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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup April 14, 2016:
Community
schools: ‘We want to build this together’
Rally in Harrisburg with the Campaign for Fair Education Funding
on May 2nd 12:30 Main Rotunda!
Public schools in Pennsylvania are a far cry from the
“thorough and efficient” system of education promised guaranteed under our
state constitution. That’s why we want YOU to join Education Law Center and
members of the Campaign for Fair Education Funding in Harrisburg on May 2nd!
Buses of supporters are leaving from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia - please
register below so we can help you arrive on time for the 12:30 press conference
in the Main Rotunda! Questions? Email smalloy@elc-pa.org
for more details.
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.”
Quest for
on-time FY 2016-2017 budget begins
The PLS
Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Wednesday, April
13, 2016
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me
back in.”
The
famous quote uttered by Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in the otherwise rather
flat Godfather III could be applied to Pennsylvania’s current
budget Sitz im Leben.
As the
General Assembly put the finishing touches on a revised Fiscal Code that
contains controversial education funding components—a move Republicans at least
claim will put the final touches on the FY 2015-2016 budget—a budget vehicle
for FY 2016-2017 was put in place by the House Appropriations Committee that
sets the stage for the slog toward what is hoped to be an on-time budget plan. With the Fiscal Code, the Senate early
Wednesday afternoon voted 37-11 to move the budget spending blueprint back to
the House with changes they made on Tuesday that provide for the use of the
Basic Education Funding Commission formula in the current year and allows a
$2.5 billion bond to pay for PlanCon costs.
While the governor noted these two provisions as being some of the
reasons why he vetoed a similar plan in March, Senate Republicans were
insistent on the provisions and were joined by more than a handful of their
Democratic colleagues in advancing the proposal along a veto-proof majority. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre)
underscored the importance of the bill becoming law, particularly as it relates
to PlanCon, in setting the stage for FY 2016-2017.
House, Senate
cast veto-proof majority votes on school funding bill
Penn
Live By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on April 13, 2016 at 6:53 PM, updated April 13, 2016 at 6:55 PM
on April 13, 2016 at 6:53 PM, updated April 13, 2016 at 6:55 PM
The
House and Senate sent a clear message to Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday that his
way of distributing $150 million in new basic education funding in the2015-16
state budget using a formula his administration invented is not
going to fly with them. Both chambers
cast veto-proof majority votes on Wednesday to pass a fiscal code bill that
would require those dollars be distributed using the Basic Education Funding
Commission-recommended formula that will result in 473 school districts
receiving more money than they would under the governor's formula. Additionally,
the legislation includes borrowing $2.5 billion to pay school districts money
that had been promised to them by the state for school construction projects.
Could a
two-year budget cycle prevent another impasse in Pennsylvania?
Penn
Live By Wallace McKelvey
| WMckelvey@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
April 13, 2016 at 4:57 PM
In the
wake of last year's protracted budget impasse, a bipartisan group of lawmakers
are considering the virtues of a two-year budget cycle. "I came to the Senate to solve problems,
not create them, and it is our duty to work together to make things better, not
worse," said Sen. Ryan Aument, R-Lancaster County, who introduced a
biennial budget law in the Senate. Twenty
states have adopted a two-year budget cycle that generally puts a halt to the
constant maneuvering that Pennsylvania saw with its 2015-16 budget, according
to the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO). In theory, such a move would cut such budget
wrangling in half.
“It is important to note that with the governor’s
distribution, every district in Schuylkill County is more than 91 percent
restored from the 2010-11 cuts. Currently, only 4 percent of districts in
Pennsylvania have seen their funding fully restored to 2010-11 levels and the
commonwealth is currently over $370 million short from fully restoring the
cuts,” Sheridan said. “For Republicans
to push around their plan in comparison to the governor’s plan, and compare
dollar amounts, conveniently ignores the reality of the devastation they were
complicit in causing five years ago when $1 billion was cut from education
disproportionately affecting the poorest school districts. Many of the poorest
districts have not had their funding restored. In fact, the Republican plan
would have taken money back that has already been allocated from some of the
poorest districts,” Sheridan said.”
