Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
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administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition
team members, Superintendents, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher
leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations,
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for June 14, 2015:
Campaign for Fair Education Funding: Three Opportunities
for You to Participate
Come to Harrisburg on June 23rd for an All for
Education Day Rally!
Education Voters PA website June 1, 2015
Campaign for Fair Education Funding: Three
Opportunities for You to Participate in an Event
1. #FairFundingPA Twitter Chat: 1 p.m., Monday, June
15
Join the
Conversation: Tweet using #FairFundingPA on Monday, June 15 from 1-2
PM EST. Not on Twitter? Find out how to set up an account by watching our short
video. Already signed up? Learn how to use hashtags and
participate in a Twitter Chat/Party by watching this
clip.
2. Call to Action for Public Education Day: Monday,
June 15
Call your
legislators to advocate for a better funding system for our
schools. Click here for instructions and talking points. It only takes 5 minutes to make a lasting
impact!
3. Rally for Fair Funding: Tuesday, June 23
On Tuesday, June 23
the Campaign for Fair Education Funding along with hundreds of parents,
students, teachers, and community leaders from across the state will rally for
fair education funding at the state Capitol in Harrisburg.
WHO: The Campaign for Fair Education
Funding
WHAT: Rally for Fair Funding
WHERE: The state Capitol,Harrisburg
WHEN: Tuesday, June 23 (12 p.m. press conference)
WHY: We cannot afford to let our students fall behind
WHAT: Rally for Fair Funding
WHERE: The state Capitol,
WHEN: Tuesday, June 23 (12 p.m. press conference)
WHY: We cannot afford to let our students fall behind
Want to join us?
Fill out this form and someone from the Campaign
will get in touch with you.
(Free transportation
is being provided from Pittsburgh. Reserve a seat here.)
"Wolf wants to impose a
5 percent tax on extracted natural gas to raise the cash for schools.
Pennsylvania is the only natural-gas producing state in the country that lacks
such a tax, he said. "We need to
stop being toyed with," Wolf said. "We need to recognize that if we
did have one, like all the other states, we could have money that we could
invest in our education system.""
Gov. Wolf sits down with
Inquirer, talks schools
KRISTEN A.
GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Saturday, June 13, 2015, 1:07 AM POSTED: Friday, June 12,
2015, 6:08 PM
Note to Philadelphia
students, teachers, and parents: Gov. Wolf sees you.
Five months into his
term as Pennsylvania's chief executive, he has already spent more time in
Philadelphia School District buildings than his predecessor, who never visited
one.
Wolf said he has
seen and heard and read things that worry him. Take the plight of Lingelbach,
the Germantown elementary school that ran an operating budget of $160 for the
entire year, brought to light in an Inquirer article and flagged by the
governor as a problem he needed to address.
"We have schools that have been starved of the resources they need
to operate," Wolf said Friday in his Philadelphia office. "What I saw
was great promise. . . . I also saw a lot of problems caused by simple
underfunding." Wolf, a Democrat,
has spent much of the early days of his administration stumping for education
funding, crisscrossing the state to make a case for a budget that would pump
nearly $1 billion more into public schools - including at least $159 million in
new money for Philadelphia.
"But according to the
latest federal data, Pennsylvania
Pedro A. Rivera: Equity in
Pennsylvania’s education funding benefits school districts and communities
Wilkes Barre Times Leader by Pedro A. Rivera Contributing Columnist June 11. 2015 11:20PM
For Pennsylvania
school students the year has ended or is winding down: class trips, field days
and graduations populate the calendar. But while students of all ages are
counting down to summer camp or summer jobs, school administrators, school
boards and teachers are already considering what next year’s classrooms will
look like. It is widely agreed upon that
Pennsylvania’s children are our state’s greatest asset, and that without an
educated and career-ready workforce the commonwealth’s future is dim. But
according to the latest federal data, Pennsylvania
ranks 50th in the nation when it comes to equitable school funding between
wealthy and low-income school districts. U.S. Department of Education Secretary
Arne Duncan made the announcement while visiting a school on a trip to the
state this spring. Nearly everyone I’ve
encountered agrees education needs adequate funding, which is why I applaud the
promising work I’ve experienced as part of the bipartisan Basic Education
Funding Commission. As it stands, Pennsylvania is one of only three states
without a funding formula to drive education dollars. Establishing a fair
funding formula will go a long way toward achieving equity across our state’s
500 school districts.
