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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
November 5, 2014:
Pennsylvanians
vote for strong public schools.
Next Basic Education
Funding Commission hearing is scheduled for Harrisburg
Thursday, November 6th, 10 am North Office
Building
Tom Wolf elected Pennsylvania
By Bill Landauer, Laura Olson, Steve Esack, Of The Morning
Call November 5, 2014
Democrat Tom Wolf made history Tuesday by beating Republican
Gov. Tom Corbett in the general election.
Wolf is the first challenger from either party to knock off a sitting
governor since Pennsylvania voters changed the state Constitution in 1968 to
put a limit of two terms on the executive office. And he did it in an otherwise
Republican-friendly midterm election that saw higher-than-anticipated voter
turnout.
Three minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m., FoxNews, CNN,
ABC and CBS declared Wolf the winner based on exit poll interviews of voters,
leading to raucous celebrations at Wolf's election night headquarters in York.
'A thousand cuts' and one big
one: How Corbett's fate was sealed
THOMAS FITZGERALD AND ANGELA COULOUMBIS, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 1:08 AM
POSTED: Tuesday, November 4, 2014, 10:00 PM
In January 2011, with the effects of the recession lingering,
the new Pennsylvania governor needed to find billions of dollars in his first
budget. He had promised not to raise
taxes, though. So he cut. State funding
for public education took a $1 billion whack, amid the expiration of federal
stimulus money.
That may have sealed Gov. Corbett's fate, according to
political analysts sifting the wreckage of the Republican's historic loss.
"Signing the Grover Norquist pledge ruined Corbett, just
killed him," said Democratic media strategist Neil Oxman, referring to the
Washington antitax activist who is influential in the GOP.
Corbett could have levied a severance tax on natural gas, or
moved money from other programs to soften the blow. He did not, while he
reduced business taxes an estimated $400 million and placed more than $600
million in reserve.
Wolf bests Corbett, faces
solidly GOP Legislature
WITF State House Sound Bites by Mary Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Nov 5, 2014 2:52 AM
Democrat Tom Wolf has toppled Republican Governor Tom Corbett,
ending a 40-year streak of incumbent governors in Pennsylvania winning re-election. The York County York
not to be cowed by them. "One of
the easiest things to do when we talk about change is to inspire fear, and we
have got to move away from that fear of the future, because if we don't we're
going to continue to be consigned to a dead end," Wolf said. "We have
got to get beyond the fear. We've got to get to the point where we actually
think we can achieve things."
On the other side of the state, Governor Corbett had just given
his concession speech, defending his efforts to push fiscal discipline and
limited government.
"… when he takes office next January,
he'll confront not only a hostile, Republican-controlled Legislature, but
a state on shaky fiscal ground. The state faces a likely $1.7 billion deficit
for the fiscal year that starts next July 1.
"People vote when they feel like they have a stake in things,"
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., told reporters. With public education a central
issue in the fight between Corbett and Wolf, voters felt they had such a stake,
Casey said. And Wolf will have to offer
a plan to tame a public employee pension debt clocking in somewhere around $45
billion to $65 billion,"
For Wolf and his supporters, Tuesday a party, the hard
work begins Wednesday: John L. Micek
By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com on November 04, 2014 at 10:18 PM
Wolf wins — and now his real
struggle begins
WHYY Newsworks DAVE DAVIES OFF MIC A BLOG BY DAVE DAVIES NOVEMBER 4, 2014
The networks called the Pennsylvania
governor's race minutes after polls closed, but this was an election that was
over before it began. That's what you'll
hear from independent analysts as well as Republican and Democratic political
operatives. Incumbent Republican Tom Corbett lost this election more than two
years ago, when he pursued policies that would prove unpopular and didn't see
the need to actively defend them. "This
story was written a long time ago," said Charlie Gerow, a Republican media
strategist in Harrisburg .
Gerow said Corbett had a story to tell about inheriting a fiscal mess and
holding the line on taxes, and that his education spending policies were
defensible. But Corbett, lacking the
temperament and political skill to sell himself, let the
narrative get away from him. It wasn't just spin that did Corbett in, though. The hard numbers show tens of thousands of public education jobs were eliminated under his watch, and local school boards felt pressure to increase property taxes
narrative get away from him. It wasn't just spin that did Corbett in, though. The hard numbers show tens of thousands of public education jobs were eliminated under his watch, and local school boards felt pressure to increase property taxes
GOP appears poised to defend Pa.
ANGELA COULOUMBIS AND LAURA MCCRYSTAL, INQUIRER STAFF
WRITERS
LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 1:08 AM POSTEDRepublicans
on Tuesday fended off a bid by Democrats to chip away at their control of the
state legislature, setting the stage for partisan battles over policy and
priorities with the newly elected governor, Tom Wolf. In the Senate, where Republicans hold 27 of
the 50 seats, there were four marquee races - including a hotly contested one
in Delaware County - that helped cement the GOP's advantage. By late evening, Senate Majority Leader
Dominic Pileggi (R., Delaware) said Republicans had picked up more seats to
expand their majority to 30 - "a significant win," he said,
especially in an election that saw the top of the GOP ticket, Gov. Corbett,
lose in historic fashion.
