Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 3850 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition
team members, Superintendents, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher
leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations,
education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory
agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via
emails, website, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup March 11, 2016:
A budget in 30 days? Last meeting was in December
PA Legislature Joint public hearing-on
Federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Monday, March 14; 10:30 am
PA
House and Senate Education Committees
03/14/2016 10:30 AM
Hearing Room #1 North Office Bldg
Schools to join Spring-Ford in march on
Harrisburg Monday, March 14
Capitol Rotunda 11 am
Harrisburg politicians,
start doing your job
Doylestown Intelligencer Letter by Jennifer and David Gross Posted: Friday,
March 11, 2016 12:15 am
While state lawmakers continue to play politics over the state budget,
our children and their right to a quality education continue to fall to the
wayside. The crisis in Harrisburg has decimated funding for school districts
across the state. We were disheartened to read that right here in Quakertown,
where we send our daughter to school, the political squabble will likely cause
a spending freeze, hiring freeze and staff furloughs for the district. This isn’t the fault of the teachers. This
isn’t the fault of taxpayers. It certainly isn’t the fault of our children. The
blame lies entirely on the culture of gridlock and the political games that are
being played by the people we sent to Harrisburg to represent us. As parents, this situation is incredibly
disappointing. Our representatives in Harrisburg have one job, and they are not
doing it. We're writing today to call on Harrisburg politicians to start doing
their jobs. It’s time to stop sacrificing the education of our children and
negotiate a budget now. Our children deserve better.
“We have an opportunity to fix 24 years
of rotten injustice.” stated State Representative David Parker in
testimony before the House Appropriations Committee. “First, we need to
quickly bring all 180 under-funded School Districts to equity, as soon as
possible. After that, all BEF funding should go through the equitable
Basic Education Funding formula. “
Parker added, “Now is the Time!. If we do not address the 180
under-funded schools first, these 180 schools will be doomed to remain
under-funded for another 24 years and that is devastatingly wrong.”
Group Urges Citizens to
Sign/Share Petition for Equity First
180 School
Districts are Under-Funded by $937 MILLION
(Harrisburg, PA) - A new Pennsylvania non-profit group, Citizens
for Fair and Equitable School Funding, is urging citizens across
Pennsylvania to sign and share a citizen's Petition asking Governor Wolf and
the Pennsylvania General Assembly to support Equity First for the distribution
of Basic Education Funding. Their website is www.SupportEquityFirst.org.
In June, 2015, the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission issued
its final report and unanimously recommended a new Basic Education Funding
formula to distribute nearly $7 Billion in state funding that goes to
Pennsylvania's 500 school districts. After receiving thousands of pages
of testimony from hundreds of education leaders, and reviewing all the data, the
Commission determined 180 School Districts are under-funded by more than $937
Million, ANNUALLY. Citizens
can support Equity First by visiting: www.SupportEquityFirst.org Clicking on “Get
Involved” and “Sign Petition.”
A budget in 30 days? Some
think so.
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Thursday, March 10, 2016
As House Appropriations budget hearings wrapped up on Thursday, Committee
Majority Chairman Bill Adolph (R-Delaware) made the bold claim that he feels
there is a 30-day window approaching that could bring about an end to the FY
2015-2016 budget impasse. The comments
came in preliminary remarks before questioning with Budget Sec. Randy Albright
began for the penultimate scrutiny by the House Appropriations Committee of
proposed FY 2016-2017 spending. “I’m
listening to members on both sides of the aisle and they’re talking about
compromise, well, let’s get together and start talking about it and see if the
governor is willing to get 15-16 done,” Rep. Adolph told reporters during a
mid-hearing break Thursday. “I think the money’s there, we can pay our bills,
and let’s close the pain for these folks out there.” Most importantly, Rep. Adolph said, the two
sides need to get together and start having substantive discussions about how
to conclude the budget process, something he said really hasn’t happened since
the governor’s December line-item veto of a Republican-crafted budget plan.
