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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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PA Ed Policy Roundup October 16, 2015
PA schools' share of gaming funds diverted for charter
school tuition
State giving funding to charter schools that saw money
withheld by school districts
Sarah
M. Wojcik, Christina
Tatu and Jacqueline
Palochko The Morning Call
October 15, 2015
School districts
that withheld money to charter schools amid the budget impasse in Harrisburg were angered to
learn in the past week that the state has been paying them with gaming revenue
funds. Parkland, Bethlehem Area,
Salisbury and Northampton Area are among school districts in the state that
have withheld some or all of their charter school payments, saying they need to
hold onto as much cash as possible to weather the budget stalemate, which is
reaching its four-month mark. They also
reasoned that if they aren't receiving state money, charter schools shouldn't
either. But charter schools have found a
way around their move. State law allows
charter schools to appeal any non-payment of funds from school districts. It
also allows the state to dip into any fund – not just the education budget – to
pay them. In this case, the state is
using gaming revenue funds, the money the state uses from gambling proceeds to
provide property tax relief to homeowners.
By Mary Niederberger
/ Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette October 16, 2015 12:00 AM
School districts
already struggling to make ends meet because of the state budget impasse got
another blow this week when they learned that gaming revenue they were
expecting has been diverted to pay charter school tuition. One of the hardest hit is the McKeesport Area School District Pennsylvania has no budget in place, the
gambling proceeds are the only state money districts are receiving, and a
number of them have borrowed or plan to borrow to pay bills in the absence of
their Basic Education Subsidy funds.
By Clarece Polke / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
October 16, 2015 12:00 AM
Future Pa.
WHYY Newsworks DAVE DAVIES OFF MIC A BLOG BY DAVE DAVIES OCTOBER 15, 2015
The judicial course
and partisan makeup of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court will be mightily affected
by the election in less than three weeks of three new justices for the state's
highest court. If you're confused
about whom to vote for (and who isn't), you can get a decent look at the seven
contenders by watching the debate held Wednesday evening sponsored by
Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts. The 90-minute forum is streamed on the Pennsylvania
Letter: Time to get Pa.
You know what
happens when you don’t pay your bills? It is not much different when Pennsylvania doesn’t pay
its bills. Except, instead of the bank foreclosing or repossessing, Pennsylvania can shift
costs to county government, school boards and other local bodies. Pennsylvania can also
delay payments until the following year.
This is what Pennsylvania
has been doing for the last four years under the Corbett administration.
Republicans say they balanced the budget, but they have only shifted the burden
and delayed paying bills.
Of course bankers
understand these budget gimmicks. That is why they lowered Pennsylvania bond ratings five times over
the last four years. This is costing Pennsylvania
taxpayers $139 million in additional interest each year. Cutting school funding and other services
cannot balance our state budget. By electing Gov. Tom Wolf, we voted for
increasing school funding, decreasing property taxes and imposing an extraction
tax on natural gas drillers. We voted for a businessman who would put our Pennsylvania government
household budget in order. To pay for
the schools, roads, police, nursing homes, environmental protection, human
services, parks and other governmental services we want, and to put our state
on a sound financial footing, Pennsylvania
must increase revenue. The quicker we convince our legislators of this, the
less it will cost us all.
Letter to the editor:
Reform is key to ending Pennsylvania
Delco Times By William F. Adolph, Jr., Times Guest
Columnist 10/16/15, 12:41 AM EDT
State Rep. William Adolph is
majority Chairman of the PA House Appropriations Committee
The state
Legislature recently sent Gov. Wolf another loud and clear message that his
massive tax increases do not have support from the Legislature or the public. The Legislature and the public are demanding
reforms instead of allowing the governor to rush through unprecedented tax
increases on working families. Since the
governor’s first budget presentation in March, he has called for massive tax
increases to support huge state spending. His initial proposal included a 40
percent increase in the sales tax and a 21 percent increase in the state income
tax. The public balked at Gov. Wolf’s huge tax proposals and told the
Legislature not to support such drastic measures. Hearing the public’s message loud and clear,
the Legislature sent the governor a balanced budget with no tax increases. The
legislative budget relied on reforms to our state liquor system and outdated pension
system to fund a nearly $400 million increase for education spending.
When it comes to the
budget, Pa. must look forward - not back: Frank Dermody
PennLive Op-Ed By Frank Dermody on October 15, 2015
at 1:30 PM
By Pa.
Here in Pennsylvania , however,
we sharply cut our investments in education since 2011.
