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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
August 5, 2014:
About that
$4.3 Billion in Reserve Funds….
"It is irresponsible and indefensible
to hold the children of Philadelphia hostage in these kinds of internecine
political battles."
Pa. Legislature shrugs off Philadelphia school crisis:
PennLive Editorial
By PennLive Editorial Board on August 04, 2014 at 12:33 PM, updated August
04, 2014 at 6:16 PM
You can say this for the Pennsylvania Legislature: At times,
it makes the dysfunctional agglomeration of warring politicians known as the
U.S. Congress look like a harmonious, sleek-running machine. At one point, Monday was supposed to be a day
of work for the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. House leaders had planned to take up a bill
that would let the city of Philadelphia
proceed with a $2 a pack cigarette tax, which would prevent schools there from
having to send another thousand or so employees packing and jam upwards of 40
kids into a class. But the House chamber
sat empty. Pennsylvania's supposedly full-time legislators remained scattered
across the state and beyond, enjoying a six-week summer break from work in the
Capitol.
"I don't care if the
Republicans don't want to help the Democrats or vice versa. Philadelphia's kids
aren't Democrats or Republicans, so stop worrying about politics and parties
and help Philadelphia
Philadelphia student pleads for help from the
cigarette tax: PennLive letters
Letters to the Editor by Noah Bradley on August 04, 2014 at
1:10 PM
I am a rising 7th grader at Julia R. Masterman School, a
Philadelphia public school. I find it crazy and offensive that our elected
officials in Pennsylvania's House of Representatives have decided not to vote
on the cigarette tax that would bring roughly $80 million dollars to our
schools. I know that they don't want to
tax anyone, but Philadelphia has already approved this tax. They won't let us
tax ourselves! What good will waiting
until September to vote do? People will already have been fired, and students
will already have started school years in completely depleted schools and
classrooms of 40 kids or more.
Corbett indicates Phila. schools could get a cash
advance
AMY WORDEN, INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU LAST UPDATED:
Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 1:07 AM POSTED: Monday, August 4, 2014, 2:55 PM
HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett on Monday signaled that he was
willing to advance millions of dollars in state education money to Philadelphia
schools to ensure that they open on time next month. The pledge, through a spokesman, came hours
after Corbett met with legislators in an unsuccessful bid to get them to return
and vote on a $2-per-pack cigarette tax to fund city schools. "This is about putting children of
Philadelphia first," spokesman Jay Pagni said. "The governor is
prepared, if need be, to advance funding once the final request is made of him."
No cigarette tax vote, but promise for funds to tide
Philly schools over
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY WILSON AUGUST 5, 2014
After a fruitless meeting of Pennsylvania legislative leaders
and the Corbett administration, a cigarette tax for Philadelphia city schools
remains in limbo. But despite the lack
of legislative deal, work continues on sending the struggling school district a
funding advance that will allow doors to open on time, lawmakers said. A
spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett said Monday that there is no amount or date set
for the funding advance, which could help the Philadelphia School District with
cash flow problems, but not fill its budget gap.
Reality check: schools and
Harrisburg
JOHN BAER, DAILY
NEWS POLITICAL COLUMNIST POSTED: Monday, August 4, 2014, 3:01 AM
LET'S TALK political reality.
One: The Legislature's an insular sect of me-first pols, too
many of whom don't give a flying flock about Philadelphia or its schools.
Two: Schools will open on time.
Yes, Mayor Nutter, schools boss William Hite and others see
today as one more day when the Legislature sticks it to the city. Yes, lawmakers were to return to the Capitol
from vacay and maybe authorize a $2-per-pack cig tax for schools. And, yes, that's not happening.
So we get another sky-is-falling, schools-can't-open,
fire-more-teachers response.
If this seems familiar, it's because last August, Hite said
schools couldn't open without last-minute cash, then cash was found and schools
opened.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140804_Reality_check__schools_and_Harrisburg.html#oPTsMGlUtvqWmqDJ.99
Why Harrisburg has Philly's
Public Schools by the….
Committee of Seventy How Philly Works AUGUST 04, 2014
In a rare show of
agreement, just about everyone in Philly is fuming over the refusal of state
lawmakers to authorize a $2-a-pack cigarette tax hike. The public schools have
been counting on the money to fill a short-term $81 million annual budget gap. Busloads of outraged school advocates are
heading to Harrisburg today, in fact, to raise their voices in protest.
