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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup November 11, 2015:
American Public Education: 54 million students, 100K
schools; 6.2 million jobs; no Presidential debate questions
Register for PSBA Budget Action Day on Monday, Nov. 16
— Join us!
Capitol Building, Harrisburg NOV 16, 2015 • 9:00
AM - 1:00 PM
""Mandated state
costs like pensions, special education and charter school tuition drive school
property taxes," Himes said. "Given the escalating cost of these
mandates we believe schools have done a tremendous job in managing the parts of
the budget where there is local control."
As proof, he released an analysis that showed that PSERS and charter
school expenses alone rose between 25 and 29 percent between 2011-12 and
2013-14 while all other expenses were basically flat. Himes said New Jersey and New York both
require voter approval for tax hikes, but those states also provide more
funding to districts than Pennsylvania New York provides about $3,000 more per student while New Jersey
School districts: Proposal to require
voter approval of tax hikes would be 'prescription for disaster'
Jacqueline
Palochko Contact ReporterOf The Morning
Call November 10, 2015
School
districts: Proposal to require voter approval of tax hikes 'a prescription for
disaster'
One
potential piece of a deal in the works to end Pennsylvania's budget stalemate
would require school districts to seek voter approval for every new real estate
tax increase, and school districts are not happy with the idea — or Gov. Tom Wolf. District
Superintendent Joseph Roy on Monday said a so-called back-end referendum would
be a "prescription for disaster" for Bethlehem Area and other
districts across the state. "The
disturbing part of the referendum is that it is coming from Gov. [Tom] Wolf,
not the Legislature," board President Michael Faccinetto said during
Monday night's Finance Committee meeting.
District officials and other school officials from across the state
believe the governor offered the referendum in exchange for a one-time infusion
of cash for public education and operations.
Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature say they are
close to a budget deal that would provide $350 million in new money for public
schools for the current fiscal year that began July 1.
Proposal
worries Pa.
York Daily Record Angie Mason, amason@ydr.com2:53 p.m. EST November 10, 2015
State
education advocacy groups are raising the alarm about the possibility of a
budget deal including a "back end referendum" requiring school
districts to go to the voters for approval of any tax increase. According to
a story from WITF, the framework for a potential state budget deal
includes increases in education funding. But advocacy groups are worried about
the possibility of a proposal being included to require all tax increases go
before a local voter referendum. The Campaign for Fair Education Funding sent
a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and legislators Monday, urging them not to consider a
backend referendum as part of a budget deal. The possibility would stop
districts from raising taxes even up to the "limited inflationary
index" or from seeking exceptions to raise taxes to cover major cost
drivers beyond their control, the letter says. "The
Campaign strongly urges you to abandon any discussions related to mandatory
backend referendum and the elimination of the Act 1 index and exceptions,"
the letter says. If that change were
implemented, and voters didn't approve a referendum, a school district would
have to cut programs to cover increased mandatory costs, the letter says, and
it would worsen funding inequities among districts across the state.
Editorial: Restore
lost school funds
Scranton
Times Tribune BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD Published: November 9, 2015
The
refusal of state-level politicians to take on more responsibility for school
funding has left Pennsylvania with the nation’s worst funding disparities
between affluent and poor school districts.
In Pennsylvania, the state government’s share of public school funding
is far below that in most other states, leaving it to local property taxation
to provide 60 percent or more of local school district budgets. Because of the widely variable health of
local property tax bases, there are wide disparities in the quality of
facilities, teacher compensation, benefits and spending-per-student — even
though the state subsidy system is weighted toward low-income districts. Now,
with the state government mired in the fifth month of a budget impasse, there
appears to be consensus that the state should restore some of the school
funding that was cut by the Legislature and the Corbett administration in the
2011-2012 state budget. The sticking point is the exact means of generating the
revenue. A theme of the Corbett
administration was that how districts used whatever funding they had was more
important than the amount of revenue they had. And there are, indeed, several
low-income districts in the state with good records of achievement. But those districts are exceptional. Funding
generally makes a significant difference. As the Rendell administration raised
the state’s percentage of school funding over its second four years, test
scores generally increased. Those scores fell for three consecutive years after
the funding cuts, which also fell most heavily on the least-affluent districts. Unfortunately, simply restoring some state
funding is not enough because that alone will not end the inherent disparities
in over-reliance on local property taxation.
The administration and legislative Republicans have proposed tax shifts
— reducing local property taxes and replacing the money with state revenue from
increases in state taxes — that should be the basis of compromise. Lawmakers
and Gov. Tom Wolf should not abandon true property tax reform for the sake of expediting
a long-overdue state budget.
