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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup December 11, 2015:
Senate Ed Bill: Everything but the kitchen sink - BEF
hybrid, Keystones grad reqmt delay; cyber charter funding; state takeover plan;
PLANCON reform
Campaign for Fair Education Funding: PA Lawmakers need to deliver a
#PABudget that meets the needs of every child. Ask them to at:
Today might be an excellent day to reach out to your House
members. Phone numbers are here:
New federal law earns high
marks from state's top education official
Penn Live By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 10, 2015 at 4:52 PM
Pennsylvania's
Education Secretary Pedro Rivera welcomes the enactment of a new federal
education law that shifts more decision-making powers back to the states. The law, called the Every
Student Succeeds Act, signed on Thursday by President Barack Obama
represents a sweeping overhaul of the No Child Left Behind Act and its
one-size-fits-all policies that dictated accountability and improvement for all
of the nation's schools. "It's
empowering us state and local decision-makers to develop our own system for
school improvement," Rivera said. "It's creating more access to
high-quality preschool programs. It's understanding that there's far too much
of an onerous burden of testing on students and teachers. So it gives a little
more flexibility to how we assess education and school districts across the
state." What is heartening to
Rivera is how the federal sentiment dovetails with Gov. Tom Wolf's education
agenda and desire to ensure students graduate career and college ready.
"It calls for
introducing a bi-partisan-backed formula crafted by the Basic Education Funding
Commission to distribute some of the $350 million increase proposed for basic
education in 2015-16. Districts that would fare better under the current
distribution method would receive their share of the new money based on that
system. A breakdown of how much
individual districts would receive under this hybrid funding system was not
available Thursday evening. The hybrid
would last only one year as the legislation commits to using only the
commission-recommended formula to distribute new money for basic education in
future years.
Another aspect of the bill
includes delaying until 2018-19 the controversial use of Keystone Exams or a
state-approved alternative as a graduation requirement. That requirement is set
to take effect for the Class of 2017. It
also includes a provision inserted in the House ordering the Department of
Education to do a six-month study of alternatives to the exams' use as a
graduation requirement.
The Senate-passed bill also
proposes a number of House-passed reforms affecting charter schools to improve
the accountability and transparency of these independent public schools. It calls for allowing school districts to
make certain deductions from tuition payments to cyber charter schools, and
capping how much money they can keep in unassigned fund balances. It also would
establish a charter school funding commission to recommend a new way to fund
these schools that students attend at no cost.
Other highlights of the bill
include creating a three-year pilot to try to turnaround five under-performing
schools in Philadelphia; reforming the system for state reimbursement of school
construction costs;"
Senate-passed education
bill likely to face opposition in the House
Penn Live By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on December 10, 2015 at 8:46 PM, updated December 10, 2015 at 8:47 PM
on December 10, 2015 at 8:46 PM, updated December 10, 2015 at 8:47 PM
The state Senate on
Thursday approved an education bill that would begin to overhaul the way state funding to school districts is
distributed and delay by two years the start of using the Keystone Exams as a
graduation requirement, among other reforms. The 102-page bill passed by 41-7 vote with no
debate, just moments after the measure became public at a Senate Appropriations
Committee. It now goes to the House for
concurrence, where House Education Committee Chairman Stan Saylor, R-Red Lion,
indicated Thursday night it will likely receive a chilly reception. While he was not certain what all was in the
bill, he said from what he was told about it, "there's no way the House
could pass the bill as they sent it over."
"There's no way the House could pass the bill as they sent it
over." Rep. Stan Saylor He declined to elaborate on what parts he might not agree
with, saying he wanted to review the bill first.
"Sources say the votes
were a necessary tradeoff in order to secure the roughly $100 million funding
boost that would come to city schools as part of the budget framework agreed to
by Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders.
The $100 million boost nearly
equals the annual funding Philadelphia lost when the state eliminated the
"charter reimbursement" line-item. That part of the
Pennsylvania budget helped the district cover the added, systemic costs
incurred when students enroll in charters. That was cut in the first budget
passed during former Gov. Tom Corbett's tenure.
This legislation appears to
be a compromise version of a bill forwarded by state Sen. Lloyd Smucker
(R-Lancaster) earlier in the year that was modeled, in part, after Tennessee's
"achievement school district."
Pa. Senate passes bill
calling for dramatic interventions at bottom performing schools
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY DECEMBER 11, 2015
In a bipartisan
42-9 vote,
the Pennsylvania Senate approved a school code billThursday
evening that would require the state to take drastic intervention at five
"persistently low achieving" schools per year. The "opportunity schools"
legislation says the state secretary of education will have discretion to
choose the five schools from a list of chronic low performers as measured by
the state's school performance profile index.
