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, business 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
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
August 29, 2014:
F&M Poll:
Education continues to be the most important issue for PA voters in the Governor's
race
What Pennsylvania
When asked "What issue will be most
important to you when considering which candidate for governor you
support?"
The top answers were:
22% Education
19% Taxes
12% Economy/Job Market
The
Franklin & Marshall
The August 2014 Franklin &
Marshall College Poll of Pennsylvania
View the latest Franklin & Marshall
School Leaders
‘Ride’ Through State To Fix Funding System
90.5 WESA NPR Pittsburgh
Eleven school directors and former
superintendents set off across Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
“Since that time, districts have
been held harmless, meaning they got the same amount they got the previous
year,” Buckheit said. “Then, whatever the general assembly appropriated in
terms of additional dollars, would be driven out through these supplements.”
To fairly distribute the funding,
the state needs a “reasonable, equitable and adequate formula,” according to
director for the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials Jay
Himes.
Editorial:
Let's address school funding problem now
We applaud — skeptically — the
recent efforts in Harrisburg
Former LIU
director, others to promote fair school funding formula
Michael Thew, former executive
director of the Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12, will be one of 11 "circuit
riders" who will travel the state to promote creation of a fair basic
education funding formula, according to a news release.
The former superintendents and
other school officials attended training earlier this week. They are expected
to provide education and training about past and current funding systems,
principles and models of good funding systems and effective advocacy
strategies, the release says.
The effort is led by five statewide
groups representing school administrators, school boards, school business
officials, rural and small schools and intermediate units.
Next meeting will be on Tuesday, Sept. 9th
in the Lehigh Valley
The 15-member commission is tasked
with developing and recommending to the General Assembly a new formula for
distributing state funding for basic education to Pennsylvania
"The case grew out the Legislature's
cutting $5.4 billion from public education in 2011, prompting more than 600
school districts responsible for educating three quarters of Texas' 5
million-plus public school students to sue."
Judge again
declares Texas
State District Judge John
Dietz's written ruling reaffirms a verbal decision he issued from the bench in
February 2013.
AUSTIN — A judge declared Texas'
school finance system unconstitutional again Thursday, finding that even though
the Legislature pumped an extra $3 billion-plus into classrooms last summer the
state still fails to provide adequate funding or distribute it fairly among
school districts in wealthy and poor areas.
State District Judge John Dietz's written ruling reaffirms a verbal
decision he issued from the bench in February 2013. He declared then that the
state's so-called "Robin Hood" funding formula fails to meet the
Texas Constitution's requirements for a fair and efficient system that provides
a "general diffusion of knowledge." He also found then that the
system levies local property taxes in a way tantamount to a state income tax,
which is also constitutionally prohibited.
Dietz's ruling will almost certainly be appealed to the Texas Supreme
Court by state Attorney General Greg Abbott's office — a process that should
take months. If the high court again rules against the state, it will be up to
the Legislature to design a new funding method. But the appeals process may not
be over until well after the 2015 session has ended.
Hurting the
Poor
I don’t know how Tim Eller,
spokesman for the state Department of Education, can keep a straight face when
he talks to reporters. Again and again he declares that Governor Corbett “has
increased state funding for public schools by $1.5 billion” over the past four
years. [Post-Gazette,
8-28-14] Anyone with half a brain
or with a school age child can tell you that’s a load of hogwash. Sometimes
having school age children makes us parents operate with only half a brain, but
we can still tell you that Pennsylvania kids are sitting in larger classes,
with fewer of their teachers, and missing critical books, supplies, academic
courses, and programs.
Of course, what Mr. Eller means is
that Gov. Corbett collapsed a bunch of line items into the Basic Education
Funding portion of the budget, so that he could say that this single
line item increased. Meanwhile, he decimated overall state funding for
public schools. Gov. Corbett also likes to tout the additional dollars he put
into pension payments (as required by state law) when he calculates that $1.5
billion figure, but will not account for the fact that he slashed charter
school tuition reimbursements for districts, Accountability Block Grants,
School Improvement Grants, or other programs such as the Education Assistant
and High School Reform programs.
As the following graph clearly
illustrates, even allowing for increased state contributions to pension
payments, our schools are still not receiving the level of preK-12 funding that
they were back in 2008-09! (In this chart the federal stimulus dollars are in
yellow and pension dollars in light blue: check out the dark blue columns to
see how our schools have been set back more than six years in budget cuts.)
Education Week Charters and Choice
Blog By Arianna Prothero on August 28, 2014 12:00 PM
A statewide Florida
"Florida 's
voucher programs are a risky experiment that gambles taxpayers' money and
children's lives," Florida Education Association Vice President Joanne
McCall said in a statement sent out in conjunction with a press conference in Tallahassee Florida
Tax-credit scholarship programs
allow businesses or individuals to claim tax credits for donations made to
state-approved organizations, which then give money to eligible students to use
toward tuition at private schools—many of which are religious private schools.
But tax-credit scholarships differ from traditional school voucher programs
where the state directly provides money to families to use toward private
school tuition.
Read: Florida School
Boards Group Outlines Consequences Of Skipping State Tests
State Impact BY JOHN O'CONNOR AUGUST 28, 2014 | 11:33 AM
The Florida School Boards
Association has outlined the consequences of districts skipping state tests,
and most of them have to do with money.