Gov. Tom Wolf
clarifies education spending number; budget talks are back on
Penn
Live By Charles
Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on November 10, 2015 at 6:28 PM, updated November 10, 2015 at 9:29 PM
Crisis
over. A wrinkle in Monday's announced state budget framework was ironed
out at the highest levels Tuesday, setting the stage for a resumption of talks
on the final, and much harder, details left in the far-flung package. The crisis popped up late Monday, when Gov.
Tom Wolf's Press Secretary Jeff Sheridan touted what he said was an historic, two-year increase in the state's
major funding lines for public schools totalling $750 million
annually. Senate Republican leaders, who
said they had only agreed to the 2015-16 increases that Sheridan cited, demanded a retraction
and all budget-related meetings scheduled for Tuesday were abruptly
called off.
At 5
p.m. Tuesday evening, peace had been restored.
State budget negotiations stay on track
By Karen
Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg
Bureau November 11, 2015 12:00 AM
HARRISBURG
— After a tentative framework for a deal to end the Pennsylvania budget impasse
was thrown into question Tuesday, Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican and Democratic
legislative leaders appeared together to affirm that they are working toward a
deal. Late Monday, the House and Senate
Republican leaders said that they and the Wolf administration had agreed on
elements of a deal that would increase education funding, raise the state sales
tax and provide relief from local property taxes. A spokesman for Mr. Wolf
confirmed there was a tentative budget framework, and said Republicans had
agreed to particular funding levels for education in this and the following
year’s budgets.
Gov. Wolf,
legislative leaders reaffirm commitment to budget framework
The PLS
Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Tuesday, November
10, 2015
Gov. Tom
Wolf and legislative leaders from all four caucuses held a joint press gaggle
Tuesday evening to reaffirm their commitment to work toward the final passage
of what is being called a tentative budget framework. While the governor and legislative leaders
said that many of the more concrete details—like an overall final spend number
and the specifics of what revenue comes from where—need to be ironed out, all
agreed that when the final budget is agreed to, that will have been a day worth
waiting for. One part of the framework
that was discussed was a side-by-side pension reform plan that the governor has
committed to signing. Also detailed was
a $350 million increase for K-12 education funding with $50 million for special
education funding. That deal was not said to be agreed to for a two-year
commitment of increased funding at those levels.
Morning Call by Marc Levy Associated Press November 10,
2015
Budget
deal would make Pa. 's
sales tax second highest in nation.
HARRISBURG,
Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania's natural gas industry has fended off higher taxes for
yet another year, while a potential deal to end a budget stalemate now in its
fifth month would make the state's sales tax the nation's second highest. Gov. Tom Wolf's top priority has been a
record increase in education funding, and an agreement by top Republican
lawmakers on that issue was enough for the first-term Democrat, his press
secretary, Jeff Sheridan, said Tuesday. In a
brief statement to reporters, Wolf acknowledged that many details in the
proposed budget remain unsettled, and his ambitious hope is to have work on it
finished and through the Legislature by Thanksgiving. Some Democrats are restless over the tax
trade-off. House
Democratic Whip Mike Hanna, D-Clinton, said it may be hard for Democrats to
support a deal in which companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. — a major
gas-exploration company — will not pay more, but every resident will when they
buy everything from a car to an outdoor grill.
Budget deal
near with higher sales tax, more school funding
Education
Week by AP Published Online: November 10, 2015
HARRISBURG,
Pa. (AP) — A potential deal to break Pennsylvania's budget stalemate in its
fifth month includes a state sales tax increase, expanded school property tax
cuts and hundreds of millions of new dollars for public schools, top state
lawmakers said Monday. Gov. Tom Wolf's
office said the new money for public schools amounted to a record increase, a
major priority of his, even if the first-term Democrat had made major
concessions in other areas, such as losing his fight to impose a tax on
Marcellus Shale natural gas production. It
also appeared that Wolf would get at least a portion of the multibillion-dollar
state tax increase that he had sought to help correct a long-term deficit and
transform a school funding system that harbors huge disparities between rich
and poor districts. Meanwhile, the
Legislature's huge Republican majorities made headway on their goal of imposing
major pension changes for future state and school employees, while plans to
privatize some or all of the state-controlled wine and liquor system remained
up in the air. Many other crucial
details were unresolved Monday and negotiators said a final agreement would not
be in place until all of its elements get settled.
Final work on Pennsylvania
A new hiccup has
arisen over the terms of an "agreement" in the state budget talks.
Penn
Live By Charles
Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
November 10, 2015 at 1:18 PM, updated November 10, 2015 at 4:30 PM
Hey Pennsylvania . That final round of negotiations and
legislative detailing that could see us, at long last, to a new state budget? Umm... They're off. We kid you not. Important note: This is not to suggest that
things are irretrievably broken or that the $30 billion framework unveiled Monday has broken apart. Think
of it more like a pop-up thunderstorm that could pass by this evening. But it is, for the moment, a storm and the
issue at hand is the Wolf Administration's enthusiastic declaration Monday that
it has secured commitments from Republican legislative leaders to raise basic education funding by $750 million annually
over the next two years. The
problem? House and Senate Republican
leaders assert that the only thing they committed to was a year one increase
totaling, so far, $400 million, with a final, pre-k piece to be negotiated. And that, apparently, is what they told the
members of the their majority caucuses in briefings Monday afternoon.
