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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
January 7, 2015:
Judge: Ruling on York City
School District
Pennsylvania lawmakers, chief
justice sworn in
By Steve
Esack Morning Call Harrisburg
Bureau January 6, 2014
Freshmen lawmakers from the Lehigh Valley
The specter of a nearly $1.9 billion state budget deficit hangs
over lawmakers' swearing-in
Past scandals don't tarnish swearing-in of Pennsylvania lawmakers and new chief justice
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY
WILSON JANUARY 7, 2015
It was fun while it lasted, but call this rumor bunk: Leaders
and aides say the Republican-controlled Pennsylvania House and Senate will not
try to push bills to Gov. Tom Corbett's desk before Democratic Gov.-elect Tom
Wolf is sworn in. "If you're
talking about something to get to Gov. Corbett's desk, there's not even enough
days now, at this point, unless we were in this week," said Republican
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman as he walked to his office following
Tuesday's swearing-in ceremonies. The
Senate and House chambers both adjourned until Jan. 20. Corman said it's
"highly unlikely" the Senate would return before Wolf's inauguration.
He declined to rule it out completely, but he said House and Senate leaders
"decided that the 20th is fine."
Judge: Ruling on York City
School District
A court ruling on the York City School District Charter Schools USA
The appeal: Marc Tarlow, an attorney representing
the district, filed an appeal to Linebaugh's decision and is pushing for a stay
that would prevent Meckley from officially becoming the receiver until the
appeals process is finished. But Clyde
Vedder, attorney for the state Department of Education, argued that the
district has no authority to appeal and that only the directors of the school
board may file appeals. "Which, as
we pointed out in our motion, they have not done," he said. Linebaugh said he is "somewhat
troubled" by the assertion that an entity affected by a decision has no
right to appeal.
Judge considers appeal
questions in York
City
State wants court
to strike appeal from York City School District
By Angie Mason amason@ydr.com @angiemason1
on Twitter 01/06/2015 06:05:01 PM
EST
David Meckley could know as early as next week whether a judge
will clear the way for him to move forward with the York City School District
Clyde Vedder, attorney for the state, argued Tuesday there's a
"fundamental distinction" between the school district and the school
board. The appeal was "allegedly" filed by the district, he said, but
the district was placed under Meckley's control when he was named receiver Dec.
26. The board itself, Vedder argued, has not filed an appeal.
Politics is as politics does
in York
Jeff Kirkland is a former
York City School
In response to the letter
by state Reps. Seth Grove and Stand Saylor, and state Sen. Scott Wagner:
When it comes to assessing what is good for the York City
School District
When it comes to concern about the education of the kids of York , these charlatans
have proven over the years they have no real interest in the education of city
youth.
Both Saylor and Grove supported the destabilization of the city
district by pushing the failed Edison Charter school experiment. The Edison
group, like Charter Schools
USA Edison
left town in a hurry, leaving a disrupted and unstable district in its
lurch. Where is the accountable Mr. Grove and Mr. Saylor? Where were you
as your experiment with our children failed?
Inquirer Opinion By Todd Stephens POSTED: Wednesday,
January 7, 2015, 1:08 AM
State Rep. Todd Stephens (R., Montgomery) represents the 151st
District.
For the past year, working with the House Majority Policy Committee's efforts to combat poverty, I've learned about the vast benefits that early-childhood education provides forPennsylvania 's
children and taxpayers. The benefits of
early childhood education include fewer special-education needs and repeated
grades, higher graduation rates and earnings, and lower incarceration rates.
These children enter the workforce prepared to succeed. For these reasons,
education, law enforcement, military, and business leaders all support
expanding access to early-education programs.
For the past year, working with the House Majority Policy Committee's efforts to combat poverty, I've learned about the vast benefits that early-childhood education provides for
Editorial: Disparity in
school funding an important issue in Pa.
An Associated Press analysis of school spending in Pennsylvania has
revealed a key finding that has been explored at length on this Opinion page
over the past few years. The gap between
what wealthy districts and poor districts spend to educate children has widened
dramatically in Pennsylvania .
In the recent AP analysis, the findings showed that the gap more than doubled
in the four years of Gov. Tom Corbett’s term.
But even before Corbett moved into the Governor’s Mansion, we compared
school spending in districts we call the “have-nots,” to those which we call
the “haves.” The differences in income and property value have created wide
disparities in school revenue and spending.
For the have-nots, that translates to less money per student and a
greater tax burden on property owners to provide the most basic education as
required by the state constitution. AP
compared this disparity to other states and found that Pennsylvania is among the worst.
House Ed Committee
Minority Chairman Roebuck: New session begins; School funding must be a top
2015 priority
Press Release HARRISBURG, Jan. 6 – State Rep. James
Roebuck, D-Phila., Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee, was
sworn in today for a new term representing west Philadelphia's 188th
Legislative District.