Why do legislators
from York, Erie, and even Punxsutawney have the power to torpedo a solution
city leaders have decided is part of the answer to the schools’ funding
problems?
In today's HOW
PHILLY WORKS, we're taking a look
at the current status of this maddening situation that threatens the start of
school on September 8.
Corbett, lawmakers fail to
agree on Phila. cigarette tax
AMY
WORDEN, INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU Monday, August 4, 2014, 2:58 PM
HARRISBURG - Legislative leaders emerged from a two-hour
meeting with Gov. Corbett on Monday apparently no closer to solving a funding
crisis in the Philadelphia school district that threatens to delay the opening
of schools next month. House Speaker Sam
Smith (R., Jefferson) said he has no immediate plans to call the chamber back
into session before Sept. 15 to consider a bill that would let the city impose
a $2-per-pack cigarette tax. Smith did not rule out re-convening but instead
seemed ready to leave the issue in Corbett's hands. "The governor indicated he will do as
much as he can to advance payments to the city that will hopefully give the
school district a cushion," said Smith.
A Corbett spokeswoman said only that Corbett continues to review that
option.
" Like Congress, the chamber left for
the summer with its work undone. In this case, it’s Pennsylvania children who
are left in the lurch."
The Sept. 8
opening of Philadelphia’s schools is now in jeopardy
Post-Gazette By the Editorial
Board August 4, 2014 12:00 AM
The Philadelphia school system,
the largest in the state, is facing a massive $81 million shortfall that must
be addressed before layoff notices for some of its 17,000 employees go out on
Aug. 15. The Republican-controlled state House is not helping matters by
delaying action. In June, Philadelphia
appealed to the Legislature to let the city impose a $2-a-pack cigarette tax
when it approved the state budget. The Senate passed the proposal in July,
leaving it to the House to vote on it during a session in August. If approved,
the tax could mean $70 million to $90 million annually, enough to put the
district’s 200-plus schools and 137,000 students on solid financial footing. Unfortunately, Philadelphia’s predicament
hasn’t generated the sense of urgency in the House that it deserves. On
Thursday, Speaker Sam Smith and Majority Leader Mike Turzai said that because
the House could not reach a consensus on the cigarette tax and a proposed hotel
tax, it would hold off voting until September. That puts the Sept. 8 opening of
Philadelphia’s schools in jeopardy. Now the district must decide if it should
shorten the academic year, postpone the first day of school and cut spending on
transportation — and this on top of teacher layoffs and cutbacks in school
police.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/2014/08/04/House-inaction/stories/201408310005#ixzz39QbXJFzM
"Our kids today need so much more than
school funding. They and their parents need systematic exposure to colleges,
employers, and counselors - coordinated and delivered as a unified program,
beginning in the early grades and intensifying through middle school and high
school."
Still more to do, even after school budget fight
Still more to do, even after school budget fight
Inquirer Opinion By Vic Brown POSTED: Tuesday, August 5,
2014, 1:08 AM
Reading about the annual fight over Philadelphia public
school funding prompts me to reflect again on those students I met in New York
City on a frightfully rainy night several years ago.
Although today I serve on the adjunct faculty at Ursinus
College, back then I also assisted with our admissions department's efforts and
frequently represented Ursinus at high school college fairs.
Wolf tours NCC, weighs in on education issues
By Samantha Marcus and Steve Esack, Of The Morning Call 12:19
a.m. EDT, August 5, 2014
Over the hum of air conditioners and the crackle of welding
torches Monday, Tom Wolf heard from a handful of Northampton Community College
students optimistic about their job prospects.
After Maria Homa of Fogelsville graduates this month, she'll
be promoted to sous chef at an Italian restaurant. That's after four years at
the community college, where the culinary program packs in an education on
baking, meat-cutting, soups and stocks, salads and dressings and ethnic
cooking.
Pension reform, Philly school
funding won’t derail lawmakers’ vacation
By Andrew Staub | PA Independent August 1, 2014
Pennsylvania state House members can go ahead and slice some
more limes and order another pitcher of pina coladas. Their summer break can continue uninterrupted
without the headache of addressing pension costs, which are strangling school
districts, or the burdensome task of parsing through amendment-laden
legislation that would bolster funding for the School District of Philadelphia
by increasing the cigarette tax. House Speaker Sam
Smith, R-Jefferson, and Majority
Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, on Thursday announced the cancellation of
session days scheduled next week. They’ll vote on the pension and cigarette tax
legislation later. “After conversations with Republican and
Democratic House leadership teams, we will plan on taking up legislation
dealing with education in Philadelphia when we return in September,” Turzai
said.
