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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for December
8, 2014:
Charter opponents join fight
against York City
Upcoming PA Basic Education Funding Commission Public
Hearing
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
SCHOOL FUNDING: BEFC Listening
tour on school funding gets earful on 'hold harmless'
By Chris Reber Pocono Record Writer Posted Dec. 4, 2014 @
10:42 pm
A committee of legislators tasked with reforming the wayPennsylvania
funds education visited Monroe
County
A committee of legislators tasked with reforming the way
The Basic Education Funding Commission is trying to come up
with an alternative to the state's current method of distributing education
dollars. In June, the commission will make recommendations to the state
Legislature. The majority of Tuesday's
hearing was devoted to testimony from two organizations — the lobbying
group representing the state's school boards and a Harrisburg think tank. Local
school officials were each given eight minutes to speak. They brought prepared
remarks, but in may cases were unable to finish them within the time limit.
Receiver request scuttles
some York City
Some meetings have been canceled because of the state's
receivership request
York Daily record By
Angie Mason amason@ydr.com @angiemason1 on Twitter 12/06/2014 09:44:45 AM
For months, debate over the future of the York City School District York County
The school district, in a memo supporting its request to delay
the case, says that the York City School Board attempted to set a meeting for
Dec. 10 to get more answers on the proposed charter system.
On Dec. 1 — the same day the state asked for David Meckley to
be named receiver — Marc Tarlow, an attorney for the district, sent a list of
10 questions, some with multiple parts, to Meckley. Tarlow said the district
would like him, a representative of the charter school or of Charter Schools USA Charter Schools USA or the Community Foundation
Charter School
Charter opponents join fight
against York City
ERIN JAMES / The York Dispatch 505-5439 / @ydcity 12/04/2014 07:58:31 PM EST
Attorneys representing teachers, cafeteria workers, parents,
state-level education officials - and probably more to come - have filed
petitions to join the York
City School
District William
Penn Senior
High School
NEWS RELEASE: PSBA files
petition to intervene in York City School District case
PSBA website December 5, 2014
This week, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association filed a
petition to intervene in York County Court in support of the York City School
Board. The school board recently voted to delay action on a recommendation made
by the state-appointed recovery officer to convert the district to the first
all-charter school district in Pennsylvania. PSBA believes this is an extremely
dangerous precedent that if left unchecked could threaten all districts’
autonomy and ability to make local decisions.
Here are the facts:
PSBA 60 Second Update - York City SD
PSBAvideo Published on Dec 5, 2014 (runtime 2:08)
This week, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association filed a
petition to intervene in York County Court in support of the York City School
Board. The school board recently voted to delay action on a recommendation made
by the state-appointed recovery officer to convert the district to the first
all-charter school district in Pennsylvania .
Corporate Profile: CHARTER SCHOOLS USA
Cashing In on Kids
website
Introduction: Charter Schools USA is
a for-profit management organization headquartered in Fort Lauderdale , Florida Charter Schools USA are located in Florida ,
the company also manages schools in Georgia ,
Illinois , Indiana ,
Louisiana , Michigan ,
and North Carolina .
The company is led by Jonathan Hage, a previous research director for Jeb Bush’s Foundation
for Florida’s Future. Hage also served on Governor Rick Scott’s education transition team. Tina
Bennett, wife of former Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett, also works for the company.
Political Connections: According to the Tampa Bay Times, Charter Schools USA paid out over $200,000 in political contributions during the 2012 election cycle. The company also contributed $50,000 to a Georgia PAC to expand charter schools in the state.
Emails obtained through a public records request reveal that Charter Schools USA is one of the many sponsors of Chiefs for Change, a project of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.Charter Schools
USA joined with other
charter school management organizations to lobby for a change to the Tennessee education law to
allow for-profit companies to operate charter schools in the state.
Political Connections: According to the Tampa Bay Times, Charter Schools USA paid out over $200,000 in political contributions during the 2012 election cycle. The company also contributed $50,000 to a Georgia PAC to expand charter schools in the state.
Emails obtained through a public records request reveal that Charter Schools USA is one of the many sponsors of Chiefs for Change, a project of Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education.
Court should OK David Meckley
as receiver for York
York Daily Record
editorial UPDATED: 12/05/2014 08:23:05 AM EST
And so the state Department of Education has petitioned the
court to have David Meckley installed as receiver for the York city school district. This is not what we were hoping for.
