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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
January 21, 2015:
"Half the appeal of the
best charters is that they are whiter and wealthier than district schools"
Please take 5 minutes today
to let our elected officials know that Harrisburg
PA
Statewide Call-to-Action Day for Public Education Jan 21
Save the date/heads-up; details/confirmation
on this as they become available...
The next
Basic Education Funding Commission hearing will be held on January
29 in Greenville , Mercer County
Tweet from Circuit Rider Pam
Lenz January 16, 2015
"The biggest difference between the
“horrendous” public school and its charter alternative isn’t the teachers or
the curriculum, it’s the student body. ”Elite” charters, like MaST, tend to
have student bodies that are significantly more white and much less likely to
be enrolled in free lunch than neighborhood schools such as Disston-Hamilton."
INSIDE TAKE: Time for Real
Talk on Charters
Half the appeal of the best charters is that they are whiter
and wealthier than district schools
Citified BY ANDREW SALTZ | JANUARY
19, 2015 AT 6:00 AM
Andrew Saltz has been
teaching children reading and composition for 8 years at the Paul Robeson High
School for Human Services.
“Our neighborhood public school is just horrendous on every scale of measurement.” This truism, proclaimed with the same certainty as the “the sun rises in the East” or “the Sixers turn the ball over,” leads off a Daily News article previewing what could be a new charter school boom in Philadelphia. It’s a familiar anecdote: A family reflexively rejects their public school, Disston-Hamilton, for MaST Charter, a “technological wonderland” with a 5,000 student waiting list. All reasonable parties agree (or so the story implies): We need more schools like MaST to keep middle-class families in the city. Let’s agree: Parents choose different schools for different reasons. A child might benefit from a culturally relevant education at the FACTs charter or a focus on engineering and design atCHAD . But charters are no longer billed as
specialized supplements to district-run schools. Charters now are sold as the
better option for all kids. Expand charter schools, the argument goes,
and you expand the good in our city.
“Our neighborhood public school is just horrendous on every scale of measurement.” This truism, proclaimed with the same certainty as the “the sun rises in the East” or “the Sixers turn the ball over,” leads off a Daily News article previewing what could be a new charter school boom in Philadelphia. It’s a familiar anecdote: A family reflexively rejects their public school, Disston-Hamilton, for MaST Charter, a “technological wonderland” with a 5,000 student waiting list. All reasonable parties agree (or so the story implies): We need more schools like MaST to keep middle-class families in the city. Let’s agree: Parents choose different schools for different reasons. A child might benefit from a culturally relevant education at the FACTs charter or a focus on engineering and design at
For years, the SRC had refused to consider applications for new
charter schools, claiming –correctly– that the district cannot financially
support charter expansion. But that’s about to change. Thanks to some political slap-fighting in Harrisburg (and Philadelphia’s own State Senator Anthony Williams),
charter operators are once again free to make their pitch for new schools. But charters are a simple answer to a complex
problem. Which means they are not an answer at all.
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2015/01/19/charter-schools-whiter-wealthier/#jiWRtcTeSmGHmjxU.99
Democrat Tom Wolf sworn in as
Pennsylvania
Morning Call By Steve
Esack and Emily
Opilo Call Harrisburg
Bureau January 20, 2015
The soft-spoken York County businessman then pledged to be a
different leader — one who listens, seeks partners and sees government as a
tool, not a detriment, to building a stronger Pennsylvania through better
schools and better jobs. "We have
to believe that none of us alone has all the answers, but that together we can
find an approach that works," the 66-year-old Democrat said in a speech
delivered at an outdoor ceremony at the Capitol. "But I want you to know
that for the next four years, my administration will be dedicated to three
simple goals: jobs that pay, schools that teach, and government that
works." Tuesday was inauguration
day for Pennsylvania 's
new governor, Tom Wolf. Wolf succeeds
Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, who became the first incumbent, from any party, to
lose re-election in the modern era.