"As we begin a new session, I look forward to working to
improve education in Pennsylvania ,
and that has to include restoring more of the school funding that has been cut
during Governor Corbett's four years,” Roebuck said. “Philadelphia has been especially hard-hit by
those cuts, but the impact has been statewide. Governor-elect Tom Wolf begins
his term Jan. 20, and school funding has to be a top priority along with
dealing with the $2 billion deficit Governor Corbett is leaving behind. We
already know there are common-sense ways to generate funding, such as a
reasonable tax on gas drilling and closing corporate tax loopholes."
Short on nurses, District
considers how to plug health service holes
the notebook By Eileen DiFranco on Jan 6, 2015 05:40 PM
Since 2011, the number of nurses in the Philadelphia School
District
TFA closes New York training
site, sending trainees to Philly
the notebook By Shannon Nolan on Jan 6, 2015 11:36 AM
Amid a low recruitment projection for 2015, Teach for America is moving its New
York training institute to Philadelphia
and will consolidate the two into one during the summer.
The move, first announced in a Chalkbeat
New York article last month, is said to be due to declining
numbers of recruits for TFA's New York
City school partners.
In a letter to TFA partners that appeared in a Dec. 15 Washington Post article, co-CEOs Elisa
Villanueva Beard and Matt Kramer said that recruitment concerns extend past New
York this year.
“At this point, we’re tracking toward an incoming corps that
may be smaller than the current one, and because demand for corps members has
grown in recent years, we could fall short of our partners’ overall needs by
more than 25 percent,” they wrote.
Schools
go to court for more funding
Marketplace by Amy Scott Tuesday, January 6, 2015 - 05:00
Just before the new year, a three-judge panel in Kansas ruled that public
schools are so under-funded as to violate the state’s constitution. Lawsuits
like the one in Kansas
have become a popular tactic to try to win more money for public
schools. Thirteen states, from Texas to Pennsylvania , are
facing active litigation. In Hutchinson , Kansas Kansas .” The ruling in Kansas means the legislature could have to
come up with hundreds of millions of dollars for public schools. More
money isn’t on the way yet. The state is expected to appeal. An earlier case in
Kansas led
the state legislature to increase funding for schools, only to cut it back
during the recent recession. “Even when
the rulings are in favor of the school districts, you don’t necessarily see the
changes that most people would anticipate,” says Michael Griffith, a school
finance consultant with the Education Commission of the States, a nonpartisan
policy group.
"This is very much an exceptional case
as you look around the country, but I would add a big asterisk to that,"
said Nelson Smith, a senior adviser for the National Association of Charter School
In Pa.
Education Week By Denisa
R. Superville Published Online: January 6, 2015
The financially strapped and academically challenged York city
school system in Pennsylvania could become the state's first where all schools
are run by a charter organization, after a county judge approved a state
request to appoint a receiver to take charge of the nearly 7,500-student
district. The receiver, David G.
Meckley, who has been serving as the district's chief recovery officer since
2012, says he wants to transfer the management of the schools to an outside
agency because the local school board has not been following a recovery plan it
approved in 2013. Observers are watching
closely what happens in York , a city of some
44,000 people located about 100 miles west of Philadelphia .
"A public school system cannot
suddenly just close its doors, even just a few of its doors, without answering
to the taxpaying and voting public. But when it comes to decisions about
whether charters stay open or not, even the parents themselves are
disenfranchised. A choice system in your community doesn't only mean that the
public has lost the ability to decide what kind of schools they'll have today.
A choice system also means they've lost control over how much longer they'll
have any schools at all. That's the
trade. A few people get to have a choice about schools today, and in return,
nobody gets a choice about what schools, if any, to have in the community
tomorrow. And in some cities, school-choice advocates have solved some of these
issues by taking all authority away from the elected school board, sacrificing
democracy itself."
'School Choice' and
Disenfranchising the Public
Huffington Post by Peter Greene Teacher and
writer; blogger, curmudgucation.blogspot.com
Posted: 01/05/2015 11:45 pm
EST Updated: 01/05/2015 11:59 pm EST
"School choice" is one of those policy ideas that
just never goes away, and it probably never will. For some people it is an
irresistible way to unlock all those public tax dollars and turn them into
private profits. For others it's a way to make sure their children don't have
to go to school with "those people." Other people are justifiably
attracted to the idea of more control over their child's education. And still
others have a sincere belief that competition really does create greatness.
Voucher fans and proponents of modern charters like to focus on
those promises. They're much quieter about one of the other effects of a choice
system.
School choice disenfranchises the public.
Our public school system is set up to serve the public. All the
public. It is not set up to serve just parents or just students. Everybody
benefits from a system of roadways in this country -- even people who don't
drive cars -- because it allows a hundred other systems of service and commerce
to function well.
