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PA Ed Policy Roundup January 14, 2016:
PA sees exodus of veteran, moderate state
lawmakers
PA sees exodus of veteran, moderate state
lawmakers
Written
by Mary
Wilson, Capitol Bureau Chief | Jan 13, 2016 7:11 PM
One
legacy of Pennsylvania 's
2015 budget gridlock may prove to be the wave of retirement announcements from
longtime state lawmakers. More than a
dozen House and Senate members are calling it quits, most of them with more
than a decade of service under their belts.
Their reasons vary. "Let me
put it this way: the impasse didn't convince me to stay," said Rep. Mike
Vereb (R-Montgomery), elected in 2006. "The
art of compromise needs to be revisited in the Capitol," Vereb said,
"and I think the art of the deal - someone should read up on it."
“The framework — it died a very
slow death over two months, as first property tax reform was gone, then liquor
privatization was gone, and then pension reform was gone,” Reed said. “There’s
no framework left. The only thing left before Christmas was higher taxes for
higher spending.” Reed says it’s time
for the governor and Democrats to sit down with them and start the talks over
on the remaining funding items — like education."
Republican
Leader Says Budget Framework Is Dead, Let’s Get Talking Again
CBS Pittsburgh January 13,
2016 7:03 PM By Jon Delano
PITTSBURGH
(KDKA) — On a very cold January day, KDKA political editor Jon Delano went to Indiana , Pa. ,
hometown of House Majority Leader Dave Reed, to see if there was any thaw in
the budget stalemate between House Republicans and Governor Tom Wolf.
Reed: “Hopefully very soon, and, look, the remaining part is not insignificant.”
It sure
isn’t — one-half of the public school budget, funding for major universities
like Pitt and Penn State, one-half of the corrections or jail budget, and some
public medical assistance dollars all need to be approved, along with other
items vetoed by Wolf. “Some of those
items, we may need to accept those cuts,” said Reed. And while the governor may prefer one large
supplemental to deal with the remaining budget items, Reed and Republicans are
willing to go piecemeal. “It’d be ideal
to do it all together, but let’s not hold up money from one area of the budget
while we continue to negotiate on other areas.”
But the Republican leader doesn’t seem in a hurry. “If it’s just going to be rubber stamping
higher taxes for higher spending, we’re going to be waiting a little while.”
Capitol confusion: Is there a budget or
isn’t there?
abc27 News By Dennis
Owens
Published: January 13, 2016, 6:24 pm
Things
are considerably slower a few blocks away at the Capitol. Right behind, “who cleans up all those animal
droppings?” one of the most frequently asked questions is, “How is the show a
go when the state budget’s a no-show?” “They
bring in revenue through parking and other mechanisms,” Governor Wolf’s
spokesman Jeff Sheridan said. “So, the Farm Show was able to continue this year
and will continue.” Back at the Capitol,
House Republicans reject the premise of the question. “We finished the budget,” insisted
Representative Brian Ellis (R-Butler), the House Republican caucus
administrator. Ellis maintains that the budget passed both chambers and is now
law except for the items blue-lined by Wolf. So, mission accomplished? “In our
minds, we’ve passed a budget that funds government, funds all the services.
Money’s being pushed back out to the schools and social services. The ball’s in
the governor’s court,” Ellis said. Wolf’s
spokesman promptly bounced it back.
Reports of end
to Pa.
WHYY
Newsworks BY MARY WILSON
JANUARY 14, 2016
The
latest spat in Harrisburg 's
budget back-and-forth is not about taxes or spending -- it's about words. More specifically, since Gov. Tom Wolf has
approved a partial spending plan for Pennsylvania ,
is the six-month budget impasse over? "It
means that we have a budget in place — it does," said House GOP spokesman
Steve Miskin. "There's a budget in place right now." "That's
one of the more ridiculous things I've heard," said Jeff Sheridan, Wolf's
spokesman. "The Republican Legislature still has not passed the revenue to
pay for anything. The general appropriations bill that they sent us was half a
billion dollars out of balance." In late
December, Wolf struck parts of the budget lawmakers sent to his desk. The
partial veto made deep cuts to funding for education, state prisons, health
care, and other items.
Despite ‘band-aid’ funding, no end in
sight for Pa.
