Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup December 31, 2015:
Treasury: 16,400 delayed payments to school
districts; how much money will individual districts get?
Community
schools promising, but take effort
Philly.com
Opinion By Kate Shaw & Della Jenkins Updated: DECEMBER 30, 2015 3:01 AM EST
Kate Shaw ( kshaw@researchforaction.org) is
the executive director and Della Jenkins ( djenkins@researchforaction.org)
is a policy analyst at Research for Action, a Philadelphia-based education
research organization (www.researchforaction.org).
Community schools are receiving increased attention inPhiladelphia , at the state level, and across
the country as policymakers and practitioners strive to address the effects of
poverty on academic performance and provide more comprehensive supports for
traditionally underserved populations. Earlier
this month, the long-awaited reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, now the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), maintained the three
largest federal funding streams available to support extended day services or
implementation of a community school model. And for the first time, ESSA
explicitly encouraged low-income districts to use Title I funds for integrated
student supports and enhanced community partnerships. In Philadelphia , Mayor-elect
Jim Kenney has called for the creation of 25 community schools over the next
four years and has tapped South Philadelphia High School Principal Otis Hackney
to oversee the effort as his chief education officer. Hackney cultivated many
aspects of the community school model at South
Philadelphia , including partnering with nonprofits and community
groups to expand services for students and their families.
Community schools are receiving increased attention in
Blogger note: Pennsylvania
Statement of
Education Voters: Comment on proposed School Code language
Posted
on December 14, 2015 by EDVOPA
"The first thing they
need to do is get off social media and get into a room and talk," said
Barbara Foxman, vice president of the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators. Pennsylvania's leaders are great at yelling
into their own echo chambers and having staring contests, but none of that will
resolve the outstanding issues in the ongoing budget crisis, mediators
agreed."
Wolf vs.
Republicans: Who are the real adults in the room?
Penn
Live By Candy
Woodall | cwoodall@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 31, 2015 at 7:00 AM, updated December 31, 2015 at 7:06 AM
If the
Democrats and Republicans have anything in common right now, it's that they all
think they are the adults in the room. And
they have the Twitter posts to prove it.
Here are two recent tweets from the governor's spokesman, Jeff Sheridan,
and the House GOP spokesman, Steve Miskin.:
"To get money to schools
as quickly as possible once funding was released, Mr. Sheridan said, the
administration several months ago “pre-loaded” payments for districts based on
last year’s allocations but that a “reconciliation payment” will follow. Normally, the main budget bill is accompanied
by legislation with instructions on how to spend money that lawmakers have
authorized. But a bill that would spell out the distribution of school funding
for the current year has not reached the governor’s desk."
Amount of school funding uncertain
State to deliver
$3.3B next week
By Karen
Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg
Bureau December 31, 2015 12:00 AM
Penn
Live By Jan
Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 30, 2015 at 9:35 AM
Following Gov. Tom Wolf's signing of a $23.4 billion emergency funding
plan on Tuesday, Treasury began the work of processing approximately 16,400
payment requests from the governor's budget office. With Treasury employees
working through the upcoming holiday weekend, department officials expect to
clear the entire impasse-related payment backlog within two weeks.
'It's a
relief': Pennsylvania
Penn
Live By Christian
Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com Email the
author | Follow
on Twitter on December 30, 2015 at 2:12 PM, updated December 30,
2015 at 2:17 PM
A mix of
relief, frustration and cautiousness is being felt by Pennsylvania 's school districts, human
service providers and nonprofit organizations now that there's a partial
state budget in place. On
Tuesday, Gov.
Tom Wolf line-item vetoed a Republican-crafted budget in order to
provide emergency funding to school districts and organizations. The line-item
veto allows the Democratic governor free up billions for struggling
organizations while still
continue negotiations with Republicans.
The six-month budget impasse has taken a toll on entities that serve
adults, children, families, seniors and those in need throughout Pennsylvania .
