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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for December
11, 2014:
Federal Spending Bill Would
Fund Pre-K Grants, Not Race to Top
School funding commission
needs real costs, says Smucker
State lawmakers know that education leaders want poverty levels
and other school district characteristics to be factored into Pennsylvania school funding. Legislators on a commission reviewing the school
funding formula have heard that plea repeatedly as they toured the state this fall. What they haven't heard much of, though, is
the real costs of educating different student populations, according to Sen.
Lloyd Smucker, of Lancaster . School
District of Lancaster
Basic Education Funding
Commission Public Hearing
Wednesday, December 10, 2014 10:00 a.m., McCaskey East High
School 1051 Leigh Avenue Lancaster, PA 17602
Agenda and links to testimony
from yesterday's hearing
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia website December 10,
2014
Michael Churchill testified before the Pennsylvania Basic
Education Funding Commission, noting the Commonwealth cannot demand students
live up to standards while purposefully staying blind to how much it costs to
meet those standards.
Churchill urged the commission to set the current public
education funding structure on its head by making uniform local tax
efforts and increasing state contributions. He made three key points in his
testimony. First, the state shifts an immoderately heavy burden of
compensation onto local tax bases. As Mr. Churchill points out, “Pennsylvania has been an outlier on its state appropriation to
K-12 education for at least 15 years, always in the lowest 10 states, and
sometimes in the lowest three.” Second, the state then distributes its
funding in a manner that does not reflect the tax efforts of the district.
Third, the current system of funding distribution is fundamentally flawed
because it has not properly assessed how much it costs to adequately prepare a
child to meet proficiency standards. Here
is Michael Churchill’s testimony in full:
Six districts, along with NAACP, say state fails poor areas
by relying too heavily on property taxes for school funding
Al Jazeera by Peter Moskowitz @ptrmsk
December 11, 2014 5:00AM ET
SHENANDOAH, Pa.
— The halls of Shenandoah’s schools are clean and orderly, the students quiet
and focused. But the district has one school counselor, one guidance counselor,
one art teacher and one gym teacher for more than 1,000 students. It no longer
has a librarian. Funding for buses was cut in 2011, and students who live in
the borough of Shenandoah have to be driven to school or walk, some over a
mile. The small and economically
struggling town about two hours northwest of Philadelphia is one of six school districts,
along with advocacy groups and the state’s NAACP, suing the state in an attempt
to force it to rework how it funds school districts.
Advocates say that without a rejiggering of the formula, many
school districts are bound to fail to meet the needs of their students. The problem, they say, boils down to how the
state funds schools. Pennsylvania
is one
of three states without a statewide funding formula for public
education, according to the Education Law
Center, a nonprofit group representing plaintiffs in the suit. While most
states use property taxes in their funding formulas, Pennsylvania ’s lack of a formula means that
local taxes account for a larger share of school funding. Nationally, property
taxes make up an average of 44 percent of school budgets, but in Pennsylvania the taxes
make up 53 percent on average and much more in some districts.
State needs a rational fix
for its method of funding charter students with disabilities
the notebook By David Lapp on Dec 10, 2014 10:45 AM
David Lapp is a
staff attorney at the Education
Law Center
Rather than basing charter tuition on what the charter spends
or needs, the calculation is based on what the charter’s authorizing district
spends on its own students with disabilities. That total expenditure is then
divided by 16 percent of the district’s student population. The assumption is
that since 16 percent is roughly the average percentage of students with
disabilities in the commonwealth, it is a close enough estimation to use in the
calculation for all districts.
Wolf taps Hanger to be policy
director
ANGELA COULOUMBIS, INQUIRER HARRISBURG
BUREAU LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 1:56 PM
POSTED: Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 1:39 PM
'Not a time for rookies':
Wolf hires one-time rivals, cabinet secretaries for key positions
By Christian
Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com on December 10, 2014 at
3:44 PM, updated December 10, 2014 at 3:51 PM
Gov.-elect Tom
Wolf's appointment of two former Gov. Ed Rendell cabinet secretaries
speaks to the value he is placing on experience as he prepares to
take office in January. Wolf
announced Wednesday the hiring
of several key staff members, includingJohn
Hanger, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection. Hanger will serve as the secretary of planning and policy. Both Hanger and Wolf's new chief of staff Kathleen
"Katie" McGinty were onetime rivals of Wolf when they
sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 2014. Wolf, Hanger and McGinty also all served
as members in Rendell's cabinet.
GOP Mayor Brooks to help Wolf
take office
Trib Live By Patrick
Varine Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, 9:00 p.m.
Murrysville Mayor Bob Brooks is a relatively rare bird: a Republican on a gubernatorial transition team full of Democrats. Brooks was tapped as one of 11 members of Governor-elect Tom Wolf's transition team, a group that is tasked with helping Wolf find suitable cabinet and committee members and establish a baseline for where the state is at and where it is headed.
