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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for October
27, 2014:
Accountability
important, except for PA home-schoolers?
Gov. Tom Corbett, Tom Wolf
take campaigns to Pittsburgh
Penn Live By The Associated Press on October 26, 2014 at 4:51 PM
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Republican Gov. Tom Corbett and his
Democratic challenger Tom Wolf are spending the second-to-last
weekend of the gubernatorial campaign in the Pittsburgh area. Wolf and Corbett each had rallies planned
Sunday afternoon. Wolf wants to raise
taxes on Pennsylvania 's
natural gas industry, boost the state's share of public school funding and
shift more of the tax burden to higher earners. Corbett argues that Wolf will
need to raise taxes on the middle class to underwrite his education funding
promises and opposes higher taxes on the natural gas industry.
By James P. O'Toole / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette October 26, 2014 12:00 AM
As the days before the election dwindle to single digits, the
campaigns are switching focus from persuasion to mobilization. While there may not be many minds left to be
made up, as always, key questions remain on which voters will be sufficiently
motivated to go to the polls.
Former President Bill Clinton’s appearance on the South Side
Monday for Tom Wolf, the Democratic candidate for governor, is emblematic of
that effort. He can be counted on to echo the message carried by his wife,
former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, along with first lady Michelle Obama
in Philadelphia appearances earlier this month — that positive polls
notwithstanding, Democrats in general and Mr. Wolf in particular will lose if
Democrats don’t show up on Nov. 4.
"Pennsylvania
and New York
Our View: Keep home-schooling
standards
The numbers of home-schooled students statewide — 21,897 in
2012 — and in Cumberland County — 606 — are proportionally small compared to
those attending Pennsylvania’s public schools, but the monitoring and ensuring
the efficacy of the home-schoolers’ education remains an essential public
interest. The General Assembly in its
last session weakened that public supervision when it passed and sent to the
governor legislation that would no longer require school district oversight of
a home-schooled student’s work That removes an essential level of quality
control from the compulsory education process and caters blatantly to the Home
School Legal Defense Association, a national advocacy group that pushed for the
bill’s passage.
"The fact that Mosaica is now in the
hands of a receivership means it is outside any level of public control and
means that the sole obligation of the receivership is to protect the interest
of the debtors while the families' interests are incidental," said Gym. Mosiaca has also been making waves in York
lately, where that city district's chief recovery officer Dave Meckley, a
Corbett administration appointee, had been advancing a plan to hand over the
entire district to one of two charter management organizations, one of which
was Mosaica."
Should Philly parents worry
about fiscal woes of for-profit charter operator?
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN
MCCORRY OCTOBER 27, 2014
A federal judge has ordered the heavily indebted Mosaica
Education Inc., a for-profit charter school management organization, to accept
a turnaround receiver. Mosaica, which
contracts with more than 100 schools to serve 25,000 students in the U.S. and
abroad, carries a $20 million debt load with its lender, Tatonka Capital. Tatonka sued Mosaica Education Inc. in
September after it defaulted on its debt. In a ruling last week, U.S. District
Judge Timothy Batten authorized Katie Goodman of GGG Partners, LLC, to be
Mosaica's turnaround receiver.
Does this spell trouble for Mosaica's individual schools?
DN Editorial: UNCHARTERED
TERRITORY: The Legislature needs to jettison trivial pursuits & pass a new
school bill
Philly Daily News Editorial POSTED: Monday, October 27,
2014, 3:01 AM
Imagine buying a car and never doing routine maintenance.
That's pretty much the case with Pennsylvania 's
charter-school law, which was passed back in 1997 and hasn't been touched
since. In the meantime, the world of
charters has changed dramatically.
In 1998, charter enrollment in the state was just a blip on the
screen.
Today, 120,000 students statewide are enrolled in
bricks-and-mortar or cyber charters, among them 67,000 students in Philadelphia alone. While charter operators and school boards
disagree on many things, they both believe it is time to update the law.
Video is now posted for both the October
16th and October 21st hearings
Basic Education Funding
Commission Public Hearing - October 16, 2014
Other State Formulas & Weights, Level of Local
Support, and Taxing Capacity
Perkiomen Valley High School
Basic Education Funding
Commission Public Hearing - October 21, 2014
Enrollment Changes and School Funding
Community College of Allegheny County - Video Runtime: 215:30
Harrisburg hearing has been added;
Lancaster hearing moved to Nov. 24
Upcoming
BEF Commission Meetings*
Thursday, November 6, 2014 at 10 AM, Harrisburg, NOB, Hearing
Room 1
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 1 PM & Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at 10 AM Philadelphia
Monday, November 24, 2014 at 10 AM IU#13 Lancaster
Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 10 AM East Stroudsburg
Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 10 AM - 12:00 PM Lancaster
* meeting times and locations subject to change http://basiceducationfundingcommission.pasenategop.com/
Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 1 PM & Wednesday, November 19, 2014 at 10 AM Philadelphia
Monday, November 24, 2014 at 10 AM IU#13 Lancaster
Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 10 AM East Stroudsburg
Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 10 AM - 12:00 PM Lancaster
* meeting times and locations subject to change http://basiceducationfundingcommission.pasenategop.com/
Did you catch our weekend postings?