'We do not
have an agreement' on the #PaBudget, Corman says in radio interview
Penn
Live By John
L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
November 10, 2015 at 1:35 PM, updated November 10, 2015 at 2:49 PM
That
didn't take long. In an interview with a
Pittsburgh radio station Tuesday, the state
Senate's top Republican appeared to have scuttled an emerging framework that many hoped would end Pennsylvania's
five-month-old budget stalemate. Accusing
the Democratic Wolf administration of "mischaracterizing" the contents of
the framework, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman told KDKA-AM in
Pittsburgh that "We do not have an agreement ... We thought we were
working toward one ... but there is no deal in place right now." The Wolf administration, meanwhile, claimed
the agreement announced late Monday, (which includes boosting the state's sales
tax from 6 percent in most parts of the state to 7.25 percent) was still in
place.
Is there a
$50m time bomb at the heart of the new #PaBudget framework?: Tuesday Morning
Coffee
Penn
Live By John
L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
November 10, 2015 at 8:22 AM, updated November 10, 2015 at 8:26 AM
Good Tuesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
So, first, the good news:
So, first, the good news:
Early
Monday evening, Republican legislative leaders rolled out a framework for a
2015-16 state budget that could deliver property tax relief to homeownerscourtesy
of a nearly 21 percent increase (from 6 percent to 7.25 percent) to
Pennsylvania's sales tax. More good
news: Pennsylvania's public schools are in line for a $350 million increase in
the state's basic education subsidy, which is the largest chunk of state
support for public education. But now
the bad news: Senate Republicans and the Democratic Wolf administration
offered differing accounts Monday of both the extent of the agreement
and of exactly how much new assistance would be delivered to schools,
specifically pre-school programs. Late
Monday, Jeffrey Sheridan, a
spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf,
boasted that the emerging framework included a two-year commitment to boost
pre-school and basic education line items by $750 million. Included in the administration's $750 million
calculation, apparently, is $50 million in new money for pre-kindergarten
programs. But Senate Republicans, through
spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher,
quickly pushed back, insisting that no such agreement on Pre-K programs had
been reached -- nor was there an agreement for funding for fiscal 2016-17.
Pittsburgh Public Schools' budget plan
decreases deficit spending, holds steady on taxes
By
Clarece Polke / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 10, 2015 4:15 PM
A
preliminary budget for Pittsburgh Public Schools released Tuesday includes a
decrease in deficit spending and holds the line on taxes. The $567.9 million budget has a 2 percent
increase from last year's adopted budget and includes a long-term deficit of
$21.8 million, a $5.1 million drop from the previous year. Chief Operations Officer Ronald Joseph said
the decrease in deficit spending is due in large part to increased earned
income tax revenue, decreases in salaries, medical insurance and debt service
payments. The district is projected to end the year with an operating surplus
of $900,000. The proposed budget would
keep property taxes at 9.84 mills for the second consecutive year. One mill
equals $1 of tax on each $1,000 of assessed property value. The budget does not
include any large-scale faculty or staff reductions.
Sen. Pat Browne in first-offender program
on drunken-driving charge
Laurie
Mason Schroeder Contact ReporterOf The Morning
Call November 10, 2015
State
Sen. Pat Browne on Tuesday was accepted into a program for first-time
offenders.
State
Sen. Pat Browne on Tuesday told a Lehigh County judge that he had become
"complacent" in his fight to stay sober, and relapsed shortly before
crashing his motorcycle in May and getting arrested for drunken driving. "I was not fully engaged, as I should
have been," he said. Although
the May 2 crash was Browne's third drunken-driving offense, he was accepted
into a program for first-time offenders that will allow him to walk away with a
clean record if he completes certain conditions. Browne, 51, of Allentown qualified for the accelerated
rehabilitative disposition program because his last drunken-driving arrest was
16 years ago. Under a 2004 change in the law, any drunken-driving arrest
outside of a 10-year window is considered a first offense.
Education Continues
to Struggle for Airtime in GOP Debates
Education
Week Politics K-12 Blog By Alyson Klein on November
10, 2015 11:17 PM
So far,
if the 2016 campaign were a third grade class, K-12 education would be the kid
in the back who never gets called on. There was barely a whisper on education
in the fourth Republican debate, held Tuesday in Milwaukee . In fact, it didn't even get a mention as
something the federal government should stay out of.
Hillary
Clinton rebukes charter schools
The decades-long proponent
of charters criticizes the schools for cherry-picking kids.
