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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 22, 2015:
CORP Report: Most school districts in Pennsylvania
May 28, 2015 7:00 PM Jefferson Educational Society 3207 State St. Erie , PA 16508
Most school districts in Pennsylvania
CORP Policy
Brief on the Fiscal Future of PA’s 500 School Districts
Center on Regional
Politics May 14, 2015
Key
Findings: Most school districts in Pennsylvania
will not have sufficient revenues over the next three years to support their
mandated and necessary expenditures. Sixty percent of the districts in the
state will face severe and prolonged program and staff reductions to balance
their budgets, which will reduce the quality of education in those districts
and substantially widen the academic and fiscal gaps with more well-off
districts. This policy brief,
“Forecasting Fiscal Futures of Pennsylvania School Districts: Where Law and
Current Policy Are Taking our Public Schools,” is the text version of a
presentation that Drs. William Hartman and Timothy Shrom gave to our symposium
on October 3, 2014, in Green Tree. The symposium was co-hosted by Temple ’s Center on Regional Politics and by the University of Pittsburgh’s
Institute of Politics under the banner of the University Consortium to
Improve Public School Finance and Promote Economic Growth, Hartman is a
professor at Pennsylvania State University ’s
College of Education ,
and Shrom is business manager of the Solanco
School District
Gov. Tom Wolf brings
education funding message to Upper Darby
school
By Kristina Scala,
Delaware County Daily
UPPER DARBY >>
Upper Darby School District officials pitched a general spending plan to Gov.
Tom Wolf Thursday as they search for a bigger stake in school funding to gain
back millions of dollars’ worth in educational cuts that left the school district
fighting to service an increasingly diverse student population. School officials made it clear they want to
money put back into educating students in a smaller per-student classroom
setting, construct larger, safer buildings, have enough spending money to
reinstitute programs with a higher teacher population and bring the learning
curriculum up to par with wealthier school districts. They touted their track record of moving
students successfully from school to school based on testing and compliance
during a time when funding was flowing and resources plentiful. However, they
said that tract has changed and needs to be revived. The school district was forced to cut $8.3
million in support staff over the past five years. Taxes are proposed to raise
slightly for the 2015-16 school year to cover a $1.7 million deficit, according
to reports.
Pitching plan for
education funding, Wolf visits Upper Darby
school
WHYY Newsworks BY BILL HANGLEY MAY 21, 2015
Gov. Tom Wolf says a
vote for his education budget will be a vote for lower property taxes in Pennsylvania . But while Republicans say they'd welcome the
tax relief, they're not sold on the governor's plan to increase spending
overall. Wolf was in Delaware County
Thursday to stump for his education plan, which would lower property taxes,
raise some income and sales taxes, and increase overall spending by a billion
dollars. He visited the Stonehurst Hills
Elementary School in Upper
Darby where educators said their school district is still reeling
from former Gov. Tom Corbett's budget cuts. Rising local property taxes haven't
been able to fill the gaps, they said.
CAITLIN
MCCABE, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Friday, May 22, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Thursday, May 21,
2015, 5:53 PM
Visiting one of the
state's most financially challenged school districts Thursday, Gov. Wolf heard
a simple message: We need money. At Stonehurst Hills
Elementary School , teachers and administrators
met with Wolf to discuss how his proposed education-funding plan would benefit
the Upper Darby School District Delaware
County
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150522_Upper_Darby_schools_to_Wolf__We_need_help.html#FU8pThzuK04gvi8W.99
States move to reduce time
spent on Common Core-based exam
Philly.com by KRISTEN
WYATT, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS POSTED:
May 21, 2015, 2:47 PM
Here's why the Senate
GOP's pension reform plan is the best choice for Pa.
