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PA Ed Policy Roundup for July
12, 2014:
Ed Secretary Duncan:
Philly school funding 'unacceptable'
EPLC
Education Notebook July 11, 2014
Education Policy and Leadership Center
"The children of Philly deserve better
than what they have. The lack of funding, the lack of commitment at the state
level is simply unacceptable," Duncan
"This is a system that is desperately
underfunded, that is starved for resources, and there is simply no upside
there. And to see the personnel cuts, to see the after-school programs go away,
the counselors, I just have a simple question: How is that good for children?
How is that good for the city, or for the state, or for our nation?" he
added. Duncan said the decision for
state lawmakers to do more, not just for students in the city, but across the
state, should be a "no-brainer.
Ed Secretary Duncan:
Philly school funding 'unacceptable'
SOLOMON LEACH, DAILY
NEWS STAFF WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5903 POSTED: Sunday, July 13, 2014, 3:01 AM
PRESIDENT Obama's education secretary said Philadelphia schools are "starved for
resources" and strongly urged state lawmakers to step up investment in
education during a visit to the city yesterday.
Arne Duncan's comments followed a roundtable discussion at Community College of Philadelphia
Gov. Corbett says he will
take pension reform to the public
By Amy McConnell Schaarsmith and Ed Blazina/Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette July 11, 2014 8:17 PM
After more than a day of criticism from fellow state
Republicans who accused him of failing to show leadership, Gov. Tom Corbett
said Friday that he has worked behind the scenes long enough and will take his
cause of pension reform to the public. State
legislators failed to address an overhaul of public pensions in the 2014-15
state budget they presented to Mr. Corbett this week. On Thursday, the governor
signed the $29.1 billion budget bill but struck more than $72 million from the
fiscal plan because the Legislature increased its own funding while declining
his call to overhaul the retirement system for future state and school workers.
The state faces a $1.5 billion deficit, in part because of those pension obligations. Unless the Legislature creates a new pension
system that the state can afford, the state’s residents -- and in particular,
retirees and others on fixed incomes -- will feel the pain, Mr. Corbett said.
Under the current system, taxes would have to increase to pay for the
additional obligations, he said.
Turzai calls on Gov. Corbett
to take a greater leadership role
By Ed Blazina / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette July 11, 2014 12:48 PM
State House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Marshall, this
morning reiterated his call for Gov. Tom Corbett to "use the bully
pulpit" and take a greater leadership role to get reforms such as state
liquor store privatization, reduction in the size of the Legislature and
pension reform.
Mr. Turzai said the Republican leadership in the House has been
able to work in a bi-partisan way to pass legislation in key areas only to have
it stall in the Senate. Rather than criticizing the Senate, which also is
controlled by Republicans, Mr. Turzai pushed for more leadership from the
Republican governor.
Turzai calls on Corbett
to take on pension reform, liquor store privatization
Trib Live By Melissa
Daniels Friday, July 11, 2014, 2:24 p.m.
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Marshall, on Friday called on Republican Gov. Tom Corbett to take the lead on public pension reform and other issues.
House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Marshall, on Friday called on Republican Gov. Tom Corbett to take the lead on public pension reform and other issues.
“The House has led from the front,” Turzai said during a news conference
at the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown. “We are looking for the governor
to help us with these agenda items.”
Corbett's Last Stand
Politically
Uncorrected Column by G. Terry Madonna & Michael L.Young July 11,
2014
It’s a trite but true political aphorism: “where you stand
depends on where you sit,” meaning we tend to see things differently depending
on what perspective we see them from.
If you're a Pennsylvania Republican, no matter where you “sit,” it’s hard to see what Gov. Corbett did with the 2014-15 budget as anything but a divisive, last-gasp effort to change perceptions of his leadership. In case you missed it, Corbett, using most of his 10 days to sign or veto the 2014-15, state budget finally decided to do both. He signed it, but excluded about $72 million mostly earmarked for the legislature. This he excised with his line-item veto popularly known as “blue lining.” (APennsylvania
governor cannot add appropriations to a budget passed by the legislature, but
can selectively delete them.)
Corbett wiped out about 20 percent of the money intended to support the General Assembly plus some pet projects. (Before shedding a tear for the legislature be informed that it currently holds some $150 million in “reserve,” more than enough to get it through the year.