Lehigh Valley Live Express-Times Letters to the Editor
by Ruth Skoglund, President,
AAUW-Bethlehem on June 12, 2015 at 1:05 PM, updated June 12, 2015 at 1:06
PM
On behalf of the
Bethlehem Branch of the American Association of University Women, I am writing to
show our members' collective support for a fair and equitable funding formula for public
schools in Pennsylvania, as reflected in the goals of the Campaign
for Fair Education Funding (a coalition of more than 50
organizations from across Pennsylvania) and outlined in the education budget
proposed by Gov. Tom Wolf. In addition,
AAUW strongly supports the proposed cyber charter school funding reform in
the budget that would save school districts $160 million in taxpayer money each
year statewide and allow them to reinvest this money into school districts to
restore programs and services that have been cut in recent years.
Pottstown Mercury By Brendan Wills, bwills@21st-centurymedia.com, @BWillsTH on Twitter POSTED: 06/12/15, 3:37 PM EDT
NORRISTOWN >>
The day after the Basic Education Funding Commission extended its deadline to
deliver a recommendation for a funding formula for Pennsylvania basic education
to the Legislature, public school administrators and teachers across the
commonwealth took to their local courthouse steps to urge the legislature to
fairly fund schools. Norristown Area
School District Superintendent Janet Samuels stood on the steps of the
Montgomery County Courthouse Thursday in front of education advocates to ask
that all legislators think of students attending school districts that struggle
to come up with funds to adequately educate their children.
"Last month William
Hartman, a professor at Pennsylvania State University 's
College of Education ,
and Timothy Shrom, business manager of the Solanco School District Pennsylvania
Rite of summer: Cost of
schools raising property taxes
KATHY BOCCELLA AND
CAT COYLE, INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
POSTED: Sunday, June 14, 2015, 1:08 AM
Joe Rooney, a Delta
Air Lines pilot who is raising five kids in Abington Township, is about to get
a higher tax bill, and he isn't particularly happy about it. "We are not bringing in enough money for
the spending we are proposing," said Rooney, whose annual $3,922
property-tax bill on his Maple
Avenue home stands to increase by $113 as of July
1. Rooney, who is running for school
board, believes the Abington
School District
"Meanwhile, a key piece of the budget
puzzle has yet to be finalized. The state Basic Education Funding Commission
plans to issue a report this week recommending a new formula for distributing
$5 billion in basic education funding to school districts. The commission’s
recommendations would need approval from the lawmakers and governor to take
effect."
Wilkes Barre Citizens Voice by ROBERT SWIFT, HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF
Published: June 14, 2015
Who are the players in
Budget Battle 2015? A Readers Guide
Penn Live By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on
June 12, 2015 at 3:49 PM, updated June 12, 2015 at 3:52 PM
It's been said, more
than once, that you can't tell the players without a scorecard.
So here's your handy
clip-and-save guide to the key personalities in the debate overGov. Tom Wolf's proposed 2015-16
state budget.
"Year-to-date General
Fund collections of $27.7 billion are above the official estimate by $619
million."
General Fund Revenue Collections Bring in $1.96
Billion
PA House Republican Appropriations Committee Economic Brief
June 2015
General Fund revenue collections for the month of April were
$1.96 billion, which was $50 million more than expected. Collections of $99
million for corporation taxes came in above Department of Revenue projections
by $2 million. Sales tax collections of $746 million were lower than expected,
coming in $37 million below the official estimate. The Personal Income Taxes
collected were $775 million, which was above estimate by $13 million.
Year-to-date General Fund collections of $27.7 billion are above the official
estimate by $619 million.
In Harrisburg, a plan to
stall, change Keystone exam
WHYY Newsworks BY LAURA BENSHOFF JUNE 12, 2015
Testing might be
over for Pennsylvania students this year, but debate about how one of the
state's standardized tests should change is just heating up. This week, the state Senate's Education
Committee unanimously passed a bill that would delay when the Keystone Exams, a
state-wide assessment of literature, algebra I and biology, would take effect
as a requirement for high school graduation.
Sen. Lloyd Smucker, R-Lancaster, lead sponsor of that bill, said even
though the tests won't be required to graduate until the Class of 2017 are
seniors, the Keystones are already holding back students in his district,
particularly those on a career and technical education track.