Nate
Larkin | The Daily Collegian (Penn
State
With
many school districts on the brink of closure and financial aid for college
students hanging in the balance, lawmakers in Harrisburg nearly reached a
comprehensive budget deal at the end of 2015, only to ultimately be sent “back
to the drawing board” to start off the new year. Pennsylvania ’s current and longest budget impasse ever — which has been
defined by disputes between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the legislative
Republican leadership over boosting education funding and increasing revenues —
nearly came to end in December, when the Republican-controlled State
The Mercury By Kathleen E. Carey, kcarey@21st-centurymedia.com, @dtbusiness on Twitter
POSTED: 01/13/16,
10:52 PM EST | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
The
fingers were waving Tuesday, the day after many Republican state legislators backed
— and their Democratic counterparts opposed — a vote allocating $578 million to
five state-related universities. Republicans
said the Democrats were holding students at the institutions of higher learning
hostage. At least one seasoned Democratic representative said his GOP
colleagues are merely playing political football. On Monday, state representatives voted on
five non-preferred appropriation bills, which is the regular funding process
for Pennsylvania State
University , the University
of Pittsburgh , Temple
University , Lincoln University
"A Pennsylvania-based
campaign was established in 2014 to make sure every 3- and 4-year-old in the
commonwealth has access to high-quality pre-K by 2018.
Pre-K for PA,
according to the initiative’s website, has about 11,000 members involved in the
fight to enhance preschool education."
Local educators respond to State of the
Union address
Experts said there
are benefits for students who go to preschool
Local schools hope
to get funding to implement district-operated pre-K programs
Centre
Daily Times BY BRITNEY MILAZZO bmilazzo@centredaily.com
It was a
touching State of the Union address Tuesday night for at least one instructor
at Penn State’s College
of Education who said it made her proud to be an early childhood
educator. Linda
Duerr said she was emotional when she saw President Barack Obama get a
standing ovation when he mentioned prekindergarten should be available to all
families in the country with young children.
“That’s a first,” she said. “It was the first time I have ever seen
Congress stand up no matter what party, during the very brief mention to pre-K
being more accessible for children. It was mindblowing for me, and gratifying.” Obama has a vision to provide pre-K for all.
At least
that’s what he said in his last State of the Union address Tuesday night when
he spoke about presecondary education.
State budget
uncertainty impacts Centennial School District
Intelligencer
By Gary Weckselblatt, staff writer | Posted January 13, 2016
School
funding was the hot topic at the Centennial School Board meeting Tuesday night,
and the consensus was that districts know little more now than they did in June
when they passed this year's budget. More
importantly, there's not much hope there will be good news out of Harrisburg anytime soon. "The odds of winning the lottery are 292
million to one," said school director Mark Miller. "I think those are
better than seeing this year's budget before the governor gives us a glimpse of
next year's budget (in February). Mark my words." Despite not knowing how many dollars will be
coming from Harrisburg ,
districts are still required to develop their preliminary budgets for 2016-17.
Centennial is seeking exceptions for retirement and special education costs
that would increase taxes above the 2.4 percent Act 1 index to 4.56 percent.
Currently,
a resident with a home assessed at the district average of $26,400 pays a total
school tax bill of $3,346.46. The district millage is 126.76. A mill translates
to $1 in tax for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value. A tax increase of 4.56 percent would add
$153.23 to the average tax bill. "I hope that does not come to pass,"
said Christopher Berdnik, Centennial's business manager. The district's preliminary spending plan
increases expenditures $4.5 million to $110.8 million, a 4.67 percent jump.
Nearly $3.7 million of that is retirement and health care costs, according to
Berdnik.
What’s at
stake in the Supreme Court case on public employee unions
the
notebook January 13, 2016 Commentary by Ron Whitehorne
The
case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, now before
the U.S. Supreme Court, could have far-reaching consequences not only for
teachers’ unions, but for all public sector employees. Because unions are the
most organized and well-financed supporters of increased investment in
public education, as well as strong opponents of privatization, the court’s
ruling on the case could affect what happens to Philadelphia schools.