If you're a Pennsylvania Republican, no matter where you “sit,” it’s hard to see what Gov. Corbett did with the 2014-15 budget as anything but a divisive, last-gasp effort to change perceptions of his leadership. In case you missed it, Corbett, using most of his 10 days to sign or veto the 2014-15, state budget finally decided to do both. He signed it, but excluded about $72 million mostly earmarked for the legislature. This he excised with his line-item veto popularly known as “blue lining.” (A
Corbett wiped out about 20 percent of the money intended to support the General Assembly plus some pet projects. (Before shedding a tear for the legislature be informed that it currently holds some $150 million in “reserve,” more than enough to get it through the year.
With pension staredown, some
Grand Old Dysfunction: Friday Morning Coffee
By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com on July 11, 2014 at 7:57 AM, updated July
11, 2014 at 8:30 AM
Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
As Gov. Tom Corbett went to war with the state Legislature on Thursday by line-item vetoing a goodly sized chunk of the 253-member institution's budget appropriation, one teeny little fact seemed lost in the shuffle. Even as he denounced them as obstructionist and hostage to special interest, Corbett was talking not about an institution controlled by Democrats -- but by members of his own party.
As Gov. Tom Corbett went to war with the state Legislature on Thursday by line-item vetoing a goodly sized chunk of the 253-member institution's budget appropriation, one teeny little fact seemed lost in the shuffle. Even as he denounced them as obstructionist and hostage to special interest, Corbett was talking not about an institution controlled by Democrats -- but by members of his own party.
It was, at once, a glaring omission, but also a vivid
illustration of the rocky relations between the GOP-controlled executive and
Republicans in the state House and Senate.
The governor should call a special session
of the Legislature to deal only with pension reform. It should begin with the
lawmakers reducing their own pension benefit, going forward but not for the
last 13 years, to the generous level it was at before they and their
predecessors got greedy in 2001. That, in turn, would be prelude to negotiations
for returning the other public employees’ benefits — going forward — to the
2001 level.
Call session on pensions
State legislators have skipped town without dealing with the
state government’s most pressing financial problem. Thursday, in response to the Legislature’s
refusal to reform pension plans, Gov. Tom Corbett vetoed $65 million in General
Assembly spending — an unprecedented act for a period when the governor’s
office and both legislative houses are controlled by the same party.
It isn’t clear whether the line-item veto will prompt lawmakers
to tackle responsible reform, since they also have hoarded about $150 million
of the taxpayers’ money to use as they choose — more than enough to cover the
spending disallowed by the governor.
The state’s two huge pension plans are underfunded due to a
double whammy of greed and incompetence by the Legislature. Although many
lawmakers were not yet in office when the Legislature lowered the boom on
taxpayers in 2001, they are equally as culpable as their predecessors because
they have declined to repair the damage — which grows by the day.
In 2001 lawmakers granted themselves a 50 percent pension
increase and spread the largess to public school and state government
employees, with 25 percent increases. Then, they made it all retroactive and
increased benefits for people who already had retired. That’s the greed.
Incompetence lay in their assertion that pension investment
would cover the greed
State Department of Education
secures private funding for governor's schools
By Madeline R. Conway /
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
July 11, 2014 5:52 PM
The Pennsylvania
Department of Education has secured private funding to support each of the
state's three existing governor's schools next summer, spokesman Tim Eller said
Friday, suggesting that the recently revived programming will survive at least
another year.
Each of the three summer
residential programs for talented high school students — held at Carnegie
Mellon, Lehigh, and Penn State universities — will receive $150,000 through a
partnership between the state Department of Education and a private funding
source or sources, Mr. Eller said. The
confirmation that the governor's schools will receive outside funding for
another year comes after a period of uncertainty surrounding their futures. The
schools had been slated to receive $350,000 collectively in state funding under
Gov. Tom Corbett's originally proposed budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year, but
that line item was not included in the version he signed on Thursday.
Justin Amann: Charter school
growth siphons resources from public schools
Morning Call Opinion by Justin Amann 5:53 a.m. EDT, July
11, 2014
Justin Amann, a graduate of Liberty High School, is a
senior at East Stroudsburg University Liberty and is
president of the Student Senate at East Stroudsburg .