Blogger's opinion: Taxpayers
should not lose their voice when a parent makes a choice. It is important to remember that not one of
PA's 500 school districts authorized a cyber charter school. Millions upon millions of tax dollars are
being sent to cybers, none of which have achieved a passing School Performance
Score of 70 in either of the past two years.
Most cybers never achieved AYP under several years of No Child Left
Behind. Many school districts now
provide online or blended learning programs at significant cost savings.
Flurie, Barnett and Rossetti: Reforms welcomed by CEOs
of public cyber charter schools
Morning Call Opinion
June 12, 2015
Maurice Flurie is CEO of Commonwealth
Connections Academy, Joanne Barnett is CEO of PA Virtual Charter School, and
Patricia Rossetti is CEO of PA Distance Learning Charter School. They wrote
this commentary in cooperation with CEOs of all Pennsylvania cyber charter
schools.
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, and 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.
Pennsylvania school boards association challenges
charter school transparency
By Evan Grossman |
Watchdog.org/ June 11, 2015
One side calls it a
publicity stunt. The other calls its
request for financial information on Pennsylvania’s 180 charter schools a
reasonable investigation into how taxpayer money is being spent. DIGGING DEEP: The Pennsylvania School Boards
Association is pressing charter schools across the state for financial data,
which charter advocates have taken issue with.
When the
Pennsylvania School Boards Association carpet bombed the state’s charter
schools with a massive Right to Know request to provide detailed fiscal data
last month, the inquiry was met with skepticism from charter advocates.
Mars school board adopts budget with no tax increase
Post Gazette By
Sandy Trozzo June 12, 2015 12:00 AM
The Mars Area school
board has approved a budget without a tax increase for the eighth consecutive
year. Also at their Tuesday meeting,
board members hired Lindsay Rosswog, a 2004 graduate of Mars Area High School,
as a substitute assistant principal at her alma mater at a salary of $62,000. They also approved computer programming
classes at the middle school and approved a new contract with their food
service provider that allows the district to opt out of the national school
lunch program at the high school. The
$45,293,360 budget holds the tax rate at 99 mills, which has been the rate
since 2007. That means the owner of a home assessed at $100,000 will pay $990
in school taxes.
No vacation for hunger: Summer food programs feel the
heat
By Danielle Fox /
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette June 12, 2015 12:00 AM
Although LeMoyne
Community Center served nearly 10,000 meals during its 2013 summer food
program, director Joyce Ellis said her group reached only 5 percent of eligible
children in Washington County. “That
sent me to a whole other place, knowing there are still 95 percent of kids out
there who were starving,” Miss Ellis said.
It’s a similar story for the North Butler Feed My Sheep food pantry and
other programs across the country that work to relieve childhood hunger in
areas where poverty, limited mobility and federal regulations combine to leave
children without lunch in the summer months.
As the number of food-insecure children grows, program directors are
looking to new ways — including home gardening, cereal drives and mobile
lunch deliveries — to fill in where school meals leave off.
Octorara labor
negotiations still stalled
Lancaster Online by DEBBIE WYGENT | LNP CORRESPONDENT June 13, 2015 6:00 am
The Octorara Area
School District on June 8 once
again unanimously rejected a formal state fact-finding report with recommendations
for a new labor contract with the district's union, the Octorara Area Education
Association. Although school finished
June 5, about 200 teachers and support staff, wearing red school colors, had
returned to school to hear the board's decision and then stood in unison and
silently walked out of the junior high school auditorium following the vote.
Avon Grove board OKs
general fund budget
PENN >> During
its June 11 meeting, the Avon Grove School Board approved the general fund
budget for 2015-16 in the total amount of $85,240,569. This is an increase of
4.41 percent over the current year budget. The board also approved the capital
projects fund budget in the amount of $3,191,287. To support the budget, the board voted to set
the property tax millage for next year at 28.157 mills, a 2.4 percent increase
from the present rate. The district also expects to use about $3 million from
the fund balance. About half of that amount will be needed to cover the
district’s required contribution to the PSERS retirement system.
DN Editorial: STRINGS
ATTACHED
Council
has money for school district. . .wait, not so fast
Philly Daily News Editorial
June 12, 2015
CITY COUNCIL this
week advanced a package of bills that raises taxes to provide an additional $70
million in aid to the School District of Philadelphia. Only it doesn't.
