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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for
January 9, 2015:
PA Senate Bill 1 pension
reform likely to include defined contribution plan
"Finally, in recent years, Pennsylvania
Column: Midstate citizens
invited to local forum on school funding
On Thursday, Jan. 15, Franklin
County residents are invited to attend
a forum about public school funding at 6:30 p.m. at the First Evangelical
Lutheran Church of Chambersburg, 43
W. Washington St. Superintendents from the Chambersburg , Fannett-Metal, Greencastle-Antrim,
Shippensburg and Tuscarora school districts will make short presentations. This
will be followed by time for questions from the audience.
State senators Rich Alloway and John Eichelberger and Rep. Paul
Schemel will be present in order to learn about issues our local districts face
and to listen to the concerns of their constituents. This forum is being moderated and sponsored
by Education Voters of PA and Education Matters in the Cumberland Valley
Letter:
Superintendents support funding change
The Sentinel Letter to
the Editor January 8, 2015
By John W. Friend, superintendent, Carlisle Area School
District, and Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators
president-elect, on behalf of Richard W. Fry, superintendent, Big Spring School
District; David F. Reeder, superintendent, Camp Hill School District; Frederick
S. Withum III, superintendent, Cumberland Valley School District; Justin Bruhn,
administrative director, Cumberland/Perry AVTS; Jay Burkhart, superintendent,
East Pennsboro School District; Mark K. Leidy, superintendent, Mechanicsburg
Area School District; Alan E. Moyer, superintendent, South Middleton School
District; and Todd Stoltz, superintendent, West Shore School District
Dear Editor:
Several statewide associations representing school boards,
superintendents, business managers and intermediate units are collectively
supporting the efforts of the Campaign for Fair Education Funding to change the
way we fund our local school districts.
In every school district in Cumberland County Cumberland County
Thank you.
More rational method of
funding
Sunbury Daily Item
Opinion by Gordon Tomb, Senior Fellow, Commonwealth Foundation Thursday,
January 8, 2015 3:49 pm
The Daily Item editorial (Wolf needs to close the wealth gap,
Dec. 31, 2014) calls for increased state funds for education while ignoring the
dysfunction of the current funding system.
We are not denying that our public schools can do better.
According to The Nation’s Report Card, more than half of Pennsylvania students are not proficient in
reading and math.
However, additional money is not the solution. Pennsylvania spent a
record $27 billion on education in the last fiscal year. Spending per pupil is
more than $14,600, which ranks among the top 12 states in the country and
exceeds the national average by nearly $3,000.
Students would be better served if the existing inequity in
state funding were fixed. In 2012-15, 25 districts received more than $10,000
in state aid per student while 50 districts received less than $3,000 per
student. At the root of this imbalance
is a provision mandating each school district receive at least as much in state
dollars as it received the previous year even if enrollment levels drop. A better approach proposed by the state’s
Basic Education Funding Commission is a weighted student funding (WSF) model
that accounts for enrollment levels and student characteristics. Economically
disadvantaged children, for example, would receive more funds.
A more rational method of funding — not more money — would be a
good step toward a better education for students and an improved return on the
taxpayers’ investment in education.
PA Senate Bill 1 pension
reform likely to include defined contribution plan
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason
Gottesman/Thursday, January 8, 2015
Pension reform has been given the key moniker of Senate Bill 1
and will likely take the form of a defined contribution plan, a key player in
the process told The PLS Reporter this week.
During Tuesday’s swearing-in day ceremonies in the Senate,
newly re-elected President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) raised the
prospects of pension reform legislation to a new level by declaring a pension
reform bill will take on the prestigious title of Senate Bill 1, a more-than-symbolic
gesture emphasizing the importance of the issue to the Senate.
“Moving the state pension system more in line with that of the
private sector is one of the most significant means we have to gain more
revenue, for needs like education,” Sen. Scarnati stated during Tuesday’s
ceremony. “Pension reform will be Senate Bill 1 and a top priority this
session.”
According to Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh), a longtime
pensionphile and current chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the
pension reforms included in the bill are likely to include a shift to a defined
contribution plan from the current defined benefit plan.
“I would expect that its platform would include a defined
contribution plan for new school district and state workers as the foundation
of the proposal,” he told The PLS Reporter.
Co-chair Pedro Rivera talks
about Wolf's education transition team
the notebook By Dale
Mezzacappa on Jan 8, 2015 06:19 PM
Longtime Philadelphia teacher
and administrator Pedro Rivera, who is now the Lancaster superintendent, is the co-chair of
Gov.-elect Tom Wolf's transition committee for education.
Rivera was born and raised in Philadelphia ,
spent 13 years in the Philadelphia system, and
has led Lancaster
schools since 2008. He said in a Thursday interview that the committee is
working on finding the people who can best engineer a "transformation"
of the Department of Education and carry out Wolf's education priorities.
