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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 21, 2015:
School funding lawsuit
headed to the Pa. Supreme Court
May 28, 2015 7:00 PM Jefferson Educational Society 3207 State St. Erie , PA 16508
School Districts, Parents Take School Funding
Challenge to State’s Highest Court
Thorough and Efficient Blog MAY
20, 2015 posted by BGRIMALDI2015
On May 20th, school
districts, parents and two statewide associations filed an appeal in
Pennsylvania Supreme Court challenging last month’s Commonwealth Court decision, which
dismissed a lawsuit contesting the state’s failure to adequately and equitably
fund Pennsylvania ’s
public schools as required by the Pennsylvania Constitution. The state Supreme
Court is obligated to hear the appeal.
“Our Supreme Court bears the responsibility for ensuring that our most
precious constitutional rights are protected. We hope that that the high court
will agree that this responsibility includes public education, the most important
issue facing our Commonwealth,” said Jennifer Clarke, executive director of the
Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia.
Battle over fairness of
state education funding heads to Supreme Court
Penn Live By Matt Miller | mmiller@pennlive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on
May 20, 2015 at 2:55 PM, updated May 20, 2015 at 2:56 PM
A coalition of
parents, school districts and public interest groups filed an appeal Wednesday
with Pennsylvania 's
Supreme Court challenging the Commonwealth
Court 's dismissal of its lawsuit over state
education funding. Commonwealth Court dismissed the suit against
the state Education Department last month after concluding that funding for
public education is a matter for the Legislature, not the courts. The coalition is seeking a revamp of Pennsylvania 's education
funding system, claiming the Legislature is violating the state constitution by
financing public schools through an inequitable formula. The current system
creates an imbalance of financing between poor and wealthy districts and
jeopardizes the civil rights of disadvantaged students, the alliance contends. Members of the coalition include the school
districts of Lancaster , William Penn, Panther Valley ,
Greater Johnstown Area and Shenandoah Valley, the Pennsylvania Association of
Rural and Small Schools
By Eleanor Chute / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
May 20, 2015 2:43 PM
Six school
districts, seven parents and two statewide associations have taken to the state
Supreme Court their case to force the state to provide adequate and equitable
school funding for all children. The
organizations today filed their appeal of last month's Commonwealth Court decision which said
the power to make decisions on school funding rests with the General Assembly,
not the courts. The plaintiffs in the case known as William Penn
School District Small Schools ,
the NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference, and six districts: William Penn
School District , Panther
Valley School
District , School District
of Lancaster , Greater Johnstown School
District, Wilkes-Barre Area School District
and Shenandoah Valley
School District
School funding lawsuit
headed to the Pa.
SOLOMON
LEACH, DAILY NEWS STAFF
WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5903 POSTED: Thursday, May 21, 2015, 12:16 AM
A LAWSUIT ACCUSING
the state of failing to adequately and equitably fund education is headed to
the state Supreme Court. The plaintiffs,
which include six school districts and two statewide organizations, filed an
appeal yesterday challenging a Commonwealth Court decision last month to
dismiss the suit, claiming that school funding is a function of the
Legislature, and therefore not a matter for the courts. "Our Supreme Court bears the responsibility
for ensuring that our most precious constitutional rights are protected. We
hope that the high court will agree that this responsibility includes public
education, the most important issue facing our commonwealth," Jennifer
Clarke, executive director of the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia,
one of the groups representing the districts, said in a statement.
Fair education funding
needed (letter)
York Daily Record Letter by Joan Benso, president and CEO, Pennsylvania
Partnerships for Children UPDATED:
05/20/2015 04:11:34 PM EDT
As a leader in the
statewide, nonpartisan Campaign for Fair Education Funding, I was pleased to
read in the May 18 Daily Record that Rep. Seth Grove, the newly elected
chairman of the House Republican's South Central Caucus, wants to change how
Pennsylvania funds our public schools, particularly in regards to revising the
funding formula for basic education. Pennsylvania is one of only three states without a basic
education funding formula, and it has the widest funding disparity across its
school districts of any state. This puts a squeeze on our school districts,
with many being forced to lay off staff or cut programs. A bipartisan state
commission created to develop a new funding formula will be releasing its
recommendations in June. We hope the commission's findings — along with the
resolve of state officials like Rep. Grove — will be the catalyst for the
governor and Legislature to enact a fair, student-driven and predictable
education funding system that provides sufficient dollars to educate all
students to meet academic standards, no matter where they live.