A provision nestled
in one of the bills would divert $25 million of the $70 million to Council's
own budget to be held hostage, as it were, until the district satisfies Council
that it is doing the right thing when it comes to unspecified items. Neither Council President Darrell Clarke nor
other members have said publicly what they want. But Jane Roh, Clarke's
spokesperson, said the goal was to stop the district from outsourcing
substitute teacher and school nurse jobs to outside providers, i.e. replacing
union workers with non-union workers.
"Students in
high-poverty schools are forced to waste tremendous amounts of instructional
time preparing for, practicing, or taking standardized tests. Most students
took about 20 days of tests and pre-tests this year. All the test-taking skills
taught and employed during these days are useless in real life.
Teachers in high-poverty
schools are required to teach to the standardized tests; in fact, their jobs
depend on it. Homework is often in the style of test questions downloaded from
a central test-oriented website. This mode of instruction and form of homework
would astonish those of you who attended middle-class or upper-middle-class
schools.
Course offerings to
high-poverty students have been narrowed to focus their studies on reading and
math. It is common for these schools to provide little or no band, chorus, art,
or foreign languages. Some schools have required students to take double
periods of reading and math. Some require kids to take classes specifically to
improve test-taking or study skills. These children’s knowledge of geography,
history, social studies, and science is often abysmal—because these subjects
are hardly taught."
Data
Smokescreen Covers Up Real Problems in Public Education
Campaign for
America's Future by BERNIE HORN JUNE 12, 2015
Last week, a very
distinguished panel convened by the National Research Council published
an Evaluation of the Public Schools of the District of Columbia.
The report is 341 pages long and cost millions of dollars to produce. What’s
most impressive about this evaluation is how very far removed from reality it
is. The experts who contributed to the
analysis relied principally on data sets that covered the city’s DC-CAS
standardized tests, the NAEP nationwide standardized tests, and the local
teacher evaluation model called IMPACT. They also considered other data such as
graduation rates, attendance, dismissal, and teacher retention. The third of
three major recommendations from this evaluation cannot be denied: the school
system needs to address the so-called “achievement gap,” which—as noted elsewhere—has been greatly exacerbated since
“school reform” came to the District in 2007.
What are recommendations one and two? The first is to create “a
comprehensive data warehouse.” The second is to pay for ongoing independent
evaluation of this data. Really.
"Some school
organizations feared that schools' access to free online academic materials and
video could get relegated to second-class status if telecoms were allowed to
create fast and slow lanes."
Federal Court Allows FCC
Open Internet Rules to Go Forward
Education Week
Marketplace K12 Blog By Sean Cavanagh on June
12, 2015 7:54 AM
An appeals court
decision will allow federal rules that supporters say protect a free and open
Internet to go forward—over the objections of telecommunications
providers. Those rules were established
by the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year, amid a furious
campaign by the telecom industry and other interests—and amid waves of broad
public angst over the possibility of additional restrictions on the flow of
Internet access. A three-judge panel of
the U.S. Court of Appeals said it will not postpone FCC policies on "net
neutrality," despite a request for delay sought by the U.S. Telecom
Association. The judges said the request had not met the "stringent
requirements" for a delay. That means the rules will
go into effect Friday, FCC commissioners said.
That doesn't mean the legal fight over the rules is over. The court
agreed with the telecom industry's request that both sides in the cases turn in
a plan for submitting briefs, and a schedule for briefing the court within two
weeks. Numerous consumer groups feared
that the FCC would open the door for telecoms to allow well-heeled
content providers to pay for faster Internet access to online consumers,
relegating others to an Internet slow lane.
EPLC "Focus on
Education" TV Program on PCN - Sunday, June 14 at 3:00
p.m.
Part 1:
Marcus S. Lingenfelter discusses the National Math & Science Initiative and
how it supports improved math and science education in Pennsylvania and other
states.
Marcus Lingenfelter
is the Vice President of State & Federal Programs with the
National Math + Science Initiative
Topic 2: Dr. Terry Madonna discusses
Pennsylvania's political and legislative landscape, and implications for
funding for public education.
Dr. G. Terry Madonna
is the Director of the Franklin & Marshall College poll, Professor of Public
Affairs, and Director of the Center for Politics & Public Affairs
All EPLC "Focus
on Education" TV shows are hosted by EPLC President Ron Cowell.
Visit the EPLC and the Pennsylvania School Funding Project web sites for
various resources related to education and school funding issues.
Rally in West Chester for
a State Budget Chester County Kids Deserve
Tuesday, June 16th
at Noon Location: Old Courthouse Steps
in West Chester Corner of High and Market Streets
Join parents, teachers, students, school staff, community advocates, and
local leaders to demand a state budget that invests in your community, your
students, and your schools.
