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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup October 27, 2015:
Accountability? PA State Senate takes out $9 million
loan and prepares to take two weeks off
HARRISBURG (OCTOBER 21, 2015) – The Campaign for Fair Education
Funding today submitted a formal request to Gov. Tom Wolf and members of the
General Assembly, urging them to promptly reach a budget agreement that enacts
the funding formula adopted by the state Basic Education Funding Commission
(BEFC) and increases basic education funding by at least $410 million.
Read the letter here: http://fairfundingpa.org/news/cfef-letter-to-legislators-a-budget-agreement-that-puts-students-first
Editorial: Time to level
education funding field
Delco Times
Editorial POSTED: 10/26/15, 6:27 PM EDT | UPDATED: 21 SECS AGO
The William Penn School District Lancaster , Panther Valley ,
Greater Johnstown, Shenandoah and Wilkes Barre who finally had to go to court
in an attempt to get what Pennsylvania
was unable to deliver. A fair shake when
it comes to how education funding is shared in this state. Too often children in struggling towns – like
those in William Penn and the others – are penalized simply because of their
zip code. They all share something: A disproportionate number of their students
who live in depressed economic conditions, and a local economy that fails
miserably to raise the kind of revenue needed to put them on a par with other
districts just a few miles away.
Badams to talk budget impasse in Harrisburg
GoErie.com Staff
report October 27, 2015 07:23 AM
http://www.goerie.com/article/20151027/NEWS02/310269807/badams-to-talk-budget-impasse-in-harrisburg#
Senators call for continuous
session until state budget agreement is reached
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Monday, October
26, 2015
While the House
added voting session days for the first two weeks of November, after session
concludes this week in the Senate the chamber is not scheduled to return to
voting session until November 16, when it will come into session for three days
before recessing until early December. Late
last week, calls began to mount for the Senate to return to session until a
budget agreement is reached, with Sen. Art Haywood (D-Montgomery) and Sen. John
Blake (D-Lackawanna) calling on the body to remain in session continuously
until that time. “I must make a strong
appeal and an ardent request to my friends and colleagues in Senate Republican
leadership not to recess the Senate until a state budget has been approved by
votes in both chambers of the General Assembly and signed into law by Gov.
Wolf,” Sen. Blake said in a Friday news release.
State Senate takes out $9 million loan to pay its
employees
By Karen Langley /
Post-Gazette Harrisburg
Bureau October 26, 2015 11:21 PM
HARRISBURG — With no
state budget in place months into Pennsylvania’s fiscal year, school districts
and nonprofit organizations aren’t the only ones taking out loans. Much of the
state General Assembly, too, has turned to the banks to make payroll. The state Senate on Friday borrowed $9
million from PNC Bank so it could pay the salaries and benefits of both
Republican and Democratic senators and staff, said Jennifer Kocher, spokeswoman
for Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre. Months after the July 1 start
of the state’s fiscal year, the Senate reserves have been depleted, Ms. Kocher
said. “We would not have made payroll,”
she said. House Republicans,
meanwhile, signed an agreement Oct. 19 for a $30 million line of credit and
drew down $5 million that day, said Steve Miskin, spokesman for House
Republicans. The money will pay for the salaries of House Republican members
and staff, operations at district offices, and non-partisan House management
functions, he said.
GOP budget discussions
remain in a preliminary phase
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Monday, October
26, 2015
For the second time
in two weeks the leadership team from both Republican caucuses in the General
Assembly held a closed-door meeting to try to reach a meeting of the minds on a
new budget proposal and for the second week in a row they have yet to come to a
lock-step agreement on how to move forward with a fresh budget plan. While he said the discussions are going “very
good,” Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) also said the
talks are still “very preliminary.” “We
certainly are continuing to look for solutions to solve the budget and the
parameters we’re working in are none of the broad-based tax increases,” he
said. He added there has
been no agreement between Republicans on what other revenue could be used to
support a final budget product.
Their view | Pennsylvania
Centre Daily Times BY JEFF SHERIDAN October 27, 2015
Jeff Sheridan is the press secretary for
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s
budget rebuilds the middle class in Pennsylvania
by prioritizing jobs that pay, schools that teach and government that works. Pennsylvania can have a
bright future but we must move away from the failed status quo embraced by
Republican leaders.
"Well it's very
frustrating both for myself and our school board. As a matter of fact, one of
our board members expressed at a meeting last week that its unusual that we’re
four months past their deadline, but we always have to make June 30,” Young
said.
PA Schools Suffer During
Budget Impasse
PA schools are
operating without funding for the past four months.
