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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for June 2, 2015:
Wolf, GOP ramp up budget
rhetoric; Come to Harrisburg
COMMUNITY MEETING: PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING
IN BERKS COUNTY
Come to Harrisburg
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.
Wolf, GOP ramp up budget
rhetoric
Ben Finley and
Angela Couloumbis, Inquirer Staff
Writers Last
updated: Tuesday, June 2, 2015, 1:08 AM Posted: Monday, June 1, 2015,
7:44 PM
HARRISBURG - Within hours of returning to the Capitol after a two-week break, the Republican-controlled legislature and Gov. Wolf found themselves Monday in a near-showdown over his proposed $30 billion budget. By day's end, Wolf was standing before reporters to call on the House of Representatives to get serious about negotiating a spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. "Let me just be clear: What the Republicans did was a stunt," Wolf said in an unscheduled late-afternoon news conference. "This is the kind of gamesmanship we were not sent here to play." Republicans countered that Wolf was the one attempting to toy with the legislative process - and that they are committed to passing an on-time budget.
HARRISBURG - Within hours of returning to the Capitol after a two-week break, the Republican-controlled legislature and Gov. Wolf found themselves Monday in a near-showdown over his proposed $30 billion budget. By day's end, Wolf was standing before reporters to call on the House of Representatives to get serious about negotiating a spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1. "Let me just be clear: What the Republicans did was a stunt," Wolf said in an unscheduled late-afternoon news conference. "This is the kind of gamesmanship we were not sent here to play." Republicans countered that Wolf was the one attempting to toy with the legislative process - and that they are committed to passing an on-time budget.
Stunts, accusations mark
beginning of state budget drama
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on June 01, 2015 at 7:59 PM, updated June 01, 2015 at 9:06 PM
Call it the first
act of state budget theater that will ultimately – someday – lead to a 2015-16 state spending plan for
Pennsylvania . An hourslong partisan display on the House
floor on Monday that had Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of smoke
and mirror stunts and gamesmanship ended up putting legislation into position
to serve as a placeholder for an eventual negotiated budget. But that came only after a series of failed
amendments that were meant to serve as referenda on Gov. Tom Wolf's $29.9
billion spending plan and his plan for raising taxes to support it. Wolf called a news
conference after the House session ended to voice his
displeasure with what some considered a conversation starter on the first day
of the final month of the fiscal year when budget talks start to really heat
up.
'This was a stunt': Gov.
Tom Wolf slams GOP for budget antics
Video Runtime 1:32
Penn Live By Christian Alexandersen |
calexandersen@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on June 01, 2015 at 6:15 PM,
updated June 01, 2015 at 6:50 PM
Gov. Tom Wolf pulled no
punches after the Pennsylvania House of Representatives voted down various
pieces of his budget and spending plan Monday afternoon. Wolf spoke briefly during a press conference
after the vote was called. The Democratic governor specifically called out
House Republicans for trying to "embarrass" him. Above is a video of his comments.
Pa. House says no, 193-0,
to Gov. Wolf's tax plan
Trib Live By Brad
Bumsted Monday, June 1, 2015, 5:24 p.m.
HARRISBURG —
House Republicans called up Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's tax-shifting plan on
Monday, and the House shot it down by a unanimous vote. Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Oakmont, called
the vote on an amendment that contained Wolf's tax plan “a political stunt.” “It does nothing to
move this process forward,” Dermody said. “I would never ask (Democrats) to
vote for a stunt.” Wolf denounced the
vote as “gamesmanship” and said it was an effort to “‘see if we can embarrass
the administration.'” But Majority
Leader David Reed, R-Indiana
County
Delco Times By MARK SCOLFORO, Associated Press POSTED: 06/02/15, 5:20 AM EDT
HARRISBURG, Pa.
>> A measure combining all of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s proposed tax
increases went down unanimously Monday in the state House, but Republicans and
Democrats had much different reasons for voting against it. Republicans brought up their own tax
amendment to make a point about the viability of the spending plan that Wolf
proposed in March along with higher taxes on retail sales, personal income and
drilling in the Marcellus Shale natural gas formation. “It’s only fair that, in order to have a
balanced budget, we air our differences and make sure that the taxpayers of
Pennsylvania know how the governor’s spending plan will be paid for,” said Rep.
Bill Adolph, R-165, of Springfield, who chairs the Appropriations Committee. The issue arose
after Republicans introduced the current year’s budget as a placeholder, to
meet advance-notice rules in the annual budget process that is now less than a
month away from a soft deadline of June 30.
