, Of The Morning Call 11:19 p.m. EDT, April 15, 2014
The Easton Area
School District
'What they did before didn't
work,' new Saucon
Valley
By
April 15, 2014 at 6:28 PM
Saucon
Valley teachers and the school
board will sit down May 19
and start negotiations anew.
The Saucon
Valley Education Association will
have a new chief negotiator, attorney Andrew Muir, and a new team of
association members representing the union's interests. It will be a fresh start with new proposals,
said Muir, who has been hired to represent the association during
negotiations. "What they did before
didn't work," he said. Teachers
have been working under an expired contract for almost two years. It seemed a
settlement was
near in January when the two negotiating teams announced they'd reached a tentative deal.
Reading Eagle By Becca Y. Gregg Tuesday April 15, 2014 12:01 AM
If Exeter School Board
President Robert H. Quinter Jr. had his way, a decision on a merger with the Antietam School District Exeter
residents against the merger, the school board has moved up the vote.
Duquesne school fact-finder
rejects achievement as a salary measure
By Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 15, 2014 11:07
PM
A state fact-finder's
report shows that Duquesne
City School
District
SAT exam undergoes an intense
makeover
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette April 15, 2014 11:56
PM
To use a sample word
offered by the College Board, interest in the redesigned SAT college entrance
exam -- coming in spring 2016 -- is likely to be intense. The word "intense" shows up in a
sample test question illustrating the idea of understanding words in context,
with a passage using intense in a sentence referring to "more intense
clusterings of jobs, innovation and productivity." The correct answer for the nearest meaning of
intense is b. concentrated, but the other three choices -- emotional, brilliant
and determined -- might describe some students preparing for the new exam. While the College Board announced the new
test in March, it released today more detailed explanations and test
specifications, including sample test questions in a draft form. The test is
still under development.
Federal Charter Measure Clears Hurdle
in House
Education
Week By Alyson
Klein Published Online: April 15, 2014
States
and districts would be encouraged to help grow high-quality charter schools—and
ensure that they enroll and retain English-language learners and students in
special education—under a bipartisan bill approved overwhelmingly by the House
Education and the Workforce Committee last week. The measure, which was sponsored by Rep. John
Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the House education committee, and Rep. George
Miller, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the panel, was approved by a vote of 36
to 3 on April 8. During debate on the
bill, a number of committee Democrats lambasted charter schools for siphoning
off resources from other public schools—before voting for the legislation
anyway.
"This is why “no excuses” policies and demands that
students be tougher or grittier ring false to me. My students are already
tremendously tough, unbelievably gritty. The problem is not that they need to
be tougher or that I need to make fewer excuses. The problem is that they
already have too many reasons to be tough — lack of food, relatives in prison,
threats of eviction or deportation, parents sick or addicted, caring for
younger siblings — and that adults at school rarely see the full picture. I
spend fifty hours a week at school and I still don’t always see the full
picture. It’s hard to imagine how policymakers, who are so distant from my
students’ day-to-day realities, can claim to see them better than I can."
No Excuse for Hungry Students
Moyers
& Company by Elaine Weiss and Kathleen Melville April 12, 2014
It’s
easy for me to forget the hardships my students face every day. I maintain an
almost fanatically upbeat presence in the classroom and most of my ninth
graders oblige me by joining in. We sing, dance, tell stories, make jokes. It’s
my way of avoiding the tedium that can so easily overtake a school day. But
every once in a while, a crack opens and I get a glimpse into my students’
realities. Recently, students were
dismissed early so faculty could meet for professional development. One of my
students, Carina, went to the cafeteria for lunch and found that it was not
being served. She went home hungry — and angry. Later, she did something rare
and brave. She proclaimed her hunger by venting on social media. She railed
against the cafeteria staff for not serving lunch (which they are indeed
supposed to do on half days) and against our school and district in general.
Another student, Chris, responded with a comment: “What do you expect? They all
make 50K and go home to a fridge full of food.”
FYI….K12, Inc. runs Pennsylvania
Investor Lawsuit Targets K12
Inc. and Stock Sales of Former CEO
Education Week
Marketplace K12 blog By on April
14, 2014 3:00 PM
A recently filed federal
lawsuit accuses the publicly traded company K12 Inc. of misleading investors by
putting forward overly positive public statements during much of last year,
only later to reveal that it had missed key operational and financial targets. The lawsuit also alleges that former K12 CEO Ronald J. Packard "reaped the
rewards" of the bullish company projections by selling millions of dollars
worth of stock in the months before an October announcement of disappointing
news sent its stock price plummeting.