Court OKs Corbett line-item veto
By Paula
Reed Ward / Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette December 30, 2015 11:14 PM
A
five-judge panel of the state Commonwealth Court ruled Wednesday that former
Gov. Tom Corbett had the authority to line-item veto elements of the 2014
fiscal code providing funding to the state Senate. Members of Senate leadership filed a petition
against the governor in November 2014, challenging his ability to cut funding
for items such as Senate salaries, wages and personnel expenses, including
lodging, meals and incidentals while away on business, as well as $2.5 million
from the department of general services for rental, relocation and municipal
charges to the House. In the petition,
the senators claimed that the vetoes were improper and that because the House
session had been adjourned the day before the veto and because Mr. Corbett did
not give public notice of his actions, that they were invalid. Further, they
argued that the governor was not constitutionally permitted to disapprove
select portions of the fiscal code because it is not a general appropriation
bill, and that he must either have approved or disapproved it in its entirety. But Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter, in
ruling on the governor’s preliminary objections and Senate motion for summary
judgment, disagreed.
York Dispatch OPED by Frances Wolf, first lady of
Pennsylvania EST December 30, 2015
Last
week my husband received a budget from the state Legislature that falls
woefully short of the commitment we have to properly fund our public schools.
It fails the people of Pennsylvania , but most
importantly, it fails the children of Pennsylvania . I visited schools across the commonwealth
earlier this year. I met with teachers and administrators, and talked with
students in the classroom - and saw the same thing in every single school I
visited: motivated students and dedicated teachers who simply don't have the
resources they need to succeed. As I
have said, Tom and I take education very seriously. As parents of children who
were raised in Pennsylvania
public schools, this is an issue that hits home for us. We have seen firsthand
what it takes to deliver a quality public education to our children. That is why my husband used his executive
authority to veto parts of the budget that was sent to his desk. He took this
action to ensure a more responsible budget, while also taking the steps needed
to send our schools the emergency funding owed to them through December 31.
http://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/opinion/2015/12/30/pennsylvania-budget-impasse-wolf-oped/78086610/
"There has been one
constant throughout the six-month stalemate: Republican legislators' insistence
on retaining Pennsylvania
Inky Editorial: Toying with state budget
Inky Editorial: Toying with state budget
by Inquirer
Editorial Board. Updated: DECEMBER
30, 2015 — 3:01 AM EST
At least
Gov. Wolf is acting like an adult. The same cannot be said of Republican
legislators who passed the "garbage" budget that includes
expenditures that Wolf says he will selectively veto. The governor plans to
leave intact funding for schools and charities, which have suffered the most
during the six-month budget impasse. Wolf's
words dripped with anger Tuesday as he discussed the budget stalemate, but he
remained dignified in rejecting the "pretend" budget dumped on his
desk by the Republican-led legislature last week. Wolf plans to cut administrative spending by
the legislature, but that tactic, employed by previous governors to force
compromise, doesn't always work. Former Gov. Tom Corbett sliced the $5 million
budgeted for lawmakers to park their taxpayer-financed cars in Harrisburg . That stung but didn't move
indolent legislators.
DN Editorial:
BUDGET MAKES NO $EN$E
Philly Daily News Editorial Updated: DECEMBER 30, 2015 — 3:01 AM
EST
TO BEGIN
WITH, the budget the Republican Legislature passed last week and left on the
governor's desk was as phony as a three-dollar bill. The $30.3 billion budget pretended to be
balanced, but it was not. It exceeded available revenue by $300 million. It pretended to fund all vital state
services, but it did not. The Legislature sort of forgot to include $550
million in state support for Temple , Pitt and Penn State
Wolf's budget
math adds up to one thing - higher taxes: Dennis Roddy
PennLive
Op-Ed By Dennis Roddy on
December 30, 2015 at 11:44 AM
Dennis Roddy, a frequent PennLive
Opinion contributor, is a Republican consultant from Pittsburgh
Employing
such calming terms as "garbage" and "exercise in
stupidity," Angry Babylonian Revenge God Tom Wolf laid a line item
veto onto the second state budget sent to his desk in the space of six months. In a press conference that verged on
phantasmagoria, the governor demanded that the Legislature return and send him
a "real" budget. Allow me to decode this: By a real budget, he means
one that requires tax increases. Let's
do a little rustic math:
Five tweets
that explain Gov. Tom Wolf's #PABudget line-item veto: Wednesday Morning Coffee
Penn
Live By John
L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
December 30, 2015 at 8:30 AM, updated December 30, 2015 at 8:32 AM
Good
Wednesday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
If you're just tuning in, or, alternately, were trapped under something heavy and unable to reach your Internet-Delivery Machine, Gov. Tom Wolf has run his line-item veto pen across a Republican-authored budget. To sum up, it is a move that simultaneously releases emergency funding for school districts and nonprofits, but also prolongsPennsylvania 's already hyperextended budget
drama. Thus, much like rooting for any
team from Philadelphia ,
the news is a mixture of muted joy and profound agony.