Politico
By KIMBERLY HEFLING 11/09/15
07:02 PM EST
Former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sounded less like a decades-long supporter
of charter schools over the weekend and more like a teachers union president
when she argued that most of these schools “don’t take the hardest-to-teach
kids, or, if they do, they don’t keep them.” Her
comments in South Carolina came straight from charter school critics’ playbook
and distanced her from the legacies of her husband, former President Bill
Clinton — credited with creating a federal stream of money to launch charters
around the country — and President Barack Obama, whose administration has
dangled federal incentives to push states to become more charter friendly. The change in tone on charter schools mirrors
other moves Clinton
has made to nail down the support of liberal blocs in the face of the
progressive challenge of Bernie Sanders, including her recent decision to
oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership. And like her reservations about free
trade, her new rebuke of charter schools suggests she’ll be less willing to
challenge core Democratic constituencies than either her husband or Obama.
Report:
Quarter-million more students now graduate from H.S. each year
Greg Toppo,
USATODAY 4:29 p.m. EST November 10, 2015
About a
quarter-million more students graduated from high school in 2012 than four
years earlier, new research shows, with the number of "dropout
factories" — high schools that persistently graduate fewer than 60%
of students — cut in half since 2008. U.S.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan welcomed the findings, saying that
poorly performing high schools have been "failing generations of
students." Duncan
earlier this year released figures showing that the USA 's high school graduation rate
had risen to 81% in the 2012-13 school year, the highest ever since states
adopted a new, uniform way of calculating graduation rates.
Testing Reform Victories 2015: Growing
Grassroots Movement Rolls Back Testing Overkill
Fairtest
Submitted by fairtest on November 8, 2015 - 2:42pm
Pressure
from parents, students, teachers, school officials and community leaders began
turning the tide against standardized exam overuse and misuse during the
2014-2015 school year, according to a new report released today. “Testing
Reform Victories 2015: Growing Grassroots Movement Rolls Back Testing Overkill”
shows that many states reduced testing mandates, eliminated score-based
consequences, and implemented better assessments. The National Center for Fair
& Open Testing (FairTest), a leader of the U.S. assessment reform movement,
released the study. Lisa Guisbond, the
report’s author, explained, “Public pressure has forced policy makers to
respond to the many harms resulting from the fixation on high-stakes exams.
Even President Obama now concedes that testing has gone too far. Opinion polls
show a sharp shift against overreliance on test-and-punish policies in favor of
assessments based on multiple measures.”
Among the concrete assessment reform victories documented in the new
FairTest report:
PSBA New School Director
Training
School boards who will welcome new directors after the election should
plan to attend PSBA training to help everyone feel more confident right from
the start. This one-day event is targeted to help members learn the basics of
their new roles and responsibilities. Meet the friendly, knowledgeable PSBA
team and bring everyone on your “team of 10” to get on the same page fast.
- $150 per
registrant (No charge if your district has a LEARN Pass. Note: All-Access
members also have LEARN Pass.)
- One-hour lunch
on your own — bring your lunch, go to lunch, or we’ll bring a box lunch to
you; coffee/tea provided all day
- Course
materials available online or we’ll bring a printed copy to you for an
additional $25
- Registrants
receive one month of 100-level online courses for each registrant, after
the live class
Nine locations
for your convenience:
- Philadelphia
area — Nov. 21 William Tennent HS, Warminster (note: location changed from
IU23 Norristown)
- Pittsburgh
area — Dec. 5 Allegheny IU3, Homestead
- South Central
PA and Erie areas (joint program)— Dec. 12 Northwest Tri-County IU5,
Edinboro and PSBA, Mechanicsburg
- Butler area —
Jan. 9 Midwestern IU 4, Grove City (note: location changed from Penn State
New Kensington)
- Allentown area
— Jan. 16 Lehigh Career & Technical Institute, Schnecksville
- Central PA —
Jan. 30 Nittany Lion Inn, State College
- Scranton area
— Feb. 6 Abington Heights SD, Clarks Summit
- North Central
area —Feb. 13 Mansfield University, Mansfield
Register here: https://www.psba.org/2015/09/new-school-director-training/
Register for PSBA Budget Action Day on Monday, Nov. 16
— Join us!
Capitol Building, Harrisburg NOV 16, 2015 • 9:00
AM - 1:00 PM
For more than four months Pennsylvanians have gone without a state
budget, and school districts are feeling the pain. As the budget stalemate continues, many
school districts across the state are depleting savings or borrowing to meet
expenses. In addition to loan interest payments and fees, schools are taking
many other steps to curtail spending and keep school doors open.
PSBA is asking you to join us at the Harrisburg Capitol on Monday, Nov.
16 to take action. Let our legislators know that a state budget is critical to
the education of our public school children in Pennsylvania. Budget Action Day, Capitol
Building , Harrisburg , PA
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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