Adolph’s Democratic counterpart, Rep. Joe Markosek, of Allegheny County
Delco Times By MARC LEVY, Associated Press POSTED: 06/02/15, 5:13 AM EDT
HARRISBURG, Pa.
>> A Pennsylvania state House committee will listen to testimony on a
Senate Republican plan to end the traditional pension benefit for school and
state government employees after the Senate fast-tracked the 410-page bill
without a hearing. The House State
Government Committee hearing was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the
Capitol. The bill would
replace the traditional pension benefit for future employees with a maximum 4
percent contribution to a 401(k)-style plan and a cash-balance plan that pays 4
percent or less. It wouldn’t affect today’s retirees.
However, the bill’s
key money-saving provision would require many current employees to pay a higher
proportion of their paychecks to keep their current benefit level, and
Democrats say that violates state constitutional protections against breach of
contract.
Gov. Tom Wolf, a
Democrat, also opposes it.
Senate Republican chairmen
dissuaded from governor’s severance tax plan following hearing
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Monday, June 1,
2015
After two Senate
committees held a joint hearing on Gov. Tom Wolf’s natural gas severance tax
plan Monday, both Republican chairmen of the committees said the testimony only
further emboldened their opposition. During
his March budget address, Gov. Wolf unveiled a plan to tax natural gas extracts
that would direct the derived revenue to education through the Pennsylvania
Education Reinvestment Act, which has a goal of increasing the pre-K through 12
investment by $2 billion over four years.
Senate Democratic leaders
provide June forecast
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Monday, June 1,
2015
The PLS Reporter caught up with Senate Minority Leader
Jay Costa (D-Allegheny) and Senate Appropriations Committee Minority Chairman
Vincent Hughes (D-Philadelphia) to find out what they think is needed to get to
a final budget product. “We’re working
towards a June 30th deadline,” Sen. Costa said. “Our caucus’s role is going to be to advocate
for a significant increase in education funding, I think it’s what the people
of Pennsylvania
want us to do,” he added. “We’ll be looking at trying to grow jobs and do what
we can with respect to economic development and making sure we can address the
very structural deficit that we have in Pennsylvania
so we’re on strong financial ground going forward fiscally.”
Opinions vary on state
takeover of Pennsylvania
Times Herald By Evan Grossman , Watchdog.org POSTED: 05/30/15, 9:40 PM EDT
Guest Editorial: Time to deliver on education funding
On June 3 at 6:30
p.m. students, parents, and community members from Franklin and Cumberland
counties will come together in Shippensburg at the gazebo on King Street for a
rally to say: Harrisburg —Fund Our Schools!
As a community, we know from first-hand experience that our state’s
school funding system is broken. The time has come for our state lawmakers to
step up and change the way that PA funds our schools because the system isn’t
working, and Pennsylvania ’s
children are paying the price. In recent
years, from Fannett-Metal to the West
Shore School
District
Shippensburg rally targets
education funding gap
Chambersburg Public Opinion Online By Dale Heberlig dheberlig@publicopinionnews.com @DaleHeberligPO
on Twitter UPDATED:
05/30/2015 06:13:24 PM EDT
Shippensburg >> A 6:30 p.m. rally
Wednesday at the Spring Lot Gazebo in the 100 block of West King Street (U.S.
11) in Shippensburg is intended to send a message to Harrisburg to highlight
the state's failure to fund public schools. Organizer Susan Spicka of
Education Matters in the Cumberland
Valley Pennsylvania is one of only three states
that does not use a formula to allocate state taxpayer dollars to school
districts," Spicka said. "Instead, the current state funding system
is based on political considerations and deals lawmakers cut in Harrisburg . This must
change. A child's ZIP code should not determine opportunities school." According to Spicka, some legislators may not
"get it." She said, "I
don't think they (legislators) know how tough it is and how much people care
about their children's education."
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/news/ci_28221407/shippensburg-rally-targets-education-funding-gap
Some of the
signatures were collected by a convicted criminal, others reportedly by minors.
Some of the signers
listed a homeless shelter as their address.
Several pages were temporarily lost, and an expert says multiple
signatures are in the same handwriting. The
question: Should those irregularities, and others, invalidate the Academy of
Business and Entrepreneurship Charter School’s petition to have an appeal heard
by the State Charter School Appeals Board?
