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
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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PA Ed Policy Roundup for July
18, 2014:
Sturla: historically,
no other administration has ever included pension costs when calculating levels
of education funding
State Capitol gridlock? PA's
state House GOP has been leading from the front: Sam Smith and Mike Turzai
PennLive
Op-Ed By Sam Smith and Mike Turzai on July 17, 2014 at 12:00 PM
State Reps. Sam Smith,
of Jefferson County ,
and Mike Turzai, of Allegheny County , both Republicans, are respectively, the
Speaker and Majority Leader of the Pennsylvania
Members of the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus have been
affecting policy in Harrisburg
since gaining the majority in 2011. Those
successful legislative policy initiatives have helped propel private sector job
growth, brought back budgetary responsibility, pushed and passed unparalleled
investments in education, and changed how Harrisburg
operates.
Republicans in the legislature have been identifying both the
needs of Pennsylvania 's
families and children, and the requirements of employees and employers, and
then proactively moving an agenda of responsible solutions.
Top Dems decry pension
proposal as Corbett tours state for support
By Kathleen Carey, Delaware
County Daily
As Gov. Tom Corbett stumps throughout the state to try to drum
up support for pension reform, top state Democrats decried his plan as
dangerously misleading and ineffective. Corbett
backs a proposal by state Rep. Mike Tobash, R-125, of Pottsville, which would
have state employees retirement benefits covered by a defined benefit program,
commonly known as a pension, up to $50,000 in salary and then switch to a
401(k) contribution after that amount. Failing
to pass the state Legislature, the governor is canvassing the state to garner
public approval.
Commonwealth Common Sense Blog by Rep. Mike Sturla Thursday,
July 17, 2014
Crafting a state budget is all about priorities.
For four years now, Gov. Tom Corbett and his Republican
colleagues leading the House and Senate have shown that giving tax breaks to
some multi-national corporations, while refusing to tax others at all, is their
priority and that funding public education is not. Since he took office, Corbett has provided
more than $2 billion in big-business tax cuts. Not to mention allowing
multinational corporations to continue using the Delaware loophole to avoid paying taxes
while, at the same time, refusing to implement a shale gas severance tax.
In an attempt to cover their tracks, Corbett and the Republicans
are now trying to include funding for pensions as part of their calculations of
education funding levels. But that's not flying with the parents and taxpayers
in Pennsylvania
who understand that funding for old pension obligations doesn't help a single
student learn to read, write or solve a math equation. It never has, nor should
it now be, included in the bottom line. For comparison sake, the total
education spend, not including pension costs, (... because historically, no
other administration has ever included pension costs when calculating levels of
education funding) for 2008-09 -- the year before federal stimulus funding --
was $9.36 billion. Meanwhile, total education dollars spent in 2014-15,
not including pension costs, (... because historically, no other administration
has ever included pension costs when calculating education funding levels) is
$9.18 billion. Clearly less funding, yet Corbett and the Republicans in an
attempt to call a lame duck a swan, try to tout this as an increase.
Simply put -- Corbett and the Republican-led House and Senate
have cut education funding in Pennsylvania
by about $3 billion total over the past four years.
Rep. Grove: Pa.
Grove
is a York County
I recently read your editorial
titled "State budget fiddling hurts schools" and wanted to update you
on what the now enacted 2014-15 budget does to help school districts across
this commonwealth.
Total PreK-12 education state
spending in 2008-2009 was $9.6 billion (Rendell).
Total PreK-12 education state
spending in 2009-2010 was $9.2 billion (Rendell).
Total PreK-12 education state
spending in 2010-2011 was $8.9 billion (Rendell).
Total PreK-12 education state
spending in 2011-2012 was $9.4 billion (Corbett).
Total PreK-12 education state
spending in 2012-2013 was $9.7 billion (Corbett).
Total PreK-12 education state
spending in 2013-2014 was $9.97 billion (Corbett).
Total PreK-12 education state
spending in 2014-2015 is $10.6 billion (Corbett).