Wolf's office
responds to Argall's concerns
Republican Herald BY STEPHEN J. PYTAK Published:
April 14, 2016
In
response to a press release issued by state Sen. David G. Argall, R-29, on
Tuesday, the governor’s press secretary said Wednesday every public school
district in the state will receive more funding under the governor’s funding
formula than they had in 2014-15.
“Governor
(Tom) Wolf has been pushing for a fair funding formula to end Pennsylvania’s
inequitable distribution of education dollars, one of the most inequitable in
the country. The new fair funding formula, which again, he supports and begins
to implement in the current distribution of funding, cannot truly be fair
unless the cuts are fully restored,” Jeffrey Sheridan, the governor’s press
secretary, said in a statement to the newspaper Wednesday. Sheridan urged the public to read the
governor’s April 5 announcement regarding education funding, which has been
posted on his website, www.governor.pa.gov. “Under the governor’s restoration formula,
every single school district in Schuylkill County, and every district in the
commonwealth receives more than they received in 2014-15. Under the governor’s
distribution, the combined increase for all districts in Schuylkill County is
nearly $1.9 million. But the amount of total funding in the Republican budget
is only half of what the governor proposed in his original budget, and $177
million less in basic education funding than what was included in the
bipartisan budget that Republicans jettisoned before the New Year,” Sheridan
said.
Corman: Wolf playing politics with school
funding
Centre
Daily Times Opinion by BY JAKE CORMAN April 13, 2016
Jake Corman, R-Benner Township,
is state Senate majority leader.
When
Gov. Tom Wolf finally relented and allowed one of the four state budgets passed
by the legislature to become law in March, there was a sense of relief that
school districts would finally receive the funding that been held hostage for
so long. But that relief was short-lived
when the governor implemented his own formula for distributing money for public
education — one that picks a only a few winners while providing less money to
most areas of the state — including my Senate district. Rather than using a distribution formula
established by a bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission, the governor
created his own politically driven plan that cut millions of dollars from rural
and suburban districts and directs that money to his political allies. This
distribution is anything but fair and it could result in higher taxes and cuts
in school programs here in my district and many other areas of the state.
STATEMENT: PSBA encouraged by legislation
to ensure uninterrupted education for children
PSBA
Press Release April 13, 2016
Schools
would no longer live in fear of a budget impasse if proposed legislation is
passed that would require the timely release of school funding starting on Aug.
15 of each year even if a state budget is not passed. The goal of the
legislation is essentially the same as a lawsuit filed
by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) in January 2016. “The nine-month budget impasse has been devastating
to school entities throughout Pennsylvania,” said PSBA Executive Director
Nathan Mains. “Senate Bill 807 would put an end to the hostage situation
schools lived through during this year’s budget impasse. It is unfortunate that
such a law is necessary. Such legislation would have prevented the need this
year for schools to borrow more than $1 billion, cut programs, delay payments,
and draw down fund balances just to keep doors open.”
“The losses are even greater for a school district for
students who transfer directly from a private or parochial school to a charter
school. Because these students were never part of the student count by the
local school district, the district never received money for them. However,
when the student enrolls in a charter school the school district is still
required to pay the charter school for the student. The result is that the
school district loses money even though there is no reduction in the number of
students in a classroom. The School
District of Philadelphia estimates the costs associated with these students at
approximately $10,000 per student. In addition, approximately 30 percent of the
district's charter school students - more than 20,000 - previously attended
private or parochial schools before transferring to the charter school.
Students in these circumstances cost the school district and taxpayers $200
million annually, even though they've never attended a Philadelphia public
school.”
