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
We haven't fixed the underlying problem here, which is
full and fair funding on the state level"
Folks whose focus is on making a profit from public education
tax dollars are lobbying hard to kill the Special Education Funding Reform Bill
HB1238.
HB1238 was
developed as a result of extensive work done by the Special Education Funding
Commission chaired by Senator Pat Browne (R-16, Lehigh) and State
Representative Bernie O'Neill (R-29, Bucks).
Find the Harrisburg
Need more info on HB2138?
Education Voters PA Statewide
Call to Action May 6th
A part of the annual rite of spring, it is time to call
Harrisburg and let them know what our priorities are for the Pennsylvania Budget!
On May 6th, plan to take 5 minutes to call your State Rep, State Senator and
the Governor about the education budget. Detailed materials will be posted
here.
Education Voters of PA will be holding a Statewide
Call-to-Action for Public Education!
On May 6th, thousands of people will set aside 5 minutes to
call their state representative and senator and our governor. We will send a
message that Pennsylvanians need a fair budget that gives students the
instruction and support they need to meet state standards and provides funding
that our communities can count on. As
the budget process gets underway, it’s important that our legislators and
governor know we care about our public schools and are paying attention to what
they are doing!
Download a flier here
to spread the word: http://freepdfhosting.com/b872d0a736.pdf
Did you catch our weekend posting?
PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 3, 2014:
"Why can the charter school guarantee my child art, music and gym when the
School District cannot?"
Education Policy and Leadership
Center
"The
District's situation could actually get worse. Increases in education
funding that Corbett has proposed and the District is counting on next year
could be pared back as the state looks for ways to close what is
turning into a more than $1 billion hole due to revenues that are coming in
below projections. "April's poor
revenue collections seriously complicated an already challenging state
budget," wrote Arneson, Pileggi's spokesman. "We are in the process
of re-evaluating every line item to see where additional savings can be
gleaned. I won't rule out the possibility that some line items may see
increases, but I don't think optimism is warranted at this point."
The
advocacy groups say that the primary goal is to get a fair, predictable state
funding formula for education -- a view echoed by Lori Shorr, Mayor
Nutter's chief education officer. "We
haven't fixed the underlying problem here, which is full and fair funding on
the state level," she said."
City and state still locked
in battle over responsibility for Philly schools
the notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa on May 03 2014
Posted in Latest news
On Monday, at its annual
budget hearing, City Council will hear pleas from School
District leaders for more money.
It is a familiar scenario. The same thing happens every year, only this
time it is worse. The District says it needs $216 million just
to keep the current level of service -- a level in which many schools
do not have full-time counselors or nurses, most have no libraries, course
offerings have been cut back and virtually all are scrambling for basic
supplies. …Ideally, the District says it wants
$440 million in additional
funds so it can not only restore cuts made over the last two years, but make a
start on Hite's school improvement agenda. It is hoping to raise that by
getting $195 million from the city, $150 million from the state, and the rest,
about $95 million, through concessions from labor unions, particularly the
teachers.
But the political and
fiscal realities are not looking good.
With low revenues, Corbett
and Pa.
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY WILSON MAY 5, 2014
Republican lawmakers and the
governor are blaming Congress for Pennsylvania 's
money problems. But economists say the criticism is not warranted. Pennsylvania 's
tax revenue haul in April was almost 9 percent below estimates. Part of the reason, said state Senate
Appropriations Chairman Jake Corman, is the end of federal tax breaks on
capital gains, dividends and higher wage earners. "The high tax increase on growth,
capital gains has shortened up revenue in this commonwealth and other states
around the nation," Corman, R-Centre, said on the Senate floor Wednesday. The next morning, Gov. Tom Corbett made the
same point about federal tax policy changes during remarks at an event with the
Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC.
But Independent Fiscal Office
Director Matthew Knittel said Pennsylvania
didn't lose revenue as much as it saw a shift. To avoid tax rate increases on
capital gains and payments to shareholders, many people pulled their income
into the 2012 tax year.
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY WILSON MAY 5, 2014
Supporters of a plan to replace
school property taxes with higher personal income and sales levies are shopping
their proposal around to colleagues in the Pennsylvania Senate.
It's hard to tell for sure if
popular support for property tax elimination has grown, but rallies and
hearings on the issue tend to be packed with people who say their property
taxes are so high they're in danger of losing their homes. A Senate Finance Committee hearing on the
issue Wednesday was no exception. But even co-sponsors of the "tax
shift" plan under consideration now would create new winners and losers. "Folks, we know this is a big
shift," said Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, one of the prime sponsors of the
measure.
School board directors tackle
one of the toughest jobs around: Anne Reeves
By on May
02, 2014 at 9:00 AM
No matter what we do
for a living, all of us have days when we’re absolutely convinced our job is
the worst one on the planet. Maybe it’s
our colleagues, our customers, or the work itself, but sometimes we feel like
packing it all in and moving to a desert island. Or moving them to a desert
island. There a lot of really demanding,
difficult jobs out there. We could probably debate forever which ones we think
are the worst of the worst. But I think
there’s one position that absolutely is one of the toughest around. And it’s
not even a “real” job – it’s completely volunteer.