PennLive Op-Ed By Jake Corman May 21, 2015 at 1:00
PM, updated May 21, 2015 at 4:18 PM
On May 13, the state
Senate passed an aggressive
plan to modernize the state's public employee pension systems. The
bill is a historic plan that reflects the seriousness of the situation we face
with pensions. The state's pension
obligations are staggering. This year alone, we face a $1 billion increase in
our pension contribution. The growth of the mandated spending is beyond our
means. Our revenues are not expected to
keep up with the amount we are required to spend. The pension crisis we are
experiencing cannot be overstated. Without
modification, the viability of the state pension systems are in question. Our
pension costs, which currently crowd out worthy budgetary contributions and
investments such as funding for school districts and economic development, will
more than double over the next 20 years.
Funding teacher pensions at forefront of Quakertown
meetng
WFMZ Author: Mark Reccek , WFMZ.com Reporter,
news@wfmz.com Published: May 21 2015 06:20:56 AM EDT
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. - School districts
across the Commonwealth have felt the crunch of increasing contributions to the
Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement System (PSERS). In particular,
districts in Bucks, Lehigh and Northampton
counties have been burdened with PSERS contribution rates increasing. The
Quakertown Community School District Wednesday evening hosted a joint Bucks,
Lehigh and Northampton Legislative Council meeting featuring PSERS Executive
Director Glen Grell and panelists Michael Faccinetto, president of the
Bethlehem Area School District School Board; Dr. Samuel Lee, superintendent of
the Bristol Township School District; Darryl Schafer, vice president of the
Northwestern Lehigh School District School Board; and Paul Stepanoff, president
of the QCSD School Board. QUICK CLICKS Masked robber holds bank employees,
customers at gunpoint Leaser Lake in Lehigh County ready for boats, bikes
Whitehall neighbors want lower volume in Allentown's Jordan Park Allentown
Council hears new complaints about 'slumlord Easton woman dies after train
incident Grell said rather than post blame, state policymakers must look for
solutions to the pension dilemma. "What helps to solve the problem is
people talking about ideas," he said, "trying to get away from strict
ideology."
Read more from WFMZ.com at: http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-southeasternpa/funding-teacher-pensions-at-forefront-of-quakertown-meetng/33141252?item=0
Read more from WFMZ.com at: http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-southeasternpa/funding-teacher-pensions-at-forefront-of-quakertown-meetng/33141252?item=0
Watchdog.org
By Evan Grossman May 21, 2015
The Pennsylvania
School Boards Association is pressing all of the state’s charter
schools and cyber charters to make specific financial data available through a
blanket right-to-know request filed last week.
“There’s a lot of money that
flows into charter schools,” PSBA spokesman Steve Robinson told Watchdog. “It’s
all public money. Taxpayers certainly have a right to know how that money is
being spent. The last year it was nearly $1.3 billion went from public schools
to charter schools and it’s in the interests of taxpayers to know how that money
is being spent.”
PSBA, a nonprofit
that represents elected school board officials in Pennsylvania , filed a list of six specific requests to charter
schools asking for:
- Information regarding course names of
Advanced Placement and college prep classes
- Three years of salary information for
school administrators
- Records of any foundations established
to support the school or its students
- A history of donations received by the
school, from whom and for how much
- Real estate purchase information
- All contracts, invoices and marketing
plans for any advertising
Charter school
advocates immediately blasted PSBA’s request, calling it a politically
motivated stunt meant to harass school operators.
Charter Schools: Tracking
PSBA's May 15th 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)).
SRC approves new KIPP
charter school and transfer of Douglass to Mastery
the notebook By Dale
Mezzacappa on May 21, 2015 10:33 PM
The School Reform
Commission Thursday approved a new K-4 KIPP charter school for West
Philadelphia to open in 2016 and voted to transfer management of Young Scholars Frederick Douglass
Charter School
The three-year KIPP
charter was approved by a 3-1 vote, with SRC chair Marge Neff dissenting.