Last night, the Lee County Florida
The Florida School Boards
Association is meeting next week and has posted an outline of
the consequences for not complying state law.
Critics Question High Ratings on New York State
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRISAUG. 28,
2014
The results have prompted an outcry
from critics who question how so many of the state’s teachers could be regarded
so highly while so many of their students are performing poorly.
PSBA Members -
Register to Join the PSBA, PASA, PASBO Listening Tour as BEF Funding Commission
begins work; Monday, Sept. 8th 4-6 pm in Bethlehem
The bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission established under Act 51 of 2014 has begun a series of hearings across the state, and you’re invited to join the Listening Tour hosted by PSBA, the PA Association of School Administrators (PASA), and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) as it follows the panel to each location this fall.
The first tour stop will be on Monday, Sept. 8, 2014 from 4-6 p.m., at the Broughal Middle School, 114 W. Morton St, Bethlehem, PA 18015. Click here to register for the free event. Other tour dates will be announced as the BEF Commission finalizes the dates and locations for its hearings. The comments and suggestions from the Listening Tour will be compiled and submitted to the Commission early next year.
The bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission established under Act 51 of 2014 has begun a series of hearings across the state, and you’re invited to join the Listening Tour hosted by PSBA, the PA Association of School Administrators (PASA), and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO) as it follows the panel to each location this fall.
The first tour stop will be on Monday, Sept. 8, 2014 from 4-6 p.m., at the Broughal Middle School, 114 W. Morton St, Bethlehem, PA 18015. Click here to register for the free event. Other tour dates will be announced as the BEF Commission finalizes the dates and locations for its hearings. The comments and suggestions from the Listening Tour will be compiled and submitted to the Commission early next year.
Research
for Action Fall 2014 Internships
Fall internships run from September
– December. Exact start and end dates are based on the needs of the
project and the availability of the student.
Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and resumé
to applicants@researchforaction.org.
In your email, please include the two projects you’d most like to work on
selected from the list below.
Applications will be considered on
a rolling basis until all positions have been filled. Research for Action
qualifies for work study and PHEAA and interns may also be eligible for course
credit.
Education Law
Center Celebrating Education Champions 2014
On September 17, 2014 the Education
Law Center will hold its annual event at the Crystal Tea Room in the Wanamaker
Building to celebrate Pennsylvania’s Education Champions. This year, the event
will honor William P. Fedullo, Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association;
Dr. Joan Duvall-Flynn, Education Committee Chair for the Pennsylvania State
Conference of NAACP Branches; and the Stoneleigh Foundation, a Philadelphia
regional leader on at-risk youth issues.
Pennsylvania Arts Education
Network 2014 Arts and Education Symposium
The 2014 Arts and Education Symposium will be
held on Thursday, October 2 at the State Museum
of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg, PA. Join us for a daylong convening of
arts education policy leaders and practitioners for lively discussions about
the latest news from the field.
The Symposium registration fee is $45 per person.
To register, click
here or follow the prompts at the bottom of the page. The Symposium will include the following:
Register Now – 2014 PAESSP
State Conference – October 19-21, 2014
Please join us for the 2014 PAESSP State Conference, “PRINCIPAL
EFFECTIVENESS: Leading Schools in a New Age of Accountability,” to be
held October 19-21 at the Sheraton Station Square Hotel, Pittsburgh,
Pa. Featuring Keynote Speakers: Alan
November, Michael Fullan & Dr. Ray Jorgensen. This year’s conference will provided PIL
Act 45 hours, numerous workshops, exhibits, multiple resources and an
opportunity to network with fellow principals from across the state.
PASA-PSBA School Leadership
Conference (Oct. 21-24) registration forms now available online
PSBA Website
PSBA Website
Make plans today to attend the most talked about education
conference of the year. This year's PASA-PSBA
School Leadership Conference promises to be one of the best with new
ideas, innovations, networking opportunities and dynamic speakers. More details
are being added every day. Online registration will be available in the
next few weeks. If you just can't wait, registration
forms are available online now. Other important links are available
with more details on:
·
Hotel
registration (reservation deadline extended to Sept. 26)
·
Educational
Publications Contest (deadline Aug. 6)
·
Student
Celebration Showcase (deadline Sept. 19)
·
Poster
and Essay Contest (deadline Sept. 19)
Slate of candidates for PSBA
offices now available online -- bios/videos now live
PSBA Website August 5, 2014
PSBA Website August 5, 2014
The slate of candidates for 2015 PSBA officer and at-large
representatives is now available online.
Photos, bios and videos also have been posted for each candidate.
According to recent PSBA Bylaws changes, each member school entity casts one
vote per office. Voting will again take place online through a secure,
third-party website -- Simply Voting. Voting will openSept. 9 and
closes Oct. 6. One person from the school entity (usually the board
secretary) is authorized to cast the vote on behalf of the member school entity
and each board will need to put on its agenda discussion and voting at one
of its meetings in September. Each person authorized to cast the school
entity's votes will be receiving an email in the coming weeks to verify the
email address and confirm they are the person to cast the vote on behalf of
their school entity.
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