In the 2014-15 budget, we
provided an increase of $100 million in flexible block grants to school
districts, a $20 million increase for the first time since 2007 in special
education funding and a $10 million increase to PlanCon. Here is what the
school finance gurus had to say:
School funding disparate in
Western Pennsylvania
Trib Live By Megan
Harris Thursday, July 17, 2014,
11:18 p.m.
Pension funds and long-spent federal surplus dollars still weigh heavily on the minds of state leaders debating whether a budgetary boost to state education funding really qualifies as an increase at all. Western Pennsylvania school districts account for close to one-fourth of the state's new $92 million in education grants divvied up by Gov. Tom Corbett's 2014-15 budget, according to budget numbers that the state House Committee on Appropriations' minority staff released this week. Increases ranged statewide, from $169 inMontgomery County 's Bryn
Athyn School
District — so small it contracts educational services to other
school districts — to $15.9 million in Philadelphia . In the region, Pittsburgh Public Schools led
the pack, receiving nearly $1.58 million, about a 1 percent increase from
2013-14. Midland in Beaver County
Pension funds and long-spent federal surplus dollars still weigh heavily on the minds of state leaders debating whether a budgetary boost to state education funding really qualifies as an increase at all. Western Pennsylvania school districts account for close to one-fourth of the state's new $92 million in education grants divvied up by Gov. Tom Corbett's 2014-15 budget, according to budget numbers that the state House Committee on Appropriations' minority staff released this week. Increases ranged statewide, from $169 in
CapitolWire: Basic ed funding
commission could tackle charter school issues that special ed commission could
not
Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools website By
Christen Smith Staff Reporter Capitolwire July 14, 2014
HARRISBURG (July 14) — As the dust of budget season settles
around the state capitol Monday, education advocates regroup and prepare for a
bigger — and arguably more complex — discussion centered on reforming how the
government funds public education. It’s
a debate rife with many of the same pitfalls lawmakers and advocates alike
stumbled into during last year’s Special Education Funding Commission hearings
— an effort that many charter school advocates have said should have come
after, not before, the Legislature reformed the basic education funding
formula. Charter schools, incidentally,
led the opposition against the new special education funding formula passed
earlier this month — a formula that lawmakers ultimately exempted charters from
as a way to sidestep certain inequities found within the legislation.
This time around, charter schools anticipate a seat front and
center at the Basic Education Funding Commission’s hearings.
PSEA: How state budget
cuts affect your district (calculator)
PSEA websiteIn 2011, Gov. Tom Corbett slashed nearly $1 billion
from Pennsylvania 's
public schools, creating a school funding crisis that is getting worse every
year these funds are not restored. Despite
the governor's steadfast refusal to raise new revenue to fill the funding hole
he created, legislators found a way to increase education funding modestly in
the final 2014-15 budget. Unfortunately, the funding increase will be
distributed with strings attached through the governor's "Ready to
Learn" block grant – rather than through the basic education subsidy, the
primary mechanism through which school districts receive state funding.
PASA Education Update
for July 14, 2014
The Enacted 2014-15 State Budget: Last Week's Action…
Final Budget – Last week Tuesday the
Senate returned to the Capitol for a one-day session to give final approval of
the House-amended HB 278, the Fiscal Code bill that provides the
mechanisms for distributing funds outlined in the budget. On Thursday, Gov.
Corbett signed that bill and the $29.1 billion budget plan (HB
2328) into law.
The budget provides a spending increase of about $651 million,
or about 2.3 percent. It also adds another $220 million to cover expenses from
the 2013-14 fiscal year’s. As noted in the June 30 Update, the spending plan
calls for NO significant increase in taxes or recurring revenues. Rather, it is
based on one-time, non-recurring revenues and budget assumptions, including an
assumption that an additional $224 million in revenues will be available for
the general fund budget in remaining fiscal year 2013-14 and in 2014-15.
(Efforts to pass a liquor privatization plan to generate revenue have
apparently fallen well short.) One-time revenues include transferring
funds from the tobacco settlement, eliminating numerous tax credit programs
(but not EITC), and delaying the state’s last payment to Medicaid managed care
organizations (approx. $394 million in savings).