Commissioner Farah Jimenez recused herself due to a potential conflict of
interest. When the SRC
approved five new charters out of 39 applications in February, it
voted down a proposal from KIPP. Rather than appeal the denial to the state
Charter Appeal Board, KIPP revised its proposal, changing the school's location
and provisions around governance and educator certification. It also pushed
back the opening date from this September to next fall. The charter operator
had previously sought a K-12 school with 1,380 students and had planned to open
a middle and high school in the second year of the charter. But the SRC granted
a charter only for grades kindergarten through 4th grade and set a limit of 375
students.
Nurses protest District
plans to privatize school health services
the notebook By Dale
Mezzacappa on May 21, 2015 10:13 PM
Umbrellas in hand,
more than 50 people demonstrated outside School District headquarters Thursday
against District plans
to outsource school-based health services, a move that could further
reduce the ranks of unionized school nurses.
Several speakers said that the proposal was nothing more than a
union-busting move that would line the pockets of private health care providers
on the backs of children. "We don't
need clinics in schools," said Eileen DiFranco, a school nurse for more
than 25 years now at Roxborough High. What students do need, she said, are the
routine screenings, care for everyday ailments and minor injuries, and
relationships formed with a school nurse.
Many neighborhoods, she said, are "inundated" with health care
options, including clinics now opening in drug stores, she said. Efforts to
open clinics in schools before have not worked, she said.
Poor participation spurs Erie
By Erica
Erwin 814-870-1846 Erie Times-News May 21,
2015 12:01 AM
Fewer staff members
have taken advantage of an early retirement incentive the Erie School District East High School 1001 Atkins St . Erie
schools Superintendent Jay Badams has said the incentive could save the
district more than $2 million annually if 100 employees take advantage -- the
district's goal. More than 215 employees are eligible, including 112 teachers
and other members of the Erie Education Association.
Tunkhannock Area School
Board nixes contract, teachers to strike on Friday
Wiles-Barre Times Leader By Steve
Mocarsky - smocarsky@timesleader.com Last
updated: May 21. 2015 10:20PM - 547 Views
TUNKHANNOCK — Tunkhannock Area School District
The teachers union
announced the strike after the school board voted against a teachers contract
Thursday night, according to a parent who attended the meeting and to televised
reports. The parent said she
received a text message and an email from the school district informing her
that there would be no school Friday. School
Board President Philip Farr could not immediately be reached for comment.
ABC27 By Janel Knight Published: May
21, 2015, 2:42 am Updated: May 21, 2015, 9:10 am
Lampeter-Strasburg teacher
pay up 2.8%; taxes, 1.3%
Lampeter-Strasburg
teachers will see salary increases averaging 2.8 percent over the next four
years, work an extra day each year, and contribute more to their health care
plan.
District property
owners will likely see a 1.3 percent increase in their school tax bill for the
2015-2016 school year. At its May 18
meeting, the school board approved a collective bargaining agreement with its
teacher union, extending from July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2019. Teachers will get
a 2.95 percent raise in the first year and a 2.75 percent raise in each of the
next three years, according to board member Scott Arnst.
Philly.com by Kathy Boccella LAST UPDATED: Thursday, May 21, 2015,
6:04 PM
Wagner Marseille,
the acting superintendent of the Lower
Merion School
District , is the "primary candidate" to be
superintendent of the Cheltenham
School District Lower
Merion on May 27 to get feedback about the school leader. If all goes well, Cheltenham will hold a "Meet the Finalist"
event on June 1 for the community. Lower Merion and Cheltenham, both in Montgomery County Haiti , joined Lower Merion in 2007 as an
assistant principal and supervisor at Lower Merion
High School
High school team from
Phoenixville to represent USA
WHYY Newsworks BY SARA HOOVER MAY 21, 2015
The United States
hasn't participated in the Physics World Cup in eight years, but students from
Phoenixville High School in Chester County are about to change that. Five seniors are headed to Thailand this summer to compete against more
than 30 other countries, including Brazil ,
Iran and New Zealand . Teams must solve 17 open-ended problems, like
why coffee sloshes when you walk and why clothes appear darker when they get
wet. "They are not paper-and-pencil
problems," said Jay Jennings, Phoenixville physics teacher. "Students
have to research past experiments, past theory and then design experiments that
allow them to understand and hopefully contribute to the scientific
understanding of them."