Rivera's name has surfaced in the rumor mill speculation on who
might be the education secretary under the new governor. He said that he has
also "heard the rumors," but that "nothing has been
offered." Still, he feels that he
can have an influence on a critical issue for Pennsylvania . Education affects workforce development,
economic stability, and building strong communities, Rivera said, adding that
"there is no more important issue" facing the next governor. http://thenotebook.org/blog/158091/pedro-rivera-talks-about-wolfs-education-transition-team
INSIDE TAKE: Standardized
Testing Isn’t Worth It
Not the way we’re doing it. A week of tests, all for useless
data.
Philly Mag/Citified BY ANDREW SALTZ | JANUARY
8, 2015 AT 6:30 AM
(Editor’s note: This
column is the first of many to come from Citified insiders, our
roster of urban doers, experts and advocates who will offer their takes on
a wide array of issues, from schooling to policing to politicking. Insiders are
not Phillymag staff, and their opinions are their own. Read more about
our insiders here.)
I’m cranky this week.
I spend a lot of time trying to make my classroom, Room 207 at
the Paul Robeson High
School for Human Services, welcoming. I have my contact information in four
places. I bought comfortable chairs. I decorate with seemingly important quotes
and song lyrics, I post student work, I use bright colors. I shake hands
and give high-fives at my doorway. I’ve developed a reputation for preaching,
in a secular way of course, the gospel of being in class, on time (“You can’t
say TGIF if you don’t have a job, and you won’t have a job without succeeding
in the classroom”). I greet a lot of
students by name; I heckle and get heckled. It’s love.
My principal greets everyone at the door. Our staff has built
lasting, meaningful relationships. On a typical day, you can show up at 3:30
and see kids helping, tutoring, or just...there. They don’t want to leave. But this week, for the state-mandated
Keystone Exams (3 two-hour subject tests, soon to be a graduation requirement)
I tear down their work or, for certain immovables, cover the walls with opaque
trash-can lining. I have to talk in hushed tones. When I greet my kids, I need
to quickly get them in their seat, with a number 2 pencil. I need to make
absolutely sure that they have no cellular devices.
Teaching math and science
through art, and a neural net (made of children)
WHYY Newsworks BY PETER
CRIMMINS JANUARY 8, 2015 THE PULSE
In the fall of 2013, Ben Volta arrived at Morton McMichael
School Mantua
neighborhood of West Philadelphia , in
partnership with Mural Arts Program, to develop a mural with the students. He had no lesson plan, no vision of what the
mural would be. He came on the first day of class, sat down with the other 7th
graders, and listened to the teacher. "I
remember them doing a lot of long division," said Volta .
"I don't remember how to do that, and I was trying to figure it out as
they go."
Like many 7th graders, his mind started to wander. As a kid, Volta was a terrible student, barely earning the marks to
graduate from high school, but he always excelled at art. While not paying
attention to long division, he remembered a short movie he had once seen called
"Powers of 10," a 1977 short film made for IBM by Ray and Charles
Eames – designers famous for the Eames chair.
The film is a visual experiment in representing exponential
multiplication. It starts by focusing on two people picnicking in a park in Chicago , and slowly zooms
out. Every 10 seconds the field of view expands to the next power of 10. It
takes just a few minutes to reach the infinite expanse of the universe.
By Vince Sullivan,
Delaware County Daily
MEDIA COURTHOUSE >> Chester Upland School District
Receiver Joe Watkins said Thursday morning that his pursuit of public-private
partnerships with the city’s charter schools has been called off. The
development was announced at a follow-up status hearing with district
representatives and the Pennsylvania
secretary of education before Judge Chad Kenney.
The hearing comes one month after Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq
filed a petition to remove Watkins from his position as receiver, which he has
held since December 2012. At the end of that hearing, Kenney asked for
Thursday’s follow up, instructing the two sides to improve their communications
and to hammer out the details of an evolving financial recovery plan.
Watkins’ main focus after the December hearing was to try
working with the charters, which have drawn thousands of Chester Upland students
and millions of dollars from the district, contributing to a $20 million
structural deficit. Thursday morning,
district Solicitor Leo Hackett told Kenney that those efforts were being
abandoned due to lack of progress.