Being a student leader has been both a blessing and a curse during my tenure in both the K-12 system as well as the post-secondary education world. It has opened my eyes to public education's balancing act of maintaining high-quality programs, paying the bills, and competing with nonpublic entities that claim to do it better. As the president of the student body, I was entrenched in East Stroudsburg University's financial woes, but I couldn't help but to notice the struggles that theBethlehem Area
School District (I'm a proud 2011 Liberty High School Bethlehem Area School District
Being a student leader has been both a blessing and a curse during my tenure in both the K-12 system as well as the post-secondary education world. It has opened my eyes to public education's balancing act of maintaining high-quality programs, paying the bills, and competing with nonpublic entities that claim to do it better. As the president of the student body, I was entrenched in East Stroudsburg University's financial woes, but I couldn't help but to notice the struggles that the
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-public-charter-school-ithink--20140711,0,7636749.story#ixzz37BEO6N6Z
Conditions
tied to public school funding
Wilkes-Barre Area School District Superintendent Bernard
Prevuznak said he’s pleased the state budget includes an increase in public
education funding but added there’s an application process to get additional
funding. “We appreciate this during
these difficult financial times and welcome any increase in possible funds,”
Prevuznak said. “But understand that this is tied to the governor’s ‘Ready to
Learn Block Grant’ that deals with an application process and a funding formula.
This money that we are allotted has to be earmarked for certain new educational
programs.”
Prevuznak noted “restrictions are in place in using this
funding,”adding the state will only help fund “new costs.”
Corbett wins...the enmity of
the General Assembly
Philly Daily News by
CHRIS BRENNAN POSTED: Friday, July 11, 2014, 3:01 AM
GOV. CORBETT has discovered the one thing
Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature can agree on: Their mutual dislike
for him.
Corbett yesterday signed into law the $29.1 billion 2014-15
state budget approved by legislators 10 days ago, but used his line-item veto
power to carve out $65 million - 19.7 percent - from the Legislature's $330
million budget and another $7.2 million in other legislative spending.
Corbett is using that combined $72.2 million cut as leverage to
force the state House and Senate to return from summer break to work on pension
reform.
Five times in a news
conference yesterday Corbett complained about lobbying by public-sector unions
that oppose his pension plans. At no point did Corbett note that the
Republicans, his own political party, control both legislative chambers and
have not rallied to his side on the issue.
Philly delegation seeks
meeting with Big Tobacco
By the notebook on
Jul 11, 2014 01:16 PM
The Pennsylvania
Senate's Philadelphia
delegation has asked to meet with representatives from Big Tobacco after
hearing that its lobbyists had a hand in altering, and thus stalling,
legislation for a Philadelphia-only cigarette tax to fund the city's schools. Senate Democrats Shirley Kitchen and Anthony
Williams sent a
letter Friday to the chief
executives of the country's two largest tobacco companies, Altria Group and
R.J. Reynolds, expressing frustration that their lobbyists had met with state
legislators "without involving the Philadelphia Delegation members."
They also released the letter to local media.
The letter reiterates
the loss of potential millions in revenue each week that goes by without the
bill's passage -- money that the School District is counting on to help close a
$93 million gap in its budget and avoid another round of mass layoffs, severe
cuts and the possibility of not opening schools on time.
Read the letter to
Martin Barrington
of Altria and Susan Cameron of R.J. Reynolds below.
DN Editorial: Funding for
dummies
IT'S TEMPTING to slam the state Legislature for failing to
accomplish one simple task - pass a $2-per-pack cigarette tax in Philadelphia to help fund
the schools.
But, in our estimation, the Legislature has failed to
accomplish not one but five simple tasks, any one of which would have helped
the city's schools open on time, with more than bare-bones staffing. And that
turns a single glitchy bill into a sweeping and utter failure of leadership.
Because of last-minute tinkering with the cigarette-tax bill,
the law that was on its way to Gov. Corbett's desk must now go back to the
House, where success is iffy. (The House says that it will come back in August
to deal with the bill.)