WETMTV.com By
JESSICA BARD | jessicabard@wetmtv.com Published 10/26 2015 05:51PM Updated
10/26 2015 06:20PM
Letter to the editor: It’s
time for Pennsylvania
Delco Times POSTED: 10/27/15,
12:40 AM EDT | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
State Rep. Dwight Evans, D-203,
of Philadelphia, is a veteran of more than 30 state budgets and is a former
chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
To the Times:
Even though he’s
offered $1 billion in concessions, it’s been suggested that Gov. Tom Wolf’s
stubbornness is the reason why Pennsylvania
has stumbled almost four months without a budget. That’s nonsense, as
the budget blockade is rooted in mathematics not stubbornness. Almost every state lawmaker will agree that a
structural budget deficit exists — more than $1.2 billion now and likely more
than $2 billion next year if action isn’t taken. Despite the numbers, too few state lawmakers
have been willing to compromise, even when they concede that GOP pension and
liquor proposals — which became GOP must-haves only after Wolf won the
governorship — will do little or nothing to bridge the growing revenue chasm. Gov. Wolf has compromised on liquor and
public pensions, issues that former Gov. Tom Corbett couldn’t advance despite
enjoying ample Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Gov. Wolf also has scaled back his proposals
to expand the sales tax and have natural gas producers pay their fair share, as
is the case in every other major gas-producing state. In the House, Republicans and Democrats have
offered compromise plans that call for modest increases in broad-based taxes
and a moderate extraction tax. Now, it’s
time for leadership to realize that the “art of the deal” requires a similar
tack toward the center to move to numbers-based deliberations and beyond partisan
budget boilerplate.
"Another encouraging
sign for the governor: When respondents were asked about their own budget
priorities, their top pick — education funding — has been a key selling point
for Mr. Wolf’s budget."
Poll results not expected to push either side to
resolve state budget impasse
By Chris Potter / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
October 27, 2015 12:00 AM
Public support for
Gov. Tom Wolf is softening as the state budget impasse stretches into its
fourth month, says new polling from Robert
Morris University Pennsylvania
respondents, 49.3 percent said they had a “very” or “somewhat” favorable impression
of the governor. That’s down from 54.8 percent in an RMU poll conducted in May.
In addition, 35.2 percent of respondents now say they have an unfavorable
impression of Mr. Wolf, up from 24.6 percent. The margin of error on such
questions was 4.5 percentage points. Even
so, the numbers “are fairly strong for him, considering what’s happening,” said
Robert Morris political science professor Philip Harold, who presided over the
online survey. The state has been
operating without a budget since July. But 52.4 percent of poll respondents who
have been personally affected by the budget impasse or knew someone who has,
said they viewed Mr. Wolf favorably. And Mr. Harold noted that some erosion of
support for Mr. Wolf was inevitable once his administration got underway.
Tax increase on sales or
income seen as unlikely in Pennsylvania
Lehigh Valley Live By Associated
Press Follow on
Twitter on October 26, 2015 at 8:05 PM, updated October 26, 2015
at 8:06 PM
The Pennsylvania
Senate's top Democrat says a final budget agreement probably won't include an
increase in the sales or personal income tax that Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has
sought to boost education funding and wipe out a deficit. Still, Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa said
Monday that differences remain between Democrats and Republicans in talks to
end a four-month-old budget stalemate. He also says $2 billion in new revenue
is necessary to correct a long-term deficit and ensure that schools and human
services aren't squeezed next year. He
says Democrats still want substantial increases in aid to schools and human
services to offset funding cuts under Wolf's predecessor, and they want a
heftier tax on Marcellus Shale natural gas production. The Legislature's Republican majority has opposed
a tax increase on sales or income.
Morning Call Opinion by Bill White Contact Reporter
October 26, 2015
My latest book on CD
for in-car listening is the young-adult novel "Insurgent,"the
sequel to the bestseller "Divergent." These were made into movies,
and the third book in the
trilogy — "Allegiant" — is scheduled to be released as a
movie next year. The books, set in
post-apocalyptic Chicago ,
describe a society in which people are divided into five distinct factions or
considered "factionless" outcasts. Members of these factions, which
represent different character traits and attitudes, are expected to be loyal to
their factions and act strictly in accordance with their beliefs. I've been trying to figure out the best way
to summarize the state budget crisis and other strange political events, and it
occurred to me that the "Divergent" novels aren't a bad metaphor for
the stark divisions that are dominating our political landscape in Pennsylvania and Washington . Let's start with Harrisburg , where the budget impasse is
nearing its fifth month and shows no sign of resolution.
