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PA Ed Policy Roundup January 15, 2016:
82% of Philly's 140K 3rd thru 8th graders
qualify for free/reduced lunch; national avg. is 48%
Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Wolf still hopes for budget deal as next proposal nears
Delco Times By Marc Levy, The Associated Press POSTED: 01/14/16, 3:33 PM
EST
HARRISBURG
>> Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf says he’s hoping to finish a budget deal for
the half-finished fiscal year before he delivers a spending proposal for the
year starting next July 1. Wolf
said Thursday he’s not ready to buy the idea that sealing a budget deal is
politically impossible until after lawmakers get through the April 26 primary
election. Wolf says lawmakers would be better served politically to point to a
completed budget package. However, top
Republican lawmakers say there are still big differences over priorities that
they’re insisting on before they pass a tax increase Wolf supports to boost
education funding and wipe out a budget deficit. Wolf vetoed billions of
dollars for schools last month to keep pressure on lawmakers. Wolf is
scheduled to deliver his next budget proposal Feb. 9.
2016
priorities: Senate Republican caucus
The PLS
Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Thursday, January
14, 2016
Continuing
our vignettes on 2016 legislative priorities, this feature spotlights Senate
Republicans, a caucus looking at 2016 as a way to get many of their 2015
priorities across the finish line while trying to find governmental
efficiencies and opportunities to create jobs in Pennsylvania. “Many of
the priorities that were priorities at the beginning of 2015 continue to be at
the top of the list,” said caucus spokesperson Jenn Kocher. At the top of that list is public pension
reform legislation. “We passed historic
legislation last year that would’ve really revamped the system and we’ve
compromised along the way to get us to something that is more palatable to
others who may need it and we understand that’s what, to achieve reform, we
need to be able to compromise and lead us forward,” she said. She also noted the caucus is hoping to push
forward other things that swirl in and out of budget conversations, like
alcohol sales reform and property tax reform.
Gov.
Wolf, Senate Republicans Outline Some Of Their 2016 Priorities
PA Capitol
Digest by Crisci Associates January 15, 2016
PA Legislative Services is in the middle of a
series of articles outlining the 2016 budget and non-budget priorities of Gov.
Wolf and each of the four legislative caucuses. Here’s a quick summary of
the priorities the Governor and Senate Republicans identified so far--
Blogger note: The PA House is
in recess until January 25th
Letter: Another
recess for lawmakers?
Bucks County Courier
When I
read that the Pennsylvania House was recessing until the end of January, I
called my representative's office with some questions and was told that the
Speaker's Office could better answer the questions. Unfortunately, that was not
the case. Jeannie in the Speaker's Office said she did not have the answers and
could not direct me to anyone who might have the answers. The questions were:
1. Why
is the House recessing until the end of January when it just arrived back in
Harrisburg after a long Christmas break and the budget has yet to be completed?
2. Gov.
Corbett was voted out of office with the expectation that there would be
funding for education and that the Marcellus Shale would be the source of
revenue, considering that we're the only state that does not sufficiently tax
our energy resources. Why does the Legislature continue to refuse to tax the
Marcellus Shale?
3. How
much money do Republicans receive from energy companies?
4. If
the Legislature wants to change the rules for pensions for teachers and other
public employees, does this include changing the rules for legislators and
those who work in their offices?
"The inability to reduce
funding in districts with declining enrollments, coupled with the current
school funding formula’s failure to take into account student population,
penalizes growing regions of the commonwealth such as York County, the Lehigh
Valley and Poconos. The only recourse these districts have for making up lost
revenue is to raise property taxes. How
much have we as a county been penalized? By not taking into account student
enrollment, York County Central York ,
Dallastown Area and Red Lion Area school districts alone would each be owed
more than $91 million. Nearly every school district in the county has been
undercut by at least $18 million over that timeframe."
We need fair
funding for York County
State Rep. Kristin Phillips-Hill
is a Republican from York
Township
The governor’s preference is to
send 36 percent of available school funding to Philadelphia
You own
a business, and I am one of your employees. At the end of the year, you give me
a bonus, something extra in my paycheck that is clearly above and beyond my
normal salary. The following year, bonuses are not handed out. My response is
to tell everyone you are cheating me. I even ask for a raise to make up for
having to take a “pay cut.” That logic
is the basis of Gov. Tom Wolf’s demand that school funding increases atone for
the “Corbett funding cuts.” Truth is, when Gov. Ed Rendell doled out federal
stimulus dollars to our public schools in 2009, he told educators, “We will
invest these stimulus funds in a fiscally responsible manner that prepares for
the disappearance of funding in just two short years.” Gov. Tom Corbett then took office following
two years of education funding that was padded by the federal government.