This is not what anyone was hoping for — not even Mr. Meckley,
who told the YDR editorial board a few weeks ago that he really was hoping the
internal reform plan proposed by city teachers would work. It's not working — mainly because the
teachers are dragging their feet and undermining their own plan. It seems the
plan was never really to reform but to resist — delaying and stalling, bobbing
and weaving, hoping the recovery process would just go away.
Inky Editorial: Bad grade for
Chester
INQUIRER
EDITORIAL BOARD POSTED: Friday, December 5, 2014, 1:08 AM
Many in public education have long argued they are fighting a
war against conservative interests that want traditional urban schools
abandoned rather than improved so that charters and private academies can
replace them. The argument gains
credibility when you consider how badly the Pennsylvania Department of
Education has messed up the Chester Upland School District. Now it is trying to
remove Joe Watkins, the district's chief recovery officer, from the position he
was appointed to by former state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis in August
2012.
In Philly city schools, students
'die in'
Inquirer by Kristen Graham POSTED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER
5, 2014, 12:40 PM
At three city schools, students staged "die-ins" on
Friday to protest police brutality and racism.
The Masterman die-in happened in a first-floor hallway, when
roughly 100 students sat or laid down silently at mid-morning. Some held
"Black Lives Matter" signs. Others closed their eyes or stared
straight ahead. The die-in lasted four
minutes - symbolizing the four and a half hours Michael Brown lay dead on the
ground in Ferguson, Mo., students said. They said they were deeply affected by
the deaths of Brown and of Eric Garner in Staten Island .
Both died at the hands of police who controversially faced no criminal penalty
for the deaths.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/school_files/In-city-schools-Ferguson-resonates.html#Jtq2fRqCycSeV0M4.99
Circuit
Riders: Effort under way to develop new formula for how state money is sent to
school districts statewide
Main Line Times By Richard Ilgenfritz rilgenfritz@mainlinemedianews.com
@rpilgenfritz on Twitter Published: Friday, December 05, 2014
There is an effort in the state to figure out a new way of
doling out state tax dollars for education but those who are pushing for the
change say they don’t know yet what that change will look like.
For the past few months a group made up of retired school superintendents and a couple of school board members have been canvasing Pennsylvania to discuss state funding for public schools. They are going by the name, The Circuit Riders.
Lawrence Feinberg, one of the Circuit Riders and a member of the Haverford School Board, recently gave a brief presentation at a Lower Merion School Board Legislative Committee meeting on the efforts to develop what is being labeled a new funding formula for how state funds are sent out to local school districts.
For the past few months a group made up of retired school superintendents and a couple of school board members have been canvasing Pennsylvania to discuss state funding for public schools. They are going by the name, The Circuit Riders.
Lawrence Feinberg, one of the Circuit Riders and a member of the Haverford School Board, recently gave a brief presentation at a Lower Merion School Board Legislative Committee meeting on the efforts to develop what is being labeled a new funding formula for how state funds are sent out to local school districts.
Want to fix public schools?
First, start with the unions: Jerry Shenk
PennLive Op-Ed By Jerry Shenk on December 05, 2014 at
2:00 PM
Despite facing a $1.9 billion budget deficit , Pennsylvania 's union-supported incoming
governor has promised more money for public education. Predictably, his
priorities are misplaced.
There are many good teachers in Pennsylvania 's public schools. But good
teachers were not created by teachers unions. Capable, conscientious teachers
are good in spite of their unions.
Three years ago, Pennsylvania 's
state legislature considered The Opportunity Scholarship and Educational Improvement Tax Credit Act.
Intended to create education vouchers for kids trapped in
failing schools, the bill was opposed by teachers unions whose political
influence -- and politicians whose campaign funds – stood to be diminished by
its passage. Union campaign contributions won. The bill died.
4 Delco school districts
wrangle over teacher contracts
Delco Times By
Courtney Elko, Susan L. Serbin, Barbara Ormsby and Leslie Krowchenko, Times
correspondents POSTED: 12/06/14, 11:50 PM EST
Teachers in four Delaware
County Garnet
Valley
Gov.-elect Wolf has some
choices when it comes to the balancing the budget: Charlie Gerow
PennLive Op-Ed DONKEYS & ELEPHANTS By Charlie Gerow
on December 07, 2014 at 10:30 AM, updated December 07, 2014 at 12:22 PM
Last week, Gov.-elect Tom Wolf jumped into a
very public back-and-forth with the state's budget secretary over his discovery
that when the state spends more than it collects, it ends up with a
deficit. This pattern is, of course,
institutional. Despite largely stable population and resulting tax base that
hasn't grown appreciably, Pennsylvania 's
annual spending has increased dramatically.