Consultant lauds Coatesville
schools for reform efforts
MICHAELLE BOND, INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER Friday, January 9, 2015, 1:08 AM
Matthew Haverstick has led internal reviews for private and
public groups across the state. They usually go one of two ways. The leaders can choose to make meaningful
changes so the crises that brought on the scrutiny do not happen again. Or they
can look at the results, shrug, and go back to business as usual. How closely the public is watching is usually
crucial in determining in which direction an organization will go, Haverstick,
a lawyer, said. And the Coatesville
Area School
District
Montour board places
superintendent on paid leave pending retirement
By Mary Niederberger / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette January 8, 2015 8:12 PM
The Montour school board placed superintendent Donald E. Boyer
on paid leave of absence pending his retirement March 30, a move that was met
with cheers by several dozen residents who attended Thursday’s board meeting. Under the terms of a proposal Mr. Boyer
presented to the board, he will be paid $106,250 for “full payment of all
contractual amounts due to him under his contract of employment,” according to
the agenda motion on the payment.
The school board offered no specific reason for parting ways
with Mr. Boyer, 76, whose contract ran through September 2016. But it was clear
some type of tension existed between Mr. Boyer and the newly reorganized board.
By Sarah
Peters | The Express-Times on January 08, 2015 at 4:04 PM
The Phillipsburg
School District is asking the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
to make clear its position on whether or not public school employees can
distribute religious literature to students.
Howard Mankoff, the attorney representing the district in the matter,
sent a written statement indicating as much Thursday afternoon. "If this is indeed the EEOC's position,
it means that teachers, regardless of their religion or belief system, and
regardless of the wishes of the parents, can give religious literature to
students," Mankoff wrote. It's an
important question to which school officials need an answer before Phillipsburg decides how
to respond to the commission's proposal to resolve the matter, Mankoff wrote.
"The administration declined to
release the overall cost of the plan, saying details would be disclosed in
coming weeks. Federal funds would cover three-quarters of the average cost of
tuition, and states would have some responsibility to provide matching funds
under the plan.
Currently, there are approximately eight
million U.S.
Obama Calls for Two Years of
Free Community College for All Students
Proposal Will Face
an Uphill Climb in Congress
Wall Street Journal By DOUGLAS BELKIN, BYRON TAU and
COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON
Jan. 8, 2015 6:33 p.m. ET
President Barack Obama on
Thursday proposed offering free community college nationwide, in effect
extending government-funded education from kindergarten through a two-year
degree.
“I’d like to see the first two years of community college free
for everyone who is willing to work for it,” Mr. Obama said in a video posted Thursday on Facebook. “It’s something we can
accomplish and it’s something that will train our workforce so that we can
compete with anybody in the world.”
The plan, which would offset some of the $20 billion in annual
tuition received by community colleges, will require legislation in a
Republican-controlled Congress that already is at odds with the president over other
spending issues. The concept is expected to formally be released in Mr. Obama’s
2016 budget proposal, due out in February.
Obama
Plan Would Help Many Go to Community College Free
New York Times By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and TAMAR LEWIN JAN. 8, 2015
The Roots of Obama’s
Ambitious College Plan
New York Times By David Leonhardt @DLeonhardt
JAN. 8, 2015
The roots of President Obama’s ambitious
proposal for free community college can be found in a 2008 book by the
economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz called “The Race Between Education
and Technology.” The book, a combination
of economics and history, tells the story of how the United States built the world’s
most successful economy by building its most successful education system. At
the heart of that system was the universal high school movement of the early
20th century, which turned the United
States into the world’s most educated
country. These educated high school graduates — white-collar and blue-collar
alike — powered the prosperity of the 20th century, Ms. Goldin and Mr.
Katz demonstrated. “The 20th century was the American century,”
they wrote, “because it was the human-capital century.”
The ugly segregationist
history of the charter school movement
Popular education
"reform" measures are rooted in white resistance to Brown v. Board of
Education
Salon.com by CHRISTOPHER BONASTIA,
ALTERNET JAN 7, 2015 11:35 AM EST
As a parent I find it
easy to understand the appeal of charter schools, especially for parents and
students who feel that traditional public schools have failed them. As a
historical sociologist who studies race and politics, however, I am disturbed
both by the significant challenges that plague the contemporary charter school
movement, and by the ugly history of segregationist tactics that link past
educational practices to the troubling present.
The now-popular idea of offering public education dollars to private
entrepreneurs has historical roots in white resistance to school desegregation
after Brown v. Board of Education (1954). The desired outcome
was few or, better yet, no black students in white schools. In Prince Edward
County , Virginia , one of the five cases decided
in Brown, segregationist whites sought to outwit integration by
directing taxpayer funds to segregated private schools.
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
Adams Co. PSBA Basic
Education Funding Listening Tour Breakfast
JAN 14, 2015 • 8:30
AM - 10:30 AM
Jan. 14, 8:30-10:30 a.m. at the Gettysburg Area
Middle School 37 Lefever St. , Gettysburg ,
PA
PSBA Members Register online: https://psba.wufoo.com/forms/p97bly31fs5ecs/
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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