School boards group wants
charter, cyber schools to release financials
By Sara K. Satullo | For
lehighvalleylive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on May 19, 2015 at 10:40 AM,
updated May 19, 2015 at 12:07 PM
Right-to-Know
requests don't typically make headlines.
The Pennsylvania
School Boards Association might be changing that.
Friday the
organization announced that it had sent Right-to-Know requests to all
180 charter and cyber charter schools in the state seeking information on
their finances. The association wants to
know what the schools pay administrators, spend on advertising and real estate
contracts amongst other topics. The
group says its ultimate goal is transparency since charter and cyber
schools are funded by taxpayer dollars. Last year, traditional public schools
sent almost $1.3 billion to charter and cyber charter schools, the association
reports.
Under state law,
agencies have five days from receipt to fulfill the request, deny it or request
a 30-day extension.
PARSS Voices Support for School Board Association’s
Right to Know Requests of Charter Schools
PSBA website by Joe
Bard May 20, 2015
On May 15th Pennsylvania
School Boards Association filed Right to Know requests for financial
information with all 180 of Pennsylvania ’s
charter schools. PARSS (the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools Governor Tom
Ridge
The financial burden
of paying for charters falls entirely on local taxpayers. What they get in
return for this obligation is almost no information on how the money is being
spent. The lack of transparency and accountability is at cross purposes with
the goal of traditional public vs. charter school competition.
Charter Schools: Tracking PSBA's Right-to-Know Requests
PSBA filed a Right-to-Know
request with Pennsylvania
charter and cyber charter schools on May 15, 2015. PSBA is tracking the
response from each charter in the table below and updating it on a weekly
basis. According to Right-to-Know Law, public entities have five days from
receipt of an open records request by the agency’s open records officer to
either 1) provide the requested records (indicated by a green check); 2) deny
the request and give reasons for the denial (indicated by a red X); or 3)
invoke a 30-day extension for specific legal reasons (indicated by an (E)).
Cyber-charters are
'schools that teach,' Gov. Wolf: Maurice Flurie, Joanne Barnett and Patricia
Rossetti
PennLive Op-Ed on May 20,
2015 at 2:00 PM, updated May 20, 2015 at 2:02 PM
By Maurice Flurie, Joanne Barnett and Patricia Rossetti
Maurice Flurie is
the CEO of Commonwealth Connections Academy; Dr. Joanne Barnett is the CEO of
PA Virtual Charter School, and Patricia Rossetti is the CEO of PA Distance
Learning Charter School.
As educators of
schools that teach more than 36,000 students, we welcome reforming Pennsylvania 's charter
school law. We are, however, extremely
disappointed that the needs of students and opinions of parents are seemingly
being ignored in the current political debate. The Pennsylvania
Department of Education has increased its oversight of public cyber
charter schools over the past three years. The accountability measures of House
Bill 530, recently passed in the House and currently residing in the Senate,
will only improve those efforts. These changes are welcomed by the CEOs of all
14 public cyber charter schools in Pennsylvania . As additional
accountability measures are discussed, it is important for taxpayers and
lawmakers to remember that charter and cyber charter schools serve a critical
role in the educational landscape of Pennsylvania .
Here's a related prior KeySEC
posting…..
Even when you compare cyber charters to high-poverty
traditional schools & high-poverty charter schools, they still underperform
Don't forget to read to
posted comments…..
Want Pa.
PennLive Op-Ed By Kevin Huffman on May 20, 2015 at
1:00 PM
Legislators in Pennsylvania are
wrestling with critical education policy issues that will impact millions of
children across the state. Gov. Tom Wolf
made increased education funding a centerpiece of his campaign, and the
persistent funding gaps and corresponding program cuts in school districts
should be addressed. By any measure,
additional funding is key. But increased
funding alone will not solve the challenges plaguing the lowest performing
schools in the state. How can Pennsylvania
ensure that these new resources will drive positive change for public school
children stuck in chronically underperforming schools? In Tennessee ,
where I served as commissioner of education until earlier this year, the state
faced a similar, vexing question: how do we do turn around the worst performing
schools in the state?
