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PA Ed Policy Roundup for July 9, 2015:
Senate Rejects School
Voucher Amendment During ESEA Debate; Smart Talk does Education Funding
"Both the Senate and
House versions of education legislation address what critics of No Child Left
Behind have opposed for years — a punitive system of testing overseen by the
federal government — in favor of more local control. While both bills retain the annual reading
and math tests required under current law, states would be given latitude to
decide how those assessment tests would be used to measure school and teacher
performance. The Senate version,
however, would require states to continue to use the tests as a significant
accountability factor while the House measure does not."
Lawmakers
Move to Limit Government’s Role in Education
New York Times By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and MOTOKO RICH JULY 8, 2015
House And Senate Lawmakers Work To Revise No Child
Left Behind Law
NPR Morning Edition DAVID
GREENE, HOST with JUANA SUMMERS JULY 08, 2015 5:01 AM ET Audiio Runtime : 3:49
Passed in 2001, the
education law established more standardized testing and education data
collection than at any time in U.S.
history. Congress is looking to reauthorize it, but roadblocks remain. This week, lawmakers in the House and Senate
are working to rewrite No Child Left Behind. That's George W. Bush's signature
education law that was passed in 2001. NPR's Juana Summers covers Congress and
joins us with the latest.
"Vouchers undermine the
basic goals of public education by allowing funding that is designated for our
most at-risk students to be re-routed to private schools," said Sen. Patty
Murray, D-Wash., co-author of the underlying ESEA bill. "Vouchers only provide the illusion of
choice to students from low-income backgrounds," Murray
Education Week By Lauren
Camera on July 8, 2015 9:05 PM
The U.S. Senate
waded into its first contentious debate since it began considering an overhaul
to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, voting on and ultimately
rejecting a voucher amendment that would have allowed Title I dollars for
low-income students to follow them to the public or private school of their choice. The amendment, offered Wednesday by Sen.
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., co-author of the bipartisan bill, would have provided
low-income students with a $2,100 scholarship to use at their discretion. "Equal opportunity in America should
mean that everyone should have the same starting line," said Alexander.
"There would be no better way to help move students from the back of the
line to the front." But Democrats
slammed the proposal, arguing it would move scarce federal dollars away from
the schools that need them the most.
"Overall, the bill
represents a dramatic departure from the current version of the federal K-12
law, the No Child Left Behind Act, and would turn much of the decisionmaking
over to states. It would eliminate the
current accountability system, known as adequate yearly progress, and
despite requiring states to intervene in schools that aren't performing well,
it wouldn't tell states how to do so or how many schools to try to fix at a
time. The measure would also allow states to set their own academic standards,
and would prohibit the U.S. Secretary of Education from requiring states to
adopt the Common Core State
House Passes ESEA Rewrite
218-213; Senate Debate Continues
Education Week By Lauren
Camera on July 8, 2015 7:30 PM
The U.S. House of
Representative reconsidered and ultimately passed Wednesday a Republican-backed
reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act—though it's far
from the measure that President Barack Obama may eventually sign into law when
it's all said and done. After considering 14
amendments, including a failed Democratic substitute, members passed the ESEA
rewrite, formally known as the Student Success Act, with a very close vote
of 218-213. Twenty-seven Republicans crossed party-line to join the entire
Democratic caucus in voting against the bill. "We have an urgent responsibility to
replace a flawed law with bold solutions," said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn.,
the education committee chairman and the bill's author. "That
responsibility grows more urgent with each day."
NSBA Lauds Lawmakers’ Focus on Strong Local Governance
as Efforts to Rewrite NCLB Progress
NSBA Press Release July 8, 2015
Senator Casey, Highlighting County-by-County Data, to
Push for Passage of New Universal Pre-K Amendment that Could Become Part of No
Child Left Behind Rewrite
Both House and
Senate Currently Debating Sweeping Education Revamp that Would Impact All of
PA’s 500 School Districts
Casey Amendment
Would Fund Five Years of Universal Pre-K by Closing Corporate Tax Inversions
Loophole
County-by-County
and State-by-State Data Will Show Impact that Adding Casey’s Amendment to No
Child Left Behind Rewrite Would Have
Washington DC- Ahead
of a major vote on his universal pre-k proposal, U.S. Senator Bob Casey will
push for passage of his Strong Start Amendment that could become part of the
rewrite of No Child Left Behind, which is currently on the House and Senate
floors, TODAY, Thursday, July 9that
2:10pm during a conference call. Highlighting county-by-county and
state-by-state data, Casey will detail how his universal pre-k bill could
impact Pennsylvania ’s
500 school districts and school districts across the nation. The amendment
would fund five years of universal pre-k by closing the corporate tax
inversions loophole that allows major U.S.
corporations to avoid U.S.
taxes by claiming they are headquartered overseas.
