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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup December 15, 2015:
If you have newly elected members on your school board who would
like to receive the daily PA Ed Policy Roundup please have them send their
email addresses. Thanks!
Statement of Education
Voters: Comment on proposed School Code language; As adopted by the Senate on
December 10th, 2015
Education Voters PA
website December 14, 2015
We are troubled that
during this protracted budget stalemate the Senate has chosen to pass a bill
that contains what is essentially a state takeover and charter school
conversion model that is only for Philadelphia ,
and that provides language that could limit any community’s ability to place
reasonable enrollment limits in their contracts with charter vendors.
Communities must retain authority over the contracts they are obligated to pay
for. We support the establishment of a commission to study the issue of
charter school funding but believe that the charter sector should be limited to
informing the process rather than being provided with seats on the voting body.
"New dollars provided
under a bipartisan budget deal would be swallowed up by the skyrocketing costs
associated with rapid charter expansion. Statewide, charter schools would be
empowered to open new buildings and expand their student bodies with almost no
limitations. In Philadelphia, where the district is already under state control
and over a third of students already attend charter schools, the legislation
would put more schools under a different state operator and convert more of
them into charter schools – all still without ensuring those schools have
adequate funding."
ELC Analysis
of Senate School
- See more at: http://www.elc-pa.org/resource/2607/#sthash.unbZ8LBk.dpuf
tweet from Keystone State
.@RepTurzai
.@PAHouseGOP Chronically failing
PA Cybers w over inflated tuition rates spend millions of tax $ on ads
Wolf is wishing for Pa.
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY WILSON DECEMBER 14, 2015
Gov. Tom Wolf and
conservative House Republicans continue clashing over a Pennsylvania budget plan, now five and a
half months late. House Speaker Mike
Turzai, R-Allegheny, is demanding changes to a budget proposal passed by the
Senate a week ago. His caucus says the $30.8 billion plan calls for spending
far too much money. But Wolf said he
won't stray from the Senate's proposal, the result of a tentative deal reached
before Thanksgiving. "It's time to
stop negotiating," said Wolf. "Let's get a budget. I want a budget." That leaves Wolf waiting on the House, with
its historic Republican majority and what appear to be rifts between its
Republican leaders.
Fate of Pa.
Philly.com Updated: DECEMBER
15, 2015 — 1:08 AM EST by Chris
Palmer, HARRISBURG
BUREAU.
As budget bills advance,
big questions still linger
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Monday, December
14, 2015
A ray of hope broke
through the proverbial clouds of Pennsylvania’s budget impasse Monday as a
budget bill from the five-party framework agreement headed to the governor with
the passage of the Public Welfare—now Human Services—Code bill. Another budget bill, the Administrative Code,
was sent back to the Senate for them to review changes made by the House. However, as bills continue to chug along,
questions are still lingering for members about questions concerning how the
budget is going to be paid for, how budget dollars are going to be distributed
to public schools, and even some of the procedure behind how the process will
move forward.
Bad brew: Wonder why Pennsylvania
Penn Live By Charles Thompson |
cthompson@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 14, 2015 at 9:57 PM, updated December 14, 2015 at 10:45 PM
Pennsylvania's state
budget is now going on six months late, and while there are some tentative
signs that the last issues are now at least being teed up for closure, this
is a cycle that many will never forget. It's
earning a place in state government infamy alongside 1977 (a brawl on the House
floor), 1991 (the largest tax increase in state history), 2003 (Rendell meets
the Republicans) and 2009 (Rendell's last big ask). There are some things that this cycle has in
common with some of those others: First-year governors, divided government,
requests or perceived needs for tax increases.
But then there are some other factors that Pennsylvania legislative staffers, political
scientists and lobbyists say the 2015 cycle can claim as its own in, so far,
distinguishing itself as the state's second-longest.
"The Pennsylvania
Treasury Department's chief counsel, Christopher Craig, says if the other
ratings agencies were to follow suit, the districts would be effectively cut
off from the debt market, or the cost would be so high, they couldn't afford
it."
Education Week by
Associated Press Published Online: December 14, 2015
Standard & Poor’s says Pennsylvania
Post Gazette by Associated
Press December 15, 2015 12:10 AM
“It’s so
frustrating,” he said. “It’s just like a circus almost. They’re holding
everyone hostage.”