A closer look at the Academy of Business
and Entrepreneurship
Charter School
The School District of Lancaster
says it found numerous problems in the petition signatures collected by the Academy of Business
and Entrepreneurship
Charter School
The charter school
law says individuals who live in the school district must sign affidavits
personally vouching for the signatures collected as part of an appeal
petition. ABECS’ petition lists three
such “affiants”: Sothorn Buthdy-Santiago, Dante Enrique Felipe and Ethan
Vaughn.
SRC members talk taxes,
negotiations at Q&A session
KRISTEN A.
GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 2, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Monday, June 1, 2015,
9:21 PM
There is little
appetite for a tax increase to help Philadelphia
schools. School Reform Commission members can spend 20 hours a week, easily, on
their unpaid and often frustrating job. Contract negotiations with the
teachers' union are proceeding, even if the union doesn't find them productive. And, yes, the SRC talks behind closed doors
about eliminating itself. (But says it's not the right time yet.) Those and other tidbits came to light during
a Monday meeting at which the commission attempted to be more responsive to
parents and community members. Four commissioners - Sylvia Simms was absent -
sat in armchairs facing the audience, fielding questions in an Oprah-style
format.
Editorial: Keystone
quagmire
By the
Notebook on Jun 1, 2015 12:34 PM
The elephant in the
room when discussing graduation rates is Pennsylvania ’s
Keystone exams. This year’s sophomores will have to pass tests in algebra,
biology, and English to earn a diploma when requirements take effect in 2017. If
they fail, they can repeat the test or try to pass a “performance-based
assessment” that takes an estimated 10 hours to complete. The District has
estimated that only 22 percent of this year’s seniors would meet the new
graduation standards. Even in high-performing districts, barely 70 percent of
students are passing biology Keystones. Unquestionably,
we must ensure that a high school diploma actually means something is
necessary. As districts push hard to improve graduation rates – and as
administrators try to avoid the “failing school” label – pressure mounts to
graduate students even if they haven’t met basic requirements. Beyond the
horror stories of functionally illiterate, unemployable Philadelphia grads is the more widespread
problem of students who should be college-ready but can’t place out of remedial
community college classes.
Budget vote in two weeks
for South Middleton School District
Penn Live By Elizabeth Gibson | Special to PennLive
on June 01, 2015 at 8:51 PM, updated June 01, 2015 at 9:52 PM
A final vote on South Middleton
School District
That date was set by
the school board, which will vote during its 7 p.m. meeting in the Boiling Springs High School
Saucon Valley district, union to post best contract
offers
By Jacqueline
Palochko Of The Morning Call June 1, 2015
The Saucon Valley
School District
District solicitor
Jeffrey Sultanik sent a news release Monday saying the two parties will post
the contract offers on the Web to prepare for the July 29 hearing before
attorney Timothy Brown. The school board is
expected to vote at its June 9 meeting on the last best contract offer that it
will post, Sultanik said.
'Education reform' needs
to focus on learners, not numbers
WHYY Newsworks COMMENTARY BY DAUN KAUFFMAN JUNE 1, 2015 ESSAYWORKS
Daun Kauffman has
been a teacher in north Philadelphia Public Schools for 14 years. Daun
also blogs at LucidWitness.com.
“Education Reform” is, in effect, false
advertising and deceptive packaging, brought to you by sponsors who are not
professional educators, but rather executives, politicians, philanthropists,
and business barons — and even by national political programs like No
Child Left Behind and Race to the Top. Their promise is sort of like:
"Lose 30 lbs. in 30 days!" Yes,
we need a fresh vision of reform — true ”learning” reform. We need a fresh look
at schools, learning, the whole child, public health data, and even
neuroscience. We need fresh, transparent language, and evaluation by trained
professional educators throughout. Meanwhile,
essential knowledge and evidence-based decisions are completely missing in
their goal of a seismic shift. Public education becomes vulnerable to
privatization.
"Among the participants from
the most disadvantaged families, just 14 percent had earned a bachelor’s
degree. That is, one out of four of the
disadvantaged students who had hoped to get a bachelor’s had done so. Among
those from the most advantaged families, 60 percent had earned a bachelor’s,
about two-thirds of those who had planned to."
For the Poor, the Graduation Gap Is Even Wider Than
the Enrollment Gap
New York Times by Susan Dynarski JUNE 2, 2015
Rich and poor
students don’t merely enroll in college at
different rates; they also complete it at different rates. The graduation
gap is even wider than the enrollment gap.
In 2002, researchers with the National
Center
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
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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
Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 Time:7:00 – 8:30 p.m. | Registration begins
at 6:30 p.m.
Location: Berks
County 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 Berks County
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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