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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for December
10, 2014:
When Charter Schools Are
Nonprofit in Name Only
PA Basic Education Funding Commission Public Hearing
Today
Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 10 AM - 12:00 PM Lancaster; McCaskey East H.S.
1051
Leigh Avenue , Lancaster , PA
* meeting times and locations subject to change
* meeting times and locations subject to change
Basic Education Commission to
visit McCaskey to talk about funding
The Basic Education Funding Commission will meet at McCaskey East
High School Wednesday morning to
discuss new ways to distribute money to Pennsylvania 's
schools.
"Pennsylvania made about 52 percent of
its actuarially recommended pension payment in Moody’s latest ranking,
eclipsing only New Jersey and Virginia
No Escape From Pension Math
in Pennsylvania
Bloomberg News By Romy Varghese Dec 9, 2014 12:15 PM
ET
Pennsylvania Governor-elect
Tom Wolf earned a historic victory in ousting the state’s incumbent chief
executive last month. Now budget woes and mounting retirement expenses threaten
to undermine his campaign pledges. The
66-year-old Democrat will assume control of a government that has trailed all
U.S. states in job growth since 2011. He has to balance promises, including
more money for schools, with a $2 billion revenue shortfall for the year that
begins July 1. OnlyNew Jersey and
Virginia are struggling more than Pennsylvania to fully fund retirement costs,
according to Moody’s Investors Service.
WITF Written by Ben Allen and Radio Pennsylvania | Dec 9, 2014
3:13 AM
(Harrisburg) -- Despite
holding control of the state Senate, House and Governor's office, Republicans
couldn't agree on how to deal with pension costs in the last four years.
But a business group says Governor-elect Tom Wolf should find a
solution. Gene Barr leads the
Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, which highlighted the pension
issue throughout the gubernatorial campaign.
He contends the issue is driving the state's budget deficit, and wants
Wolf to develop a new structure. "For
new employees, we need to come up with a sustainable model, as most other
states have done. Pennsylvania ranks almost at the bottom for what we've done
with our pension system. We need to come up with a sustainable model for new
employees, and granted that does only address one side of the equation. The
rest is how we address those legacy costs, because they need to be
addressed," says Barr.
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf to
privately fund transition costs
By Christian Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on December 09, 2014 at 12:21 PM, updated December 09, 2014 at 12:26 PM
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on December 09, 2014 at 12:21 PM, updated December 09, 2014 at 12:26 PM
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf announced Tuesday
afternoon that he will not accept state taxpayer money to cover the
cost of his transition into the state's highest office
but instead privately fund the process.
"I do not want taxpayers to shoulder the cost of the transition,
and I believe transparency and openness are important in order to restore the
public's trust in their government," Wolf said in a prepared release.
State appeal board upholds
decision to close Truebright
Academy
the notebook By Dale Mezzacappa on Dec 9, 2014 06:25 PM
The state Charter Appeal Board has upheld the decision of the School Reform
Commission to close Truebright
Science Academy
Charter School
School district wants answers
from ASPIRA Charter
THE DISTRICT'S Office of Inspector General has launched an investigation
to determine why a North Philadelphia charter
school operator paid thousands of dollars to a contractor to paint a school,
where maintenance workers claim they did the work. The probe follows a Daily News article
published Friday in which current and former employees at Olney Charter High
questioned $163,365 in payments that ASPIRA Inc. of Pennsylvania made to Lyon Contracting to
paint the school in 2011.
Activists Say Phila. Charter
Schools Are Rife With Fraud And Regulators Aren’t Watching
CBS Philadelphia By Steve Tawa December 8,
2014 1:55 PM
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A coalition of community and parents’
groups charges that no one is adequately monitoring the charter schools in Philadelphia . Now, they have brought their complaints to the
doorsteps of the Pennsylvania attorney general and the School Reform
Commission. The Philadelphia Coalition Advocating
for Public Schools (“PCAPS”) and Action United say the
state’s oversight of charters is neither effective at detecting fraud nor at
preventing it. The protesters pointed to
a 20-page report released in September alleging that charter school officials have defrauded at least $30
million intended for Pennsylvania school children since 1997.
