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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup March 21, 2016:
Gov. Wolf is right to insist on lasting
budget solutions
PASBO will be holding a press conference on Wednesday at 9 am at
the Capitol to present the deteriorating financial situation of schools.
“Mr. Wolf’s veto
of half of the inadequate school-funding bill enacted by the General Assembly
is creating short-term problems. But a governor has few tools at his disposal
when dealing with a recalcitrant General Assembly unwilling to make the public
investments Pennsylvanians need. Editorialists
— and, more important, citizens — should remember all the times they have called
for political leaders to be willing to risk their careers, take the heat and
exert exactly this kind of leadership. Rather than raise the white flag and
call for one more inadequate budget, they should stand with the governor and
insist that a bipartisan majority pass a responsible budget, one that raises
the revenue to fix the structural deficit and supports Pennsylvania’s schools
for the long term.”
Gov. Wolf is right to insist on lasting
budget solutions
Post Gazette
Opinion By Marc Stier March 21, 2016 12:00 AM
Marc Stier is director of the
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.
Pick a
random editorial published in a random newspaper in Pennsylvania over the past
century, and the odds are pretty good that, among other things, it will call
for government officials to focus on the long-term public good instead of short-term
political gain. Today we have a governor
in Pennsylvania who is doing just that, and yet some editorialists are
criticizing him. They are focused on short-term issues — the failure to enact a
full-year budget — rather than the long-term good for Pennsylvania. The short-term budget issues are real, as the
imminent closure of schools in some districts around the state illustrate. But
they are symptoms of the deeper problems that Gov. Tom Wolf seeks to address.
Again and again he has asked us to look forward and recognize the importance of
both solving the state’s ongoing fiscal crisis and funding education.
Did you catch our weekend
postings?
Pressure continues to build statewide for
resolution to budget impasse
Megan Sweeney:
Wolf administration failing commonwealth by holding back school funding
Times Leader Opinion by Megan Sweeney - Contributing
columnist First
Posted: 11:15 pm - March 20th, 2016
Megan Sweeney is
communications director for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania.
As I read the recent column from Gov. Tom Wolf’s press secretary regarding state education funding (Jeff Sheridan: Expect runaway school property taxes if Republicans get their way with state budget, March 8), I noticed one important facet of the discussion was missing. Reality. Throughout the course of Pennsylvania’s ongoing budget crisis, the Wolf administration has steadfastly refused to discuss the facts of this disaster of their own making. First, both the state Senate and state House of Representatives put an on-time and balanced budget on Gov. Wolf’s desk before the constitution’s June 30 deadline. The budget was created after Gov. Wolf proposed a spending plan that included a 20 percent hike in the income tax and a 10 percent hike in the sales tax, while expanding the sales tax to items such as diapers, nursing home care and even caskets. In fact, the National Association of State Budget Officers determined Gov. Wolf’s proposal raised taxes higher than proposals in the other 49 states combined. Does that sound like tax relief?
As I read the recent column from Gov. Tom Wolf’s press secretary regarding state education funding (Jeff Sheridan: Expect runaway school property taxes if Republicans get their way with state budget, March 8), I noticed one important facet of the discussion was missing. Reality. Throughout the course of Pennsylvania’s ongoing budget crisis, the Wolf administration has steadfastly refused to discuss the facts of this disaster of their own making. First, both the state Senate and state House of Representatives put an on-time and balanced budget on Gov. Wolf’s desk before the constitution’s June 30 deadline. The budget was created after Gov. Wolf proposed a spending plan that included a 20 percent hike in the income tax and a 10 percent hike in the sales tax, while expanding the sales tax to items such as diapers, nursing home care and even caskets. In fact, the National Association of State Budget Officers determined Gov. Wolf’s proposal raised taxes higher than proposals in the other 49 states combined. Does that sound like tax relief?
“The financial officers of local school
districts, having more questions than answers, are spinning their wheels to
have final budgets completed, approved by their school board, and submitted to
the state by June 30 deadline.”
Elk County school districts eye budgets,
project shortfalls
The Courier
Express By Katie Weidenboerner katiew@thecourierexpress.com March 20, 2016
The
nearly year-long partisan gridlock between the Democratic governor and the
Republican-controlled General Assembly of Pennsylvania has left local school
districts scrambling to put together budgets for 2016-17 amid cavernous
unknowns. “With the state budget impasse
now in its ninth month, school districts are once again sounding alarms about
the serious effects of the stalemate on the education of students,”
Pennsylvania’s Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said in a recent media release. “While our school districts received
half-year funding through Dec. 31, 2015, many are once again spending more time
figuring out how to pay the bills and less time focusing on student learning.” Thus far no budget deadline extensions have
been offered, meaning school districts’ financial officers, having more
questions than answers, are spinning their wheels to have final budgets
completed, approved by their school board, and submitted to the state by the
June 30 deadline.