Read More: http://www.pasa-net.org/updatetoday.asp
School districts say state
pension crisis boosting local tax rates
Trib Live By Chris
Foreman and Kelsey Shea Wednesday, July
16, 2014, 9:00 p.m.
“Pac-Man” is poised to
gobble a larger chunk of school district budgets starting this month.
The state's pension
crisis, which Gov. Tom Corbett once likened to the insatiable video-game
character, is among reasons that many Allegheny County
Despite lifting moratorium,
problems still abound in state PlanCon
PSBA's website Capitolwire by Christen Smith 7/17/2014
A break in the $2 billion logjam clogging the state's
construction project reimbursement program, known as PlanCon, could flow as
much as $80 million to school districts throughout the next year. Or maybe as
little as $10 million -- it's hard to tell for sure. (Story posted with
permission of Capitolwire.) Lawmakers on Tuesday cautioned that the exact
dollar amount that will be freed up in the process through a tweak in the
Fiscal Code is hard to predict because PlanCon, itself, remains a cumbersome
and antiquated system of reimbursing school districts for construction costs.
- See more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=8223#sthash.Tn2iuuhQ.dpuf
Radio Times: A conversation
with PFT president Jerry Jordan
WHYY Radio TImes with Marty Moss-CoaneTHURSDAY, JULY 17 audio
runtime 52:01
Guest: Jerry Jordan
Throughout this past school year, Philadelphia teachers have
been coping with the effects of a budget crisis that has resulted in more
children in their classrooms, fewer, and in some cases, no counselors and
nurses on site, a reduced number of school-based administrators and support
staff, and a shortage of textbooks and supplies for their students, among other
things. At the same time they have been working without a contract since
August, 2013. Dividing the Philadelphia
Federation of Teachers (PFT) and the School District of Philadelphia Philadelphia .
- See more at: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/#sthash.tfTajZwZ.dpuf
The path forward: A
Q&A with Education Voters PA's Susan Gobreski
the notebook By Bill
Hangley Jr. on Jul 17, 2014 11:55 AM
With all the questions swirling around this year’s education
budget, virtually everyone agrees on one thing: It won’t solve the Philadelphia School District Philadelphia
students are not getting the education they deserve. With that in mind, the Notebook has
asked education advocates to weigh in on the bigger question: What’s the
long-term path to a truly stable, well-funded, reliable school system? Over the
next few weeks, we’ll run a series of Q&As with local leaders and ask for
their thoughts on the route to a better place.
Our first interviewee is Susan Gobreski, executive director of
Education Voters Pennsylvania, an advocacy group. A 20-year veteran of
political activism in Pennsylvania ,
Gobreski’s goal is to fight for a “thorough and efficient public education” for
all students, District and charter alike.
People must show more
interest in government
Morning Call Letter to the Editor by Scott Armstrong July 16, 2014
The writer is a member of the Allentown School
Recently a vacancy was created on the Allentown School Board
when a Democratic board member moved from the district. The district followed
protocol to fill the seat, advertising the vacancy in the newspaper; board
members and others encouraged interested parties to apply.
In May, the board interviewed two Democratic candidates. That's
right. In Pennsylvania 's third largest city,
exactly two people cared enough about public education in Allentown to apply. Is this not a sad
testament to the public's near-total apathy when it comes to civic involvement?
In the not-so-distant past, public boards were populated by
people with vision, experience and expertise who wanted to repay society that
provided them with opportunity and success.
OP-ED: The sinister truth
about supporting Common Core
In response to a recent
op-ed by William Bartle, education policy director for Pennsylvania Partnerships
for Children, I would like to point out some conveniently ignored truths
regarding Common Core. Mr. Bartle, with
either willful ignorance or contempt for the "regular class," has
lacked the integrity to offer full disclosure in his April 18 piece titled
"Nothing sinister about Common Core." The title itself screams
"nothing to see here."