PoliticsPA Election Recap
Written by PoliticsPA
Staff November 5,2014
Tom Wolf cruised to a double-digit win and Gov. Tom Corbett to
a historic loss Tuesday. Below the top ticket race, a Republican wave swept
bigger GOP majorities into the state House and Senate. Here are all the
election results you need to know.
Republicans wrest control of
United States Senate from Democrats
Trib Live AP By Salena Zito and Tom Fontaine Wednesday,
Nov. 5, 2014, 12:16 a.m.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in eight years, starting with a win Tuesday in West Virginia where Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito emerged the predictable victor. The GOP's deciding race was inIowa , where Joni Ernst
defeated Bruce Braley. Then in North
Carolina , Tom Tillis ousted Democratic incumbent Kay
Hagan. The party picked up at least seven seats to gain a majority and more
power in the final two years of President Obama's administration, and expanded
its control of the U.S. House.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate for the first time in eight years, starting with a win Tuesday in West Virginia where Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito emerged the predictable victor. The GOP's deciding race was in
Republicans toppled Senate Democrats in Arkansas ,
Colorado and Montana
and replaced retiring Democrats in three states, including West Virginia 's Sen. Jay Rockefeller. The Louisiana race, headed to a runoff, remained a possible
flip, along with Iowa and Alaska .
Read more:http://triblive.com/politics/politicalheadlines/6889693-74/republican-sen-senate#ixzz3IC4EKl85
Inheritance tax payment by Scaife estate improved
state's revenue picture for October
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com on November
04, 2014 at 4:57 PM, updated November 04, 2014 at 5:45 PM
Pennsylvania's revenue picture is brighter than expected and
it's largely attributable to the estate of late Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. The
October revenue report released on Monday showed of the $2.2 billion in overall
collections for the month, the inheritance tax alone brought in $171.6 million
– which was $90 million more than expected from this death tax. The Tribune-Review reported last month that
the state received $99.5 million as a prepayment on the inheritance tax that
the Scaife's estate will owe. It indicated that was the largest inheritance tax
payment the Department of Revenue ever received. The newspaper also reported estate lawyer
Yale Gutnick said it was the first of several estimated tax payments that the
executors will make until the final amount is determined.
Scaife died on July 4 at the age of 82.
"But the ultimate insult of the
Keystone Graduation Exams is that in the end the whole system is a charade.
After all the time spent preparing for the test, testing, student and parent
anxiety, supplemental instruction, more testing and project-based assessments,
after all is said and done a superintendent can allow up to 10 percent of a
class to graduate even if they fail the tests or project-based assessments. And
that’s not all: Any superintendent can put together an improvement plan and
with PDE approval, exempt all the other students over the 10 percent figure who
failed. So where is the accountability?
Meanwhile, the state continues to spend
millions upon millions of dollars on testing and, in fact, just signed a $210
million contract for more testing. "
Guest Column: Let’s nix
standardized tests and concentrate on education
By State Senator Andy
Dinniman , Times Guest Columnist POSTED: 11/05/14, 12:54 AM
EST |
Do you remember a teacher who changed your life? One whose
patience, encouragement and passion for learning stayed with you and made a
difference in who you are today? Now, do
you remember a great test that you took that had the same impact? I bet you
don’t and I bet today’s students won’t either.
Of course testing has its role, but when days of instruction time are
devoted to test-taking and entire classes are spent on teaching to high-stakes
tests, this regimen eats away at the very core of learning. All this focus on testing came to a head when
Governor Corbett and the Pennsylvania Department of Education instituted the
Keystone Graduation Exams in Pennsylvania .
Starting with the Class of 2017 (current freshmen and sophomores) students will
have to pass exams in three subject areas (Algebra I, Biology and Language
Arts) in order to graduate.
"Of the 70 students attending charter
schools, 38 are enrolled in cyber charters (31 regular education and seven
special-education). If the cost of these 38 children were based on the
district's cyber option annual tuition of $4,500, the district would save
$307,359. This money could provide sizable property tax relief to local
taxpayers and could be used toward all-day kindergarten and numerous enrichment
opportunities."
LETTER: Funding system for
charter and cyber schools requires an urgent fix
Express-Times
Letters to the Editor by Douglas Wagner Superintendent,
Wilson Area School District on November 04, 2014 at 11:00 AM
The
Wilson Area School District recognizes that charter and cyber charter
schools can be a viable option for students. However, it is important to
understand that charters and cyber charters are not "free." They are funded by a state-mandated formula
that takes local tax dollars from school districts, causing property tax
increases. Districts are mandated to send the local cost-per-pupil-expenditure
to the receiving charter school for students leaving the district to attend a
charter school, regardless of actual costs for the student's education.