Wolf sworn in as Pennsylvania
By Karen Langley and Kate Giammarise / Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau January
20, 2015 11:27 PM
Lawmakers say they agree with
Gov. Tom Wolf's goals but achieving them is where the work lies
By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on January 20, 2015 at 4:39 PM, updated January 20, 2015 at 4:57 PM
Gov. Tom Wolf laid out three simple goals in his inaugural address on Tuesday of what he hoped to
accomplish. He said, "I want you to
know that, for the next four years, my administration will be dedicated to
three simple goals: Jobs that pay, schools that teach and government that
works, and one that's worthy of our trust." His words struck a chord with Republican and
Democratic lawmakers as they filed back into the Capitol from the outdoor
inauguration ceremony that took place outside the East Wing. Here is a
collection of reactions we drew from them:
Read: Text of Gov. Tom Wolf's
inauguration speech
Following is the text of Gov. Tom Wolf's inaugural address:
Chief Justice Saylor; Governor Corbett; Governor Rendell;
Lieutenant Governor Stack; Speaker Turzai; President Scarnati; Leader Dermody;
Leader Costa; members of the judiciary; leaders and members of the General
Assembly; family and friends; and above all, my fellow Pennsylvanians: I am so thankful to so many people here
today.
I want to start by thanking Governor Tom Corbett for his many
years of service to the commonwealth
of Pennsylvania
Time to cooperate in
Harrisburg, D.C.
Today is a big day for Democratic officials following a largely
Republican election year. President Barack Obama will mark the start of his
seventh year in office, and Tom Wolf will be inaugurated as the 47th governor
of Pennsylvania .
Wolf will speak first after his inauguration at noon. The president will
address a joint session of Congress at 9 p.m. on the state of the union. U.S.
unemployment stood at 5.6 percent last month, down from 6.7 percent a year
earlier and from 9.9 percent six years ago. Average hourly earnings, meanwhile,
have been stagnant, rising 1.7 percent in the past year and an average of 1.6
percent per year over the past six years. Pennsylvania unemployment stands at 5.1
percent, down from 6.8 percent a year ago and 8.1 percent when outgoing Gov.
Tom Corbett took office. But the state is near the bottom in job creation and
faces a $2 billion shortfall in expected revenues.
Wolf and education: Two outs,
two strikes
Bucks County Courier Times (paywall) By MARK B. MILLER
Posted: Monday, January 19, 2015 12:15 am
It looks like our new governor is stepping up to the plate with
two outs and already has two strikes against him from the previous batter as he
takes over the bat. I hate to talk in baseball metaphor, especially since the
local sport has not been much fun to watch the last four years. However, it
really seems to fit for a new governor who promises to restore $1 billion to
public education.
Those first two outs were big ones. Out No. 1, there is an
expected deficit of $2 billion-plus when Wolf steps to the plate. Before Wolf
takes a swing at putting $1 billion back into public education, he has to find
$2 billion to balance his first budget. Out No. 2, there is a Republican
majority in the House and Senate, not the ideal in a commonwealth known for
party politics.
"Bethlehem
·
Public School Employees Retirement System,
up $4.6 million.
·
Employee salaries are up $4.1 million.
·
Technology costs are up $1.35 million,
including a major wireless infrastructure upgrade.
·
Charter school tuition costs will rise by
$721,218.
·
Student tuition up $566,758.
·
Health care up $258,174.
As the district has gotten better at
accurately projecting expenses and cutting costs, there becomes less and less
to cut, Roy
By Sara K. Satullo
| The Express-Times Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
January 20, 2015 at 9:40 PM, updated January 20, 2015 at 10:23 PM
The Bethlehem
Area School District is projecting an $11.6 million budget deficit at
the start of its 2015-16 budget planning.
The administration is asking the school board to apply to the
Pennsylvania Department of Education to exceed the district's 2.3 percent cap
on annual property tax raises. "A
vote for the preliminary budget does not lock us in ... to any tax rate in the
future," board President Michael
Faccinetto said.
