Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 3650 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
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,
education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory
agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via
emails, website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for July 2, 2015:
The risks of the new Pa.
schools oversight plan
Just a heads-up that the PA Ed Policy Roundup may be intermittent
and/or late this week
“One thing all parties agreed to after Wednesday’s meeting
was that staff meetings would begin immediately on topics, but substantive
budget negotiations between the governor and legislative leaders would not
begin again until after the July 4th holiday.”
Budget negotiators find
new resolve, but remain far apart
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Wednesday, July 1,
2015
After a 2:00 p.m.
closed-door meeting Wednesday, top legislative leaders and aides from both
parties in the two chambers of the General Assembly emerged with Gov. Tom Wolf
and his high ranking staff boasting renewed resolve to find agreement on a
General Fund budget, but recognizing the two sides remain far apart on numbers. With the governor’s fiscal year-eve veto of
the Republican-crafted budget bill sent to his desk, Pennsylvania’s new fiscal
year started off without a spending plan in place, leaving the potential for
vendors and human service organizations to be cut off from needed state funds.
“The governor on Tuesday evening vetoed a GOP-authored
budget that would not have increased taxes and would have boosted funding for
public schools, although not at the levels Wolf wants. It marked the first time in more than 40
years that a Pennsylvania governor had struck down a budget in its entirety. Wolf said he did so because he does not
believe it adequately funds public education or provides property tax relief to
homeowners.”
Pa. budget talks to resume
next week
ANGELA COULOUMBIS, INQUIRER HARRISBURG BUREAU LAST
UPDATED: Thursday, July 2, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Wednesday, July 1,
2015, 6:53 PM
HARRISBURG -
Pennsylvania will operate without a budget until at least until next week, when
Gov. Wolf and Republican legislators are expected to return to the negotiating
table. Wolf met briefly behind closed
doors Wednesday with a scaled-down complement of legislative leaders, emerging
to say that the sides will resume negotiations next week. "There is mutual respect, and we are
going into this the right way," Wolf said. "The arms are unfolded,
and we understand that we have to reconcile our ideas." Without a budget to guide spending for the
new fiscal year, which began Wednesday, the state begins losing some of its
authority to pay bills.
Lawmakers sent home but
told 'it is not summer vacation'
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on July 01,
2015 at 4:59 PM
While Gov. Tom Wolf and legislative
leaders continue their work on resolving their differences on a 2015-16 state
budget in the wake of Wolf's Tuesday veto of a GOP-backed
$30.2 billion spending plan, rank and file lawmakers will be back in
their legislative districts awaiting a call to return to Harrisburg. House Majority Leader Dave Reed,
R-Indiana, said starting next week, the legislative leaders and top-level staff
will meet with Wolf Administration officials trying to narrow their
differences. "But I anticipate once
we have an agreement on a budget document the members will be back in 24 hours
to start the legislative clock running to get it moving," Reed said,
following a meeting with the governor and other legislative leaders on
Wednesday about what happens now.
Wolf budget vs. GOP
budget: How much money would your school district get?
Lancaster Online By KARA NEWHOUSE | Staff Writer Posted: Tuesday, June 30, 2015 7:30 pm | Updated: 8:20 am, Wed Jul 1, 2015.
All Lancaster County
school districts would get more money under competing state budget plans, but
most districts would see smaller increases in a plan put forth by Republicans
than in Gov. Tom Wolf's pitch. Both
Democrats and Republicans in Harrisburg want to boost education spending and
enact a new formula for distributing money to schools. But they disagree on how
much money to give districts in 2015-16, where to get the money, and when to
start using the formula.
Analyzing what's ahead in Pennsylvania budget
stalemate
Morning Call By Steve Esack and Sam Janesch Call Harrisburg Bureau July 1, 2015
HARRISBURG — The
Capitol awoke Wednesday, a day removed from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's historic
complete veto of a Republican-driven budget, and life went on as usual.
There were no
suspensions of service or workers' pay.
There were no mass
protests or pickets.
There were no
compromises.
But this show cannot
go on forever. It's financially impossible.
This stalemate
eventually will affect services and programs in state government, school
districts, nonprofits and businesses if the administration and Legislature do
not give in on some financial and political policies for the fiscal year that
began Wednesday. "Bottom line, both
sides at this point have pretty hardened positions," said G. Terry
Madonna, political science professor and pollster at Franklin & Marshall
College in Lancaster. "But everyone knows they have to reach some
accommodation."
Expect drawn-out state
budget impasse, Pa. political analysts say
Trib Live By Brad Bumsted Wednesday, July 1, 2015, 11:36 p.m.