The schools would then come under the purview of the Pennsylvania
Department of Education for at least three years.
The education
department would have five intervention options:
- Turn over operations of the school to an
outside education management organization
- Convert the school into a
neighborhood-based charter
- Close the school and facilitate
transfering students to higher performing schools
- Authorize a new charter and guarantee
admission preference to students who reside in the area around the low
performing school
- Replace the principal and at least half
of the school's staff
A school district or
charter school can appeal the designation of its school as a "chronic low
performer" within 30 days. As part
of its power as overseer of the "opportunity schools," the
Pennsylvania Department of Education would have wide leeway to make staffing
changes as it sees fit. The department
could hire employees and managers who do not hold state certification.
Employees could be reassigned, suspended or dismissed at will. Each of the eight state senators who
represent Philadelphia voted for the bill.
Senate moves Pennsylvania budget fight into House's
court
Morning Call by MARC LEVY, AP December 10, 2015 10:01 pm
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP)
— The Pennsylvania Senate sprinted through hundreds of pages of
just-unveiled budget legislation Thursday, handing it back to the House
Republican majority and all but ensuring that a five-month stalemate that is
crippling social services agencies would plow into next week. The House adjourned until Saturday, when
Majority Leader Dave Reed said Republicans there should have a better idea of
what elements of the package of budget-related legislation they can support and
what elements they cannot. The
Republican-controlled Senate adjourned Thursday night after a marathon week of
passing major bills that authorize $30.8 billion in spending, overhaul public
pension benefits and smash state control over the sale of wine. The last bill
it passed — a 100-page education policy and school spending bill — came up for
a vote within moments of it becoming public.
The Senate's legislation has the support of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, putting pressure on the House GOP to respond as
social service agency layoffs mount and borrowing by counties and school
districts approaches $1 billion.
Budget framework back
on…kind of
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Thursday, December
10, 2015
Good news on
Thursday if you were hoping to see that budget framework agreement to come back
together with all five parties on board; it has, but only kind of. After discussions with Senate colleagues on
how to move forward both Wednesday evening and Thursday morning, it appears
there is movement in the House Republican caucus to support some version of
to-be-tweaked budget framework agreement that was announced just before
Thanksgiving. Those close to the
inner-workings of the budget deal say the legislative process behind getting
the various pieces of legislation through the General Assembly could be wrapped
up by the early to mid-part of next week.
What the tweaks would be was still a bit of a continuing mystery
Thursday evening as House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R-Indiana) left a meeting
with Senate Republican leadership.
“There are some
things around the edges potentially on all issues,” he said. “We just haven’t
seen the final products yet.”
"Another
area of potential dispute between the House and Senate was if or how to divvy
up an additional $350 million in funding to schools that's a key part of the
framework."
Pa. Senate approves budget bills, expansion of wine sales
Pa. Senate approves budget bills, expansion of wine sales
by Chris Palmer, Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau. Updated: DECEMBER 10, 2015 —
4:47 PM EST
HARRISBURG - The
Pennsylvania Senate on Thursday passed nearly all the final pieces of a
long-overdue budget plan, including a bill that would allow consumers for the
first time to purchase wine in some supermarkets and restaurants. The bill, which passed 29-21 in the Senate,
would enable licensed supermarkets, restaurants, or bars to sell as many as
four bottles of wine to customers. Though
the votes may indicate progress toward an end to the budget crisis, they came
with an elephant in the room no one would discuss: which taxes would be raised
to pay for the $30.8 billion spending plan reached by Senators and Gov. Wolf -
one that still needs to win support in the House. "Instead of me talking about what I
believe is in it, just wait and see," the governor said during a session
with reporters Thursday. The lack of
details on how to fund the budget has been a key sticking point in budget
negotiations this week, and perhaps the central item standing between lawmakers
and a completed spending plan.
Speaker Turzai to be
Ousted?
PoliticsPA Written by Jason Addy, Contributing Writer December 10, 2015
As (some) lawmakers
work together to bring the budget impasse to an end, straining relationships in
the House GOP leadership could bring negotiations to a halting crash.
More than two dozen
House Republicans and Democrats have met this week to discuss ousting Rep. Mike
Turzai as Speaker of the House, Kevin
Zwick of Capitolwire reports. The group has even brought in an
experienced attorney to draft a resolution to remove Turzai.
“It’s very serious.
I think that members are getting blamed for what’s going on and I think that
pot has begun to boil over,” an unnamed House GOP source told Capitolwire. “The
credibility of the institution, it’s losing its value by the minute, and the
person who gets held responsible in many eyes is the top dog – the Speaker.” The anonymous source said Turzai could be
gone as soon as next week if a budget isn’t passed before then, though another
source called the talk an “intensified rumor,” with people looking for a
scapegoat for the six months of fruitless negotiations
"According to the
report, just five states had 5 percent of African-Americans in high school
graduating classes pass at least one AP test in a STEM subject."