As a result, schools
lost well over 20,000 teachers, guidance counselors, nurses, librarians and
other support staff. Student performance went down. Many pre-K, basic education
and higher education programs closed or cut back. Local property taxes
skyrocketed.
Gov. Wolf:
'I've made $1b in concessions - the GOP nothing,' report: Thursday Morning Coffee
By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on
October 15, 2015 at 7:45 AM, updated October 15, 2015 at 8:25 AM
Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
As talks on the state budget stutter and restart this week, Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday that he's made $1 billion in concessions from the spending plan he rolled out back in March, but it hasn't been enough for Republicans who control the General Assembly, a newspaper has reported. "I have taken $1 billion out of my original March 3 proposal ... because I want to get to an agreement. That agreement has to be mathematically sound," Wolf said during a stop at the Washington County Courthouse, according to The Tribune-Review. The newspaper notes that the Democratic administration did not provide details on howWolf arrived at that figure. A spokesman for House Republicans scoffed at Wolf's claim, arguing that since the Democratic governor is proposing a $4 billion tax increase, "moving $1 billion is not really that much," The Trib reported.
As talks on the state budget stutter and restart this week, Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday that he's made $1 billion in concessions from the spending plan he rolled out back in March, but it hasn't been enough for Republicans who control the General Assembly, a newspaper has reported. "I have taken $1 billion out of my original March 3 proposal ... because I want to get to an agreement. That agreement has to be mathematically sound," Wolf said during a stop at the Washington County Courthouse, according to The Tribune-Review. The newspaper notes that the Democratic administration did not provide details on howWolf arrived at that figure. A spokesman for House Republicans scoffed at Wolf's claim, arguing that since the Democratic governor is proposing a $4 billion tax increase, "moving $1 billion is not really that much," The Trib reported.
Listen to Smart Talk live
online from 9-10 a.m. weekdays and at 7 p.m. (Repeat of 9 a.m.
program)
Smart Talk: Auditor General Eugene DePasquale audits Dept. of Education; Dauphin Co. police consolidation
Smart Talk: Auditor General Eugene DePasquale audits Dept. of Education; Dauphin Co. police consolidation
WITF Written
by Scott
LaMar, Smart Talk Host/Executive Producer | Oct 15, 2015 4:16 PM
What
to look for on Smart Talk Friday, October 16, 2015:
Pennsylvania
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale's recent audit of the state Department of
Education concluded the department failed to provide adequate assistance to 561
academically challenged school districts across the state. Some 310,000
students are enrolled in those districts.
Two other significant findings of the audit were that the Board of
Education hasn't updated its plan for basic education since 1999 and that
former special adviser on higher education Ron Tomalis did very little work
during the Corbett Administration, while being paid more than $139,000 a year. DePasquale appears on Friday's Smart Talk to
discuss his findings and recommendations.
About
half of York County York 's
business community abreast of issues being discussed in Harrisburg .
Five York County legislators — Rep. Keith Gillespie, R-Hellam Township;
Rep. Seth Grove, R-Dover Township; Rep. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York Township;
Rep. Kevin Schreiber, D-York City; and Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, Dauphin and
York counties — took part in the forum. The
luncheon was held at the Wyndham Garden hotel in West Manchester
Township Harrisburg
took part in a luncheon held in the spring.
Each lawmaker was given a topic to talk about. Here's a look the topics
they discussed:
EDITORIAL:
Outsourcing doesn’t always get the best results
There’s
an old Marvin Gaye song called “Inner City Blues” in which the soul singer
comments on all the bad things in life that “make me wanna holler and throw up
both my hands.” Surely Philadelphians must feel that way about their poorly
funded, understaffed schools. Making
matters worse are the well-intentioned responses to the district’s litany of
calamities that too often fall flat on their face. Add to that list a plan to improve
the daily teacher vacancy rate by hiring a private company to provide
substitute teachers. It seemed like a
good idea when the district signed a $34 million contract with Cherry
Hill-based Source4Teachers, which had a positive record in smaller districts
like Camden ’s.
But the job of providing enough substitute teachers for Philadelphia ’s public schools has proven to
be too big for the company. It has not met the goals in its contract, and
schoolchildren are suffering as a result.
Source4Teachers promised to provide 75 percent of the substitutes needed
every day by September. That sounded great compared with the average 60 percent
rate at which the district had been able to fill vacancies. But when the school
year began, Source4Teachers had substitutes for only 11 percent of the
vacancies. There has been little
improvement since then. Source4Teachers reported Friday that it had
substitutes for only 19 percent of the classrooms that needed them.