The cigarette tax itself - which had been projected to bring in
$45 million in its first year - represents a desperate move on the part of the
city, which came up with the tax in the absence of any productive ideas in Harrisburg . The whopping
tax will have a few good outcomes - reduced health risks from smoking, for one
- but will add especially high financial burdens to people who can least afford
it. The city is one of the "smokingest" big cities in the country,
and many of those that would be hit by the higher tax are low income. We'll put
aside the lectures on "if you can't afford to smoke, you shouldn't smoke
anyway," especially considering some of the other options for raising
money or making the schools whole:
Coatesville school district
denies Daily Local copy of internal probe (Documents)
By Kristina
Scala, Daily Local News POSTED: 07/10/14, 6:50 PM EDT
CALN – The Daily Local News was denied a copy of the internal
investigation performed by the Coatesville
Area School
District
Issue Brief — The National
Perspective: How Pre-K in PA Compares to Other Competing States
Pre-K for PA July 10,
2014
Pre-K for PA released a new issue brief: “The National
Perspective: How Pre-K in PA Compares to Other Competing States, first in a
series of three policy documents outlining the path to achieve our campaign
vision in Pennsylvania.
Who Should Pay For Schools?
Answer Remains Unclear As Cigarette Tax Boost On Hold
Forbes by Kelly Phillips Erb 7/10/2014 @ 12:12PM 420 views
There are a few facts that everyone can agree on with respect
to the Philadelphia
School District
·
The school district is operating at a deficit.
·
The school district can’t open its doors without
staff.
·
Nobody likes to pay taxes.
What everyone can’t agree on, however, are how those facts are
going to intersect.
The budget crisis in Philadelphia
is nothing new: I’ve been writing about it for years. Despite the dire warnings
every year, there has been no real movement to move the discussions forward.
Each year, the District screams about the lack of funding and a band-aid gets
slapped on, the school year goes on, summer starts and the screaming starts
again. Somewhere in the middle, there’s a lot of finger pointing, accusations
and promises. But the result is always the same.
And before you click onto another story, thinking that this is
simply a local matter, don’t be fooled. The Philadelphia School
District Philadelphia
is one that is happening all over the country: how do you best fund
schools?
Where Are the Nation's 'Most
Productive' School Districts ?
Education Week District
Dossier Blog By on July
9, 2014 7:01 PM
By guest
blogger Evie Blad.
Is your school district spending its likely tight budget on the
right things? New reports suggest many aren't.
Three reports released today by the Center for American
Progress, a progressive think tank, examine whether districts are
properly targetting their budgets to areas that will most effectively address
academic success for students.The reports are a follow-up to a similar assessment the group completed in 2011. In Return
on Investment 2014, the organization assessed the "educational productivity" of more
than 7,000 districts by measuring "the achievement that a school
district produces relative to its spending, while controlling for factors
outside a district's control, such as the cost of living and students
living in poverty."
How did they do that? The report uses a metric that factors in
the most recent data available—spending information from 2010-11 and the
results of 2010-11 state reading and math assessments in elementary, middle,
and high school—to determine how much return on its investment a district gets
relative to other districts in its state. "To avoid penalizing districts
where education costs are higher, we adjusted for a variety of factors,
including cost-of-living differences and higher concentrations of
low-income, non-English-speaking, and special education students," the
report says. This color-coded matrix then shows how districts are graded.
How Microsoft will make money
from Common Core (despite what Bill Gates said)
Microsoft founder Bill Gates got somewhat indignant when my
Post colleague Lyndsey Layton asked him in an interview this past spring about
concerns of some opponents of the Common Core State Standards that
his important support for the initiative has been driven by business interests.
The interview was part of the extensive reporting Layton did over two months
to write
an important story about Gates’s vital involvement in the Core
initiative, which
you can read here. (You can see
the full interview here and an
excerpted video here. )Here is how part of the interview went:
FCC Approves E-rate
Modernization Along Partisan Lines
Education Week Digital
Education Blog By on July
11, 2014 1:56 PM
By Sean
Cavanagh and Michele Molnar
The Federal Communications Commission on Friday approved a
broad series of changes to the E-rate program meant to boost support for Wi-Fi
technology and create more efficiency, though Republicans on the panel strongly
criticized the plan as bloated and bureaucratic. The plan passed on a 3-2
party-line vote. The approved order, as
described by the FCC, would boost Wi-Fi funding for schools and libraries by $1
billion a year over the next two years, and set an annual "funding
target" of that amount for years after that.