Jay Himes, executive
director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, said the
loss of the credit boost available through the state aid intercept program will
make borrowing more expensive for some districts.
"Standard & Poor's
wrote. budgets that are passed late are not unique to Pennsylvania, but Standard
& Poor's said it considers the length of Pennsylvania
Ratings agency move may
cut off some Pa.
Post Gazette By The
Associated Press Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, 1:27 p.m.
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania 's long budget stalemate could
soon make it impossible for some of the state's poorest school districts to get
another loan to stay open. New
York-based Standard & Poor's credit rating agency said it has withdrawn its
ratings based on a state government program that can help school districts get
more favorable loan terms by giving a guarantee to repay bondholders. In a Friday note, Standard & Poor's said Pennsylvania cannot
ensure the timely payment of debt service because of the stalemate. “While we consider school aid to be a
priority state expenditure, the budget stalemate has led us to conclude that Pennsylvania 's state aid
payments are no longer a reliable and stable source of funds,”
With credit ratings
withdrawn, Scranton
BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL Published: December 15, 2015
Borrowing $31.2
million by the end of the year may come with higher interest rates and fees for
the Scranton School District Scranton , along
with more than 50 other districts statewide, is now in jeopardy after ratings
agency Standard & Poor’s withdrew its credit rating because of the state
budget stalemate. In Lackawanna County ,
Mid Valley, Old Forge, Riverside and the Career Technology
Center Scranton , which has a calendar-year budget
and must pay back $31.2 million worth of loans by the end of the year. “It’s critical to get things done. It’s very
unfortunate,” said Michael Judge, president of Scranton-based CaseCon Capital,
the district’s financial consultant. Without
any state funding since the impasse started in July, the district has been
unable to repay its two tax anticipation notes. Districts, which often borrow
money in advance of tax revenue, are required to pay back those notes in the
year they were issued. The district sought and received permission from the
court earlier this month to secure a bond for the unfunded debt. Mr. Judge said
he had inquired about a credit rating from Standard & Poor’s last week, and
learned on Monday that the rating had been withdrawn entirely.
House GOP member: 'There
aren't enough of us' to block tax hike
Trib Live By Brad
Bumsted Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, 2:09 p.m.
HARRISBURG —
Republicans who control the House met behind closed doors on Monday to discuss
a $30.8 billion budget approved by the GOP-majority Senate and agreed to by
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. Resolving the
five-month budget impasse “is a matter of what happens in the House,” Wolf
said. Wolf avoided criticizing House
Republicans, saying, “They're good people. We all want a budget.” House Republicans have balked at $1.2 billion
in new revenue needed to fund the budget, and the fact that the Senate did not
forward a revenue bill. Leaders in both chambers said they are committed to
getting it done this week. A
conservative Western Pennsylvania House member, Rick Saccone, a Republican from
Elizabeth Township
EDITORIAL: Stop merely
teaching to the test
Delco Times
Editorial POSTED: 12/14/15, 3:44 PM EST | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
It’s a critical
aspect of establishing balance in life, or in business or school: Knowing when
you have too much of a good thing. And
so it is, or should be, when it comes to the business of standardized testing
in our public schools. Of course testing knowledge of a subject that has been
studied is not only a good thing but a necessary aspect of education. A student
learns, and then to prove she or he has done so — to the student perhaps as
much to the teacher — verifies the fact, under a bit of pressure. But somehow, in our country, somewhere along
the way, the essential concept that less can be more, whether in architecture
or pedagogy, got lost. We couldn’t take the middle path. If one set of tests of
our children’s knowledge was good, since these young ones were suddenly so
woefully inadequate compared with the children of a Finland
or a South Korea ,
wouldn’t more be better?
What do kids learn from coding? Much more than just
computer skills, educators say
Third-graders at Pequea
Elementary School
Former String Theory charter
principal alleges age discrimination
by Martha Woodall, STAFF WRITER. Updated: DECEMBER 15, 2015 —
1:08 AM EST
A former top
administrator and principal at String Theory Schools has filed a federal suit
alleging the charter operator discriminated against her and wrongfully
terminated her because of her age. Gail H. Avicolli
contends that shortly after the School Reform Commission renewed the five-year
operating agreement for the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School in
January, 2014, founder Angela Corosanite and son Jason, the chief operating
officer, embarked on a campaign to remove the woman who was "the
face" of the String Theory charters.