Pension Reform: Quakertown
urges Pa.
Intelligencer By Amanda Cregan Correspondent Posted: Wednesday, May 20, 2015 10:45
pm | Updated: 1:13 am, Thu
May 21, 2015.
In an act of civil
disobedience, Quakertown Community School District
is calling on all Pennsylvania school
districts to create a crisis in Harrisburg
by refusing to pay its share of pension costs.
Wednesday night, Quakertown school leaders hosted a Legislative Council
meeting for Bucks, Lehigh and Northampton
county members of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association. Quakertown Community school board President
Paul Stepanoff urged the 500 school boards across Pennsylvania to join the district in taking
action against a growing statewide pension crisis that has wreaked havoc on
nearly every district’s budget for the last few years. Public schools have
been forced to cut academic and extracurricular programs, reduce staffing,
delay building repairs and renovations, draw down reserve funds and enact
significant property tax increases to pay for a spike in pension costs for
retired teachers and other school faculty. By creating a crisis
in Harrisburg ,
the governor and state legislators would be forced to take action to resolve
the ongoing Public School Employees Retirement System funding crisis, according
to Stepanoff.
Bill would get Pa.
Philly.com Opinion By
John D. McGinnis POSTED: Wednesday,
May 20, 2015, 1:08 AM
For more than 10
years, taxpayer dollars in Pennsylvania
have been improperly diverted from the State Employees Retirement System (SERS)
and the Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS). If a corporation
misappropriated retirement funds in this way, its executives would be put in
jail, and justly so. But in state
government, legislators write the laws and governors carry them out, so any
bad, irresponsible behavior can be made perfectly legal.
In maintaining bond
rating, Fitch says PA is continually unable to address fiscal challenges
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Wednesday, May 20,
2015/Categories
Bond rating company
Fitch Ratings Tuesday maintained the Commonwealth’s current bond rating of AA-
with a stable economic outlook. However,
Fitch noted not all is going positively for the Commonwealth, indicating the
Commonwealth has shown a “continued inability to address its fiscal challenges
with structural and recurring measures” which has led to a bond rating lower
than most states. “After an unexpected
revenue shortfall in fiscal 2014, the current year budget includes a
substantial amount of one-time revenues and expense deferrals to achieve
balance and continues the deferral of statutory requirements to replenish
reserves which were utilized during the recession,” Fitch said in a statement
releasing the bond rating.
Bellefonte school board
approves tentative budget
Centre Daily Times BY BRITNEY MILAZZO bmilazzo@centredaily.com
May 20, 2015
BELLEFONTE — In
a 7-1 vote, the Bellefonte Area school board passed the 2015-16 final
preliminary budget at a meeting Wednesday night at Bellefonte Area
Middle School
Board member George
Stone was the lone opposing vote. Board member Mike Danneker was absent. The $47.84 million budget calls for a 2.4
percent increase in taxes to help fund more than $18.5 million that would go
toward salaries and about $6.5 million that would go toward health insurance
through Capital BlueCross. What this
means for the average taxpayer is that they would pay $57.02 more annually,
according to a report from the school district.
The average home
assessment value in the district is $49,773.
Read more here: http://www.centredaily.com/2015/05/20/4758086_bellefonte-school-board-approves.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Spring-Ford rejects $144 M
budget
West Chester Daily Local By Eric Devlin, edevlin@21st-centurymedia.com, @Eric_Devlin on Twitter POSTED: 05/20/15,
6:22 PM EDT | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
Royersford >>
Accusing each other of chest-pumping, and complaining about what was said at
previous meetings, seemed to be the only things that the Spring-Ford Area
School Board managed to accomplish in relation to its final budget Monday. In a 3-4 decision, the board rejected the
administration’s recommended $144.4 million budget, which called for a 1.9
percent tax increase. Board members Dawn Heine, Bernard Petit, Tom DiBello and
Joe Ciresi voted against the budget. Board members Kelly Spletzer and Todd Wolf
were absent.