Commentary:
Time to fix state's broken charter school finance law
Philly
Daily News Opinion by Sen. Vincent
J. Hughes Updated: APRIL 13, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT
PENNSYLVANIA'S
charter school finance law is broken. Written in 1997, the law's funding
provisions have had a staggering impact on school district finances. Without
repair, the amount of taxpayer dollars gushing out of our children's classrooms
into the pockets of some not-so-well intentioned profiteers will continue to
grow until school districts, and taxpayers, are financially ruined by this
coming tidal wave. School districts
receive money to educate students on a per-student basis. So imagine a class of
30 kids and five leave to go to a charter school. The taxpayer dollars used to
educate those five students is paid by the school district to the charter
school. However, the school district's costs to educate the remaining 25
students don't change. Despite
having five fewer students, the school district must still pay to keep the
lights and heat on, to put teachers in classrooms, and to cover other costs
associated with educating kids. These costs are referred to as "stranded
costs," and they don't change when a student leaves the public school for
a charter school. However, the money a school district has to pay these fixed
obligations is reduced considerably. How
big of an issue is this? According to Superintendent William Hite, even though
the School District of Philadelphia has closed about 30 schools in recent
years, the district still loses $490 million in stranded costs each year. This
is unacceptable and must be fixed.
Pennsylvania auditor general calls for
oversight of charter schools
Watchdog.org
By Evan Grossman / April 13,
2016 / News / No
Comments
Following
his examination of the School District of Philadelphia, the state auditor
general is calling for increased oversight of Pennsylvania’s charter schools. State Auditor Eugene DePasquale continues to
bang the drum for the creation of a state charter school board he says will
address challenges created by lethargic lawmakers and murky regulations. CHARTER OVERSIGHT: Pennsylvania Auditor General
Eugene DePasquale said the state needs an oversight board to better run charter
schools. Published this week, his
Philadelphia audit includes four major findings:
Community
schools: ‘We want to build this together’
The city officials
coordinating the effort in Philadelphia talk about last week’s national community
schools conference in New Mexico and their plans.
The
notebook by Paul Socolar
April 13, 2016 — 9:38am
Susan
Gobreski and Holly Gonzales were among more than a dozen Philadelphians who
traveled to Albuquerque last week for the three-day national conference of the
Coalition for Community Schools. They
joined more than 1,700 participants from around the country involved in the
strategy of building schools as community hubs. These schools forge
partnerships to address academics but also health and family services as well
as youth and community development and engagement. Gobreski and Gonzales are director and deputy
director for community schools in the Mayor’s Office of Education. Under Chief
Education Officer Otis Hackney, they are charged with launching and
managing Mayor Kenney’s initiative to implement the community schools approach
at 25 public schools in the city over the next four years. Last month, the
office began to lay out its implementation
plan. Appointed
in February, Gobreski previously led the advocacy group Education Voters of
Pennsylvania. Gonzales recently moved to Philadelphia from Baltimore, where she
worked for the Family League of Baltimore, a nonprofit that coordinates 55
community schools there. They spoke with
former Notebook editor and publisher Paul Socolar at the
close of the conference. Here is an edited version of the conversation.
William Penn
gets support from Upper Darby in state funding lawsuit
Delco News Network By Kevin Tustin ktustin@21st-centurymedia.com @KevinTustin on Twitter Published: Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Upper
Darby School District is lending their support to William Penn School District
in their lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The Upper Darby Board of School Directors
Tuesday night unanimously passed a resolution backing the neighboring district
as plaintiffs in a statewide suit that calls for a “thorough and efficient
system of public education” as called for by the state’s constitution. The suit, William Penn School District et.
al. v. Pennsylvania Department of Education et. al., claims that the state has
failed to provide enough funding for its academic standards and that the
current method of funding has created “significant resource disparities”
between rich and poor school districts. “The
William Penn School District is very grateful for the support from Upper Darby
School District in our funding lawsuit,” William Penn School Board President
Jennifer Hoff said in an email Wednesday morning. “Hopefully, this lawsuit will
lead to the funding resolution our state’s public schools so desperately need.” Filed on behalf of the Public Interest Law
Center of Philadelphia in 2014,William Penn is a plaintiff along with five
other districts, parents and state organizations who are suing PDE, the
governor, State House and Senate leaders, and Secretary of Education Pedro
Rivera.
An
application for a May oral argument was submitted to the Pennsylvania Supreme
Court on April 1, but has yet to be approved as of April 13. The School District of Haverford Township
passed a similar resolution in support of William Penn in March.