The flat income plain is bounded by the twin mountains of
rising entitlement costs and spiraling pension debt -- things that demand more
money with no added services.
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf's $1
billion drilling tax prediction might be high
Penn Live By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press on December 07,
2014 at 1:56 PM, updated December 07, 2014 at 3:19 PM
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf might have been
off the mark by hundreds of millions of dollars when he said during his
campaign that a new severance tax on natural gas drillers would raise more than
$1 billion, potentially complicating his bid to secure new funding for Pennsylvania schools and
alleviate a severe budget shortfall.
The Democrat is pushing a 5 percent tax on gas pulled from the
Marcellus Shale, saying drillers are failing to pay their fair share while
state government and school districts grapple with persistent fiscal crises. He
made the tax a centerpiece of his successful gubernatorial campaign, saying it
would generate more than $1 billion each year for education and other
priorities.
But his estimate assumes a wholesale price of gas that drillers
in the Marcellus right now can only dream about. At current prices and
production, a 5 percent severance tax would produce about $675 million a year.
Transitioning to Tom Wolf
Trib Live By Eric Heyl Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014, 9:00 p.m.
Jeff Sheridan is the press secretary for Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Tom Wolf. He spoke to the Trib regarding the ongoing transition to the incoming governor's administration.
Jeff Sheridan is the press secretary for Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Tom Wolf. He spoke to the Trib regarding the ongoing transition to the incoming governor's administration.
Q: What do you consider the most significant highlights of the
transition so far?
A: It's an ongoing process, but we've made a number of
important announcements: the naming of (Wolf's) chief of staff (former state
environmental protection secretary Katie McGinty); the establishment of a Transition
Steering Committee to review state agencies and departments; a Budget Deficit
and Fiscal Stabilization Task Force to examine and address the budget
shortfall; the gift ban on members of the transition team that also will apply
to executive branch employees; and the appointment of (former state Department
of Public Welfare secretary) Estelle Richman as Medicaid adviser.
The Tom Wolf era begins: Make
way for 'Gov. Revenue'
Trib Live Opinion By Paul Kengor Saturday, Dec. 6, 2014,
9:00 p.m.
Paul Kengor is a professor of political science atGrove City College
Not long afterPennsylvania
voters bucked the national trend and exchanged a Republican governor for a
Democrat — a very left-leaning one — the Cato Institute's annual “Fiscal Report
Card on America 's
Governors” arrived in my mailbox. I eagerly looked to see where Cato ranked the
best and worst tax-and-spenders, with an eye toward Gov. Tom Corbett, a
fiscally responsible governor who sadly did not excite the Pennsylvania electorate.
Paul Kengor is a professor of political science at
Not long after
Read more:http://triblive.com/opinion/featuredcommentary/7285694-74/cato-pennsylvania-corbett#ixzz3LDV8gc4B
Will committee assignments
come early this year?
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Friday, December 5, 2014
Though the 2013-2014 legislative session came to a close in
just the last few days, the process of forming next session’s legislative
committees has already begun in both chambers.
Speaking to sources in both chambers, The PLS Reporter gives
you an insider’s view of how committees are formed in Pennsylvania ’s General Assembly.
Senate Republican Leaders Say
Cost Drivers Must Be Addressed
Senator Scarnati's website On December 4, 2014
(HARRISBURG ) –
Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-25), Senate Majority Leader Jake
Corman (R-34), Senate Majority Appropriations Chairman Pat Browne (R-16) and
Senate Majority Whip John Gordner (R-27) offered the following statement
regarding the Commonwealth’s fiscal condition:
“The Governor’s Mid-Year Budget Briefing shows that mandated spending
cost drivers, such as pensions and Medicaid, must be addressed in order to
repair the Commonwealth’s fiscal balance. To date, this responsibility
has been met by Senate Democrats with roadblocks and barriers to these needed
reforms.