If you're just tuning in, or, alternately, were trapped under something heavy and unable to reach your Internet-Delivery Machine, Gov. Tom Wolf has run his line-item veto pen across a Republican-authored budget. To sum up, it is a move that simultaneously releases emergency funding for school districts and nonprofits, but also prolongs
"Federal prosecutors
allege that Trombetta created a series of connected entities to siphon taxpayer
funds out of PA Cyber and to avoid federal income tax liabilities on at least
$8 million."
Wheels of justice move slowly in Trombetta
trial
They say
the wheels of justice turn slowly, and the ongoing federal criminal case
against Pennsylvania
Cyber Charter
School
Ghosts in the House: Lawmakers who are
absent shouldn’t get to vote
Post
Gazette By the Editorial Board December 31, 2015 12:00 AM
arrisburg
lawmakers, who drew the ire of citizens with their obstructionism over a state
budget, topped their fractious actions by allowing one of the oldest forms of
political trickery — ghost voting. When
the state Republican-led House convened on Dec. 22, a stopgap budget was ready
for action. There wasn’t enough support for it, though, so a vote was called
instead to scrap that plan and go with a Senate-adopted, $30.78 billion
version. That was the deal worked out by
Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican and Democratic leaders from both chambers. In
order for that measure to advance toward a final vote, it needed to pass by a
simple majority of members in attendance. And it looked as if it had, by the
slimmest of margins, 100-99. Except that
three of those Yes votes came from members who were not on the House floor at
the time — Republican John Maher of Upper St. Clair and Democrats Peter J.
Daley of California , Pa. ,
and Leslie Acosta of Philadelphia .
"Following is a letter
Tillerson wrote in 2013 to then-Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R), showing
exactly how the business leader went about pushing for the Core. He reminds
Corbett of the “significant operations” ExxonMobil has in Pennsylvania
A letter that shows how big business
pushed Common Core in PA
In recent days, education activists have
become incensed with Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chief executive,
for remarks he made about public schools that were part of a story about the Common Core
State Standards in Fortune magazine.
The article, titled “Business Gets Schooled” and written by Peter
Elkind, describes how involved some leaders of big business entities were in
promoting the Core standards in recent standards. It has long been known that
Microsoft founder Bill Gates funded the creation and promotion of the Core
through his foundation, but the extent of involvement by some other business
leaders was not as well known.
Top Philly
donor moves on from Anthony Williams...to Rand Paul
Philly
Daily News Attytood Blog by Will
Bunch Updated: DECEMBER 30, 2015 — 8:54 AM EST
You'd
think that Bala Cynwyd-based equity options trader Jeff Yass might want to sit
out the rest of 2015 when it comes to campaign contributions. After all, it was
just this spring that the Montgomery County billionaire -- along with two of
his partners in the Susquehanna International Group, Arthur Dantchik and Joel
Greenberg -- invested
$7 million or so in a political action committee to make state Sen. Anthony
Hardy Williams the next mayor of Philadelphia. Instead, Williams and his
libertarian-approved brand of charter-school boosterism were soundly rejected
by voters in a landslide Democratic primary win for the now-mayor-elect, Jim
Kenney. But
Yass, a limited-government zealot who sits on the board of the libertarian Cato
Institute think tank, jumped right back on the horse of big-money politics --
only to ride an even bigger longshot, the Kentucky GOP senator Rand Paul,
who trails badly in the latest primary polls. Today, a
bombshell New York Timesexpose on billionaires and their
tax breaks suggests that Yass may be particularly enthusiastic these days about
a certain kind of limited government -- getting the IRS off the back of a
Susquehanna subsidiary. Here's the
relevant excerpt:
NYT Editorial: The Counterfeit High School
New York Times By THE EDITORIAL BOARD DEC. 31, 2015
Teachers
unions and other critics of federally required standardized tests have behaved
in recent years as though killing the testing mandate would magically remedy
everything that ails education in the United States . In reality, getting
rid of the testing requirement in the early grades would make it impossible for
the country to know what if anything children were learning from year to year. Congress understood this fundamental point,
and kept the testing requirement,
when it reauthorized the No Child Left Behind Act — now called the Every
Student Succeeds Act — last month. But lawmakers ducked the most important problem:
the fact that most states still have weak curriculums and graduation
requirements that make high school diplomas useless and that leave graduates
unprepared for college, the job market or even meeting entry requirements for
the Army.