Micek cites pension 'reform' examples that really
didn't work: PennLive letters
PennLive Letters to the Editor by STEPHEN HERZENBERG, Keystone Research Center, Harrisburg on
August 04, 2014 at 3:37 PM
Although not his intent, John Micek ("The Sunday
Brunch," July 27) nicely highlights news reports on other states that
illustrate why Pennsylvania
should not switch to a 401(k)-style public retirement system. For example, Micek implies that Florida,
which established a 401(k)-style option for new employees, had a
"ginormous pension bubble." In fact, when Florida created this
choice, its traditional pension was overfunded. In a decade-plus since, the
investment returns of Florida's traditional pension have been 10 percent higher
than the return on individual accounts. Over the 30 years that typical
retirement contributions grow, this difference would become a one-third gap in
savings available for retirement.
Bethlehem Area School
District has cut 11 jobs through attrition, expanded kindergarten
By Sara K.
Satullo | The Express-Times on August 04, 2014 at 7:47 PM
The Bethlehem
Area School District has cut 11 jobs through attrition, while managing
to expand full-day kindergarten and restore team teaching in its middle
schools. Human Resources Director
Russell Girodano said despite the overall reduction in staffing the district is
still hitting on many of its goals for the 2014-15 school year. He provided a
staffing update to the school board at tonight's human resources committee
meeting. The district's
2014-15 budget hikes taxes by almost 5 percent and cut eight part-time
after-school program coordinators and two full-time supervisors. The grants
funding the jobs expired. The district is applying for a new grant that might
bring some of the jobs back.
Rep. Meehan holds hearing on
student information data mining
West Chester Daily
Local By Linda Stein, lstein@21st-centurymedia.com,POSTED: 08/04/14,
9:51 PM EDT |
With the Internet, the presumption of privacy appears to be
over. It often appears in today’s modern world that all kinds of businesses are
collecting information about kids. And some of that sensitive data might come
from their schools. Congressman Patrick
Meehan, R-7th, recently held a hearing of the House Homeland Security
Committee’s cybersecurity subcommittee about data mining in education. Rep Todd
Rokita, chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee subcommittee on early
childhood, elementary and secondary education co-chaired the hearing.
During a recent interview, Meehan said he believes the use of
information “generated by vendors who host services for schools and use the
innovation for commercial purposes” can be problematic.
Curmuducation Blog by Peter Greene Monday, August 4, 2014
K12 remains the top dog in the junkyard of cyberschooling. It
provides an instructive lesson in how a good pile of cash and friends in the
right places can keep a business afloat even after people have poked holes in
the hull.
There was never anything about the organization that didn't look like a red flag. It was set up by hedge fund manager Ronald Packer and propped up with money from junk bond king Michael Milken(an iconic Wall Street greedhound of the eighties who pioneered the art of getting caught, convicted and sent to prison, and still remaining rich and powerful). William Bennett, a former Secretary of Education and GOP pundit who was for many reformster ideas before it was cool, was a founding figurehead as well. More recently, Nathaniel Davis began rising through the executive ranks on the board (his previous experience-- CEO of XM radio).
K12 has been "embattled" all along. Here's a fairly brutal shot they took from the New York Times way back in December of 2011. Former teachers routinely write tell-alls about their experience, like this more recent guest piece on Anthony Cody's blog. The NCAA put K12 schools on the list of cybers that were disqualified from sports eligibility.
In February of this year, the Center for Media and Democracy named Ron Packard one of the highest paid public workers in the country (i.e. person paid with tax dollars). This despite "the alarming fact that only 28% of K12 Inc schools met state standards in 2010-2011."
There was never anything about the organization that didn't look like a red flag. It was set up by hedge fund manager Ronald Packer and propped up with money from junk bond king Michael Milken(an iconic Wall Street greedhound of the eighties who pioneered the art of getting caught, convicted and sent to prison, and still remaining rich and powerful). William Bennett, a former Secretary of Education and GOP pundit who was for many reformster ideas before it was cool, was a founding figurehead as well. More recently, Nathaniel Davis began rising through the executive ranks on the board (his previous experience-- CEO of XM radio).