Report finds continuing achievement gap in academic
performance
By Mary Niederberger
/ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette December 10, 2015 11:02 AM
While there has been
some improvement in academic achievement among African-American students since
the early 1990s, overall performance levels remain critically low nationally,
and Pennsylvania’s results fall below national averages. That information was contained in the report
“The Path Forward: Improving Opportunities For African-American Students,” released
today by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the NAACP. “We certainly want to highlight that there is
good news. But the reason we are doing this is that we want to impress upon
folks that this is a crisis in our community,” said Cheryl Oldham, vice
president for the Center for Education and Workforce Development at the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
Why the ‘no property tax’
idea that scares PA’s public schools isn’t going away
Billy Penn By Anna Orso December 10, 2015
What if the way most
Pennsylvania public schools bring in cash just… went away?
Politicians on both
sides of the aisle have been trying just that for years: Scrapping the state’s
property tax and replacing the more-than-$13 billion it generates with higher
tax rates on sales and personal income. Translation: You’d pay more in
taxes out of your paycheck and when you buy things. But you’ll get a huge break
if you own a home or a business. The
latest bill that would have made Pennsylvania the first state in the union to
ditch a property tax completely was
narrowly defeated on Nov. 23 in the state Senate. In a vote that
literally couldn’t have been closer, Lt. Gov. Mike Stack stepped in to break a
tie and voted “no” on the measure. It’s
the closest property tax elimination proponents have come in the Keystone State
to achieving their decades-old goal: Only two taxes — sales and income —
instead of three (even if it’s at the expense of local school districts losing
tons of control). Key sponsors of two
separate but similar bills, one in the House and one in the Senate, say the
fight isn’t over, and this issue is far from dead.
PSBA pleased with order to block use of Property Tax
Relief Funds for charter payments
PSBA Website
December 10, 2015
PSBA is pleased with
the Order issued Dec. 9 by the Commonwealth Court stating that Property Tax
Relief Funds (PTRF) will not be distributed to charter schools by the
Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) or the state Treasury. According to
the document, after the state budget is passed, all pending charter redirection
requests, including basic education and special education subsidies, will be
funded from non-PTRF state subsidies. The Order comes
after PSBA filed a lawsuit Oct. 21 in the Commonwealth Court against the PDE
and the state Treasury after the PDE announced it was redirecting gaming
revenues marked for property tax relief to charter schools. “PSBA fully supports the Order issued by the
Commonwealth Court that prohibits the use of Property Tax Relief Funds to make
payments to charter schools. These funds are to be used solely to benefit
taxpayers,” said PSBA Executive Director Nathan Mains. “We greatly appreciate
the support and participation of the Phoenixville Area School District and the
Eastern Lancaster County School District, named petitioners with PSBA on the
lawsuit filed in regards to this issue. We also thank the MeKeesport Area
School District for intervening and providing support to the effort.”
"With the help of Penn
doctoral student Justice Walker, I recently surveyed 111 public and private
high schools in the Philadelphia region to find out what kind of computer
science classes are available. In the School District of Philadelphia, just 19
high schools, representing 22 percent of all district high schools, reported
offering some type of introductory computing course that goes beyond teaching
students how to make PowerPoint presentations."
Schools must make computer
science a priority
Philly.com Opinion By
Yasmin Kafai Updated: DECEMBER
11, 2015 — 3:01 AM EST
Yasmin Kafai is a professor of learning
sciences at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, the
author of "Connected Code: Why Children Need to Learn Programming,"
and a codeveloper of scratch.mit.edu, a free youth programming site. kafai@gse.upenn.edu
This week, students in Philadelphia have been among millions of children and young adults around the world participating in the Hour of Code (hourofcode.com), 60-minute online tutorials intended to demystify computer programming. Participants use characters and themes from Minecraft, Frozen, or Star Wars to create simulated environments and games using basic computer science concepts. The Hour of Code is a teaser: a way to ignite students' interest in computer science. But for thousands of students in Philadelphia area schools, any interest in coding sparked by these online tutorials is likely to be snuffed out by a harsh reality: Very few public high schools offer computer science classes.
This week, students in Philadelphia have been among millions of children and young adults around the world participating in the Hour of Code (hourofcode.com), 60-minute online tutorials intended to demystify computer programming. Participants use characters and themes from Minecraft, Frozen, or Star Wars to create simulated environments and games using basic computer science concepts. The Hour of Code is a teaser: a way to ignite students' interest in computer science. But for thousands of students in Philadelphia area schools, any interest in coding sparked by these online tutorials is likely to be snuffed out by a harsh reality: Very few public high schools offer computer science classes.