Last meeting on overdue
Pa. budget was in December, lawmaker says
WHYY Newsworks BY MARY
WILSON MARCH 11, 2016
Pennsylvania hasn't had a full spending plan for more than eight months,
but top lawmakers haven't had a budget meeting with Gov. Tom Wolf's
administration this year, the House Appropriations Committee chairman said
Thursday. "We haven't met since
December," said Rep. Bill Adolph, R-Delaware. "And we should have
been." In December, Wolf partially
rejected a Republican-crafted spending plan sent to his desk right before the
holidays. The vetoed funding for corrections, schools, agriculture, and other
programs has prompted recriminations from both sides of the aisle, as well as a
number of legal quandaries. The state
Treasury is advancing unauthorized funds to the state prisons system in an
effort to protect the safety of the commonwealth. This week, the Pennsylvania
School Boards Association asked a state court to force state funding to flow to
schools over and above what is in the budget approved by the governor.
Five
things we learned from Pa. Budget Secretary Randy Albright's final act in 2016
state budget hearings Friday
Penn Live By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Email the
author | Follow on Twitter on March 10, 2016 at 6:56 PM
What more can you say about a budget
stalemate that's now into its ninth month, has the state Treasurer weighing competing Constitutional provisions to keep
certain state operations afloat and - with a fresh batch of tax increase proposals on the table -
shows no sign of easing in 2016-17? Lots,
it turns out. The House Appropriations
Committee had State Budget Secretary Randy Albright in to close its winter set
of budget hearings Thursday and, between this year's gridlock and next year's
$33.2 billion plan, it took five hours for all sides to make their case. Catch the full show on PCN if you want, but
here are the points along the way that made the biggest impression on us.
“Standard & Poor's warned last month
that Pennsylvania has 90 days to fix its fiscal situation or its credit rating
will likely be downgraded, Albright said. If that occurs, taxpayers would have
to pay millions of dollars more when the state borrows money.”
Republican House budget
panel chairman accuses Wolf of 'creating' budget crisis
Trib Live BY BRAD BUMSTED | Thursday, March 10, 2016,
11:10 p.m.
HARRISBURG — A Republican House budget panel
chairman accused Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf on Thursday of “creating a crisis”
with his state budget proposals rather than seeking compromise. Wolf in June became the first governor since
the 1950s to veto the entire budget when he could have nixed portions of it,
said Rep. Bill Adolph, R-Delaware County, who heads the House Appropriations
Committee. Adolph blamed Wolf for using
his line-item veto to cut $6 billion from education, state prisons and human
services instead of working with the House on a compromise members offered in
December that left just $500 million in dispute. Two months later, Adolph said, the education
department sent instructions to school districts about how to close schools,
which Republicans said was a tactic to gain support for spending increases. “That's not trying to compromise; it's
creating a crisis,” Adolph said. “If you want to settle this, you don't send
out a booklet on how to close a school.”
Wolf's budget secretary, Randy Albright, went
before the panel to defend his boss.
THE
RISING FISCAL COST OF THE BUDGET IMPASSE
Third & State
Blog Posted by Mark Price on March 9, 2016
12:50 pm
The Inquirer’s Joseph DiStefano reported last
week that Standard and Poor’s is threatening to cut Pennsylvania’s credit
rating due to the states failure to address the structural budget deficit. Ratings on debt issued by
Pennsylvania have been downgraded five times in the last four years and every
downgrade costs the commonwealth tens of millions of dollars
on each billion dollars of borrowing. Indeed DiStefano reports that, “Pennsylvania
taxpayers had to pay investors an extra 0.52 percent interest to sell bonds as
of last month, more than any state except New Jersey and Illinois, according to
a report by PNC Financial Services Group.” Spending more than we should to borrow money
means spending less on making sure that every child in Pennsylvania gets access
to a high quality public education.