K12 has been "embattled" all along. Here's a fairly brutal shot they took from the New York Times way back in December of 2011. Former teachers routinely write tell-alls about their experience, like this more recent guest piece on Anthony Cody's blog. The NCAA put K12 schools on the list of cybers that were disqualified from sports eligibility.
In February of this year, the Center for Media and Democracy named Ron Packard one of the highest paid public workers in the country (i.e. person paid with tax dollars). This despite "the alarming fact that only 28% of K12 Inc schools met state standards in 2010-2011."
Cyber debate: Officials push
for accountability
Joseph Cress Carlisle Sentinel Reporter August 3, 2014
Supporters of public school districts agree that state
lawmakers need to push reform to tighten the accountability of cyber charter
schools. “We are not opposed to what
they do and the purpose they serve,” said Eric Eshbach, superintendent of
Northern York County School District and a past president of the governing
board of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. He said the concern is that while taxpayer
money is being diverted for each student enrolled in a cyber school, the home
school district of that child has no direct oversight on the quality of the
curriculum being offered by the cyber charter school receiving the funds.
The Pennsylvania School Code holds every superintendent
responsible for the education program provided to every child living in the
district. Yet public school officials have no right to directly question the
operation of the programs provided by the cyber charter school.
“All we do is to pay the bill,” said John Friend,
superintendent of the Carlisle Area School District and president-elect of the
PASA governing board.
Probing Question: Do cyber
charter schools help or hurt the educational system?
When charter schools were first created in the early 1990s,
they were viewed as alternative learning environments for a small number of
students. The ideal model was to unhitch these schools from many of the state
laws and district regulations governing traditional public schools, and allow
them to tailor the education to families looking for an option outside the
conventional system. Typically, for each
student who leaves a public school system to attend a charter school, the
school district pays the charter the equivalent of what it cost to educate that
learner in their home district. "In
the beginning, because there were so few students, the drain on the host school
districts' coffers was hardly a drip," says Alison
Carr-Chellman, Penn State professor of education and department head of
learning and performance systems. "But with the proliferation of charter
schools and even more notably, cyber charter schools, that drip has turned into
a significant stream."
Are PA
Schools, with $4.3 Billion in Reserve Funds, Really Flush?
Just the
(Dry) Facts
Policy Brief Explaining School Fund Balances:
Center on Regional Politics by David
W. DAVARE AUGUST 2014
Recent publicity calling
attention to the $4.3 billion in reserve funds accumulated by the state’s 500
school districts, 67 vocational/technical schools (AVTS/CTC), and 176 charter
schools may suggest to some that these funds are being hoarded by school
officials who are raising taxes or cutting services
unnecessarily or exaggerating their need for additional state aid.
Here are the (admittedly dry)
accounting facts.
"While Mr. Tomalis is collecting the
same salary he had as a Cabinet secretary, Ms. Dumaresq, the current secretary,
earns comparable pay for heading a department which has 600 employees and a $12
billion budget and which works with Pennsylvania’s 500 public school districts,
four state-related universities, 14 state-owned universities, assorted
community colleges and others in the field.
Can Pennsylvania
Work record: A Corbett aide’s
job duties are still in question
By the Post-Gazette Editorial Board August 5, 2014 12:00 AM
Gov. Tom Corbett made a feeble defense Friday of the work
product of Ron Tomalis, his special adviser on higher education. Saying only
that he and acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq are satisfied with
the employee’s work doesn’t explain what Mr. Tomalis is doing to earn a
$139,542 salary. The Post-Gazette’s Bill
Schackner and Mary Niederberger reported July 27 that Mr. Tomalis, who was Mr.
Corbett’s first education secretary before becoming special adviser last year,
had a nearly empty schedule, averaged little more than a phone call per day and
had written just five emails while in his current post. On the dearth of
emails, Ms. Dumaresq initially said Mr. Tomalis preferred face-to-face
interaction; a week later she said department employees deleted their emails
each night.
Nameplate
gate? Is Education Department covering for Tomalis?
WHTM ABC27 Video runtime 2:54
What's in a name plate? That's
the question at the center of the latest controversy surrounding former
Education Secretary Ron Tomalis, who stepped down 15 months ago but is still
collecting a $140,000 taxpayer-funded salary plus benefits.
Stilp asks for feds to investigate: Is Tomalis a ghost
employee?