http://www.thenotebook.org/articles/2016/01/13/whats-at-stake-friedrichs-case-public-employee-unions
A fight over
Wister Elementary's fate
Inquirer
by Kristen A. Graham, Staff
Writer. Updated: JANUARY
14, 2016 — 1:08 AM EST
No one
disputes that John Wister Elementary, where few students learn to read or do
math on grade level, must improve. The
thorny question is: How best to elevate performance at the Germantown K-5, part
of the Philadelphia
School District
Nazareth teachers, district return to
bargaining table
Sarah
M. Wojcik Contact Reporter Of The Morning
Call January 13, 2016
A Nazareth teachers strike
remains possible, according to union president
A worthwhile opportunity for public high
schools — deadline approaching
A project called Schools
of Opportunity was launched by two veteran educators last year as a
pilot effort to honor high schools that work hard to offer all students a
chance to succeed. Unlike other rating and ranking efforts that use student
standardized test scores and data points, the Schools of Opportunity project
recognizes public high schools that seek to close opportunity gaps through
practices “that build on students’ strengths” — not by obsessing on the scores.
Seventeen schools were selected, and this blog spotlighted each winner. Now, the project has gone national for the
2015-16 school year. Applications are welcome from public high schools in each
state; you can find out how tosubmit one
at the website, here, and in the post below. The
people behind the project are
Carol Burris and Kevin Welner. Burris is a former New York high school principal who is now
executive director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education Fund. A
frequent contributor to The Answer Sheet, she was named the 2010 Educator of
the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York state, and in
2013, the organization named her the New York State High School Principal of
the Year. Welner is a professor at the University
of Colorado Boulder ’s School of Education
In this
post, Burris and Welner explain the project and how to enter.
Teach Your Teachers Well
New York Times Opinion By SHAEL
POLAKOW-SURANSKY JAN.
13, 2016
Shael
Polakow-Suransky, who served as senior deputy chancellor of the New York City
Department of Education from 2011-14, is the president of Bank Street
College
LAST
month, at the urging of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, New York ’s Board of
Regents suspended the use of state tests to evaluate teachers. This is a wise
first step, but it won’t improve our schools unless we go further and build a
professionalized system of support that views teachers as learners and
challenges them to improve their classroom practices. The national push over the last decade to
strengthen how we evaluate teachers was rooted in studies that suggested that
consecutive years with an ineffective teacher did lasting damage to a child’s
life chances. In response, many teachers’ evaluations have been tied to how
their students perform on state tests. In
2010, New York
began to develop a new teacher evaluation system, new tests and curriculums
aligned with the Common Core standards. Most teachers agree that the standards
are a step forward, because they ask students to think critically, write
persuasively and solve real-world problems creatively. But New York ’s tests are still dominated by
multiple-choice questions that don’t measure this deeper learning. In many
parts of the state, teachers did not have time to adapt their curriculums
before new tests were used to evaluate them
Education
Department Begins to Assess ESSA-Era Role
New checks on authority balanced
in other areas
Education Week By Alyson Klein Published Online: January
12, 2016
The
lights are still on at the U.S. Department of Education—but they may start
flickering in a few corridors. The
new Every Student Succeeds Act does
more than just give states and districts a big say over accountability—it
contains a laundry list of prohibitions aimed at preventing the U.S.
secretary of education from issuing marching orders on standards, teacher
evaluation, school turnarounds, and more.
And, while the latest revision of the nation's main K-12 law doesn't
scrap the Education Department, as some Republican presidential contenders
would like, it encourages the agency to slim down its workforce.
Remaining Locations:
- Allentown area — Jan. 16 Lehigh Career & Technical Institute,
Schnecksville
- Central PA — Jan. 30 Nittany Lion Inn,
- Delaware Co. IU 25 — Feb. 1
- Scranton area — Feb. 6 Abington Heights SD, Clarks
- North Central area —Feb. 13
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
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
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
Save the Date | PBPC Budget Summit
The
2015-2016 budget remains in a state of limbo. But it's time to start thinking about
the 2016-17 budget. The Governor will propose his budget for next year in early
February.
The
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will hold our annual Budget Summit on
March 3rd. Save the date and join us for an in-depth look at
the Governor's 2016-17 budget proposal, including what it means for education,
health and human services, the environment and local communities. And, of
course, if the 2015-2016 budget is not complete by then, we will also be
talking about the various alternatives still under consideration.
As in
year's past, this year's summit will be at the Hilton Harrisburg. Register today!
PASBO 61st Annual
Conference and Exhibits March 8 - 11, 2016
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center,Hershey , Pennsylvania
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center,
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 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.
2016 PA Educational
Leadership Summit
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:
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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