When: TODAY,
Thursday, July 9th 2:10pm
Dial-in: 202.228.0808 (RSVP for
passcode)
Smart Talk: Education Funding
Dennis Owens, Kevin McCorry with
Senators Folmer and Teplitz, Ed Sec'y Rivera and PSBA's John Callahan
Written by Smart
Talk Staff | Jul 8, 2015 11:00 AM
Last month the Basic
Education Funding Commission unveiled their updated school funding formula
after more than a year of work reviewing the process. The Senate
Education Committee crafted a bill around the recommendations
made by the Basic Education Funding Commission to more equally
distribute resources to schools. The bill was vetoed last week. On today's program we talk with Keystone
Crossroads Kevin McCorry joins Dennis Owens to discuss the funding situation
for school districts across the commonwealth. Also in studio will be
Senators Mike Folmer (R-48) and Robert Teplitz (D-15) who were part of the
Basic Education Commission, John Callahan from the Pennsylvania School Boards
Association, and Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera.
Battle continues over Marcellus Shale taxes, education
dollars
abc27.com By Dennis Owens Published: July 8, 2015, 7:11 pm Updated: July 8,
2015, 7:11 pm
Education formula doesn’t
bode well for rural Pennsylvania
Bradford Era By ALEX DAVIS Era Reporter a.davis@bradfordera.com Posted: Wednesday, July 8, 2015 10:00
am
For the most part,
school districts across the region could see small increases in basic education
funding under a formula unveiled last month.
In fact, those extra dollars could range from $19,333 to $173,170,
according to estimates provided to area school officials by the Pennsylvania
School Boards Association. But the
estimations could change depending on how much funding state lawmakers decide
to allocate to districts, local leaders said. The Basic Education Funding
Commission in June recommended a formula to be approved by the General
Assembly. “I would like to see revisions
to the calculations, which would provide the necessary funding to maintain
current programs,” Kane
Area School District Bradford Area
School District
She went on to say
the funding formula would “better even the playing field” for those students.
Wolf vs. Corman and a mid-week
budget update
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Wednesday, July 8,
2015
A day following a
sit-down meeting with Gov. Wolf and Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman
(R-Centre) where Sen. Corman told reporters that Republicans will not support
broad-based tax increases proposed by the governor, Gov. Wolf’s press secretary
called the senator’s viewpoints one of political expediency. "The refusal by Senate Majority Leader
Jake Corman and Republican leaders to accept basic math and acknowledge Pennsylvania ’s massive
structural budget deficit is the sole obstacle preventing budget talks from
moving forward," Jeff Sheridan said in an email to interested parties. "Strangely, today’s Sen. Corman doesn’t
agree with the Sen. Corman of the past. Sen. Corman’s leadership title seems to
have shifted his ideals on budgeting and financial planning." The email uses quotes from media reports
showing Sen. Corman in the past has said some tax increases would be necessary
to fill budget needs and would’ve been supported by Senate Republicans in the
last budget cycle.
"In what is swiftly
turning into a public relations war, the governor is getting some heavy-hitter
help. In the last week, the Democratic Governors Association and one of its
affiliates have released two ads - one radio, the other television - to bolster
Wolf's position on the budget.
Republicans, too, have
received assistance from an outside group. Earlier in the week, Americans for
Prosperity, a Virginia-based advocacy group founded by conservative
billionaires Charles and David Koch, began running a radio ad in Harrisburg and
Pittsburgh attacking Wolf as "cooking up schemes to hike your taxes."
Road warrior: Wolf takes
budget fight to Chesco
CHRIS PALMER, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Thursday, July 9, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Wednesday, July 8,
2015, 6:09 PM
The message was
familiar, but the turf was different.
And to hear Gov.
Wolf tell it, that's because the legislature's Republican majority - which has
so far rejected many of Wolf's budget priorities - are divorced from life
outside the Capitol.