“These figures back up what we
have been saying all along,” Dinniman said. “In imposing these exams on local
schools, the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Independent
Regulatory Review Commission completely ignored the substantial cost burden
they are putting on the backs of our local school districts, costs that would
surely be passed on to taxpayers in the form of significant property tax
hikes.”
Limits on Keystone exams will
save money - Dinniman
WEST CHESTER – State Sen. Andrew E. Dinniman praised the
efforts to limiting the Keystone Graduation Exams to the three required by the
federal government, which he said will save Chester County schools millions in
taxpayer dollars. Dinniman, D-19th of West Whiteland , co-chairman of the Education Committee,
supported the fight to limit the Keystone Graduation Exams. He said that
preliminary estimates from five of Chester
County ’s 12 school districts,
including Downingtown, Owen J. Roberts, Spring-Ford Tredyffrin-Easttown and West Chester , indicate that adding two more tests would
have a total cost more than $1 million.
"The problem with Act 22 (PA Charter School
Government actions, unintended outcomes with S&Ls, schools
Government actions, unintended outcomes with S&Ls, schools
Philly.com by Joel
Naroff POSTED: Sunday, May 4,
2014, 1:10 AM
Joel L. Naroff is chief economist and president of Naroff Economic
Advisors
If you want to see how seemingly logical government actions can create massive problems, all you have to do is look at two outwardly different crises: the collapse of the savings and loan industry and thePhiladelphia
School District School District .
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140504_Government_actions__unintended_outcomes_with_S_Ls__schools.html#XAgUTyK04q10tJlf.99
If you want to see how seemingly logical government actions can create massive problems, all you have to do is look at two outwardly different crises: the collapse of the savings and loan industry and the
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140504_Government_actions__unintended_outcomes_with_S_Ls__schools.html#XAgUTyK04q10tJlf.99
Education cuts roil state
House races
Like never before, polls
show education as the top issue concerning state voters, largely because of
massive public-school and higher-education funding cutbacks. The cuts happened because federal stimulus
money for public-school education disappeared almost three years ago and the
state did not immediately replace the money sent to local school
districts. The $900 million cut in
overall basic education spending in Gov. Tom Corbett’s first budget made him
unpopular and threatens his re-election, even though he blamed school districts
for failing to prepare for the end of stimulus money and mostly failing to heed
his call for wage freezes. As local state
House candidates campaign for election or re-election, the cuts loom large.
Transportation committee to
discuss busing in Springfield School District
Delco Times by Sue
Serbin POSTED: 05/04/14, 10:10 PM
EDT |
The Springfield
School District
The school board determined the committee was an appropriate
approach to the issue following substantial public interest. In the last three
meetings, the board heard from members of the transportation department as well
as parents. The board has stressed the decision to outsource has not been made,
and only the issuance of a Request for Proposal has taken place at present.
Local teachers share how new
standards are changing classrooms
Take a look inside
classrooms to see how teachers are teaching, and students are learning, under
new core standards.
York Daily Record By
Angie Mason amason@ydr.com @angiemason1 on Twitter 05/03/2014 04:59:40 PM EDT
Students in Jeff
Plummer's seventh-grade math class worked in pairs to solve a word problem
asking them what score "Joey" would need to get on his final test in
order to get an A in his course.
"What is some of the important information?" Plummer asked.
Students pointed out
Joey's previous grades and the score range he needed to get an A. Plummer
circled and underlined key words on the whiteboard. The students still needed
to note that Joey's final test counted double in his overall grade. "What else is important here? Talk to
the person next to you. 30 seconds. Go!"
Plummer, a teacher at Northeastern
Middle School
Plummer has been
changing his teaching as Pennsylvania
schools shift to a new set of standards that lay out what students should know
by particular grades.
"One
aspect of the deal with Pearson that is sure to get attention is the PARCC
states' prediction that it will result in an assessment price of about $24 per
student."
Pearson Wins Major Contract
From Common-Core Testing Consortium
Education Week
Marketplace K12 By on May
2, 2014 11:23 AM |
The global education
company Pearson has landed a major contract to administer tests aligned to the
common-core standards, a project described as being of "unprecedented
scale" in the U.S.
testing arena by one official who helped negotiate it. The decision to award the contract, announced
Friday, was made by a group of states developing tests linked to the common
core for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers, one of two main consortia of states creating exams to match the standards. Pearson is expected to perform a broad range
of duties under the contract, including development of test items, delivery of
paper-and-pencil and computerized test forms, reporting of results, analysis of
scores, and working with states to develop "cut scores," or
performance standards for the exams.
Arne Duncan can keep his cynical NCLB waiver — Washington
'It’s not that I don’t understand
your NCLB numbers or metrics. I work in the Business Intelligence group at
Microsoft, part of the Cloud + Enterprise Division, so data and analytics is
what I do. And I’ve done the analysis. I’ve weighed the cost of your revoked
waiver and considered its benefits, and the conclusion is clear: it’s not worth
it.'
Public Citizens for Children and Youth
(PCCY) will Host an Education Funding Forum in Delaware County on May 7th
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 members in Bucks, Montgomery, Chester and Delaware
Counties
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.
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.
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