Speakers include: Carolyn Comitta, Mayor of West Chester
Dr. Robert Langley,
Lincoln University,
Lincoln-AAUP
President
Dr. Curry Malott, West
Chester University
College of Education
Dr. Kenneth Mash, East
Stroudsburg University,
APSCUF President
Susan Carty, President, PA
League of Women Voters, Retired Educator
Contact Doug Brown at 717-236-7486 for more information
Come to Harrisburg on June 23rd for an All for
Education Day Rally!
Education Voters PA website June 1, 2015
On June 23 at the Capitol in Harrisburg, Education Voters will be
joining together with more than 50 organizations to send a clear message to
state lawmakers that we expect them to fund our schools in this year’s
budget. Click
HERE for more information and to register for the June 23 All for Education Day
in Harrisburg. Join us as we speak up for the importance of
funding our schools fairly and at sufficient levels, so that every student in
PA has an opportunity to learn. Community,
parent, education advocacy, faith, and labor organizations will join together
with school, municipal, and community officials to hold a press conference and
rally at 12:00 in the main rotunda and to make arrangements to meet with
legislators before and after the rally. We
must send a strong message to state lawmakers that we are watching them and
expect them to pass a state budget that will fund our schools this year. Please
come to Harrisburg on June 23 to show broad support for a fair budget for
education this year.
Register Now – PAESSP
State Conference – Oct. 18-20 – State College, PA
Registration is now
open for PAESSP's State Conference to be held October 18-20 at The
Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College, PA! This year's
theme is @EVERYLEADER and features three nationally-known keynote
speakers (Dr. James Stronge, Justin Baeder and Dr. Mike Schmoker), professional
breakout sessions, a legal update, exhibits, Tech Learning Labs and many
opportunities to network with your colleagues (Monday evening event with Jay
Paterno). Once again, in conjunction
with its conference, PAESSP will offer two 30-hour Act 45 PIL-approved
programs, Linking Student Learning to Teacher Supervision and Evaluation
(pre-conference offering on 10/17/15); and Improving Student Learning
Through Research-Based Practices: The Power of an Effective Principal (held
during the conference, 10/18/15 -10/20/15). Register for either or both PIL
programs when you register for the Full Conference!
REGISTER TODAY for
the Conference and Act 45 PIL program/s at:
Apply
now for EPLC’s 2015-2016 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program
Applications are
available now for the 2015-2016
Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP).
The Education Policy Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania by The
Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC).
With more than 400 graduates in its first sixteen years, this
Program is a premier professional development opportunity for educators, state
and local policymakers, advocates, and community leaders. State Board of
Accountancy (SBA) credits are available to certified public accountants. Past participants include state policymakers,
district superintendents and principals, charter school leaders, school
business officers, school board members, education deans/chairs, statewide
association leaders, parent leaders, education advocates, and other education
and community leaders. Fellows are typically sponsored by their employer
or another organization. The Fellowship
Program begins with a two-day retreat on September 17-18, 2015 and
continues to graduation in June 2016.
Click here to read about the Education Policy
Fellowship Program.
Sign up here to receive a weekly
email update on the status of efforts to have Pennsylvania adopt an adequate,
equitable, predictable and sustainable Basic Education Funding Formula by 2016
Sign up to support fair funding »
Campaign for Fair
Education Funding website
Our goal is to
ensure that every student has access to a quality education no matter where
they live. To make that happen, we need to fundamentally change how public
schools are funded. The current system is not fair to students or taxpayers and
our campaign partners – more than 50 organizations from across Pennsylvania -
agree that it has to be changed now. Student performance is stagnating. School
districts are in crisis. Lawmakers have the ability to change this formula but
they need to hear from you. You
can make a difference »
COMMUNITY MEETING: PUBLIC
SCHOOL FUNDING IN BERKS COUNTY
Berks County IU June 23,
7:00 - 8:30 pm
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 Time:7:00 – 8:30 p.m. | Registration begins
at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Berks County Intermediate Unit, 1111 Commons Boulevard,
Reading, PA 19605
Local school district leaders will discuss how state funding issues are
impacting our children’s education opportunities, our local taxes, and our
communities. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and learn how you
can support fair and adequate state funding for public schools in Berks County. State lawmakers who represent Berks County
have been invited to attend to learn about challenges facing area schools.
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