"I want to be
where reality actually is," he said during an afternoon news conference in
front of Downingtown
Middle School Harrisburg ." Wolf, a first-term Democrat, has been stymied
during weeks of budget negotiations with Republican legislators, and the
stalemate over a state spending plan is now a week past the deadline for
passage. Each side has different
priorities. Wolf wants to increase education funding and reduce property taxes
by raising other taxes, but Republicans have opposed new levies.
Gov. Wolf visits
Downingtown to discuss his 2015-16 budget plan
CALN >>
Governor Tom Wolf Wednesday continued the “Schools That Teach” Tour at
Downingtown Middle School to discuss the proposed 2015-16 budget that he said
“provides fair and adequate funding for Pennsylvania’s schools.” Wolf said he wants a budget that contains
fair and adequate education funding in part by implementing a commonsense
severance tax, provides property tax relief to Pennsylvania families and seniors, fixes the
structural deficit and provides a plan to create jobs across the commonwealth. Wolf, who is in his first year in office,
said that the budget needs to fund schools, instead of taking money out of that
investment.
“The future of Pennsylvania runs
through the halls of places like this,” Wolf said as he pointed at the school
behind him. “That’s why in my budget, I’m proposing that we actually invest in
education. Not because I care about teachers, not because I care just about the
students, because I care about all of Pennsylvania .
All of us will benefit if we do a good job of investing adequately and wisely
in our schools.” Wolf said Pennsylvania can
adequately fund the schools with a severance tax. He said Pennsylvania
schools can “deliver on the promise they make for all of us for a better Pennsylvania . Or are we
going to continue to starve them of the resources they need,” he asked
rhetorically, to fund its schools. He said his plan provides significant
property tax relief and closes the structural budget deficit.
Politics of Pennsylvania
Morning Call Capitol Ideas By Steve
Esack Call Harrisburg Bureau July 8, 2015
Wednesday marked the
first full week of Pennsylvania 's
budget impasse. Still, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled
Legislature do not appear any closer to compromising on their respective
financial and policy differences to reach a mutual accord on a 2015-16 spending
plan. That does not mean all was quiet
on the budget front, however. In fact, political rhetoric heated up on the
seventh day of the deadlock. But first a recap of how the governor and
Legislature could not agree on a budget by midnight July 1:
- Wolf’s $33.8 billion spending plan
includes a cumulative 16 percent tax increase. Under his plan, income
taxes would go up and sales taxes would rise while the number of taxable
items would expand. He would use some of those tax hikes to reduce local
property taxes and close the $1.2 billion deficit. Wolf also would put a
higher tax and fee on Marcellus Shale gas drillers to pay for a $400
million boost in per pupil spending in public schools.
- The Republican-backed budget is $30.1
billion. It would not raise taxes. It would close the deficit by delaying
bills and shuffling money to different accounts. It would increase
education spending at a lower rate than Wolf by selling off the state
liquor store system for $220 million in new revenue annually. It also
proposes changes to pension benefits for most future state workers and all
future school teachers to save about $11.1 billion over three decades.
Air war over Pennsylvania
Morning Call By Marc Levy Of The Associated Press July 8, 2015
COLUMN: Local state rep.
asks: How much new spending is enough for Gov. Wolf?
Meadville Tribune By Republican state Rep. Brad Roae Wednesday,
July 8, 2015 11:14 am
We recently passed a
$30 billion no tax increase budget in the House and Senate that increased
spending by about $1 billion over last year’s budget. It was a 3.6 percent
increase over the prior year’s budget. Basic
education, special education, Prekindergarten and Head Start received $155
million more than last year. All of the increase in basic education funding was
distributed based on the new funding formula that was unanimously adopted by
the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission. Pennsylvania would have joined the long list
of states that have a school funding formula. Colleges and Pennsylvania Higher
Education Assistance Agency college grants went up by $51 million. Every school district in Pennsylvania would have received more state
funding than they did last year. All of the school districts impacted by the
several-year backlog waiting for reimbursement from the state for school
renovation costs would have received their money this year.
With end of "payless paydays," budget
stalemate could stretch on
WITF Written
by Mary
Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Jul 8, 2015 5:04 PM
Some see the state
Capitol deadlock over a state budget as political dysfunction or theatre. But
it's also a social experiment: this is the year Pennsylvanians will see how a
court decision ending "payless paydays" affects the budget
negotiations. In 2009, the state Supreme
Court ruled commonwealth employees must be paid, even if a political stalemate
delays the approval of a state spending plan.