School choice treats parents as if they are the only
stakeholders in education. They are not.
Jeb Bush education foundation
played leading role in mixing politics, policy
An employee of Jeb Bush’s education foundation was unequivocal
when New Mexico ’s top schools official needed
someone to pay her travel costs to Washington
to testify before Congress: The foundation would give her “whatever she needs.” When Maine ’s
education commissioner, Stephen Bowen, lamented that he could not persuade the
state legislature to expand online learning in schools, a foundation employee
assured him that Bush “will probably want to engage Governor [Paul] LePage
directly to express our support for efforts to advance a bold agenda.”
The exchanges, revealed in e-mails from
2011 and 2012, illustrate the leading role Bush’s Foundation
for Excellence in Education has played in many states since its creation
in 2008, following the Republican’s two terms as governor of Florida .
The foundation has forged an unusual role mixing politics and policy —
drafting legislation and paying travel expenses for state officials, lobbying
lawmakers, and connecting public officials with industry executives seeking
government contracts.
What Should We Expect From
the 114th Congress?
Education Week By Lauren Camera on January 6,
2015 7:22 AM
Welcome to the 114th Congress!
On Tuesday, lawmakers will gather on Capitol Hill for the start
of the new legislative session, one which we at Politics K-12 hope will be
exciting on the education policy front.
Republican leaders in both chambers have highlighted immigration, the
Keystone pipeline, and a veterans' jobs bill as early priorities. But our hope
for a busy education calendar is bolstered by the education committee chairmen,
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who have signaled
their intent to send a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act to through committee by Valentine's Day. Our advice to you, dear readers? Buckle up
for what will likely be a fast and furious start for K-12 policy. The reauthorization policy debate getting the
most attention at this very moment? The state of testing, and specifically the
growing trend toward grade-span testing, which our own Alyson Klein was the
first education reporter to note here. But what else should we expect from this new,
Republican-controlled Congress? After all, leadership in both chambers has
vowed to buck the trend of a historically dysfunctional body, and the education
committees, which racked up more legislative accomplishments in the last
Congress than any other committees, will be eager to maintain their lawmaking
prowess.
E-Rate Undergoing Major
Policy, Budget Upgrades
K-12 digital demand fuels
modernization
Education Week By Benjamin
Herold and Sean Cavanagh
Published Online: January 6, 2015
Federal officials have dramatically overhauled the E-rate
program to prioritize expanded support for broadband and wireless connectivity,
through the approval of a series of
changes that have been widely hailed by education, library,
technology, and industry groups as much needed and long overdue. The capstone came last month, when the
Federal Communications Commission approved a $1.5 billion annual funding
increase for the program, which subsidizes schools' and libraries' purchases of
telecommunications services. "The
increase in support is significant. It is justified. And it is
smart," FCC
Chairman Tom Wheeler said in a statement accompanying the decision.
"In the 18 years since the E-rate was established, technology has evolved,
the needs of students and teachers have changed, and basic connectivity has
become inadequate."
PILCOP Special Education
Seminar: Dyslexia and Other Learning Disabilities
United Way Building 1709
Benjamin Franklin Parkway , Philadelphia
Tickets: Attorneys $200
General Public $100 Webinar
$50
"Pay What You Can" tickets are also
available
Speakers: Sonja Kerr; Kathleen Carlsen (Children’s
Dyslexia Center of Philadelphia)
This session is designed to provide the audience with
information about how to address 1) eligibility issues for children with
learning disabilities, including dyslexia and ADHD, 2) encourage self-advocacy
and 3) write and implement meaningful IEPS (what does Orton-Gillingham really
look like?) This session is
co-sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania School of Policy and Practice.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice is a
Pre-approved Provider of Continuing Education for Pennsylvania licensed social workers.
Questions? Email jfortenberry@pilcop.org or call 267-546-1316.
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.
PSBA Master School Board
Director Recognition: Applications begin in January
PSBA website December 23, 2014
The Master School Board Director (MSBD) Recognition is for
individuals who have demonstrated significant contributions as members of their
governance teams. It is one way PSBA salutes your hard work and exceptional
dedication to ethics and standards, student success and achievement,
professional development, community engagement, communications, stewardship of
resources, and advocacy for public education.
School directors who are consistently dedicated to the
aforementioned characteristics should apply or be encouraged to apply by fellow
school directors. The MSBD Recognition demonstrates your commitment to excellence
and serves to encourage best practices by all school directors.
The application will be posted Jan. 15, 2015,
with a deadline to apply of June 30. Recipients will be notified by the MSBD
Recognition Committee by Aug. 31 and will be honored at the PASA-PSBA School
Leadership Conference in October.
If you are interested in learning more about the MSBD
Recognition, contact Janel
Biery, conference/events coordinator, at (800) 932-0588, ext. 3332.
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