With a millage rate
of 0.026, under the proposed budget, the owner of a home assessed at $100,000
would have had to pay an additional $2,623.60 a year or an extra $49 a month in
real estate taxes. A mill is equal to $1 for each $1,000 of assessed property
value.
According to the
Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Act 1 time line, a proposed final budget
must be approved 30 days before a final budget can be adopted. It also must be
available for public inspection at least 20 days before adoption. By that time
line, the board must now pass a proposed budget at next Tuesday’s meeting.
OXFORD >> At
their May 19 meeting, the Oxford School Board approved the preliminary final
budget for the 2015-16 school year in the amount of $63,736,343, an increase of
4.68 percent over the current budget of $60,888,690. A 1 percent tax increase is needed to fund
the budget, plus $4,036,842.91 from the District’s fund balance. That will
increase the millage rate to 30.5347, which translates to an increase of $39 in
the bill of the average home owner with property assessed at $130,318. Board member Joe Tighe prefaced the budget
approval with an historical tax comparison of Oxford and other districts in the county.
Charts showed that while Oxford
had a .61 percent tax increase last year, an average of $24 per household.
There was no increase in taxes for Oxford
in the preceding year of 2013-14.
Less than six months
after the state tried to seize control of the York City School District, a new
administration wants the district to become Pennsylvania's "model"
for improving financially and academically distressed school districts. But before the district can claim that
status, there is much work to be done. The
state's new secretary of education, Pedro Rivera, visited York on Wednesday to meet with district
staff, school board members and local media.
Rivera said he and Gov. Tom Wolf want York City
What’s working? What’s
not?
Researchers and advocates are trying to better
understand why more Philadelphia
the notebook By Dale Mezzacappa on
May 20, 2015 07:58 AM
The on-time high
school graduation rate in Philadelphia
has risen from 52 to 65 percent over the last eight years. A new report shows
that the most rapid progress has been among traditionally at-risk groups
including Black males, Hispanics, students in foster care, and those involved
in the juvenile justice system. The improvement,
much of which occurred during a period of shrinking District resources,
coincided with the work of Project U-Turn. That is the city’s longstanding and
multifaceted project to stem the tide of students who drop out of school by
ramping up and coordinating services they need. The general rise in graduation
rates mirrors an increase nationwide over the same period, but not all urban
areas showed gains. In the latest report
growing out of the project, researchers analyzed individual student data from
seven cohorts of first-time 9th graders, beginning with the class that started
high school in 2002 and continuing through the class that started high school
in 2008. The goal was to provide more detailed information on what had been
driving the increases and gain insights into which initiatives and policies
were effective.
How, and how much, are
teachers paid in Pennsylvania
By Laura Benshoff for NewsWorks on May 20,
2015 01:59 PM
In the Multiple
Choices podcast, Keystone Crossroads senior education writer Kevin McCorry
joins with Paul Socolar, publisher and editor of the Public School Notebook,
and Notebook contributing editor Dale Mezzacappa to explain and explore the
history, complexities and controversies of public education funding in
Pennsylvania.
A lot, relatively
speaking. The average starting salary for a teacher in Pennsylvania as of the 2012-13 school year
was $41,901. Nationally, that number puts the state ninth for highest starting
teacher pay, behind Alaska, California, Connecticut, Washington, D.C.,
Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Wyoming.
The average starting teacher salary for the country that year was
$36,141. But that's only the starting salary,
which can be an unreliable indicator of the overall pay structure in a school
system. How high salaries go — and how quickly they climb — is subject to a
number of factors discussed below. First, some context.
"Three billionaires gave
more than $6 million to support a candidate in favor of school choice, namely
state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, in this year's Democratic primary for
Philadelphia mayor. But at the polls
Tuesday night, voters pushed more buttons for public education stalwarts like
Helen Gym instead"
Was school choice on the
ballot in Philadelphia
WHYY Newsworks BY LAURA BENSHOFF MAY 21, 2015
Three billionaires
gave more than $6 million to support a candidate in favor of school choice,
namely state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, in this year's Democratic primary for
Philadelphia mayor. But at the polls
Tuesday night, voters pushed more buttons for public education stalwarts like
Helen Gym instead. While the mayoral
candidates resisted being painted with a broad brush -- traditional public vs.
charter -- in the days leading up to the election, endorsements seemed to paint
a different picture. PACs backing Williams funded by pro-school choice
billionaires put out ads while the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers stumped
for former City Councilman Jim Kenney, who won the nomination. NewsWorks reached out to some educators and
advocates and asked if the results constitute a reckoning for charter schools.