The legal
action, filed in January in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, is seeking class-action status. It says that Packard sold
43 percent of his personally held K12 common stock, for gross proceeds of $6.4
million, during those months, when the plaintiffs contend that the stock price
was "artificially inflated."
Public Citizens for Children and Youth
(PCCY) will Host an Education Funding Forum in Delaware County
On May
7th, PCCY will host a forum that discusses the state of school
funding in Delaware
County 501 Bywood Avenue ,
Upper Darby PA 19082 from 6:30pm-8pm.
Attendees will get a budget update from Sharon Ward of the Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy Center , hear from School Board members representing
Upper Darby, William Penn, and Haverford
School Districts
Please
RSVP by clicking here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OjFpJwTHnZwRqh0Q5Tdp0KHYaI1Jg0XNvGpmeYMmIyA/viewform
PSBA Advocacy Forum and Day on the Hill
May 5-6, Mechanicsburg & Harrisburg
Make an impact on the legislative process by attending PSBA’s Advocacy Forum and Day on the Hill, May 5-6. Day one will provide legislative insights on pensions, training on being an effective advocate, and media relations. Dr. G. Terry Madonna, leading Pennsylvania political analyst, will discuss the legislative landscape in his usual lively and informative style. Just added -- How to Be an Effective Advocate -- Hear from former Allwein Advocacy Award winners Larry Feinberg, Roberta Marcus and Tina Viletto on how to successfully support your issues. On day two, participants will start with a breakfast at the Harrisburg Hilton and then hit the ground running with visits to legislative offices in the State Capitol. Space is limited so register early. Click here for more details and to register online.
May 5-6, Mechanicsburg & Harrisburg
Make an impact on the legislative process by attending PSBA’s Advocacy Forum and Day on the Hill, May 5-6. Day one will provide legislative insights on pensions, training on being an effective advocate, and media relations. Dr. G. Terry Madonna, leading Pennsylvania political analyst, will discuss the legislative landscape in his usual lively and informative style. Just added -- How to Be an Effective Advocate -- Hear from former Allwein Advocacy Award winners Larry Feinberg, Roberta Marcus and Tina Viletto on how to successfully support your issues. On day two, participants will start with a breakfast at the Harrisburg Hilton and then hit the ground running with visits to legislative offices in the State Capitol. Space is limited so register early. Click here for more details and to register online.
Educating the Voter: A Forum on Public
Education featuring Democratic gubernatorial candidates - April 30th 6:00 pm
Phila Central Library
Presented by Committee of Seventy, Congresso and
Philadelphia Education Fund
Wednesday,
April 30, 2014 at 6:00PM
Join Democratic gubernatorial candidates Katie McGinty, Tom Wolf, Allyson Schwartz and Rob McCord for a discussion on public education.
Please
click here to
register.
PSBA
nominations for offices now open!
Deadline April 30th
PSBA Leadership Development Committee seeks strong leaders for the association
Members interested in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged to complete an Application for Nomination no later than April 30. As a member-driven association, the Leadership Development Committee (LDC) is seeking nominees with strong skills in leadership and communication, and who have vision for PSBA. Complete details on the nomination process, links to the Application for Nomination form, and scheduled dates for nominee interviews can be found online by clicking here.
PSBA Leadership Development Committee seeks strong leaders for the association
Members interested in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged to complete an Application for Nomination no later than April 30. As a member-driven association, the Leadership Development Committee (LDC) is seeking nominees with strong skills in leadership and communication, and who have vision for PSBA. Complete details on the nomination process, links to the Application for Nomination form, and scheduled dates for nominee interviews can be found online by clicking here.
How the Business Community Can Lead on
Early Education
Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia
Join
business and community leaders to learn about how you can help make sure every
child arrives in kindergarten ready to succeed. On April 29th, the Economy
League of Greater Philadelphia and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and
Southern New Jersey will host a forum featuring business leaders from around
the country talking about why they’re focused on early childhood education and
how they have moved the needle on improving quality and access in their states.
Featured
Speakers
- Jack Brennan, Chairman Emeritus of The
Vanguard Group
- Phil Peterson, Partner, Aon Hewitt and
Co-Chair of America’s Edge/Ready Nation
- And more to be announced!
- Date & Time Tuesday, April
29, 2014 | 5-7 PM
Registration begins at 5 PM;
program from 5:30 to 7:00 PM
- Location Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia
10 North Independence Mall West Philadelphia,
PA 19106
Registration:
http://worldclassgreaterphila.org/worldclasscouncilforum
PILCOP Special Education Seminars 2014
Schedule
Public
Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Tuesday, April 29th,
12-4 p.m.
Wednesday, May 14th,
1-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.
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. This list will be updated, as more
information becomes available.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.