HARRISBURG — A deep ideological divide between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf portends a protracted budget impasse without a state spending plan in place, political analysts said Wednesday. “The Republicans are acting like Republicans, and Wolf is acting like the progressive Democratic liberal he is,” said Colleen Sheehan, a political science professor at Villanova University and former GOP House member. More than a battle over issues, it's a standoff between “believers,” she said. “This is the divide in America today. We are at a crossroads.” “I see it being a protracted problem. It just seems ideologies on the two sides are just too far apart,” said J. Wesley Leckrone, a political science professor at Widener University in Chester.
HARRISBURG — A deep ideological divide between Republican legislative leaders and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf portends a protracted budget impasse without a state spending plan in place, political analysts said Wednesday. “The Republicans are acting like Republicans, and Wolf is acting like the progressive Democratic liberal he is,” said Colleen Sheehan, a political science professor at Villanova University and former GOP House member. More than a battle over issues, it's a standoff between “believers,” she said. “This is the divide in America today. We are at a crossroads.” “I see it being a protracted problem. It just seems ideologies on the two sides are just too far apart,” said J. Wesley Leckrone, a political science professor at Widener University in Chester.
How does the lack of a Commonwealth budget affect
school district budget requirements?
PSBA website July 1,
2015
As explained below,
the answer to this question is a great example of a classic statutory
“Catch-22.” The bottom line is that if the school board has not yet adopted a
final budget for the new fiscal year, it should not delay any further. While
the failure of the Commonwealth to adopt a budget on time may excuse school
boards from strict compliance with the normal timelines, there is no practical
advantage in delaying, and some significant potential disadvantages. Naturally,
a budget adopted without benefit of knowing what the district’s state subsidy
allocations will be must rely on very conservative assumptions that do not
assume those state allocations will be any greater than they were in the prior
fiscal year.
The School Code
requires school districts to adopt final budgets and tax levies for the ensuing
fiscal year no later than June 30, except in districts using a fiscal year
beginning January 1. As a limited exception, when the General Assembly fails to
enact the state budget by June 15, Section 671 of the School Code authorizes
school districts to delay adopting the district budget up to 15 days after the
Commonwealth’s budget is enacted, even if that goes beyond June 30. The
requirement to give at least ten days public notice of intent to take final
action on the budget still applies. The School Code also requires that all
taxes be levied before the end of June, but allows an extension of up to 20
days after the Commonwealth’s budget is enacted. The catch is that
without a district budget, once the new fiscal year begins on July 1, the
district cannot spend any money, whether derived from local or state revenue
sources. A school district has no spending authority unless it has a budget in
place, and it is illegal to spend money except as budgeted. School officials
risk personal liability for making or approving unlawful expenditures.
Letters: The risks of the
new Pa. schools oversight plan
Philly Daily News
Letter by KATE SHAW & JOHN SLUDDEN Thursday, July 2, 2015, 12:16 AM
Kate
Shaw is executive director and John Sludden is a policy analyst at Research for
Action, a nonprofit education-research organization in Philadelphia.
EDUCATION is front and center as Pennsylvania's budget heads into overtime. A key element in this debate is whether additional school funding should be tied to new accountability measures in the form of House Bill 1225 and Senate Bill 6, both of which would allow a more forceful state hand in governing the state's lowest performing schools. (S.B. 6 passed the Senate on a party-line, 27-22 vote on Sunday evening.) In the abstract, linking increased funding with oversight makes sense; however, this particular proposal deserves careful scrutiny. The bills would create an Achievement School District governed by a newly established seven-member state board, with four Republican appointees and three Democrats. The Achievement School District would be empowered to take over the state's lowest performing schools and implement one or more of the following prescriptions: replace the school principal and at least half the staff, contract with an outside school operator, convert to a charter or close the school.
EDUCATION is front and center as Pennsylvania's budget heads into overtime. A key element in this debate is whether additional school funding should be tied to new accountability measures in the form of House Bill 1225 and Senate Bill 6, both of which would allow a more forceful state hand in governing the state's lowest performing schools. (S.B. 6 passed the Senate on a party-line, 27-22 vote on Sunday evening.) In the abstract, linking increased funding with oversight makes sense; however, this particular proposal deserves careful scrutiny. The bills would create an Achievement School District governed by a newly established seven-member state board, with four Republican appointees and three Democrats. The Achievement School District would be empowered to take over the state's lowest performing schools and implement one or more of the following prescriptions: replace the school principal and at least half the staff, contract with an outside school operator, convert to a charter or close the school.