Fair formula needed to fund education
Lancaster Online Letter by Ann Martin Lancaster Apr 12, 2016
I agree
with the Feb. 24 commentary by Joan Benso, president and CEO of Pennsylvania
Partnerships for Children. She said that in a time when state leaders seem to
disagree on everything, they should at least be able to agree on investing in
the health and education of our children.
Instead of making strides, our schools are taking steps back because
they have to cut programs and staff due to state funding shortfalls and the
failure of the state to adopt a fair funding formula.
Our elected officials must come together and agree to a significant
increase in basic education funding and a new formula to distribute those
dollars fairly so that all children have a chance to succeed no matter where
they live. According to the American
Institutes for Research, school districts in Pennsylvania with the largest
funding shortfalls have average SAT scores approximately 200 points lower than
the most financially advantaged districts, as well as lower math and reading
proficiency on state assessments.
Districts with high numbers of children experiencing homelessness,
children who are English language learners, and children living in poverty have
been especially impacted by our state’s inability to chart a fair, long-term
public education funding strategy. The
state needs to invest more in public education because research shows that
putting more resources in the classroom produces better results for our
children, which in turn boosts our economy. The stakes for our children are too
high to stay divided on this.
West Chester Area
superintendent's message on PSSAs has parents everywhere applauding
Y102
Blog Posted April 10th, 2016
Parents
from all over are praising a message from an area superintendent about his
thoughts on the PSSAs. West Chester school district's superintendent sent
an email to parents in his school district. Here is the full message posted on West
Chester's website:
Hundreds attend Shaler Area board meeting
to protest suggested teacher cutbacks
Post
Gazette By Rita Michel April 13, 2016 11:37 PM
There
were tears for teachers at the Shaler Area school board meeting Wednesday
night.
Hundreds
of students and their parents entered emotional pleas and declarations of
support for many of the approximately 30 Shaler Area School District teachers
being considered for possible furlough as administrators consider “right
sizing” the staff in the face of declining enrollment and funding delayed by
the state government. Superintendent
Sean Aiken had set a special question and answer session for Tuesday, May 3, in
the middle school auditorium but district families decided not to wait and
attended the school board’s committee of the whole meeting, which was moved to
the auditorium to seat all the concerned citizens.
Students,
residents ask Shaler SB to halt potential staff cuts
Trib
Live BY TONY
LARUSSA | Wednesday, April 13, 2016, 10:06 p.m.
Dozens
of the nearly 200 residents and students who attended the Shaler Area School
Board meeting Wednesday night implored district officials to reconsider a plan
that could eliminate as many as 30 full-time staff positions. District officials announced late last month
that cuts might be needed to “right size” the staff to more accurately reflect
the declining student population, which has dipped from nearly 5,600 pupils in
2002 to about 4,400 this year. Superintendent
Sean Aiken, who emailed a letter to parents on Tuesday outlining how the staff
reductions might be achieved, reiterated that furloughing teachers would be a
last resort.
The connection
between trauma and the dropout crisis
The
notebook by Connie
Langland April 13, 2016 — 7:45am
When
reflecting on the factors that derailed them academically, Quad’ir Ford and
Nalik Lark-Hightower didn’t mention living in poverty or exposure to trauma as
factors. But experts have said that these two distinct yet intertwined
conditions in children’s lives can go far in explaining the root cause of the
dropout crisis. “Trauma is not a
singular event; neither is poverty,” said Chekemma Fulmore-Townsend, executive
director of the Philadelphia Youth Network and co-chair of Project U-Turn.
There is a “cycle of experiences,” she said, that can vary from homelessness to
the unexpected death of a family member to food insecurity to experiencing a
high level of violence in the neighborhood.
“Poverty and trauma are mutually reinforcing and negatively correlated,”
Fulmore-Townsend said. "Young people living in poverty are more likely to
experience trauma … and the psychological effects of trauma make it harder to
overcome poverty. It’s an unwieldy, challenging problem.” Research supports this view. Using brain
scans, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that poverty
can slow the rate of growth in two key brain structures in small children.
