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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for December
2, 2014:
State moves to take control
of York City
School District ; York City
Upcoming PA Basic Education Funding Commission Public
Hearings
Thursday, December 4, 2014 at 10 AM East Stroudsburg; Carl T. Secor
Administration Bldg., 50 Vine Street, East Stroudsburg Area School District
Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 10 AM - 12:00 PM Lancaster; location TBA
* meeting times and locations subject to change
* meeting times and locations subject to change
State moves to take control
of York City School District
If court OKs, he could bring in charters without school
board approval
On Monday, acting state education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq
filed a petition in York
County
Meckley, who has led the state-mandated recovery process for
city schools since 2012, said he's had several conversations with Dumaresq since
the board's November meeting, when the board tabled a decision on a proposed
contract with Charter Schools
USA
But Margie Orr, school board president, predicted
"horrible fallout" if Meckley is appointed receiver and the schools
are turned into charters. "I'm
hoping the court will let us retain control of our own school district,"
she said.
The court is required by law to have a hearing within seven
days and then to make a decision within 10 days of the hearing.
A petition filed in York County court Monday asking that a
receiver be appointed to the York City School District "seems very
premature action on the part of the state," according to the president of
the York NAACP. "Considering the
timing of everything ... this is not for the best interest of the kids,"
said Sandra Thompson, also a local attorney.
Thompson is one of many community members, parents, teachers
and students who have voiced passionate concern for the past several months
about a proposal to convert York
City
Thompson said she was still fielding phone calls and gathering
information about that possibility Monday, when the state Department of Education
secretary filed a petition for receivership.
If the judge agrees, the locally elected school board would
retain only the ability to set the property-tax rate. "I just hope that we get a neutral
judge," Thompson said.
Political factors: Some, including Thompson, have
questioned the political motivations of the state's timing. Gov. Tom Corbett, a charter-school supporter,
lost his re-election bid last month. Days after the election, the district's
state-appointed chief recovery officer proposed the conversion plan and
directed the school board to vote on it 10 days later.
Corbett's successor, York
County
Penn Live By The Associated Press on December 01, 2014 at 5:09 PM
Carolyn Dumaresq filed the petition Monday in York County
court, saying the school board has failed to implement a state appointee's plan
designed improve academic performance and restore financial stability. A hearing must be held within seven days.
State-appointed recovery officer Dave Meckley drafted the plan
in June 2013. He asked the board last month to activate a provision making York City York the third Pennsylvania school
district to be placed into receivership.
Exiting Corbett
Administration seeks receivership for York City Schools. Could Harrisburg
Penn Live By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com on December
01, 2014 at 6:26 PM, updated December 01, 2014 at 7:30 PM
Acting Pennsylvania Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq filed a petition in York County Monday to place
York City School District into receivership,effectively moving
control of the district from a locally-elected school board to the state. Could Harrisburg's struggling city schools -
which like York's, have been working since late 2012 under the guidance of a
state-appointed chief recovery officer - be next? It's not likely, according to Harrisburg 's Chief Recovery Officer Gene Veno, who noted
that - unlike the reports from York - Harrisburg
school officials have been working in a very cooperative fashion with his team. "Are we getting it 100 percent right?
Absolutely not," Veno said in an interview Monday. "But we're working
on it... We are continuing to move forward, and we are addressing all of our
issues." According to Corbett
Administration officials, that's a stark contrast to York , where Dumaresq said "the board has
consistently failed to follow the recovery plan and the directives of the chief
recovery officer."
Wolf transition team
scrambles to prepare new Pa.
By James P. O'Toole / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette December 2, 2014 12:00 AM
Tom Wolf spent years and millions planning for the election
that made him the state’s governor-elect. Now the Democrat has only weeks to
prepare to actually govern. Since he
chose former rival Katie McGinty as his chief of staff last month, he has named
the leaders of the transition team that’s confronting the time-pressured
challenges of structuring his governing team, recruiting Cabinet officials and
other senior administration aides and laying the groundwork for the budget
proposal due in early March. “The time
pressures are intense and you only have 10 weeks or so — two of which are
Thanksgiving week and Christmas week,” said David Sweet, who was one of the
leaders of the transition team of the state’s last Democratic governor, Ed
Rendell.
Pragmatic personality key to
new Pennsylvania
TribLive By Kari Andren Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014, 12:01 a.m.