“Susan Gobreski, the
mayor's director of community schools, says she hopes to create schools
tailored to the unique needs of surrounding communities. "Each school will go through a planning
process, where they're actually looking at what their strengths and assets are,
what their needs are," she said. "So they can start identifying a set
of services that make sense to put into place." As examples, Gobreski says one school
community may prioritize opening a food pantry, while another could stress the
positive benefits of having onsite asthma care, and another could push for an
in-house behavioral health counselor.”
Kenney
administration releases some details of 'community schools' plan for Philly
WHYY
Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY
MARCH 21, 2016
Philadelphia
Mayor Jim Kenney plans to begin implementing a "community school"
model in 4 to 6 schools by September. Each one will add programs specifically
tailored to the social, emotional and physical needs of not just students, but
the surrounding neighborhoods. The
schools haven't yet been selected, but officials confirm they will be
traditional public schools, not charters. The plan is contingent on City
Council approving $4 million as the mayor proposed in his budget address
earlier this month. Kenney wants to pay
for this, as well as pre-K expansion and upgrades to parks, recreation centers
and libraries with a three-cents-per-ounce tax on sugary beverages. In an exclusive interview with NewsWorks, the
Kenney administration detailed its still developing plans to create 25
community schools over the next four years.
Low salaries
could be barrier to universal pre-K
Inquirer
by Julia Terruso, Staff
Writer Updated: MARCH 21,
2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
The 4-
and 5-year olds who greet Christopher Rouse each morning don't put much money
into his wallet, but teaching them is important enough that the 28-year-old
chose to sleep in a homeless shelter for more than a month to make ends meet. "They make me feel valuable, elated,"
said Rouse, who this month received rental assistance to move into an
apartment. "I'm happy when I wake up every day to go and roll around on
the floor and get paint on my face." As Mayor
Kenney presses his quest for universal pre-K in Philadelphia, committed
teachers such as Rouse represent both the hope and hurdle for whatever plan
might ultimately be achieved. While
Rouse's devotion to his students is admirable, the minimal monetary rewards the
job offers stand as an impediment to finding and keeping qualified pre-K
teachers. Rouse makes $10.40 an hour
working as an assistant teacher Monday to Friday at Western Learning Center, a
high-quality provider in South Philadelphia where his boss calls him a
"treasure," and the kids call him "Mr. Chris." Rouse's
$20,000-a-year salary represents the average in the field. At night, he attends
classes needed for a teaching degree.
“Meanwhile, a “Fair
Districts PA” coalition launched an effort last week to change the process by
which Pennsylvania redraws state legislative and congressional districts every
decade to reflect population shifts. Wolf didn’t mention this issue in his
proposals. The members want to create an
independent citizens commission to handle that task in place of the system now
which gives lawmakers a big say. The citizens commission would give more
attention to creating districts where the two parties are competitive and limit
the extent to which a county can be divided among different districts. This commission would replace the current
two-step process: a commission dominated by legislative caucus leaders that
redraws state House and Senate districts and legislation passed by the General
Assembly to redraw congressional districts.”
Wolf reform
takes aim at status quo
BY ROBERT SWIFT, HARRISBURG BUREAU CHIEF Published:
March 21, 2016
HARRISBURG
— State government reform took a backseat to scandal in recent years, but Gov.
Tom Wolf is attempting to turn that around with a new set of proposals to
change the status quo in Harrisburg. Wolf
is addressing issues that have been around for years — banning gifts to public
officials, strengthening lobbying oversight and limiting campaign contributions
to candidates as well as other reforms that haven’t gotten as much attention. Outlining his proposals last week, Wolf said
he wants to make government more transparent, curb the power of special
interests and curb widespread public cynicism about it.
His
five-point agenda includes:
Fair Districts PA
Fair
Districts PA is a coalition of citizens and organizations who
believe that in American democracy, elections should represent the will of all the
people, not just the politicians, and should provide citizens with meaningful
choices in electing representatives.
When
partisan politicians manipulate voting maps to keep themselves and their
parties in power, they shape election outcomes before the first vote is
cast. When that happens, voters feel they have no voice, and legislators
feel less need to listen to constituents.
We
believe Pennsylvania needs to reform its redistricting rules and make the
process of drawing districts impartial, transparent and accountable - promoting
competitive elections and partisan fairness so our government truly is of, by
and for the people.
“Central Bucks South High
School student Richard Song, 16, of Chalfont, is one of 12 people in the world
to score a perfect score on the AP Calculus AB test. “
Central Bucks
student records perfect score on AP Calc test
Intelligencer By Gary Weckselblatt, staff writer Posted: Monday, March 21,
2016 6:00 am
Richard
Song hadn't been in trouble before, so when a teacher told him he was wanted in
the principal's office, the 16-year-old junior's reaction was fairly typical. "Uh-oh," he thought to himself.
"Did I do something wrong?" When
he approached Scott Davidheiser's office, Song noticed the entire Central Bucks
High School South math department faculty in the room. Daniel
Lorenz, Song's AP Calculus teacher, added to his anxiety, when he said the
scores had come in for the AP Calculus AB test.
"Richard, there were irregularities with the score," Lorenz
began. "And you had a perfect score!"