Murrysville Mayor Bob Brooks is a relatively rare bird: a Republican on a gubernatorial transition team full of Democrats. Brooks was tapped as one of 11 members of Governor-elect Tom Wolf's transition team, a group that is tasked with helping Wolf find suitable cabinet and committee members and establish a baseline for where the state is at and where it is headed.
“It's interesting to me that he's so enthusiastic and wants to
do everything as well as it can be done,” Brooks said of Wolf. “By Jan. 20, he
wants to have his cabinet pretty well in place.”
The team held its first meeting last week, and Brooks said
although specific assignments still are being handed out, his focus likely will
be on state police, homeland security, veteran groups and the military.
"This week the Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy
Center U.S.
Delco Times Editorial:
Corbett missed boat on extraction tax
Delco Times POSTED: 12/10/14, 11:25 PM EST | UPDATED:
16 MINS AGO
Tom Corbett rolled into the governor’s mansion four years ago
largely on a very popular theme. The Republican pledged he would not raise
taxes. Four years later, he is packing
his bags in large part for the same reason.
Campaigning as a no-tax-hike crusader is one thing; governing that way
is quite another. When faced with
daunting revenue shortfalls – including having to do without several million
dollars in federal stimulus funds that had been used by the Rendell
Administration to patch any number of fiscal potholes – Corbett faced some very
tough choices.
He decided to cut. Corbett dug in his heels and stuck to his
guns when it came to the bottom line. The austere series of budgets – including
some very tough cuts in education – became his legacy.
Phila. school district takes
its case to Commonwealth Court
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER POSTED: December 10, 2014, 2:13 PM
"The polestar is the children, not the protection of some
collective bargaining interest that protects the interest of teachers,"
Aronchick told the judges in Harrisburg . Philadelphia Federation of Teachers lawyer
Ralph Teti said that the SRC lacks the authority to abrogate its contract.
"I think they overstepped their boundaries greatly,"
Teti said. "Their view of it is if we have a contract on Monday, we can
cancel it on Tuesday."
Appeals court seems baffled
by Philly teachers contract strife
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN
MCCORRY DECEMBER 10, 2014
"Dysfunctional ... abnormal ... extreme."
These were just a few of the words a Commonwealth Court judge used Wednesday
to describe the relationship between the Philadelphia School Reform Commission
and its teachers union.
The hearing in Harrisburg
reviewed the SRC's Oct. 6 decision to unilaterally terminate the PFT contract
and impose health-care concessions on members. Most teachers union members
currently don't pay a share of their premiums.
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia webiste December 10,
2014
Philadelphia City Council adopted a resolution in support of our School Funding
Lawsuit.
Reaffirming Pennsylvania ’s
constitutional guarantee of “a thorough and efficient system of public
education”, the resolution emphasizes that this core responsibility has been
neglected since 2011 when the state “reversed progress towards equity in education funding.”
While the severe budget cuts of 2011 have detrimentally
impacted local communities with disadvantaged tax bases throughout
Pennsylvania, the resolution underscores that “these adverse effects can be acutely felt here in Philadelphia”
as evidenced by concerning increase of class sizes, the dismissal of
teachers as well as critical support staff, and the degradation of other
aspects of students’ education.
Noting that Pennsylvania is one of only three states in the
nation without a fair funding formula when it comes to education, the City
Council’s resolution thus calls upon the state legislature to uphold its
constitutional duty and administer a more equitable policy of funding
distribution.
Click here to read more about our School
Funding Lawsuit
- See more at: http://www.pilcop.org/city-council-supports-our-school-funding-lawsuit/#sthash.BM0Lnfzg.gTUCJF4j.dpuf
Philly City Council to
Vote on Standardized Testing Resolution!
Caucus of Working Educators POSTED BY THE CAUCUS BLOG 5SC ON
DECEMBER 08, 2014
Councilman Squilla,
Councilwoman Sanchez, and Councilwoman Blackwell have introduced a resolution
to City Council calling on the School District
to scale back its standardized testing.
Obama’s
$1 Billion Preschool Expansion Gets Backing From Disney
Bloomberg News By Angela Greiling Keane Dec 10, 2014
6:00 AM ET
Walt Disney Co. (DIS), and toymaker Lego A/S’s foundation
are among the contributors of more than $330 million to an early childhood
education initiative the White House is announcing today.
The private-sector giving is part of a $1 billion package to
expand education for preschoolers as part of President Barack Obama’s
initiative to give every child in the U.S. access to “high-quality”
preschool. Obama today will speak at an
early childhood education summit at the White House, talking about his
initiative that includes curbing school suspensions and expulsions of young
children.
FACT SHEET: Invest in US: The
White House Summit
The White House Office of the Press Secretary December 10, 2014
Last year, President Obama called upon Congress to expand
access to high-quality preschool for every child in America , proposing investments that
would support a continuum of early learning opportunity from birth through
kindergarten entry. In January, he challenged more Americans – elected
officials, business leaders, philanthropists, and the public – to help more
children access the early education they need to succeed in school and in
life. Over the course of the past year, significant progress has been
made, and bipartisan cooperation has led to a substantial increase in federal
investment in early education.