One thing's for sure aboutPennsylvania 's
new House majority leader: He has a knack for keeping members of both parties
guessing. When Dave Reed stepped into
politics 12 years ago, he was a registered Democrat. But when he assumed his role as majority
leader on Monday, he did so as a Republican, anointed by his party as the
youngest lawmaker to hold the post in nearly 70 years. And last year, he perplexed lawmakers when he
led a statewide tour to draw attention to poverty. “I had folks on the far left questioning,
‘How can a Republican care about people in poverty?' ” said Reed, 36, of White Township , Indiana
One thing's for sure about
"Chester
Upland Chester
State calls for removal of Chester Upland receiver
KATHY BOCCELLA, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, December 2,
2014, 1:08 AM POSTED: Monday, December 1, 2014, 4:29 PM
Watkins said Monday that he felt "really good about what's
happening in the district," citing less violence, higher test scores, and
improved enrollment during his tenure. He said he was confident the court would
do what was best for Chester Upland students.
Delco Times Heron's Nest Editor's Blog by Phil Heron Tuesday,
December 2, 2014
It doesn't look like Joe Watkins is going to get the chance to
take that trip to China
after all.
The embattled receiver of the perennially troubled Chester Upland
School District raised a few eyebrows
recently when he announced plans for a jaunt to China , where he hoped to lure
investors willing to pour as much as a billion dollars into the district,
building several brand new facilities in the process. That trip likely got scuttled yesterday when
the acting state education secretary filed a petition in Delaware County Common
Pleas Court seeking to have Watkins removed from the post he's held since 2012
Cyber school scores lag
behind York schools, cite challenges
The scores of cyber charter schools across the state are
"very concerning" to the Pennsylvania Department of Education,
according to Tim Eller, spokesman for the department. Cyber charter scores for schools that teach York students followed
that trend, with every one of them dropping in their school performance
profiles compared to last year. This
year, 72 percent of public schools statewide scored a 70 or higher on the
profiles, which is considered satisfactory, said Eller said. In York
County
Cyber schools lag: But the same is not true for
cyber charter schools, he said. "When
you dig down a little bit into that information, you see our cyber charter
schools are not performing that well," he said.
How high could school
property taxes go next year?
While most people are racking up holiday shopping receipts,
school business managers are busy mulling 2015-16 financial plans. One number is already determined for them:
how high they can raise taxes. The
Taxpayer Relief Act of 2006 sets an annual cap on districts' property tax
increases. That limit is called the Act 1 index. For the 2015-16 school year, the indexes are
slightly lower than for this year, but it won't affect districts'
revenue-raising abilities too much, according to some school business officials.
By Daryl Nerl,Special to The Morning Call December 1, 2014
See what Bethlehem Area will be doing in effort to keep child
abusers out of schools.
Teachers in the Bethlehem
Area School
District
District officials say the policy under consideration by the
school board is meant to bring the district into compliance with new Pennsylvania guidelines
aimed at keeping child abusers out of schools statewide. Changes to the state's Child Protective
Services Law and Educator Discipline Act are at the heart of the overhauled
policy, which the board discussed at a committee meeting Monday and plans to
adopt on third reading at its next meeting Dec. 15.
New statewide policies go into effect at the end of the year.
They require teachers and other school employees to obtain clearances through
the Department of Public Welfare to ensure they are not "named in the
statewide database as the alleged perpetrator in a pending child abuse
investigation or as the perpetrator of a founded report."
School employees must submit a new application every three
years for a "child abuse history clearance" through the state
Department of Human Services, as well as obtain a state police criminal history
report and an FBI criminal history. The new set of fingerprints is part of the
FBI background check.
In Philly, frustrations mount
as budget crisis wears on
The School Reform
Commission is getting blowback from both teachers and advocates for charter
expansion.
the notebook By Dale Mezzacappa December 1, 2014
UPDATE A hearing in Commonwealth Court Harrisburg
For students, parents, and teachers, as well as the leadership
of Philadelphia
public schools, this fall has been a time of heightened uncertainty and bitter
conflict. After two years of drama about
whether there is enough money to operate schools safely, the District is still
not on sound financial footing. Its leaders have expended energy and political
capital on extracting new revenue streams, but its victories have been hollow. Newly enacted cigarette and sales taxes
burden only Philadelphians, and they are still not enough. The District is looking at another shortfall
next year. Its best hope is that Gov.-elect Tom Wolf can make good his promise
to increase state education spending and create a fairer way to distribute aid.