Song was one of 12 people worldwide to achieve a perfect score on the AP
Calculus AB test, taken by nearly 300,000 people.
Nazareth
teachers postpone strike, classes in session
Education
Week Teacher Published Online: March 18, 2016
NAZARETH,
Pa. (AP) — Teachers in an eastern Pennsylvania borough's school district have
decided not to strike after all. The
Nazareth Area Education Association announced plans for the Friday walkout
after the district rejected its latest offer on Wednesday. The 341 teachers
have been working without a contract since the end of August. The school district had argued the strike may
be illegal because the union didn't provide enough notice. Now, both sides say
they're still talking while classes continued normally on Friday. The board is pushing a contract offer
proposed by a state mediator, while the teachers object to some of its terms
including health care benefits and grievance procedures. The school board plans to vote on the
mediator's proposal Friday night. The union is expected to vote on a contract
proposal next week.
“The school has been a
disaster since it opened in 2011. Students have performed so poorly on
standardized tests that even former supporters have publicly condemned it. Critics of the school say lawmakers are
bowing to pressure from K12 Inc., the Herndon, Virginia-based company that
operates TNVA. K12 is one of the largest providers of online school curricula
in the country. Records show that K12
has spent between $285,000 and $575,000 on lobbying since 2010. The company
donated more than $75,000 in direct campaign contributions since 2011.”
Tennessee Education
leaders question why virtual school remains open
Knoxville News Sentinel By SHEILA BURKE, Associated
Press March 19, 2016
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (AP) — The legislature's failure to shut down an academically troubled
virtual school run by a for-profit corporation has left some education leaders
wondering whether Tennessee lawmakers really want to fix schools or have sold
out children to powerful special interests.
A move that would close the Tennessee Virtual Academy, and ban others
like it, failed this week in the legislature. The effort came on the heels of
withering criticism of the school by former state Education Commissioner Kevin
Huffman — a longtime proponent of school choice— who called TNVA Tennessee's
worst school. Huffman, in a recent online essay, said his inability to close
the school was one of his biggest failures.
GOP worries
Kansas can’t hit fairness target for school aid
Washington
Times By JOHN HANNA - Associated
Press - Sunday, March 20, 2016
TOPEKA,
Kan. (AP) - Republican lawmakers assert that they may never be able to meet the
Kansas Supreme Court’s demands for fairness in education funding and will see a
chaotic budget process every year as they reshuffle dollars among local school
districts. The high court said last
month that Kansas has not given poor districts their fair share and schools
must shut down in July unless lawmakers fix the problem. In response, the
Senate could debate a bill Monday looking at redistributing part of the state’s
annual aid to its 286 school districts. Republicans
debating the measure in committee said they found it galling that the court
rejected key parts of a law enacted last year that junked the state’s previous
per-pupil distribution formula in favor of “block grants” meant to largely
freeze spending. Predictable allocations
for school districts give the state a stable target as it struggles to balance
its budget. The court’s decision, Republicans say, pushes Kansas in the
opposite direction - and potentially into new legal challenges every year.
SCOTUS nominee
tutored DC kids for 18 years
Merrick Garland has
mentored and tutored students in DC for the last 18 years.
Andrea McCarren, WUSA 11:23 AM. EST March 18, 2016
WASHINGTON
(WUSA9) -- Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court holds a
special significance for a Northeast Washington Elementary School. Turns out, the Chief Judge of the US Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has mentored and tutored students at J.O. Wilson
for the last 18 years. Imagine being an
elementary school teacher in D.C. and you’re suddenly summoned to the White
House. That’s exactly what happened to Charlene Wilburn. “Well, I got a call on the intercom and they
said, Miss WIlburn, the White House is on the phone,” said Charlene Wilburn, a
teacher a J.O. Wilson Elementary School.
New Infographic: Lifting All Children Up
Schott Foundation for Public Education MARCH 18,
2016
What will it take to ensure that all
children have an opportunity to learn, regardless of their background or which
school they attend? The work of the National Education Policy Center at the University of
Colorado has long pointed out that the problems of inequity in public education
aren’t just contained within our public schools, but also stem from larger
structural issues in the community like unemployment, poverty, and disinvestment
of public resources. These
structural problems weigh down students and their schools in ways that more
affluent communities never have to deal with. So how do you compensate for
added weight?
Yesterday
at a White House summit on education, NEPC Director Kevin Welner
discussed the two possible solutions shown in NEPC’s and Schott’s new
infographic.
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:
Briefing:
Public Education Funding in Pennsylvania
TUE, APR 12 AT 8:30 AM, PHILADELPHIA,
PA
Join
attorneys Michael Churchill, Jennifer Clarke and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg for a
briefing on:
- the current budget impasse
- the basics of education funding
- the school funding lawsuit
- the 2016-2017 proposed budget
1.5
CLE credits available to PA licensed attorneys.
Light breakfast provided.
WHEN:
Tuesday, April
12, 2016 from 8:30 AM to 10:00 AM (EDT)
WHERE:
United Way of
Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey - 1709 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
1st Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103
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
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