Can Schools Be
Fixed?
Experts on K-12 education offer
their reasons for optimism and pessimism going forward.
The
Atlantic Decmber 2015 by ALIA WONG, ADRIENNE
GREEN, AND LI ZHOU
It’s
been a tumultuous year for America ’s
schools—one marked by an expanding minority-student population, an increasingly
discontent teaching force, a backlash against standardized testing, and
shifting understanding of education reform. It’s seen greater attention on
areas traditionally dismissed as nonessential: things like early-childhood
education, after-school programs, and project-based learning. It’s also seen
evolving attitudes toward discipline, with tactics such as restorative justice
starting to replace zero-tolerance approaches, including in high-poverty urban
districts. Debates over how to address disparities in achievement have been
highly politicized. The ed-tech market has continued to grow. Education is often touted as a means for
boosting social mobility and making communities more equal, but inequality in
school funding and resources has made that difficult to achieve, especially
amid increasing poverty rates. Segregation in districts, both tacit and
explicit, is holding scores of children back, and performance on math and
reading assessments has remained relatively stagnant. President Obama has just
signed into law an act that will replace the widely despised No Child Left
Behind, but whether it’ll succeed in its goals—boosting the attainment of
disadvantaged students, reducing the amount of testing taking place in schools,
promoting classroom innovation, and so on—is far from guaranteed. We reached out to some of the leading
scholars of, experts on, and advocates for K-12 education, and asked them what,
as the year comes to an end, is giving them cause for hope and despair. Below
are their answers, lightly edited for length and clarity.
Education
Bloggers Daily Highlights 12-30-15
BLOG: THE EDUCATED REPORTER
Best of the Beat:
Reporters’ Favorite Stories of 2015
Education
Writers Association DECEMBER 30, 2015 EMILY RICHMOND
As the
Washington Post rightly pointed out, working during the holiday weeks can feel
like being stranded in a dead zone. I did manage to conduct a (highly
unscientific!) survey of EWA’s journalist members and ask them to name a
few of their favorite stories by their peers in the past year. I’m as reluctant
as anyone to post obligatory Top 10 lists (I like things that go to 11).
So this time I’m going to limit myself to a relatively small handful:
2016 PA Educational Leadership Summit
Summit Sponsors: PA Principals Association
- PA Association of School Administrators - PA Association of Middle
Level Educators - PA Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development
The 2016
Educational Leadership Summit, co-sponsored by four leading Pennsylvania education associations,
provides an excellent opportunity for school district administrative teams and
instructional leaders to learn, share and plan together at a quality venue in
"Happy Valley."
Featuring Grant
Lichtman, author of EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education,
Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera (invited), and Dana
Lightman, author of POWER Optimism: Enjoy the Life You Have...
Create the Success You Want, keynote speakers, high quality breakout
sessions, table talks on hot topics and district team planning and job alike
sessions provides practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and
discussed at the summit before returning back to your district. Register and pay by April 30, 2016 for the
discounted "early bird" registration rate:
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.
Save
the Dates for These 2016 Annual EPLC Regional State Budget Education Policy Forums
Sponsored
by The Education Policy and Leadership
Center
Thursday, February
11 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. - Harrisburg
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania )
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -Pittsburgh
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -
Invitation
and more details in January
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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