Today, the President convenes state and local policymakers,
mayors, school superintendents, corporate and community leaders, and advocates
for the White House Summit on Early Education, highlighting collective
leadership in support of early education for America ’s children. Leaders
will share best practices in building the public-private partnerships that are
expanding early education in communities across the country. Participants
will discuss effective strategies and programs that support and bring
high-quality early childhood education to scale.
Leading private and philanthropic organizations will commit to
new actions at the White House Summit that spur greater access to high-quality
preschool and early learning. Together with federal awards, this
amounts to a collective investment of over $1 billion in the education and
development of America
Federal Spending Bill Would
Fund Preschool Grants, But Not Race to Top
Education Week Politics K-12 Blog By Lauren
Camera on December 10, 2014 12:19 AM
Congress unveiled its long-awaited
spending bill Tuesday evening, which would fund most of the
government, including the U.S. Department of Education and federally funded
education programs, through September 2015. The measure, if adopted by both chambers and
signed by President Barack Obama, would avert a government shutdown that could
take place Dec. 11, when the current stopgap funding bill is set to expire. The
House is tentatively scheduled to pass the bill Wednesday with the Senate
following suit Thursday.
The proposal is a hybrid continuing resolution/omnibus, which
quickly garnered the inside-the-Beltway moniker "cromnibus." The bill would hold education funding largely
steady, but would include some increases for early childhood programs
Obama’s Race to the Top loses
all funding in 2015 omnibus spending bill
President Obama and firstlLady Michelle
Obama both would see key initiatives whacked if the $1.01 trillion spending
bill unveiled by congressional leaders this week passes without changes in
these areas: the president’s chief education initiative, Race to the Top, loses
all funding, and the first lady’s effort to nutritionally improve school
lunches takes a hit with language that allows schools to take their good old
time about meeting a mandate on serving whole grain.
The Education Department would take a slight hit in funding; at
$70.5 billion, down $133 million below the fiscal year 2014, but special
education grants to states would get $25 million more than last year, up to
$11.5 billion. Funding for the somewhat controversial School Improvement Grant
program is maintained at $506 million. (It’s somewhat controversial because
there are big questions about its overall effectiveness.)
Embattled NY education
commissioner quitting to become top adviser to Arne Duncan
For months parents and education
advocates have been calling for the resignation of New York State Education
Commissioner John King. They got their wish. King is leaving his job and moving
to Washington ,
to manage the U.S. Education Department’s operations as a senior adviser to
Education Secretary Arne Duncan, according to a spokesman in the state
education office.
The spokesman didn’t say why King decided to leave now. But
earlier this year Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) expressed his unhappiness with
King over the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, saying in a
letter to top education officials in the state that “Common Core’s
implementation in New York
has been flawed and mismanaged from the start.”
New York Times By KATE TAYLOR DEC. 10, 2014
New York State’s education commissioner, John B. King Jr., who
has been a staunch advocate for the Common Core standards anda frequent target of those who
criticize them, announced on Wednesday that he would step down at the end of
the year to take the second-highest-ranking job at the federal Education
Department, senior adviser to Secretary Arne Duncan.
Dr. King, 39, a former charter school leader who
was appointed commissioner in 2011, presided over major revisions to curriculum
as well as the way that teachers are evaluated and trained. The most
significant change during his tenure was New
York ’s transition to the Common Core, a new set of
learning goals embraced by most states. New
York was one of the first to test its students
against the new standards, and when scores
plummeted, teachers and parents blamed him for not giving schools enough
time to adjust.
In a first since Katrina, New Orleans
By Danielle
Dreilinger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune on December 09, 2014 at 4:04
PM, updated December 10, 2014 at 12:55 PM
More than nine years after the wholesale state takeover of New Orleans public
schools, one of those schools has decided to return to the Orleans Parish
school system. Friends of King made the decision in a unanimous vote Tuesday
for Martin Luther King Jr. Charter, reversing its decision of the
month before. "I'm your
representative," School Board member Ira Thomas said after the vote,
beaming. Six Friends of King members
were present, and three absent.
King is the first of 57 state takeover schools in New Orleans to return to
local control.
FCC to Vote on Big Funding
Increase for E-Rate Program
Education Week Digital Education Blog By Sean Cavanagh on December 11, 2014 10:42 PM
The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote
Thursday on a major increase in funding for the E-rate program, a step that
many school and library officials have sought for years, yet one that has drawn
a cold response from some Republicans. The
proposal unveiled last month by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler would
raise the overall funding cap for the program—which has been stagnant for
years—from $2.4 billion to $3.9 billion annually.
In an era when many school budgets are only beginning to rebound from the Great Recession, and
funding to meet schools' pressing technology needs remains tight, the FCC plan would
amount to a substantial infusion of cash for K-12 systems.
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.
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