Making up the “difference” would have required massive tax increases. The
governor simply and responsibly increased the amount of actual state dollars
for basic education. Responsible school district administrators recognized the
two-year “gift” they had received and used it for expenses that were not
recurring, such as library materials, tutoring and upgrading school facilities. Fast
forward to the 2015-16 fiscal year. Numerous education increases have been laid
on the negotiating table. For the Wolf administration, sending as much as $400
million more to our schools than in 2014-15 doesn’t make up for what Corbett
“did.”
Pew: No magic
from local or state school control
Inquirer
by Kristen A. Graham, Staff
Writer. Updated: JANUARY
15, 2016 — 1:08 AM EST
Local
control of large urban school systems is no magic bullet to improve academic
performance, research released Thursday indicates. Then again, neither is state control of such
districts. The
conclusions from the Pew Charitable Trusts come amid a growing local push for
an end to the School Reform Commission, which has controlled the beleaguered Philadelphia School District Philadelphia had a school board with members
appointed by the mayor. But "there
really is no consensus about whether any particular form of governance leads to
better student performance or fiscal management in an urban setting," said
Larry Eichel, director of Pew's Philadelphia
research efforts. Though some academic
progress has been made in the 15 years under the SRC, the Philadelphia district remains on shaky ground
financially and has miles to go academically. Pew
examined the governance structures of big-city districts nationwide.
"And schools in Philly
do serve a disadvantaged population: 82 percent of the 140,000 public school
students in grades 3 through 8 qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, well
above the national average of 48 percent."
Calling attention to excellence among Phila. schools
Calling attention to excellence among Phila. schools
Inquirer
Opinion By Jacob Vigdor and Josh McGee
Updated: JANUARY 15, 2016
3:01 AM EST
Jacob Vigdor is an adjunct fellow
at the Manhattan Institute and the Daniel J. Evans professor of public affairs
at the University
of Washington
Josh McGee is a senior fellow at
the Manhattan Institute and the vice president of public accountability at the
Laura and John Arnold Foundation. jmcgee@manhattan-institute.org
The
school wars never seem to end in Philadelphia .
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr.'s recently announced intention to close
several schools and convert them into charters has met opposition. One might be
tempted to conclude that providing outstanding public education is impossible
in this climate, but there are beacons of excellence. According to a new school rating system we've
developed - found at SchoolGrades.org - half the elementary and middle schools
in Philadelphia receive an F grade, putting them on par with the average
performance of schools in countries at the bottom of international education
rankings, like Serbia and Thailand, and well below the national average. However, there are 21 schools - a mix of
charters, "selective admissions," and traditional public schools - in
Philadelphia that receive an A grade, on par with schools in countries at the
top of the international rankings, like South Korea and Finland.
"Benitez’s quest to find
a high-quality center for her 4-year-old is representative of Philadelphia
The long drive
to higher-quality child care
the
notebook by Fabiola
Cineas January 14, 2016
Every
weekday morning, Rosaida Benitez makes an almost hour-long drive from her
home in the Northeast to her son’s child care center in North
Philadelphia . This is her
son Gabriel’s second year at Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, a community
child care center located near Temple
University Philadelphia ’s wanting
supply — only 20 percent of children have access to high-quality early
education.
State lawmakers announce retirements
amidst budget impasse, WITF reports
As the
budget stalemate lingers in its seventh month, multiple state lawmakers
recently announced their intentions to retire.
WITF’s Mary Wilson reported Thursday that more than a
dozen members of the state Legislature, most of whom have been in their
positions for more than a decade, will not seek re-election. "Let me put it this way: the impasse
didn't convince me to stay," Rep. Mike Vereb, R-Montgomery, told WITF. Other Republican lawmakers, who describe
themselves as more moderate, expressed frustration that gridlock has halted
progress in Harrisburg . State Sen. Patricia Vance, R-Cumberland, and
Reps. Nick Kotik, D-Allegheny, and Chris Ross, R-Chester, also spoke to WITF
about leaving their elected seats. "Many
of them are totally frustrated," Vance said. "There's nothing wrong
with compromise. It's not a bad word."