School boards encouraged by
E-Rate modernization plan, but further improvements are vital
NSBA School Board News Today by Alexis Rice July 11, 2014
The National School Boards Association (NSBA) welcomes the
decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to improve the long
oversubscribed E-rate program, while also noting remaining funding gaps. This
was reinforced by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who announced that the FCC will
consider added funding for E-rate in a future call for public input.
“The FCC made key revisions to its E-rate modernization
proposal,” said NSBA Executive Director Thomas J. Gentzel. “Though we must
solve for remaining funding gaps, NSBA is very pleased with the FCC’s
commitment to advance WiFi and broadband in America ’s public schools and libraries
and its willingness to seek public input for future E-rate funding.”
PA school boards should
select voting delegates for PSBA Delegate Assembly meeting
PSBA Website 7/10/2014
PSBA has mailed to all school board secretaries a memo and
response form for the appointment of their voting delegates to the Delegate
Assembly. The Delegate Assembly will meet on Tuesday, Oct. 21, prior to the
beginning of the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in Hershey.
- See more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=8175#sthash.ECdIsaeH.dpuf
Teaching in Pennsylvania
EPLC "Focus on Education" TV Program on PCN - July 13 at 3:00 p.m.
EPLC "Focus on Education" TV Program on PCN - July 13 at 3:00 p.m.
The next EPLC "Focus on Education" episode
will air this coming Sunday, July 13 at 3:00 p.m. on PCN
television. This July 13 panel will discuss the status of
the teaching profession in Pennsylvania; what it takes to become a teacher
in the state; teacher preparation programs; whether there are efforts
to attract more minority students to the teaching profession; why we lose a
high percentage of new teachers after only a few years; the status of
the new teacher evaluation system in Pennsylvania; and much more.
The panel will include:
·
Ron Cowell, President of The Education
Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC) and Host of the "Focus on
Education" programs;
·
Dr. Theresa Barnaby, Director, Bureau of
School Leadership and Teacher Quality;
·
Ryan Devlin, 2013 Pennsylvania
Teacher of the Year and Brockway
Area High
School
·
Dolores McCracken, PSEA Treasurer,
Council Rock Education Foundation Treasurer, and parent education advocate; and
·
Dr. Sally A. Winterton, President, Pennsylvania Association
of Colleges and Teacher Educators.
Educational Collaborators Pennsylvania Summit
The Educational Collaborators, in partnership with the Wilson School
District
Pre-K for PA has supporters
all over the greater Philadelphia
We need your help -- join an upcoming phone bank. Join
a fun gathering of like minds in Philadelphia
and Conshohocken on Wednesday evenings throughout the summer. We are
calling fellow Pre-K for PA supporters to build local volunteer teams.
Call a Pre-K Friend in Philly:
UnitedWay Building 1709 Ben Franklin Parkway
Wed July 30, 5-7 PM
United
Wed July 30, 5-7 PM
Call a Pre-K Friend in Mont Co:
Anne's House242 Barren
Hill Road
Wed July 16, 5-7pm
Wed July 30, 5-7pm
Anne's House
Wed July 16, 5-7pm
Wed July 30, 5-7pm
RSVP: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51084/c/10476/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=9390
EPLC Education Issues
Workshop for Legislative Candidates, Campaign Staff, and Interested Voters - Harrisburg
Register Now! EPLC will again be hosting
an Education Issues Workshop for Legislative Candidates, Campaign Staff,
and Interested Voters. This nonpartisan, one-day program will take place
on Thursday, July 31 in Harrisburg .
Space is limited. Click
here to learn more about workshop and to register.
PSBA opens nominations for
the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award
The nomination process is now open for the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award. This award may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s Legislative Platform. Applications will be accepted until July 16, 2014. The July 16 date was picked in honor of Timothy M. Allwein's birthday. The award will be presented during the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in October. More details and application are available on PSBA's website.
The nomination process is now open for the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award. This award may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s Legislative Platform. Applications will be accepted until July 16, 2014. The July 16 date was picked in honor of Timothy M. Allwein's birthday. The award will be presented during the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in October. More details and application are available on PSBA's website.
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Click here to read more
about EPLC’s Education Policy Fellowship Program, including: 2014-15 Schedule
2014-15 Application Past Speakers Program Alumni And More Information
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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