PA Ed Policy Roundup Oct 25: New Report Outlines
Potential Savings for PA Taxpayers through Investment in Pre-K
Diane Ravitch's Blog By dianeravitch October 26, 2014 //
The cover of next week’s TIME magazine is deeply insulting to
hard-working teachers, with its headline, “Rotten Apples” and the claim that it
is nearly impossible to fire tenured teachers (but tech millionaires who know
nothing about education know how to do it: abolish tenure). As most people in
the education field know, about 40% of those who enter teaching leave within
five years. More: tenure is due process, the right to a hearing, not a
guarantee of a lifetime job. Are there bad apples in teaching? Undoubtedly,
just as there are bad apples in medicine, the law, business, and even TIME
magazine. There are also bad apples in states where teachers have no tenure.
Will abolishing tenure increase the supply of great teachers? Surely we should
look to those states where teachers do not have tenure to see how that worked
out. Sadly, there is no evidence for the hope, wish, belief, that eliminating
due process produces a surge of great teachers. Jersey Jazzman here begins a series of posts about the TIME article.
Some said it wasn’t as inflammatory as the cover. JJ says that may be so, but
the article is nonetheless a font of misguided opinion.
"Ripley, like most supporters of
efforts that narrow education, would deny that she fails to support a broad
education. She just wants to get rid of the thing she doesn’t like.
But her logic would get rid of everything other than math and reading instruction.
And that would be a very poor education indeed."
Narrowing Education
Education Next By Jay P. Greene 10/23/2014
Some people seem determined to narrow education. I’ve
been trying to make the case for a well-rounded, liberal education, but that
idea has less support than I realized. In their effort to maximize math
and reading test scores, schools have sometimes narrowed their focus at the
expense of the arts and humanities. I’ve tried to document some of the benefits
that students receive from art and theater. And today Dan Bowen and I tried to defend the role of
sports in schools in the New York Times‘ Room for
Debate forum on the issue.
One of the main critics of sports in school is Amanda Ripley.
reprising an argument she earlier made in The Atlantic and in her book.
The American Dream Is Leaving
America
New York Times Op-Ed by Nicholas Kristof
OCT. 25, 2014
THE best escalator to opportunity in America is education. But a new
study underscores that the escalator is broken.
We expect each generation to do better, but, currently, more
young American men have less education (29 percent) than their parents than
have more education (20 percent).
Among young Americans whose parents didn’t graduate from high
school, only 5 percent make it through college themselves. In other rich
countries, the figure is 23 percent.
The United States
is devoting billions of dollars to compete with Russia militarily, but maybe we
should try to compete educationally. Russia now has the largest percentage of
adults with a university education of any industrialized country — a position
once held by the United States, although we’re plunging in that roster.
These figures come from the annual survey of education from the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, or O.E.C.D., and it should be a shock to
Americans.
New website offers closer
look into candidate' views on public education
PSBA NEWS RELEASE 10/6/2014
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) has created a
new website for its members and the general public to get a closer look into
candidates' views on public education leading up to the 2014 election for the
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Following
the primary elections, PSBA sent out a six-question questionnaire to all
Pennsylvania House and Senate candidates competing for seats in the November
election. Candidates are listed by
House, Senate seat and county. Districts can be found by visiting the 'Find My
Legislator' link (http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/).
Features include:
·
Candidate images, if provided
·
Candidates are tagged by political party and
seat for which they are running
·
Candidates who did not respond are indicated by
"Responses not available."
Visit the site by going to
http://psbacandidateforum.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the link tweeted out
by @PSBAadvocate.
Candidates wishing to complete the questionnaire before election
day may do so by contacting Sean
Crampsie (717-506-2450, x-3321).
- See more at: http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=8650#sthash.1vGGRff4.dpuf
Children with Autism - Who’s Eligible? How to get ABA services?
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 1:00 – 4:00 P.M.
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
United Way Building 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway,
Philadelphia, 19103
Join us on November 19th, 2014 to discuss eligibility services for children with Autism. This
session will teach parents, teachers, social workers and attorneys how to
obtain Applied Behavioral Analysis services for children on the autism
spectrum. Presenters include Sonja Kerr (Law Center), Rachel Mann
(Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania), Dr. Lisa Blaskey (The Children's Hospital
of Pennsylvania), and David Gates (PA Health Law Project).
Registration: bit.ly/1sOY6jX
Register Now – 2014 PASCD
Annual Conference – November 23 – 25, 2014
Please join us for the 2014 PASCD Annual Conference, “Leading
an Innovative Culture for Learning – Powered by Blendedschools Network” to
be held November 23-25 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in
Hershey, PA. Featuring Keynote Speakers: David Burgess - - Author
of "Teach Like a Pirate: Increase Student Engagement, Boost Your
Creativity, and Transform Your Life as an Educator", Dr. Bart Rocco,
Bill Sterrett - ASCD author, "Short on Time: How do I Make
Time to Lead and Learn as a Principal?" and Ron Cowell.
This annual conference features small group sessions (focused
on curriculum, instructional, assessment, blended learning and middle level
education) is a great opportunity to stay connected to the latest approaches
for cultural change in your school or district. Join us for PASCD 2014!
Online registration is available by visiting www.pascd.org
January 23rd–25th, 2015 at The Science Leadership
Academy , Philadelphia
EduCon is both a conversation and a conference.
It is an innovation conference where we can come together, both
in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will
be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the
big dreams.
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