"Embraced by an unusual
coalition of Republican, Democrats, business groups and teachers’ unions, the
law was a curiosity in a capital more often gripped lately by partisan
gridlock. Mr. Obama referred to the bipartisan bill-signing as “a Christmas
miracle.”
President
Obama Signs Into Law a Rewrite of No Child Left Behind
New York Times By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS DEC. 10, 2015
The president signed a new education reform
bill that shifts power from the federal government to the states on issues of school
performance and accountability.
WASHINGTON — Putting
an end to more than a decade of strict federal control of public
education, President Obama on Thursday
signed a sweeping rewrite of the No Child Left Behind
act that returns power to states and local districts to determine how
to improve troubled schools. The bill is a
bipartisan measure that preserves federally mandated standardized testing but
eliminates the punitive consequences for states and districts that perform
poorly. The new version, renamed the Every Student Succeeds Act, also bars the
government from imposing academic requirements like the Common Core. “This bill
makes long-overdue fixes to the last education law, replacing the
one-size-fits-all approach to reform with a commitment to provide every student
with a well-rounded education,” Mr. Obama said at a White House signing
ceremony for the law. “With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamental American
ideal that every child — regardless of race, income, background, the ZIP code
where they live — deserves the chance to make out of their lives what they
will.”
No Child Left Behind: An Obituary
NPR by CORY TURNER All Things Considered
Runtime: 3:24 Updated December 9, 2015 5:49 PM ET
The U.S. Senate is
expected to vote as soon as Wednesday on replacing the nation's big education
law, known since 2001 as No Child Left Behind.
And President Obama is expected to sign the new version, ending an era
marked by bitter fights between the federal government, states and schools. So as it dies, we thought an obituary was in
order. Yup, an obituary. Because the
law's critics and defenders all agree on one thing: No Child Left Behind took
on a life of its own. Actually, they
agree on one other thing, too: "If No Child Left Behind was a person, he
or she should have died a long time ago." That's how outgoing U.S.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan puts it. "It's about time to finish it off
and to bury it. And to do something much better."
The State of Charter
Schools, A Report by Pro-Charter Advocacy Group
Diane Ravitch's Blog
By dianeravitch December
10, 2015 //
Bellwether Education
Partners is a consulting firm that works with “reform” organizations, with
charter chains, Teach for America, and others who promote the privatization of
public education and the replacement of the teaching profession with
inexperienced short-timers.It
prepared this very interesting report on the state of charter schools
today. It projects that by the year 2035, between 20-40 percent of all students
will be in charter schools (p. 60). The
report contains a wealth of information about which states and cities have the
most charters, about which states do not permit charters (there are five of
them), about the demographics of charters, about how many charters have opened
and how many have closed, etc. The language of the report is much like an
annual report to the board of directors of a corporation.
Charter schools are a
‘gravy train,’ say researchers
A new report examines the methods charter
school operators can use to enrich themselves
AlJazeera America by Ned Resnikoff @resnikoff
December 10, 2015 12:01AM ET
The policy
framework for U.S.
charter schools encourages “privatization and profiteering,” a research
institute said in a report released Thursday.
Charter schools are able to siphon off large quantities of public money
for private gain — and only substantial changes to state policies regarding
charter schools can stop this, according to the authors of the report from the
National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at University of Colorado Boulder. Many education reform advocates argue that
the charter school model — under which publicly funded schools are
administered by bodies other than the school board, such as private
Education Management Organizations (EMOs) — promotes experimentation and newer,
fresher teaching methods. But the same permissive charter regulations intended
to boost innovation can also help EMOs pocket cash better spent
elsewhere, the NEPC report said. “What
we found is that there are a host of real estate and tax laws that were not put
in place with charter schools in mind, but that the owners of charter school
enterprises are using in order to profit,” NEPC Director Kevin Welner said. “I
think that understanding the nature of the charter school gravy train, as I
call it, is extremely important for the public and policymakers."
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
Remaining
Locations:
- 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
- Delaware Co. IU 25
— Feb. 1
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/
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
The Network for Public Education 3rd
Annual National Conference April 16-17, 2016 Raleigh , North Carolina
The
Network for Public Education is thrilled to announce the location for our 3rd
Annual National Conference. On April 16 and 17, 2016 public education advocates
from across the country will gather in Raleigh, North Carolina. We chose Raleigh to highlight the tremendous
activist movement that is flourishing in North Carolina. No one exemplifies
that movement better than the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who will be the
conference keynote speaker. Rev. Barber is the current president of
the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the National NAACP chair of
the Legislative Political Action Committee, and the founder of Moral Mondays.
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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