The decision removed what was arguably the biggest source of pressure on
lawmakers and the governor to reach a deal - thousands of angry people working
without paychecks. "There's no
penalty, no price to pay, for lawmakers and the governor for failure to meet
the deadline," said Franklin & Marshall
pollster Terry Madonna. "Services get provided, the state workers get
paid. Life goes on for Pennsylvania
residents."
Study says Pa.
By Daniel Solomon / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
July 9, 2015 12:00 AM
When it comes to the
rigor of its expectations for students in grades 4 and 8, Pennsylvania falls short on the federal
tests known as the Nation’s Report Card.
According to a study released today by the National Center for Education
Statistics, math and reading proficiency levels for fourth- and eighth-graders
in Pennsylvania are below those in most states and at the federal level. Gary Phillips, the vice president of the
American Institutes for Research, said in a conference call that expectations
for eighth-graders in some low-standard states were similar to those for
fourth-graders in high-standard states. “States
are setting wildly different standards, and in many cases, very low standards,”
Mr. Phillips said. “It’s important for the [National Assessment of Educational
Progress] to stay the course and retain its role as an independent monitor.”
Philly: A shake-up at 440
Hite
reshuffles his administration and moves ahead with his vision.
the notebook By Dale
Mezzacappa on Jul 8, 2015 04:29 PM
After three years of
an administration defined by austerity, personnel cuts and school closings,
Superintendent William Hite is ready to move forward with his vision of
improving education in the District. Hite
is moving ahead even though he doesn't know yet whether he will get the
financial support from the city and state that he needs to make it happen. He
said his main goals will be stability, equity, and opportunity for all
students, outcomes he hopes to achieve by making schools -- not the central
office -- "the primary unit of change." Now, the District administration "is
essentially a command and control center," he said. "But schools
educate children with different needs and different abilities. And they need
very different things." This week,
Hite announced a significant administrative reorganization and the personnel he
has chosen to lead the effort.
the notebook By David
Limm on Jul 8, 2015 01:08 PM
PA Cyber charter renewal
lag 'nothing out of the ordinary'
Beaver County Times By J.D. Prose jprose@timesonline.com | 0 comments Posted: Tuesday, July 7, 2015 6:00 pm
Poverty rates in every U.S.
Anyone who cares
about the plight of poor children in America should take a look at a new
interactive map, below, put together by the new nonprofit EdBuild. The map shows Census
Bureau poverty rates in each of the nation’s nearly 14,000 school districts
nationwide. The darker the blue on the map, the greater the concentration of
children living in poverty. It seems like the kind of map that should have been
easy to find long ago — but it hasn’t been, at least not in the public realm. Zoom out, and you can see macro-level
concentrations of poverty and wealth, like the dark blue swaths of impoverished
districts along the Mississippi River in the Deep South
and in rural parts of the West. Zoom in, and you see how school district
boundaries often serve as stark lines of division between the poor and the affluent.
Nominations for PSBA's
Allwein Advocacy Award now open
PSBA July 7, 2015
PSBA July 7, 2015
The Timothy M.
Allwein Advocacy Award was established in 2011 by the Pennsylvania School
Boards Association and may be presented annually to the individual school
director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in
legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that
are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s Legislative Platform. The 2015 Allwein Award nomination process
will close on Aug. 28, 2015. The 2015 Allwein Award Nomination Form is available online.
More details on the award and nominations process can be found online.
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
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.
PSBA POSTED
ON JUN 29, 2015 IN PSBA
NEWS
The Pennsylvania
School Boards Association gives an overview of the newly proposed Basic
Education Funding Formula.
Sign up here to receive a weekly
email update on the status of efforts to have Pennsylvania
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 »
Why Scientists Are Over the Moons About the Pluto
Flyby
New York Times JULY
7, 2015
In the 13 minutes it will take you to watch the video above, NASA’s
New Horizons spacecraft could get from New York
to Kenya , India or China . It is moving that
fast. And on the morning of Tuesday, July 14, after nine and a half
years hurtling forward at 31,000 miles per hour, it will pass Pluto. If you want to understand how the mission
came to be and why it is such a big deal, we recommend sitting down with a cup
of tea or
glass of wine and watching
this documentary. Here are a few quotes you may want to keep in reserve for
conversation lulls at future summer
barbecues:
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