"In doing so, the
electorate also rejected the chosen candidate of the charter-school movement,
state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, and his wealthy Main
Line backers who spent nearly $7 million on their libertarian
agenda. Helen Gym -- who'd been one of the leaders of protests
against the SRC, and who successfully exposed some of its school-closing
manipulations -- is on track to join the City Council next January. And voters
overwhelming approved a non-binding vote seeking to win back local control of
the school district."
Philly Daily News
Attytood Blog by Will Bunch WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2015, 5:54 PM
Frank Rizzo and
Wilson Goode lost Tuesday night. OK, that's literally true, in that at-large city councilman
Wilson Goode Jr. and ex-councilman Frank Rizzo, son of the late mayor and
police commissioner, both were defeated in the Democratic primary. But it's
even more profoundly true in the metaphorical sense: That the 20th-Century
politics embodied by their fathers, iconic Philadelphia mayors of 1970s and 1980s, has
finally gone the way of pay phones, 8-tracks and rabbit-ear antennas.
Education Week
District Dossier Blog By Denisa R. Superville on May 20, 2015
10:50 AM
The Philadelphia ballot measure asked for the
governor and the legislature to abolish the five-member School Reform
Commission and return the schools to local control.
Bernie Sanders issues bill
to make 4-year colleges tuition-free
USA Today College By Michael Schramm,
University of Michigan and Ethan Stoetzer,
Rowan University, Glassboro May 19, 2015 11:47 am
Senator Bernie
Sanders has officially introduced a bill that would eliminate
undergraduate tuition. Titled the “College for All Act,” the bill would eliminate the
$70 billion dollar tuition costs at all 4-year public colleges and
universities. Under the plan, the
Federal Government would cover 67% — $47 billion dollars each year — of
the costs. States would be required to
produce the remaining 33% of the costs, or 23 billion dollars.
"Long Island Opt Out, led
by parent Jeanette
Deutermann, endorsed candidates in yesterday’s school board elections
across the two counties that comprise the Island .
Fifty-seven of the 75 candidates endorsed by LIOO won their races"
Diane Ravitch's Blog
By dianeravitch May 20,
2015 //
Amazing news! Long Island Opt Out, led by parent Jeanette
Deutermann, endorsed candidates in yesterday’s school board elections
across the two counties that comprise the Island .
Fifty-seven of the 75 candidates endorsed by LIOO won their races. This
includes seven of Deutermann’s liaisons for Opt Out. Their message was: “We are taking back our
schools.” Long
Island is the national hotbed for opt outs. It is a model for the
nation. Parents are organized and active; they have the support of many
principals and superintendents. Jeanette
Deutermann has spearheaded this effective resistance to high-stakes testing.
She belongs on this blog’s honor roll as a champion of public education.
‘Opt
Out’ Becomes Anti-Test Rallying Cry in New York State
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS and FORD FESSENDEN MAY 20, 2015
Testing Resistance & Reform News: May 13 - 19,
2015
Fairtest Submitted
by fairtest on May 19, 2015 - 1:59pm
The end of the
2014-2015 school year is drawing near, but the movement to roll back
standardized exam overkill has not slowed for a moment. Both in Washington DC
May 28, 2015 7:00 PM Jefferson Educational
Society 3207 State St.
Erie , PA 16508
Panelists
Conneaut School
District
Mr. Jarrin Sperry,
Superintendent, Ms. Jody Sperry, Board President
Corry School
District
Mr. William Nichols,
Superintendent
Fort LeBoeuf
School District
Mr. Richard Emerick,
Assistant Superintendent
Girard School
District
Dr. James Tracy,
Superintendent
Harbor Creek School
District
Ms. Christine
Mitchell, Board President
Millcreek School
District
Mr. William Hall,
Superintendent Mr. Aaron O'Toole, Director of Finance and Accounting
Keynote Speaker
Mr. Jay Himes,
Executive Director, Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials
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