Without a state budget, Pa.
WHYY Newsworks BY LAURA BENSHOFF OCTOBER 26, 2015
Even if you're
really good at budgeting, if your boss were four months late with your check
you might have trouble paying your bills.
With no state budget nearly four months into the new fiscal year, even
the wealthiest counties in Pennsylvania
are making cuts or draining their rainy day funds to pay their bills. While the effects are not as dramatic as
taking out a $275
million loan to fund the state's largest school district, or contemplating
cuts to Meals on Wheels, the budget impasse means social service vendors in
Chester and Montgomery Counties are skating by with less.
Kevin Duffy Special to The
Morning Call October 27, 2015
What will East Penn
School District Harrisburg
stretching into 2016, but administrators in the East Penn School District
Retired educators may be
answer to substitute teacher shortage
By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
October 26, 2015 at 6:49 PM
School districts
around Pennsylvania
are experiencing a shortage of qualified
substitutes to fill in when teachers are absent, and some
suggest retired teachers may be the answer to the problem. School officials and lawmakers alike voiced
support for an idea that would allow retired teachers to work a limited number
of days every year without disrupting their pension benefits at Monday's joint
House and Senate education committees. State
Education Secretary Pedro Rivera also indicated he was on board with that idea. "I would love to have the
conversation," Rivera told lawmakers. "I understand there are other
commissions and other perspectives that have to become part of the conversation
but strictly from a teaching and learning perspective and from the need
perspective, it's a great conversation for us to have."
The lack of a state budget isn't the only challenge for Pennsylvania 's public
schools right now.
A shortage of
substitute teachers has hit unprecedented levels, education leaders told the
state Senate Education Committee in a hearing on Monday. "In my nine years as a building level
principal, I can count on one hand the number of days in which I had to
scramble to arrange classroom coverage, or cover a classroom myself as a
principal due to substitute shortages. Today, the realities are quite
different," said Penn Manor Superintendent Mike Leichliter, who testified
at the hearing in Harrisburg . Leichliter reported that in 2013-14, Penn
Manor had 116 classroom vacancies that went unfilled. In 2014-15, unfilled
vacancies more than doubled to 286. This year, the numbers so far "are
already trending slightly ahead of last year’s statistics for this same
period." Similar situations are playing out in other states, where
school officials say job seekers who might have settled for a part-time job
during the recession became less inclined to do so as the unemployment
rate improved, according to the Huffington Post.
At sunset of term, Mayor
Nutter reflects on his ambitious education agenda
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY OCTOBER 26, 2015
Philadelphia Mayor
Michael Nutter set an ambitious agenda for schools in his 2008
inauguration speech: promising to cut in half the number of drop outs, while
doubling the number of Philadelphians who hold college degrees — both by
2015. "I'm asking you to
join me in the greatest American city turnaround that anyone has seen in the
last 50 years. Ladies and gentlemen, I've laid out for you: this is the new Philadelphia ,"
said Nutter during that speech. Nutter will reflect
on public education and how much progress his administration made toward those
goals during a keynote speech Tuesday morning at 11 at WHYY.
Urging
Students to Apply to College, New York
City
New York Times By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS OCT. 26, 2015
As part of a push to
encourage more students to apply to college, New York City will begin offering the SAT
free to all public school juniors, Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced
on Monday. The test will be given during the school day — not on a Saturday, as
is now the common practice. Education
officials said that by removing barriers to entry — like the required fee and
the very act of signing up — the hope is that students who might not otherwise
have taken the test will do so.
Obama meets with educators to talk about standardized
testing
Bootsie Battle-Holt,
a middle school math teacher from Los
Angeles , found herself sitting on a couch in the Oval
Office on Monday morning, telling President Obama about the barrage of tests
that she is required to administer to her students. “He said that he knows for sure at this point
that many of our students are being overtested, and he’s dedicated to a plan to
mitigate that,” said Battle-Holt, one of two teachers invited to meet with
Obama, along with a cadre of federal, state and city education officials. The private meeting came two days after Obama
acknowledged that his policies have helped lead to overtesting in the nation’s
public schools and pledged to reduce it.
Where did Obama administration’s 2 percent cap on
standardized testing come from? You won’t believe it. (Or maybe you will.)