By Meghan Moravcik Walbert Special to The Morning Call
January 20, 2015
Parkland is likely to
raise taxes by 1.9 percent, or about $52 per year for a home assessed at $200,000.
Several hours after Gov. Tom Wolf was sworn in, Parkland School District Parkland 's
director of business administration, during a school board meeting Tuesday
night. "Is he going to be able to do that? I don't know … he has some
challenges." The district's
projected $159.3 million 2015-16 expenditures exceed its projected revenues by
about $8.2 million, mainly due to increases in the state retirement system as
well as planned building improvements and textbook purchases.
Why Rep. Roae is wrong about Pa.
Penn Live Letters to the
Editor by State Rep. James Roebuck on January 20, 2015 at 8:06 PM
REP. JAMES ROEBUCK, Democratic chairman, House Education
Committee, Philadelphia
State Rep. Brad Roae is wrong about school funding in Pennsylvania ("State
Rep. says more school funding is not the answer," PennLive, Jan. 15,
2015). Inadequate school funding is a
problem, and while it is related to pension costs, it's important to understand
how. First, the state is supposed to
cover more than half of school districts' pension contributions. Gov. Corbett's
massive funding cuts mean less of the state education subsidy school districts
are receiving is paying for classroom learning. Second, school districts are paying high
pension payments now because the state failed to pay its share of regular
pension payments at times in the past when it could have afforded to. That
failure helped create a huge pension debt, which school districts are forced to
pay for now, when they can't afford to.
By Ginger Dunbar, Daily Local News POSTED: 01/18/15,
5:40 PM EST
DOWNINGTOWN >> STEM
Academy
KATHY BOCCELLA, INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, January 21, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Tuesday,
January 20, 2015, 8:05 PM
After weeks of controversy and rancor, the end of Natalie
Thomas' 19 months as school superintendent in Cheltenham
came Tuesday night in a matter of seconds.
With no discussion, the school board in the Montgomery County
district voted, 9-0, to part ways with Thomas - a veteran Missouri educator who had clashed with
principals, staff, and union leaders since her 2013 arrival - and to make
William Kiefer, a former superintendent recently hired as a "monitor"
of Thomas, the substitute chief.
Senate committee to examine
testing in schools
York Daily record by Associated
Press UPDATED: 01/21/2015 07:01:14 AM EST
NSBA website January 20, 2015
The National School Boards Association, the leading advocate
for public education, shares the President’s sentiment expressed in
the State of the Union address to "prepare our kids for a more
competitive world." We are pleased
the President reports that "today, our younger students have earned the
highest math and reading scores on record," and that "our high
school graduation rate has hit an all-time high." Our persistent and successful focus on E-Rate
- which the President aptly describes as free and open internet for "every
classroom, in every community," will modernize teaching and learning and
lead to better education outcomes.
We also join the President in his concern over the need to
continue to ensure the safety and privacy of our 50 million school
children. As states across the country rapidly adopt their own requirements for
student data privacy, the National School Boards Association supports the
timely efforts of America ’s
school districts to protect the privacy of students and families who entrust
public schools with their child’s personally identifiable information.
- See more at: http://nsba.org/newsroom/national-school-boards-assoc-post-sotu-statement#sthash.3QbY9QgX.dpuf
What Obama didn’t mention in
his State of the Union speech
President Obama talked about a lot of
things in his State of the Union message on Tuesday night, but what was
striking was what he didn’t mention — at least in the education world. The big debate at the moment in education
centers around No Child Left Behind and how Congress, which is taking up a
rewrite of the law, will address growing concerns about annual standardized
testing that the law requires in Grades 3 – 8, and once in high school. Sen.
Lamar Alexander, the Republican from Tennessee
who has taken over leadership of the Senate education committee, is holding his
first hearing on NCLB on Wednesday. The
implementation of the Common Core State Standards and Common Core testing is
also a hot education topic, but you wouldn’t know it from listening to Obama.