“One thing we know [is] that all of the
factors around literacy point to the fact that if we can address early literacy
by the time children are in 3rd or 4th grade, it’s a resolution to everything
we will face later,” he said in his opening remarks.
How can parents help their kids learn to read?
District explores improving child literacy at SRC meeting.
the notebook By Shannon Nolan on Nov 4, 2014 04:06 PM
Monday night’s School Reform Commission meeting on strategy,
policy, and priorities brought together teachers, partner organizations, and
District officials working on a new citywide campaign. They were all looking
for answers to the same question: How do we get kids to read?
The common answer that night: Parents need to be involved,
preferably from their children's early stages of development. Parents at the
meeting, however, represented a small minority of attendees. The campaign, called READ! by 4th, stands for
Ready, Engaged, Able, and Determined, and aims for reading proficiency for all Philadelphia 4th graders
by 2020. The program launched in August.
Superintendent William Hite talked at the meeting about the importance
of early literacy in children for future success.
Philadelphia Schools: Another
Year, Another Budget Crisis
Trying
to figure out why Philadelphia 's
public schools have been teetering on insolvency the past few years is no easy
task. But let's start with some basic
facts. The district, the eighth largest in the nation, is entirely dependent on
three sources of money: Almost half of its $2.8 billion budget comes from the
city. A little over a third comes from the state. most of the rest comes from
the federal government. Matthew Stanski,
the district's chief financial officer, likes to compare this money to an
"allowance". He says, "We're given an allowance and we have to
determine what to do with that allowance."
The problem, says Stanski, is that it's not nearly enough. Only 36 cents
out of every dollar goes to kids and classrooms. A huge chunk of money - $727
million — goes to charter schools, which compete with traditional public
schools for resources in Philadelphia. Health care costs take up another $117
million every year. Finally, says
Stanski, there's the teachers' pension fund. It takes another big bite out of
the budget. "Lets say you're an
employee making $70,000 a year." says Stanski. "That's about a
$14,000 payment to your pension fund. It's just not sustainable and yeah, it
worries me tremendously."
Imhotep Charter sued by related nonprofit
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED:
Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 1:08 AM POSTED: Tuesday, November 4, 2014, 7:05 PM
When Imhotep Institute Charter High School opened its new
building in East Germantown five years ago, officials dubbed the $10 million
facility "the Miracle on 21st Street." Now, as the school with an African-centered
curriculum fights to keep its charter, the building at 6201 N. 21st St. is at
the center of a tug-of-war. Sankofa
Network Inc., a related nonprofit that owns Imhotep's campus, filed a Common
Pleas Court lawsuit last week alleging the charter owes $1.2 million in rent,
interest, and fees. The court action
comes after the school, which opened in 1998, was rocked by months of turmoil,
including the ouster in late June of M. Christine Wiggins, Imhotep's founding
chief executive.
Philadelphia City Council Hearings
on High-stakes Testing and the Opt-Out Movement, Wednesday, November 19, 2014,
3—5 PM
Education Committee of Philadelphia City Council
Wednesday, November 19, 2014, 3—5 PM, Room 400 City Hall
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, Councilman Mark
Squilla and The Opt-Out Committee of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public
Schools urge all who care about the future of education to attend: Parents, students and educators will testify
on the effects of over-testing on students and teaching, including the crisis
of the Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement.
Information: Alison McDowell or Lisa Haver
at: philaapps@gmail.com
DelCo Rising: Winning for
Education Nov18
7:00PM - 9:00PM
601 N. LANSDOWNE AVENUEDREXEL HILL, PA 19026
Delaware County students and taxpayers have sacrificed enough.
The state is not paying its fair share. Rising property taxes and school
budget cuts are not acceptable–help us change that.
Join your neighbors for a community workshop: Delco
Rising: Winning for Education
Learn about Pre-K for PA and the Statewide Campaign for
Fair Education Funding and how they can help your community
Practice winning strategies to advocate for your
community
Create an advocacy plan that works for you—whether you
have 5 minutes or 5 days per month
This non-partisan event is free and open to the public.
Click here to download a PDF flyer to
share.
Webinar: Arts Education - Research Shows Arts Education Boosts
Learning, So Where's the Rush to Teach Arts?
Education Writers Association NOVEMBER 12, 2014
- 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Decades of research suggest that some types of arts education
can lead to academic improvements. But even though No Child Left Behind
designated arts a core subject, student access to dance, theater and visual
arts declined between 2000 and 2010. What are the challenges educators
face in teaching a discipline many researchers say spurs student achievement,
reduces absences and boosts graduation rates? This webinar will look at
state-level arts education policy and student access to arts programs, the arts
education research landscape, and offer a spotlight on city programs that are
galvanizing arts education.
Panelists:
James Catterall, Centers for
Research on Creativity, Professor Emeritus, UCLA
Sandra Ruppert, Director, Arts
Education Partnership
Moderator:
Mary Plummer, Southern California Public Radio
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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