The Obama
administration has issued a Testing Action Plan that it says should help reduce
over-testing in public schools. That plan includes a cap of 2 percent on the
classroom time students spend on mandated standardized tests. The plan says:
Time-limited: While
it is up to states and districts how to balance instructional time and the need
for high-quality assessments, we recommend that states place a cap on the
percentage of instructional time students spend taking required statewide
standardized assessments to ensure that no child spends more than 2 percent of
her classroom time taking these tests. Parents should receive formal
notification if their child’s school exceeds this cap and an action plan should
be publicly posted to describe the steps the state will take to review and
eliminate unnecessary assessments, and come into compliance. States and school
districts should carefully consider whether each assessment serves a unique,
essential role in ensuring that students are learning.
The 2 percent is not
much less than the 2.3 percent that a
new two-year studyon standardized testing says kids now spend on these
mandated exams, a figure deemed excessive by the report issued by the nonprofit
Council of the Great City Schools. Is 2 percent a wholesale change from 2.3
percent?
Reform Movement Reacts to Obama Administration
Statement, School Chiefs Survey on Testing Overkill
FairTest Submitted
by fairtest on October 25, 2015 - 10:28am
The Obama
Administration’s weekend statement calling for “fewer and smarter” tests
“belatedly admits that high-stakes exams are out of control in U.S. public
schools but does not offer meaningful action to address that very real
problem,” according to the National Center for Fair & Open Testing
(FairTest), a leader of the country’s rapidly growing assessment reform
movement.
FairTest Public Education
Director Bob Schaeffer explained, “The new Council of Great City Schools study
to which the Obama Administration responded, reinforces widespread reports by
parents, students, teachers, and education administrators of standardized
testing overuse and misuse. Documenting testing overkill is, however, just the
first step toward assessment reform.”
Network for Public Education Fund Response to Obama
Administration Statement on Testing
Date: October
26, 2015
This weekend the
Obama Administration released a statement calling for states to “cap testing”
time in an effort to stop the parental outrage against annual, high-stakes
testing. The suggested 2% cap represents nearly 24 hours of state-mandated
standardized testing, for students as young as 8 years of age. To put that time
into perspective, the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) represents less
than 6 hours of testing. The Network for
Public Education (NPE) is disappointed by the limited response to what it views
as a national education crisis.
"Before the Obama
administration coerced more than two-thirds of the states into adopting
valued-added teacher evaluations, around 20% of educators and their students
were subject to high stakes testing. The administration gave states an offer
they couldn't refuse and demanded that they create a score for virtually every
teacher in the country. That is why NCLB
was destructive -- why the harm done by teach-to-the-test increased
dramatically under Obama. Almost every public school student was required to be
tested or to have his education altered to generate a punitive metric for
holding adults accountable."
How Should Educators
Respond to the Obama Administration's Concession on Test and Punish?
Huffington Post by
John Thompson 10/25/2015 2:36 pm EDT Updated: 10/25/2015 7:59 pm EDT
The outgoing
secretary of education, Arne Duncan, now admits, "I can't tell you how many
conversations I'm in with educators who are understandably stressed and
concerned about an overemphasis on testing in some places and how much time
testing and test prep are taking." Duncan
does so as the Obama administration'sTesting Action Plan now invites states to correct its
biggest education debacle, the nonstop testing that has sucked the oxygen out
of schools.
The timing couldn't
be better for Oklahoma ,
and I'm sure most other states will jump at the chance to free themselves from
the Duncan/Obama imposition of the "junk science" known as
value-added evaluations. On the eve of Oklahoma 's
deadline for determining whether to dump the quantitative portion of its
Teacher and Leader Effectiveness (TLE) system, the Obama administration is
backing away from its once-clear demand that test score growth must be included
in holding individuals accountable.
Rep. Paul Ryan Close to
Taking Over as Speaker: Here's His K-12 Record
Education Week
Politics K-12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on October 26, 2015 6:59 AM
After some tricky
political negotiations, Rep. Paul Ryan is poised to become the next Speaker of
the House of Representatives. So what does the Wisconsin Republican's record
indicate he could do regarding education policy? There's the immediate and momentous question
of how he'll deal with reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act. The political climate in Congress could make it tough for a new
speaker to put a bill on the floor that will need support from Democrats to
pass. But Ryan's connections with the legislation's sponsors, his distate for
the Obama administration's ESEA waivers, and his record as a deal maker opens
up the possibility that he'll move a compromise forward. More on all that
below. Ryan, the chairman of the
House budget committee, has also pushed to reform student loans for low-income
borrowers. And he backed K-12 choice on the 2012 campaign trail, when he was
the GOP nominee for vice president, and Mitt Romney's running mate.
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 hosts two conversations
exploring these questions.
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 No. 1 say
about education and our national debates.
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/>
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.
PASBO 61st Annual Conference
and Exhibits March 8 - 11, 2016
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
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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