Education Isn't the
Problem—Inequality Is
The American school
system today is an offshoot of an increasingly class-driven society.
The Atlantic by MATT PHILLIPS DEC 3 2014,
1:00 PM ET
Since its birth, the United States has always defined itself as
an egalitarian meritocracy, fundamentally distinct from the class-ridden
societies of Europe.
And at times, this has been true. On the eve of the country's
Revolution, the income distribution of American colonists was far more equal
than it was of those of Great Britain. “Indeed, New England and the Middle
Colonies appear to have been more egalitarian than anywhere else in the
measurable world,” wrote economic historians in a 2012 paper. (To be clear, it’s
difficult to consider a slave-holding society egalitarian at all. It was
brutally unequal. But from an income-distribution perspective, American
colonists—meaning white men—were better off than their counterparts in Europe.)
Plenty has changed since then. The U.S. became increasingly
unequal during the decades ahead of the Civil War in the 1860s. But at the dawn
of the the 20th century, it was still more egalitarian than European nations
like Britain and France. Inequality rose sharply during the Jazz Age and
collapsed when the Great Depression hit, staying fairly stable until the early
1980s. Since then American inequality has climbed sharply—so much so that the
U.S. is now more unequal than Europe was at the end of its aristocracy era and
just before World War I, wrote French economist Thomas Piketty in his massive
study on the topic, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/12/education-isnt-the-probleminequality-is/383359/
Schools, Race And
Integration: Complaint Says Charter Schools Are Resegregating Public Education
International Business Times By David Sirota@davidsirotad.sirota@ibtimes.com on December 05 2014 5:24 PM
Charter schools are often promoted as a tool to address educational
inequities, but a potential precedent-setting legal case launched this week
says the opposite. In filings with the U.S. Department of Education, two Delaware nonprofit
groups allege that some of the state's publicly funded, privately managed
schools are actively resegregating the education system -- and in a way that
violates federal civil rights law.
The complaint, by the Delaware
branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Community Legal Aid
Society, cites data showing that more than three-quarters of Delaware 's charter schools are
"racially identifiable" -- a term that describes schools whose
demographics are substantially different from the surrounding community.
According to the complaint, "High-performing charter schools are almost
entirely racially identifiable as white" while "low-income students
and students with disabilities are disproportionately relegated to failing
charter schools and charter schools that are racially identifiable as
African-American or Hispanic."
Elizabeth Lockman, an ACLU board member, told Delaware public radio that when her daughter
enrolled in Wilmington
public schools, she noticed a troubling change in the years since the civil
rights movement first began its push for integration.
“I made the choice to put her in a neighborhood school in Wilmington , but I was
just continually astounded by the amount of resegregation that had happened in
the short period of time since I had been a high school student,” she told
radio station WDDE.
If teachers are judged by
student test scores, how about state education leaders?
School reformers are big believers in
measurement, which can be a problem when the data they use to create policy is
wrong. A recent post by award-winning Principal Carol Burris (you can read it here) revealed that New York state education officials were
using flawed data while declaring a crisis in college readiness. Here is a
follow-up to that post. Burris, of South
Side High
School in New York , was
named New York ’s
2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association
of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in
2010, tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School
Administrators Association of New York State. Shes has been exposing the
botched school reform program in New
York for years on this blog. You can see some of her
other work here and here and here.
Panel: Philly Charter
Schools: Who’s Minding The Store?
How Can We Achieve Effective Academic, Financial and
Governance Accountability?
Tues. Dec 9, 7:00PM - 9:00PM
1501 ARCH STREET PHILADELPHIA
Panelists:
·
Commissioner Farah Jimenez, School Reform
Commission, Chair of the SRC’s Charter Committee
·
Jurate Krokys, Regional Council Co-Chair of
Schools That Can Philadelphia, founding Principal of Independence Charter
School
·
Kyle Serette, Center for Popular Democracy &
author of “Fraud and Financial Mismanagement in PA’s Charter Schools”
·
Barbara Dowdall, retired English Department Head
at A. Philip Randolph Career and Technical
School and former ADA board member
Moderated by: Solomon Leach, Philadelphia Daily News, Education Reporter
Sponsored by: Americans for Democratic Action
Co-sponsors: ACTION United, Education Voters PA, PCCY
Info and registration: http://www.pccy.org/event/philly-charter-schools-whos-minding-store/
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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