Philly SRC
meeting dominated by charter conversion critics
WHYY
Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY
OCTOBER 16, 2015
Much of
the four-and-a-half-hour School Reform Commission meeting, was filled with
contentious testimony. Teachers, parents
and advocates decried the shortage of school nurses and took leaders to task
for their so-far exceedingly underwhelming decision to outsource substitute
teaching services — leading some in the crowd to call for ousting
Superintendent William Hite. The
topic, though, of most
discussion was Hite's recent proposal to convert three chronically
underperforming elementary schools to neighborhood-based charters: Samuel Huey
in West Philadelphia, John Wister in Germantown
and Jay Cooke in Logan .
Parents,
teachers voice opposition to charter conversions
SOLOMON
LEACH, DAILY NEWS STAFF
WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5903 POSTED: Friday, October 16, 2015, 12:16 AM
PARENTS
AND teachers last night spoke out against the school district's plan to convert
three low-performing schools to charters, claiming the process excludes parents
and would expand the reach of costly charters in the district. Under the proposal, Huey, Cooke and Wister
schools would be turned over to charter operators and be designated as
Renaissance charters, which now include about 20 formerly district-run schools. Deanna Lewis, a teacher at Huey, on Pine Street near
52nd in West Philadelphia , said the faculty is
fully capable of helping students achieve but hasn't been given the necessary
resources.
Protesters at
SRC meeting angrily call for dramatic changes
KRISTEN
A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST
UPDATED: Friday, October 16, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Thursday, October
15, 2015, 9:52 PM
For more
than four restless hours Thursday, anger at Philadelphia School
District
Mastery's CEO
talks about expansion plan and Renaissance turnarounds
By Dale
Mezzacappa on Oct 15, 2015 03:22 PM
Mastery
Charter Schools CEO Scott Gordon said Thursday that a new $9.6
million grantfrom the U.S. Department of Education would be used to open
new schools in the city and across the Delaware River .
"We're expecting to open
schools in Philadelphia and Camden ," Gordon said in a telephone
interview. "New schools or Renaissance schools. Our preference has always
been Renaissance schools, because that is the quickest way to address kids who
are trapped in struggling schools."
Gordon said that Mastery would definitely participate in the District's
restarted Renaissance schools initiative this year, but is still considering
which schools to apply for. The schools
designated by Superintendent William Hite for charter conversion are John
Wister in Germantown , Samuel Huey in West
Philadelphia, and Jay Cooke in Logan . He
called it "unlikely," however, that Mastery would apply to operate
all three.
Today is
the deadline for the District to release a "request for
qualifications" for Renaissance providers. And significant
pushback is already evident against turning over any more neighborhood
schools to charter operators.
Lack of volunteers with state clearances
threatens Halloween events in Easton
Christina
Tatu Contact Reporter Of The Morning
Call October 15, 2015
The Easton Area
School District Easton 's proposed policy,
requires only volunteers who routinely provide direct care or supervision of
children in a chaperone capacity to undergo background checks. Many organizations, school districts and
youth programs complained the ambiguity of the original law's language made it
difficult to determine which volunteers needed background checks.
Alum Helen Gym champions housing and
education reform in her run for City Council
Daily
Pennsylvanian By PAT ZANCOLLI ・ 10/15/15 12:35am
Helen
Gym, a 1993 College graduate, is running for the Philadelphia City Council
At-Large as the Democratic nominee on a platform of education and housing
reform.
A strong
proponent of social justice issues, Gym — a former Daily Pennsylvanian and 34th Street editor
— has been making efforts in past weeks to spark conversation on these issues.
On Sept. 30, she traveled down to D.C. to join Sen. Elizabeth Warren and
other passionate housing reformers to bring attention to federal regulations
that are making it difficult for low-income citizens to get housing in certain
areas. On Oct. 6, Gym spoke at Penn about education reform in an event hosted
by Penn Democrats and the Penn Education Society. Gym said the housing reform event was created
to bring attention to a process through which the federal government is buying
up delinquent mortgages and selling them to private equity groups. As a result
of this process, 80 percent of mortgages end up in foreclosure, Gym said.
She felt that she needed to bring attention to the issue since the process
flows through federal agencies. “If it
has any stamp of government involvement, it needs to serve the public
interest,” Gym said. Gym’s Oct.
6 event at Penn also spoke to the topic of reform — but in relation
to education instead. “A Conversation with Helen Gym,” as the Facebook event
was titled, focused on how the conversation about public education has changed
over time and how it continues to evolve, Gym said.