“CASD will only receive $8,534,449 in
state funding.” That would leave the
district short by $7,050,000 in basic education subsidy, special education
subsidy, Ready to Learn funding and PlanCon building project reimbursement,
Snyder said. “
State budget debacle could
mean a $7 million deficit for Carlisle school district
Joseph Cress The Sentinel March 10, 2016
If lawmakers fail to resolve the state budget debacle, Carlisle Area
School District could be faced with a $7 million budget deficit in its current
fiscal year. That was the word Thursday
from Business Operations Manager Owen Snyder who recently sought advice because
he thought he was at a disadvantage for being fairly new to how public
education is funded. “I’ve talked to a
number of different business managers in the area,” said Snyder who came to
Carlisle Area School District from Carlisle Borough. Everyone he consulted said
the same thing. “It’s just such a new environment,” Snyder told school board
members. On Feb. 9, Gov. Tom Wolf
presented a proposed state budget for 2016-2017 that includes a $487 million
increase in education funding. It has been the past practice in Carlisle for
district administrators to review a governor’s budget with the school board
soon after the fiscal plan is unveiled to the General Assembly. But this year
administrators kept it brief. Given that
the 2015-2016 budget has not yet been approved, any modifications to the
education budget are far from guarantees,” Snyder wrote in a memo. “Absent
further action from the PA legislature on the 2015-2016 budget,
Union CIty Area School
DIstrict lays off 18
YourErie.com Published 03/10 2016 11:17PM
Union City is laying off 18 staff members because of the state budget
impasse. The school Board announced Thursday night that they will be
laying off teacher and student aids janitors, maintenance crew members and the
pool supervisor. The school will also shut down it's swimming pool. State
Representative Curt Sonney attended the meeting to address the budget issues.
The state released 45% of their yearly funds to the school, but the
district needs the full $7 million to operate.
Brentwood schools may take
out loan to cover daily expenses
Post Gazette By Deana Carpenter March 11, 2016 12:00 AM
Brentwood school officials said the district may have to take out a loan
to cover payroll and day-to-day expenses to fill a funding gap created by the
lingering state budget impasse. Superintendent
Amy Burch said that without state funding, the district’s fund balance will be
depleted by the beginning of July. “After
running a cash flow deficit with the bank, we look to be at a fund balance of
approximately $384,000 by June 30,” she said. Brentwood began the school
year with a fund balance of $3.5 million. The district had anticipated
receiving about $3.2 million from the state when it put together its $21.4
million 2015-16 budget last year. Ms. Burch said a loan amount has not been determined but that it would
cover “payroll and day-to-day expenses.” She said the banks the district is
speaking with have interest rates between 1.35 and 1.55 percent. The district was expecting about $573,665
in construction reimbursements from the state and about $65,000 in Social
Security reimbursements. To offset the
loss in state funding, Brentwood is withholding tuition payments to cyber and
charter schools, about $26,000 a month, and is looking at other areas
where it can cut spending, including Brentwood Day Camp, which has been in
existence for decades.
Hite
pledges a nurse, counselor for every Philly school
Inquirer by Susan Snyder and Martha
Woodall, STAFF WRITERS. Updated: MARCH 10, 2016 — 1:47 PM EST
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. announced
at a principals' meeting Thursday that he plans to budget for a full-time nurse
and a full-time counselor in all 214 schools next year.
The plan, which was presented at a session at
Martin Luther King High School, is contingent on the approval of Gov. Wolf's
proposed budget. The governor's budget would provide a substantial increase in
funding for the school district next year, said Fernando Gallard, district
spokesman. He said that the individual school budgets that
contain provisions for nurses and counselors were being distributed later on
Thursday. The surprise announcement at
the high school in the city's East Germantown section stunned and heartened
principals, many of whom have been trying to run schools while having access to
nurses and counselors only a few days a week because of the district's
financial woes.
Pre-K
commission mulls support for soda tax
by Julia Terruso, STAFF WRITER. Updated: MARCH
10, 2016 — 2:43 PM EST
The commission formed to study universal
pre-K in the city is weighing whether to include Mayor Kenney's sugary drink
tax in its final recommendations report.