City Hall: Parents and
Advocates Demand State Provide Adequate Education Funds
Philadelphia Neighborhoods Added on December 8, 2014
Philadelphia education advocates, parents and students braved
the numbing cold on Nov. 18 to gather in room 400 of City Hall for a hearing
organized by the local nonprofit Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY). “Public education is not a privilege but a
right,” said Jamira Burley (right), executive director of the Philadelphia
Youth Commission. “The single greatest investment that a community, city, state
and nation can make is the education of the citizen.” Three members of the 15-member Basic
Education Funding Commission were present to listen to the testimonies
presented by former school district students, youth advocates and parents like
Julie Krug, whose daughter Maisie attends first grade at Greenfield Elementary.
Hour of Code shows that
anyone can handle computer language
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette December 10, 2014 12:00 AM
Writing computer code didn’t appeal much to Oakland Catholic
High School Stanton
Heights
Schneider: The Walton Plan to
“Fix” American Education
Diane Ravitch's Blog By dianeravitch December
9, 2014 //
Mercedes. Schneider read
an article in Forbes about Carrie Walton Penner, the family member now in
charge of education strategy for the Walton Family Foundation. Schneider blew a
fuse. Maybe more than one. Carrie wants lots and lots of charters so that the
free market will force the public schools to compete. Just like Walmart forces
mom-and-pop stores to compete by cutting prices and forcing them out of
business. Schneider writes about the
Walmart business model. While family members are billionaires, Walmart workers
work for low wages, and some apply for food stamps. Walmart, she says, has even
used prison labor to cut costs.
"In the charter-school sector, this arrangement is
known as a "sweeps" contract because nearly all of a school's public
dollars – anywhere from 95 to 100 percent – is "swept" into a
charter-management company. The
contracts are an example of how the charter schools sometimes cede control of
public dollars to private companies that have no legal obligation to act in the
best interests of the schools or taxpayers. When the agreement is with a
for-profit firm like National Heritage Academies, it's also a chance for such
firms to turn taxpayer money into tidy profits."
When Charter Schools Are
Nonprofit in Name Only
Some charters pass along nearly all their money to
for-profit companies hired to manage the schools. It’s an arrangement that’s
raising eyebrows.
by Marian Wang ProPublica,
Dec. 9, 2014, 10:49 a.m.
A couple of years ago, auditors looked at the books of a
charter school in Buffalo, New York, and were taken aback by what they found.
Like all charter schools, Buffalo United Charter School is funded with taxpayer
dollars. The school is also a nonprofit. But as the New York State
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning December 3, 2014
Flipped classroom or flipped learning is a methodology, an approach to learning in which technology is employed to reverse the traditional role of classroom time. If in the past, classroom time is spent at lecturing to students , now in a flipped model, this time is utilized to encourage individualized learning and provide one-on-one help to students, and also to improve student-teacher interaction. While the instructional or teachable content is still available in class, however this content is mainly designed in such a way to be accessed outside class which is a great way for struggling students to learn at their own pace.
Flipped classroom or flipped learning is a methodology, an approach to learning in which technology is employed to reverse the traditional role of classroom time. If in the past, classroom time is spent at lecturing to students , now in a flipped model, this time is utilized to encourage individualized learning and provide one-on-one help to students, and also to improve student-teacher interaction. While the instructional or teachable content is still available in class, however this content is mainly designed in such a way to be accessed outside class which is a great way for struggling students to learn at their own pace.
Discipline, Disabilities,
School to Prison, Disproportionality
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Saturday, December 13, 2014 from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM
United Way Building 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway,
Philadelphia, 19103
Presenters include Sonja Kerr; Howard Jordan, ACLU; Dr.
Karolyn Tyson; Michael Raffaele, Frankel & Kershenbaum, LLC
This session is designed to assist participants to
understand the specifics of the federal IDEA disciplinary protections, 20
U.S.C. §1415(k) as they apply to children with disabilities. Topics will
include functional behavioral assessment, development of positive behavioral
support programs for children with disabilities, manifestation reviews and
avoiding juvenile court involvement.
Questions? Email cbenton@pilcop.org or call
267.546.1317.
Info and Registration: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/discipline-disabilities-school-to-prison-disproportionality-tickets-12930883621
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.
Nice read here. Thanks for posting this. financial plan development courses
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