Achievement School
Districts have become trendy nationally. Legislators in Arkansas, Georgia,
Nevada, Texas and Wisconsin proposed similar measures in the last few months
alone. Versions of the policy have been established in Michigan, Louisiana and
Tennessee in the last decade. While Research for Action does not take a stance
for or against specific policy provisions, we can provide some perspective to
help inform this conversation.
There are three
central questions to consider regarding Pennsylvania's Achievement School
District proposals:
1) What do we know
about similar efforts elsewhere and whether they work?
2) Does Pennsylvania
have the capacity to oversee the state's lowest performing schools effectively?
3) Is the state's
system for identifying poor performers fair?
Unfortunately,
answers to these questions raise a number of red flags.
“Truebright, which opened in 2007, is one of more than 120
charters nationwide founded and operated by followers of Fethullah Gulen, a
Turkish imam who lives in self-imposed exile in the Poconos.”
Truebright charter won't reopen in fall
Truebright charter won't reopen in fall
MARTHA WOODALL, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER POSTED: Thursday,
July 2, 2015, 1:08 AM
The troubled
Truebright Science Academy Charter School in Olney will close after all.
Rather than take its
legal fight for survival to the state Supreme Court, the charter's board
decided Tuesday night to dissolve the school.
"They are going to wind down their operation and dissolve the
entity," said Brian H. Leinhauser, the school's lawyer. On Wednesday afternoon, Truebright
administrators e-mailed parents to inform them of the decision. They also
posted a notice on the school website announcing the closing.
New law attempts to add
clarity to background checks law
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on July 01,
2015 at 5:26 PM, updated July 01, 2015 at 7:26 PM
Gov. Tom Wolf signed
legislation on Wednesday that clarifies which employees and adult volunteers
are requiredbackground checks if
they work around children. The revisions
to the Child Protective Services Law attempts to clear up some of the
confusion surrounding who the law applies to in an effort to
make it less onerous and more in line with the law's original intention of
keeping kids safe. Among the changes
that this legislation makes to the background checks law that passed last year is
it pushes back the start date for when new volunteers must obtain their
criminal background checks and child abuse clearances to Aug. 25, from the
original law's July 1 deadline. It also
extends the renewal period to five years, from three years. It puts into
statute that starting July 25, state police criminal background checks and
child abuse clearances are free for people seeking them strictly so they can
volunteer. That saves each volunteer a total of $20.
How qualified are Pennsylvania's teachers? The numbers
say extremely
By Eleanor Chute /
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette June 15, 2015 12:00 AM
In the first year of
many school districts using a new statewide teacher evaluation system, a
greater portion of teachers was rated satisfactory than under the old system. In figures released by the state Department
of Education, 98.2 percent of all teachers were rated as satisfactory in
2013-14 — the highest percentage in five years — despite a new system that some
thought would increase the number of unsatisfactory ratings. In the four prior years, 97.7 percent of
teachers were rated satisfactory in all but 2009-10, when 96.8 percent were.
These figures count teachers in school districts, career and technical centers,
intermediate units and charter schools. Among other things,
critics of the old system questioned whether too many of the state’s teachers
were being rated satisfactory in a system that relied only on observation and
had only two categories: satisfactory and unsatisfactory. The new system uses a variety of measures for
four performance categories, which determine satisfactory or unsatisfactory ratings.
Pittsburgh public school teachers earn higher grades
in new ratings
Twice as many get
‘distinguished’ label
By Eleanor Chute /
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette July 2, 2015 12:14 AM
Once again, about 97
percent of teachers in Pittsburgh Public Schools have been rated proficient or
distinguished, but this time twice as many — nearly half of the teaching force
— were rated distinguished, the top level.
The district today released the aggregate ratings for 1,699 preK-12
teachers in 2014-15 — the second official year under a new system mandated by
the state. It also released the
first ratings using new state-mandated systems for 86 principals and other
school leaders as well as for 335 counselors, social workers and other
nonteaching professionals. Those in these two categories were rated highly as
well, with more than 98 percent in each rated proficient or distinguished.
Unsanitary, unsafe
conditions found in Philadelphia schools
WHYY Newsworks BY LAURA BENSHOFF JULY 1, 2015
Periodically, city
officials shine a spotlight on the condition of school buildings in the School
District of Philadelphia. Not for the first time, what they saw isn't pretty. Inspectors from city Controller Alan
Butkovitz's office visited 20 schools between October and March. Their
findings, detailed in a report out Wednesday, included electrical hazards, water
damage, and permanently clogged toilets in the sample of schools.
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 »
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.