The independent commission, which began work in June, published a first
draft in February that offered no proposals for how to fund pre-K, but did
outline a breakdown of the benefits and costs of adding 10,000 quality pre-K
seats. On Tuesday, at the commission's
monthly meeting, members of the administration who are on the commission said
the report should include the three-cent-per-ounce tax. Meeting attendees said
conversation grew heated with some members not wanting the tax included in the
proposal. "The commission hasn't
taken an official stance yet, we're still having conversations," said
Sharon Easterling, co-chair of the commission and executive director of the
Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children. "I will
say the commission is in strong agreement that we have to have sufficient
funding."
“At
the four newly selected schools, principals and staff will be required to
reapply for their jobs. Based on
eligibility for state and federal turnaround grants, the district said it will
allow no more than half of the current staff to stay at the schools. Teachers
not chosen through a turnaround school's site-selection process would be force
transferred elsewhere in the district.”
Educators
push back against Philly district plan for school shake-ups
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY MARCH 10, 2016
The School District of Philadelphia is
devoting $23.7 million to a new plan for intervention at 15 of its
lowest-performing schools; $7.2 million of that is new district investment. The
rest will come from redirecting funds currently spent at affected schools. The district will provide additional
resources and supports to the schools clustered in its "Turnaround
Network" with a goal of lifting them out of the bottom quartile of the
district's quality rating within five years.
Until this point, the Turnaround Network has consisted of the 12
remaining schools that were designated "promise academies" by former
Superintendent Arlene Ackerman in 2010. As reported last week, the district plans to add four of its
academically lowest-ranking elementary schools to the list: Theodore Roosevelt,
E.W. Rhodes, S. Weir Mitchell, and Luis Munoz-Marin. And it has plans to remove Cayuga Elementary
from the Turnaround Network based on student growth on state standardized
tests. District officials said all of
the turnaround schools will have an assistant principal, a full-time guidance
counselor, and full-time teacher coaches for English and math. Officials said K-2 classrooms will be capped
at 20-1 student-teacher ratios; teachers and principals will receive extensive
professional development; and technology-driven blended-learning models will be
put at a premium.
‘
Pa. vows "top to
bottom" audit of Manheim Township school district
Lancaster Online by SUSAN BALDRIGE |
Staff Writer March 10, 2016
The state’s chief fiscal watchdog said his planned audit of the Manheim
Township School District will be a “top-to-bottom performance and financial”
review that’s more extensive than any other he’s conducting here in 2016. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, meeting
with reporters in Lancaster on Thursday, said his office is singling out the
suburban school district amid disclosures of Sunshine Act violations, an
unexpected superintendent resignation and spending cuts. "It's the only school district in
Lancaster County that had to cut back on art and music," said DePasquale.
"The only one." "The news
that the Auditor General has scheduled Manheim Township School District for a
standard audit is neither unheard of nor unwelcomed,” Acting Superintendent
Marty Hudacs wrote on the district’s website earlier this month.
Pediatrics
group advocates screening for poverty
More than 34 percent of
children in Allegheny County and more than 39 percent of children statewide
live in what are considered low-income homes, according to Pennsylvania
Partnerships for Children.
By Kate Giammarise / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette March
9, 2016 12:00 AM
Calling poverty “one of the most widespread
and persistent health risks facing children,” the American Academy of
Pediatrics is issuing new recommendations today urging pediatricians to ask at
checkups if families are able to make ends meet. Kids living in poverty can face a number of
health problems, some of which could affect them for their entire lives, such
as high rates of asthma and obesity, developmental problems, and harmful levels
of stress that can alter brain function.
Pediatricians “have a short period of time to really address some issues
that could have an impact all through [a child’s] adult life,” said Joseph
Aracri, system chair of pediatrics at Allegheny Health Network More than 34 percent of children in Allegheny
County and more than 39 percent of children statewide live in what are
considered low-income homes, according to Pennsylvania Partnerships for
Children.