"Those involved say they
use art in many forms across the curriculum as a way to make content more
meaningful and deepen student learning. The
new strategy comes as interest in arts integration is growing nationally,
driven in part by increasing research that points to academic, social and
personal benefits for students, said Sandra Ruppert, director of the Arts Education
Partnership, a network of more than 100 arts, education and cultural
organizations. She said studies show that employing the arts in academic
classrooms is associated with improvement in test scores in math and English.
In particular, students living in poverty benefit from the integrated approach,
she said."
More schools are working to integrate the
arts into classroom learning
The
third-graders at Capitol
Heights Elementary
School China is a wall
that protects us from bad guys,” one girl sings, as teacher Tifany Champouillon
listens for the lesson’s main ideas. The
creative buzz in Room 19 is increasingly common in the school as Prince George ’s County
expands an initiative to integrate the arts into teaching and learning. Started
last year in 15 schools, the growing effort now includes 41 schools in Maryland ’s second-
largest school system.
"I co-founded First Book
with two friends in 1992. I had been volunteering at a D.C. soup kitchen when I
learned that not only were there no books available but the children didn’t
have books at home either.
I started talking to other
programs and schools and became aware of this enormous problem – with clearly
disastrous implications – for individual children and our broader society. In a
resource-rich country like ours, how can millions of children grow up without
books, at home, at school and in their communities?"
CREATING A
MARKET FOR DIVERSE BOOKS: AN INTERVIEW WITH FIRST BOOK CEO KYLE ZIMMER
Open
Book Blog SEPTEMBER
30, 2015 HANNAHEHRLICH
Today we are thrilled to have Kyle Zimmer,
President, CEO, and Co-founder of First Book, with us. Here’s how Kyle
describes her organization: “First Book supports educational equality by
providing high quality, new and relevant books and educational resources to
teachers and caregivers serving the millions of children growing up in
low-income families.” Welome, Kyle!
How did First Book begin? Has the organization’s
mission evolved since it was founded?
Georgia Governor's 'opportunity school district'
part of national attack on public education, says GAE president
Online Athens By LEE SHEARER updated Thursday,
October 15, 2015 - 12:26am
The 2016
general election is more still more than a year away, but education groups are
already on the campaign trail to oppose a proposed Constitutional amendment
that will be on the Georgia
ballot. The so-called Opportunity School District
Attorneys make
new arguments in Miss.
JACKSON,
Miss. (AP) - Former Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove made a new round of
arguments Tuesday in his lawsuit that seeks $240 million that 21 school
districts say they have been shortchanged by the state in the past few years. The state attorney general’s office is
defending legislators’ budget decisions.
Hinds County
Angry parents, teachers drive Arizona
After years of ignoring pleas to put significant money into
schools, Arizona
politicians are suddenly tripping over each other to find a way to pump
billions of dollars into education.
Gov. Doug Ducey, Superintendent of Public Instruction Diane
Douglas, and many Republican and Democratic lawmakers want to dig
deeper into state coffers to get more money to schools, and each has a plan. But there's another force driving the
competition: Angry parents and teachers who say they are bearing the brunt of
education cuts made during the recession.
Some lawmakers say they have been yelled at, taken aside during events
and chastised for low funding. They've been barraged with e-mails and
phone calls inviting them to see firsthand the consequences of inaction. As the governor and lawmakers consider a
special session, there's no unified front on the best way to boost school
funding.
Charter-School
Movement Grows—for Real-Estate Investors
New niche develops as more
charters open doors; some states help with financing
Wall
Street Journal By PETER GRANT Oct.
13, 2015 11:33 a.m. ET
Real-estate
investors are showing an increasing interest in charter school development as
the demand grows for classroom seats and some state and local governments
become more willing to help finance charter-school projects. Almost all charter schools are operated by
nonprofit organizations. But these groups often rent and buy their buildings
from private real-estate developers, and that is creating a new niche asset for
some investors. One of the latest
entrants to the charter real-estate business is Northstar Commercial Partners,
a Denver-based private-equity firm that is raising a $100 million fund. It will
focus on converting charter schools out of vacant office, industrial and retail
properties that can be purchased for less than half of what they would cost to
build, according to Northstar Chief Executive Brian Watson.
NSBA Advocacy
Institute 2016; January 24 - 26 in Washington ,
D.C.
Housing and meeting registration is open for Advocacy Institute 2016. The theme, “Election Year Politics & Public Schools,” celebrates the exciting year ahead for school board advocacy. Strong legislative programming will be paramount at this year’s conference in January. Visit www.nsba.org/advocacyinstitute for more information.