I offer a public
response to Mr. Bartle in order to enlighten him with the facts and further
educate him on honesty in communication.
Fact: William Bartles' organization, Pennsylvania Partnerships for
Children, has received three separate grants from the Gates Foundation to
sponsor Common Core. These three grants total $935,859.
I wonder why he failed
to mention this.
OP-ED: Nothing sinister about
Common Core
A recent letter
critical of Pennsylvania 's
academic standards and state Rep. Seth Grove's support of those standards
contained some oft-repeated myths about efforts to improve our public schools.
Here are the facts: Pennsylvania Core
Standards do not in any way undermine the commonwealth's long-standing
tradition of local control in our public schools. There is no federally or
state-mandated curriculum and local school officials and educators will
continue to make key decisions about the day-to-day operations in schools and
classrooms, including lesson plans, activities, textbooks and other resources
to be used.
The standards do not
involve or require the collection of any new student data, nor is any new
information shared between local schools and the state or federal governments.
There are no additional reports required by the federal government and reports
that are sent to the federal government by Pennsylvania or its schools do not include any
individual student data.
A renaissance requires
investment, and Pennsylvania
Post-Gazette Opinion By MARK A. NORDENBERG July 18, 2014 12:00
AM
A Post-Gazette town meeting last week focused on Pittsburgh ’s “New
Renaissance.” Our regional progress has attracted national and international
recognition. In fact, just days before I had returned from Asia
where I was invited to speak about the role of “eds and meds” in the inspiring
re-birth of our economy. When the PG
town meeting discussion shifted from reasons for celebration to causes for
concern, my co-panelists shared assessments that might seem surprising. Jared
Cohon, the president emeritus of Carnegie
Mellon University ,
bluntly stated that the single biggest threat to Pittsburgh ’s ongoing progress was the state’s
significant retreat from its commitment to adequately fund pubic higher
education. Esther Barazzone, the president of Chatham University Pennsylvania
has fallen.
Education Week Charters and Choice Blog By Arianna
Prothero on July 16, 2014 5:51 PM
The Ohio State Board of Education has ordered an investigation
into 19 charter schools in the Horizons Science network after allegations surfaced
of severe misconduct among school officials at one of the schools in Dayton , according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Four former teachers at the Horizon Science
Academy Dayton
High School
·
The school broke standardized-testing protocol;
·
School administrators suspended two students for
sexual misconduct on campus, but lied to the students' parents about the reason
for their suspension;
·
Officials didn't punish Turkish students or
teachers for bad behavior, even when a Turkish teacher referred to
African-American students by racial slurs. The schools, which have a math and
science focus, were founded and are managed by Turkish scientists.
The Columbus Dispatch article details other accusations and says this is not the
only investigation Horizon Schools has been connected to recently:
Bucks Lehigh
EduSummit Monday Aug 11th and Tuesday Aug 12th
Location: Southern Lehigh High School5800 Main Street , Center Valley , PA
18034
Time: 8 AM - 3 PM Each Day(Registration starts at 7:30 AM. Keynote starts at 8:00 AM.)
Location: Southern Lehigh High School
Time: 8 AM - 3 PM Each Day(Registration starts at 7:30 AM. Keynote starts at 8:00 AM.)
The Bucks Lehigh EduSummit is a
collaboratively organized and facilitated two day professional learning
experience coordinated by educators in the Quakertown Community School District , Palisades School District, Salisbury
Township School District, Southern Lehigh School District, Bucks County IU, and Carbon Lehigh IU, which are all located in
northern Bucks county and southern Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Teachers in
other neighboring districts are welcome to attend as well! The purpose of the
EduSummit is to collaborate, connect, share, and learn together for the benefit
of our kids. Focus areas include: Educational Technology, PA Core, Social
Media, Best Practices, etc.
http://buckslehighedusummit2014.wikispaces.com/Home
http://buckslehighedusummit2014.wikispaces.com/Home
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 region who want to help ensure all three and
four year-old children can access quality pre-K.
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 30, 5-7pm
Anne's House
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 July 31
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.
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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