Trump Says Carson Will
Have Major Education Role in His Administration
Education Week Politics K-12 By Daarel Burnette II on March 11, 2016 12:16 AM
Leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said during
Thursday night's GOP debate in Miami that he had spoken with former
presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson for more than an hour about education and
that Carson would be "very involved with education, something that's an
expertise of his," in a Trump administration. He stopped short, however, of specifying
exactly what role Carson would have if Trump were to be elected. Carson
was expected to endorse Trump during a press conference on Friday. Trump's comments came in response to a
question about the Common Core State Standards, which Trump said he wants to
get rid of, along with the U.S. Department of Education. As far as Carson and education goes, "he
has such a great handle on it," Trump said according to a Washington Post
transcript. "He wants competitive schools. He wants a lot of different
things that are terrific, including charter schools, by the way, that the
unions are fighting like crazy. But charter schools work, and they work very
well."
Pi Day · Celebrate Mathematics on March 14th
Pi Day is celebrated on March 14th (3/14) around the world. Pi (Greek
letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant — the
ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter — which is approximately
3.14159. Pi has been calculated to over
one trillion digits beyond its decimal point. As an irrational and transcendental
number, it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern. While only a
handful of digits are needed for typical calculations, Pi’s infinite nature
makes it a fun challenge to memorize, and to computationally calculate more and
more digits.
Ravitch: Help Us Raise Money to Help Our Allies
Diane Ravitch’s Blog
March 6, 2016
The Network for Public Education Action Fund
exists to help friends of public schools compete for election to state and
local school boards, as well as other elected offices. We can't match the spending of our
adversaries, but our numbers are far greater than theirs. If we get our friends
and neighbors to vote, if we get every parent and teacher to vote, we would win
every seat.
We have the
power to reclaim and rebuild our schools, making them palaces of learning
rather than dreary places to take tests.
You can help us by opening this link.
PSBA
Advocacy Forum & Day on the Hill April 4th
APR 4, 2016 • 9:00
AM - 5:30 PM
Join
PSBA and your fellow school directors for the third annual Advocacy Forum on
April 4, 2016, at the State Capitol in Harrisburg. This year’s event will have
a spotlight on public education highlighting school districts’ exemplary
student programs. Hear from legislators on how advocacy makes a difference in
the legislative process and the importance of public education advocacy.
Government Affairs will take a deeper dive into the legislative priorities and
will provide tips on how to be an effective public education advocate. There
will be dedicated time for you and your fellow advocates to hit the halls to
meet with your legislators on public education. This is your chance to share
the importance of policy supporting public education and make your voice heard
on the Hill. Online advanced registration will close on April 1, 4 p.m. On-site
registrants are welcome.
Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators
(PASA) 2016 Education Congress April
6-7, 2016
professional
development program for school administrators
Focus: "The
Myths of Creativity: The Truth about How Innovative Companies Generate Great
Ideas" Featured Presenter: Dr.
David Burkus
April 6-7, 2016 Radisson
Hotel Harrisburg in Camp Hill
The program will
focus on how school leaders can develop and utilize creativity in education
management, operations, curriculum and leadership goals. The second day will
allow participants to select from multiple discussion/work sessions focusing on
concepts presented by Dr. Burkus and facilitated by school leaders who have
demonstrated success in creative thinking and leadership in schools across the
commonwealth.
Deadline for
hotel accommodations: March 15
See the PASA website
for more information at: www.pasa-net.org/2016edcongress.
PenSPRA's Annual Symposium, Friday
April 8th in Shippensburg, PA
PenSPRA,
or the Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association, has developed a
powerhouse line-up of speakers and topics for a captivating day of professional
development in Shippensburg on April 8th. Learn to master data to
defeat your critics, use stories to clarify your district's brand and take
your social media efforts to the next level with a better understanding of
metrics and the newest trends. Join us the evening before the
Symposium for a “Conversation with Colleagues” from 5 – 6
pm followed by a Networking Social Cocktail Hour from 6 – 8 pm.
Both the Symposium Friday and the social events on Thursday evening
will be held at the Shippensburg University Conference Center. Snacks at the
social hour, and Friday’s breakfast and lunch is included in your
registration cost. $125 for PenSPRA members and $150 for non-members. Learn
more about our speakers and topics and register today at this link:
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.
2016 PA Educational
Leadership Summit July 24-26 State College
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:
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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.