"The average homeless
child moves approximately two and a half times each year. Studies have shown
that for every move, it takes around six months for a child to recover academically.
Considering this, homeless students are already facing a disadvantage of being
a year and a half behind the rest of their classmates just by nature of
changing addresses. To say that the odds are stacked against them is at best an
understatement."
The Cost of Not Investing
in After-School Programs for Homeless Students
Huffington Post by Ralph da Costa Nunez, PhD President, Institute for Children, Poverty,
and Homelessness Posted: 05/11/2015 2:00 pm
EDT Updated: 05/11/2015 2:00 pm EDT
There are
nearly 80,000 homeless students who attend New York City public schools. While many do
well and stay on track, many face the risk of a jeopardized academic future.
For these students, remaining at grade level is challenging as constant
upheaval and family trauma wreak havoc on their ability to study and learn.
Unlike families with resources, there are no opportunities for private tutors
or accelerated learning programs to help keep them on track. As such homeless
students are significantly more likely than their classmates to permanently
fall behind and are more likely to, at best, repeat a grade, and at worst, drop
out. With most homeless students spending at least a full academic year living
in a state of housing instability, we simply cannot afford to miss out on an
opportunity to help keep their learning and achievement on track. Investing in
after-school programs for students living in shelters is cost effective, smart,
and simply the right thing to do.
Who needs vouchers when you
have tax credits that accomplish the same goals; diverting tax dollars to
private and religious schools…..
Florida Judge Dismisses
Lawsuit against School Choice
Cato Institute By JASON BEDRICK MAY 18, 2015 2:14PM
This morning, a
Florida circuit court judge dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit by the members of
the education establishment against the 13-year old Florida Tax-Credit Scholarship law, which grants tax
credits to corporations that make donations to nonprofit scholarship
organizations. About 70,000 low-income students in Florida currently receive tax-credit
scholarships to attend the schools of their choice. Travis Pillow of RedefinEd
(a blog connected to the scholarship organization Step Up for Students) has the
story:
The Minnesota legislature is
heading to a special session over
education funding, after Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a
spending bill on Tuesday that he said was inadequate. Dayton rejected a last-minute budget
compromise proposed by lawmakers that represented a $25 million difference
between what the governor and the legislature desired. The North Star State becomes the second state this year,
after Washington, to require a special session to reach a deal on
how to spend money on public schools. (Check out my coworker Stephen Sawchuk's
blog post about a Seattle
teachers' strike that's related to what's going on in the Evergreen State Dayton
ultimately decided to veto would have added $400 million to the state's budget
for public schools. Dayton ,
however, said that this amount was $171 million too little—the
governor said the additional funds he wants should have been earmarked to
create more slots for half-day preschool statewide.
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
PILCOP: Adequately and
Fairly Funding Pennsylvania Schools: What are the Needs and Where Does the
Money Come From? (Live Webinar)
June 8, 2015, 12:00 — 2:00 P.M.
June 8, 2015, 12:00 — 2:00 P.M.
Staff attorney
Michael Churchill will speak about what schools need and where the money comes
from in this Pennsylvania Bar Institute (PBI) webinar on June
8. Click here to register.
Governor Wolf has
proposed $500 million in new funding for public schools starting this July. He
has proposed as shale extraction tax and increases in personal income and sales
taxes to pay for this. This Philadelphia
Bar Association Education Law Section and PBI are hosting a webinar that will
focus on how much public schools need and differing proposals on how state
funds should be distributed this year and in the future. Other focuses will
include the current local tax burdens for public schools and issues concerning
how the state should raise revenues to pay for these programs. The program will also provide information
about the components of a good funding formula and look at the work of the
Basic Education Funding Commission and the state-wide Campaign for Fair
Education Funding, of which we are a leading member.
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