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com on August 04, 2014 at
1:09 PM, updated August 04, 2014 at 4:20 PM
Asking state agencies to investigate the work performed by
Gov. Tom Corbett's special adviser on higher education Ron Tomalis isn't enough
for government reform activist Gene Stilp. Now he wants the feds involved. Stilp, a Democratic candidate for the 104th
state House seat now held by Republican Rep. Sue Helm, on Sunday filed
complaints with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General,
the U.S. Attorney's office, and the U.S. Department of Justice asking them to
investigate what taxpayers are getting for their money going to pay Tomalis.
How Two Of America
Rebecca.Klein@huffingtonpost.com Posted: 08/04/2014 10:33 am EDT
In recent years, the public
education systems in Philadelphia and Chicago have seen mass personnel layoffs,
school closures and frequent budget crises. But a new report from the Center
for American Progress shows that it does not necessarily have to be that way. The report, released in July and written by
Rutgers University professor Bruce Baker, details the inequitable education
funding systems in a number of states in which the most affluent districts get
the biggest share of money, leaving the neediest students with substantially
less. Among the students suffering most from unfair school funding practices
are those enrolled in the public schools of Philadelphia
and Chicago
"The essentials of what makes Union City Union
City are mass firings of teachers, the closing of schools, Teach
For America
School reforms that actually work
Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss August 5 at 6:00 AM
For years now education leaders have been pushing onto school
districts school reforms that don’t show any sign of working while giving short
shrift to those that have a track record of working. Gary Ravani, a 35-year
public school teacher and president of the California Federation of Teachers’
Early Childhood/K-12 Council, explains in this post.
“If I were a parent and I had a struggling
third grader, I would get whatever help I could to help get them up to speed,”
said Deborah J. Stipek, dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford
University. “But if I were a state policymaker or superintendent, I would say,
‘What can we offer these kids in pre-K, kindergarten and first grade so they
aren’t behind when they get to third grade?’ ”
A
Summer of Extra Reading
Literacy Laws
Challenge Third Graders and Schools
New York Times By MOTOKO RICH AUG. 4, 2014
Poverty Has Spread to the
Suburbs (And to Suburban Schools)
Education Week Rules for Engagement Blog By Evie Blad on July
31, 2014 2:58 PM
More Americans are living in poverty in the suburbs than in
urban or rural areas, a
dramatic demographic shift that has occurred since 2000, a new report by
the Brookings Institution finds. It's a finding that won't be a surprise to
plenty of suburban superintendents, who've seen that residential change
reflected in the enrollment makeup of their schools.
"But as poverty has spread, it has not done so evenly.
Instead, it has also become more clustered and concentrated in distressed and
high-poverty neighborhoods, eroding the brief progress made against
concentrated poverty during the late 1990s," the report says. And
that's a problem because challenges associated with concentrated poverty—poor
health, higher crime rates, and fewer jobs—"make it that much harder for
individuals and families to escape poverty and often perpetuate and entrench
poverty across generations."
TOWN MEETING ON LOCAL CONTROL
OF PHILLY SCHOOLS
THURSDAY, AUGUST 14TH 6:30 P.M. MONUMENTAL BAPTIST CHURCH
Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools Posted
on August 4, 2014by wearepcaps
Forty Thousand Philadelphia
registered voters signed a petition this Spring to put the question of
returning our schools to local control and abolishing the School Reform
Commission on the ballot in the form of a non-binding referendum. But before
this can happen City Council and the Mayor and have to approve. Come to the
town meeting to find out how returning our schools to local control can improve
education and how can bring pressure on our elected officials to let the people
vote on this important question.
Upcoming meetings on Philly
District's school redesign initiative
the notebook By Marilyn Vaccaro on Jul 30, 2014 05:14 PM
The School District is planning a series of meetings and
discussions about its new
school redesign initiative, which was announced last week. Two informational sessions will be held, with
the second on Aug. 12. Those who participate will be able to
learn more about the application process and the specifics of the initiative
itself. Through the initiative,
the District is calling on teams of educators, parents, community groups, and
other outside organizations to propose their own school turnaround plans. Ten
winning design teams will be chosen in October and will receive grants of
$30,000 to support planning costs.
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 Aug. 13-14
The Educational Collaborators, in partnership with the Wilson School
District
PASA-PSBA School Leadership
Conference 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)
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