Avicolli, then 67, said Angela Corosanite repeatedly shouted at her,
"Do you know how much your health insurance costs me because of your
age?"
New York Times By KATE TAYLOR DEC. 14, 2015
How the Every Student Succeeds Act Will Impact
Educators and Education as We Know It
PeopleAdmin By Dr. Lisa Andrejko, PeopleAdmin
Strategic Advisor, Former superintendent, principal, teacher December 11, 2015
After surviving
conference committee meetings throughout the summer and fall, and passing the
House and Senate, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESEA/ESSA) was signed into
law by President Obama yesterday. This
is the first rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in more than
a dozen years. It is being viewed by most educational and political
organizations as a success due to the compromise from both sides of the aisle.
It removes the influence of Washington on K-12 Education delegating
accountability measures to the states. It also consolidates nearly 50 programs
into a giant block grant. What is
important for school administrators to understand regarding teacher evaluation
as well as recruiting and hiring?
Curmuducation Blog by Peter Greene Sunday,
December 13, 2015
Teach for America
continues to take shellacking from people who think to ask questions like
"How do you prepare someone to be a teacher in five weeks?" or
"Why aren't wealthy, white districts lined up to take advantage of this
awesome program?" or "How exactly does it help a high needs school to
have an endless parade of untrained amateurs wandering through classrooms for
just a couple of years at a time?" But
TFA fits the reformster narrative in many ways (Some people are just better
than others, so they should make great teachers-- certainly better than those
dopes who are in teaching as a career. Poor schools are failing because the
Right People aren't there, so we'll put the Right People there and that will
fix everything!), and it has allowed many people to put "teacher" on
their resume as they move onto their real careers as bureaucrats, lobbyists and
political appointees, so that TFA has become a multi-million dollar operation
with plenty of friends in high places. Still, they also participate in another
popular reformster narrative-- "Even though we are Better People and we're
doing Great Things, people keep popping up to say mean things about us, and
that makes us sad." And so
periodically reformsters try to fight back, and we get the bizarre spectacle of
millions of dollars being spent to outfits like the $12 million Education Post
or the $4 million per year the74 to combat a bunch of people who blog for
little or no money. Now TFA is joining
the party. As reported by Lyndsey Layton in the Washington Post, NYCAN (part
of a network of pro-charter, anti-public school, anti-teacher union
reformsters) has set up a Big Fat PR engine to combat TFA criticism. Why would
NYCAN do that for TFA? Well, most likely because they are all interconnected
and run by the same folks.
Blogger note: Would TFA still
exist without the $69 million it has received from the Walton Family?
Teach For
America
Teach for
America
Teach for
America
Teach for
America
Teach For
America
Teach For
America
Teach For
America
Teach For
America
…and for good measure, here's
another $10 million that the Walton's have given to NYCAN (and PENNCAN) parent
organization 50CAN:
50CAN,
Inc $2,600,000 2011
50CAN,
Inc $1,650,000 2012
50CAN,
Inc $4,300,000 2013
50CAN,
Inc. $2,500,000 2014
Where are you shopping this
Christmas?
Rapid response unit aims to counter criticisms of
Teach for America
A nonprofit group
has begun a public relations campaign to defend Teach for America against
critics of the program that places newly minted college graduates in teaching
jobs in some of the country’s most challenging classrooms. The new campaign, called Corps Knowledge, is
an offshoot of the New York Campaign for Achievement Now (NYCAN), a network
that supports public charter schools and school choice and wants to weaken
teacher tenure laws.
Derrell Bradford,
NYCAN’s executive director, said the campaign aims to counter attacks on Teach
for America’s image, which some people loyal to the program think has been
damaged by “a few disgruntled alumni” and other critics. Several TFA alumni have written negatively
about their experiences, saying that TFA’s five-week training session did not
adequately prepare them for teaching in struggling schools and that the
two-year commitment that TFA requires adds to the teacher churn in high-needs
schools.
Education Bloggers Daily
Highlights 12-15-15
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:
- 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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