The
district is hoping it can have another decrease
Lynn Ondrusek Pocono Record Writer Posted Jan. 14, 2016 at 9:50 AM Updated
Jan 14, 2016 at 10:11 AM
Pocono Mountain School District
Opt-Out
Activists Aim to Build on Momentum in States
Education Week By Andrew
Ujifusa
Published Online: January 14, 2016
Activists
driving the resistance to state exams are attempting to build on their
state-level momentum over the past year, while also venturing into a new
political landscape that will test whether the energy behind their initial
victories will last. And they say
they’re forging ahead with their plans regardless of how much support they get
from traditional education advocacy groups, including teachers’ unions. Several leaders within the so-called testing
opt-out movement, which has gained considerable traction in New York and also
found a foothold in states like Colorado and Connecticut, say they will
continue to push parents to refuse to allow their children to take standardized
exams, particularly state tests, for as long as it’s necessary. They’ll stop, they say, when states adopt
accountability policies that prevent tests from being used to rank, sort, and
impose what opponents consider unfair consequences on students, teachers, and
schools. Some
groups also are looking to extend their influence beyond testing fights to push
in states for higher and more equitable levels of school funding and changes to
K-12 governance to increase what they say is more local and more democratic
control.
Testing Resistance & Reform News:
January 6 - 12, 2016
FairTest
Submitted by fairtest on January 12, 2016 - 2:03pm
Building
on the strength of last year's successful opt-out campaigns and assessment
reform movement, grassroots activists are already pressing state and local
policy makers to use their increased power under the new federal education law
to continue rolling back testing overkill in the first weeks of 2016.
Netflix chief announces $100 million fund
for education
Netflix founder and chief executive Reed Hastings, a longtime
supporter of charter schools, is creating a $100 million foundation for education,
he announced on his Facebook page Tuesday. The
Hastings Fund launched with grants totaling $1.5 million to the Hispanic
Foundation of Silicon Valley and UNCF scholarship funds, donations meant to
help minority students access college. “Currently,
too many children do not have access to amazing schools. Our aim is to partner
with communities to significantly increase the number of students who have
access to rich and holistic educational experiences,” the new fund says on its
website. The fund’s chief
executive is Neerav
Kingsland, a charter-school proponent who previously led New Schools
for New Orleans .
The nonprofit played a key role in shaping the city’s post-Hurricane Katrina
educational system, in which more than 90 percent of children attend charter
schools.
2014: Netflix’s Reed Hastings
There
seems to be no end to the expertise that America ’s billionaires possess and
are happy to share with the rest of us about public education. Apparently
making a fortune in the business world makes them experts on how to educate
children. Bill Gates, Eli Broad, Mark
Zuckerberg, various Waltons — these are just some of the prodigiously wealthy
who have decided that they know how public education can be “fixed” and have
plowed big money into it. And after billions of their dollars have been spent
for their pet projects, the real problems facing public schools remain. The newest bit of “wisdom” for public
education comes to us from Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings,
who is a big charter school supporter and an investor in the Rocketship
Education charter school network. At a meeting of the California Charter
Schools Association on March 4, he said in a keynote speech that the problem
with public schools is that they are governed by elected local school boards.
Charter schools have boards that are not elected and, according to his logic,
have “a stable governance” and that’s why “they constantly get better every
year.”
From Walton to
Zuckerberg: How Education Philanthropy Has Changed
Education
Week Charters & Choice By Arianna Prothero on January 15,
2016 5:50 AM
Netflix
CEO and prominent charter school-supporter Reed Hastings announced
this week that he plans to create a $100 million philanthropic
fund devoted to education. It's the
latest in a string of announcements and reports that have made for a busy last
few months in the realm of education philanthropy. A $490 million plan by the Eli and
Edythe Broad Foundation to
dramatically expand the number of charter schools in Los Angeles was leaked to
the LA Times in September. Meanwhile,
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his pediatrician wife, Priscilla Chan,
revealed at the beginning of December that they plan to give away 99
percent of their company's shares(currently valued at $45 billion)
to improve education, among other initiatives. Zuckerberg and Chan have
made a handful of other investments in education, including perhaps mostly
notoriously,$100 million to retool
struggling Newark, N.J., public schools. The couple also announced plans in October to
open a tuition-free private
school in East Palo Alto, Calif., for low-income students, which
will also include health-care services for the children and their
families. Last but certainly not
least, the Walton Family Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the decedents of
Walmart founder Sam Walton, pledged last week to
spend $1 billion over the next five years on expanding school
choice, in particular, charter schools.
That's roughly equal to what the foundation has spent on education over
the past 20 years.
The deadline to apply for the
2016 summer internship is March 15.
The
Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association offers a summer internship
program at the state Capitol in Harrisburg ,
Pa.
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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