22 members-elect
in the @PAHouseGOP
started their new jobs yesterday. Meet them here:
PA House GOP tweet December 2,
2014
E-Learning on Snow Days in Pennsylvania , Kentucky
Education Week Digital Education Blog By Benjamin Herold on December
1, 2014 12:40 PM
The Associated Press reports that Kentucky 's plan to let 13 districts replace
snow days with a set-up in which students receive instruction at home, mostly
via the Internet, has "caused a new set of challenges." "Some students don't have computers or
home Internet access," the AP story reads, and "districts that opt to
use the home-school option would lose state transportation dollars and federal
money for free and reduced lunches."
NY AND NJ FAIR FUNDING
LAWSUITS READY TO ADVANCE
Lawsuits brought by students in New York ’s
small cities school districts and New
Jersey ’s rural districts challenging unfair funding
are poised to advance in early 2015. The lawsuits raise the failure of
Governors Andrew Cuomo and Christopher Christie to adequately fund school
funding formulas in the Empire and Garden
States Education
Law Center
An appellate court in Arizona has ruled that there is a “rational
basis” for funding charter schools and public charter schools differently and
that it is not against the state constitution to do so.
The decision late last month is the latest in a number of court
rulings across the country that have rejected equal protection challenges
advanced by charter school students and their parents, and that have said that
charter school parents have every right to return their children to traditional
schools that they believe are better funded.
The case was Craven V. Huppenthal, in which some parents of
students in Arizona
public charter schools sued the state government, claiming that it was not
funding charters as well as traditional public schools and that this violated
the state constitution. A lower court ruled against the parents, who appealed,
and lost again.
Here’s part of a write-up on the case from the New
Jersey-based Education Law Center ,
a nonprofit organization that advocates for equal educational opportunity and
education justice in the United
States :
Sam Walton's Granddaughter
Has Plans To Fix Public Education In America
This story appears in the December 15, 2014 issue of
Forbes.
Forbes by Luisa Krull 12/01/2014
A vision for the future of education sits
within a converted church in the heart of a working-class neighborhood in
northern Houston ,
abutted by auto parts stores and a heat treatment plant. At Yes Prep North
Central, homogeneity reigns: Of the 953 middle and high schoolers at the
11-year-old charter school, 96% are Hispanic, and a similarly large majority
live at or below the poverty line. The kids are dressed the same–blue or khaki
pants with school-issued polo shirts. But most important, their outcomes are
uniform, too: 100% of graduates get into a four-year college, as the university
pennants lining the hallways suggest.
Gliding into the school, 44-year-old Carrie Walton Penner
sticks out from the students–older, blonder and, in jeans and a black wrap
jacket, more polished than the young collegiate uniforms she weaves through.
She’s also the granddaughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, the daughter of
current company chairman Rob Walton, an heir to the largest family fortune, to
the tune of $165 billion, in the entire world. And as the family’s point person
on education issues, she’s arguably the most powerful force in the charter
school movement. “How long is the longest-serving teacher?” she asks the school
director, amid a flurry of questions. “Is there step-up pay and pay for
performance?”
Partners Named for ‘Community
Schools’ in New York
Social-Service
Groups Matched With 45 High-Poverty Schools
Wall Street Journal By LESLIE BRODY December 1, 2014
(paywall)
New York City Department of Education officials said Sunday
they had matched 45 high-poverty schools with 25 social service partners to
create “community schools” in an effort to boost attendance, prevent dropouts
and improve achievement.
Republicans Push To Update
The No Child Left Behind Education Law
Huffington Post By KIMBERLY HEFLING Posted: 12/01/2014
3:24 am EST
WASHINGTON (AP) — The No Child Left Behind education law could
be making a political comeback. Sen.
Lamar Alexander, the Tennessee Republican who is the incoming chairman of the
Senate committee overseeing education, says his top education priority is fixing
the landmark Bush-era law. His goal? Get a bill signed by President Barack
Obama early next year.
Doing so will require bipartisanship that's been elusive since
the law, primarily designed to help minority and poor children, came up for
renewal in 2007. The law requires
schools to show annual growth in student achievement or face consequences, with
all students expected to be proficient in reading and math this year. It has
been credited with shining a light on how schools handle minority, low-income,
English learners and special needs students, but led to complaints that
teachers were teaching to standardized tests and that mandates were unrealistic
and penalties ineffective.
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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