Housing and meeting registration is open for Advocacy Institute 2016. The theme, “Election Year Politics & Public Schools,” celebrates the exciting year ahead for school board advocacy. Strong legislative programming will be paramount at this year’s conference in January. Visit www.nsba.org/advocacyinstitute for more information.
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:
Back to School Special Education Seminar October 20th
Join us on October 20, 2015, from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m. for our first special education conference of the 2015-2016 school year!
Building on last
year’s successful Back to School seminar, this year you will hear about the
current state of special education law and engage in dialogue about today’s
most pressing matters.
Topics
- Early Intervention
- Inclusion
- Assistive Technology
- General update on the state of special
education, both in
Presenters
- HUNE
- The
- Sonja Kerr
Our “Know
Your Child’s Rights” Special Education workshops aim to educate
parents, educators, attorneys and advocates so that they can advocate for the
rights of children with disabilities. CLE credit is available for attorneys in Pennsylvania that attend
the seminar in person. Questions?
Email mberton@pilcop.org or call 267.546.1303.
- See more at: http://www.pilcop.org/backtoschool2015/#sthash.W9zA7fZg.dpuf
Registration is open for the 19th Annual
Eastern Pennsylvania Special Education
Administrators’ Conference on October 21-23rd in
Hershey.
Educators in the
field of special education from public, charter and nonpublic schools are
invited to attend. The conference offers rich professional development
sessions and exceptional networking opportunities. Keynote speakers are
Shane Burcaw and Jodee Blanco. Register at https://www.paiu.org/epaseac/conf_registration.php
Register Now for the Fifth
Annual Arts and Education Symposium Oct. 29th Harrisburg
Thursday, October
29, 2015 Radisson Hotel Harrisburg
Convention Center 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Act 48 Credit is available. The event
will be a daylong convening of arts education policy leaders and practitioners for
lively discussions about important policy issues and the latest news from the
field. The symposium is hosted by EPLC and the Pennsylvania Arts Education
Network, and supported by a generous grant from The Heinz Endowments.
SCHOOL CHOICE: THE ROLE OF THE
CONSTITUTION AND THE COURTS IN IMPROVING EDUCATION
Free for
Members • $7 teachers & students • $10 public
Become a Member today for free admission to this program and more!
Click here to join and learn more or call 215-409-6767.
Become a Member today for free admission to this program and more!
Click here to join and learn more or call 215-409-6767.
Does the
Constitution guarantee an “equal education” to every child? What do the U.S. and
Pennsylvania Constitutions say about school choice, teacher tenure,
standardized testing, and more? The Constitution
Center
In the
first discussion, education policy experts—Donna Cooper of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, Mark Gleason of the Philadelphia School
Partnership, Deborah Gordon Klehr of the Education Law
Center, and Ina Lipman of the Children's
Scholarship Fund Philadelphia—examine the state of Philadelphia public
education, what an "equal education" in Philadelphia would look like,
and their specific proposals for getting there. They also explain what, if
anything, the Pennsylvania
state constitution says about these questions, and how state government
interacts with local government in setting education policy.
In the
second discussion, James Finberg of Altshuler Berzon
and Joshua Lipshutz of Gibson Dunn—two
attorneys involved in Vergara v. California, a landmark dispute
over the legality of teacher retention policies—present the best arguments on
both sides and discuss what's next in the case. They also explain what the U.S.
Constitution and major Supreme Court cases like Brown v. Board of
Education, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez and Parents
Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle
School District
Register now for the
2015 PASCD 65th Annual Conference, Leading and Achieving in an Interconnected World, to be
held November 15-17, 2015 at Pittsburgh Monroeville
Convention Center
The Conference
will Feature Keynote Speakers: Meenoo Rami – Teacher and Author
“Thrive: 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching,” Mr. Pedro Rivera,
Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Heidi Hayes-Jacobs – Founder and President
of Curriculum Design, Inc. and David Griffith – ASCD Senior Director of Public
Policy. This annual conference features small group sessions focused on:
Curriculum and Supervision, Personalized and Individualized Learning,
Innovation, and Blended and Online Learning. The PASCD Conference is
a great opportunity to stay connected to the latest approaches for innovative
change in your school or district. Join us forPASCD 2015!
Online registration is available by visiting www.pascd.org <http://www.pascd.org/>
Interested in letting our
elected leadership know your thoughts on education funding, a severance tax,
property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf,
(717) 787-2500
Speaker of the
House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
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