Obama didn’t mention either NCLB or Common Core. Not a word.
In
State of the Union Speech, Obama Defiantly Sets an Ambitious Agenda
New York Times By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and JULIE
HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
JAN. 20, 2015
WASHINGTON — President Obama claimed
credit on Tuesday for an improving economy and defiantly told his Republican
adversaries in Congress to “turn the page” by supporting an expensive domestic
agenda aimed at improving the fortunes of the middle class. Released from the political constraints of a
sagging economy, overseas wars and elections, Mr. Obama declared in his
sixth State of the Union addressthat “the shadow of crisis
has passed,” and he vowed to use his final two years in office fighting for
programs that had taken a back seat. He
called on Congress to make community college free for most students, enhance
tax credits for education and child care, and impose new taxes and fees on
high-income earners and large financial institutions.
Testing Time
Jeb Bush’s educational experiment.
The New Yorker BY ALEC MACGILLIS January 26, 2015 Issue
In December, Jeb Bush posted an update on his Facebook page
which began by reporting that, over Thanksgiving, he and his family had “shared
good food and watched a whole lot of football.” He added, “We also talked about
the future of our nation. As a result of these conversations and thoughtful
consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively
explore the possibility of running for President of the United States .”
The wording of the announcement was oddly diffident. It was
widely known that Bush had been “actively exploring” the possibility of a
campaign at least since the spring, when he started showing up at the gym in
the grand Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, where he keeps his office, with a
personal trainer and new workout gear. But there had been as yet no signs of a
commitment. “It’s the telegraph people have been waiting for,” Jim Nicholson, a
former Republican National Committee chairman and Cabinet secretary under
President George W. Bush, said.
Register
Now! EPLC 2015 Regional Workshops for School Board Candidates and Others
The Education Policy and Leadership Center, with the
Cooperation of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) and
Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), will
conduct A Series of Regional Full-Day Workshops for 2015
Pennsylvania School Board Candidates. Incumbents,
non-incumbents, campaign supporters and all interested voters are invited to
participate in these workshops.
Pittsburgh Region Saturday, February 21, 2015 – 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Allegheny Intermediate Unit, 475 East Waterfront Drive, Homestead, PA 15120
Allegheny Intermediate Unit, 475 East Waterfront Drive, Homestead, PA 15120
Harrisburg Region Saturday, March 7, 2015– 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Pennsylvania School Boards Association Headquarters, 400 Bent Creek Boulevard, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Pennsylvania School Boards Association Headquarters, 400 Bent Creek Boulevard, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
Philadelphia Region Saturday, March 14, 2015 – 8:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, 2 W. Lafayette Street, Norristown, PA 19401
Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, 2 W. Lafayette Street, Norristown, PA 19401
Mark Your Calendars. The next Twitter Chat on PA School Funding is
Tuesday, January 27, 2015 at 8:00 p.m.
Join us #paedfunding
Tweet from Circuit Rider Kathleen Kelley
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.
NPE 2015 Annual Conference – Chicago
January 4, 2015 NPE 2015 Annual Conference, NPE National Conference
Early-bird discounted Registration for the Network for Public
Education’s Second Annual Conference is now available at this address:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/network-for-public-education-2015-annual-conference-tickets-15118560020
These low rates will last for the month of January.
The event is being held at the Drake Hotel in downtown Chicago
There will be a welcoming social event 7 pm Friday night,
at or near the Drake Hotel — details coming soon. Featured speakers will be:
§
Jitu Brown, National Director – Journey
for Justice, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Network for Public
Education Board of Directors
§
Tanaisa Brown, High School Senior, with
the Newark
Student Union
§
Yong Zhao, Author, “Who’s Afraid of
the Big Bad Dragon?“
§
Diane Ravitch in conversation with
§
Lily Eskelsen Garcia, NEA President and
§
Randi Weingarten, AFT President
§
Karen Lewis, President, Chicago
Teachers Union
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