According to Seth Pollack, a lead researcher, brains of infants from different
economic backgrounds look similar at birth. But by age 4, children in poor
families showed deficits that help explain behavioral and learning problems.
Highlands
teachers strike; more picketing set for Thursday
Trib
Live BY BRIAN C. RITTMEYER AND LIZ HAYES | Wednesday, April 13, 2016,
8:00 a.m.
Highlands
School District teachers weren't interested in avoiding a strike, the
district's solicitor said Wednesday, the first day of teachers walking picket
lines. A union representative, however,
says that's not true. Highlands teachers
went on strike after last-minute talks Tuesday night failed to reach an
agreement. The strike could last up to
10 days, with schools reopening on April 27 if it does. District officials were
still awaiting word from the state on how long the strike can last. Both sides
reported earlier that the strike could last no more than eight days; some
contend it should be only four.
LGBT protection legislation garners
opposition in Pennsylvania
Lancaster
Online by HEATHER
STAUFFER | Staff Writer Apr 12, 2016
Proposals
that would grant statewide protection to transgender Pennsylvanians who want to
use bathrooms that match the gender with which they identify are garnering
opposition in the state. A
petition opposing the idea has gotten the support of at least 3,000 residents,
according to Defend My Privacy Coalition, a Pennsylvania group of conservative
organizations that have come together in light of the issue. Protection of the rights of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender people is back in the national spotlight after North
Carolina recently passed a law requiring bathroom use to be based on the gender
listed on the user’s birth certificate, prompting a flurry of similar bills in
several other states.
“We support the sugary drink tax, not because we are
anti-soda or even anti-sugar - though the health costs of an oversugared
population are staggering - but because pre-K has proved to be an effective
program that could give children an educational boost that could last for
years. It is a program that has value and substance . . . and, unlike soda, no
empty calories..”
DN editorial: Soda tax would benefit kids, which is why we support it
DN editorial: Soda tax would benefit kids, which is why we support it
Philly Daily News Editorial Updated: APRIL 13, 2016 — 3:01 AM
EDT
THE ONLY
WAY to avoid the debate about Mayor Kenney's sugary drink tax would be to move
at least 200 miles from Philadelphia. The
advertising campaign against Kenney's proposal is virtually everywhere in local
media market: in the newspapers, on TV, even in commercials in movie theaters. The ads, sponsored by the American Beverage Association,
insist on calling Kenney's proposal a grocery tax. That's like calling the
cigarette tax a grocery tax because cigarettes are sold in supermarkets and
grocery stores. If you don't buy
cigarettes at your local supermarket, your grocery bill won't go up a dime. The
same is true of the sugary drink tax. If
passed, you can avoid paying the tax by not buying sugary drinks, a list that
includes not only sodas, but also iced tea and sports drinks.
Philly Pre-K
commission votes to support soda tax
by Julia Terruso, Staff Writer Updated: APRIL 14, 2016 — 1:08
AM EDT
The
city's commission on universal pre-K voted Wednesday to support a
3-cents-an-ounce tax on sugary drinks to fund education for 3- and 4-year-olds,
as part of a final report due to the mayor Friday. The vote serves as an endorsement of the very
tax Mayor Kenney has proposed for the same purpose. While the vote was expected - some commission
members were appointed by Kenney, and most are advocates of early childhood
education - it was not easy or unanimous. The
three-hour meeting included spirited, and at times tense, debate over whether
it was the commission's role to recommend a sole funding stream. In the end, 13 commissioners voted to recommend
the tax. Three, including City Council members Jannie L. Blackwell and Blondell
Reynolds Brown, voted against it. Blackwell and Reynolds Brown favored listing
several funding options in the report and letting Council decide. A
representative from the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce abstained.
Read
more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160414_Pre-K_commission_votes_to_support_soda_tax.html#hwrxoA3Gt0R20TWu.99
Letters: E.W.
Rhodes Elementary School needs help
Inquirer
Letter by Cliff Thomas, policy manager, Philadelphia School Partnership Updated: APRIL 13, 2016 — 3:01 AM
EDT
Rhodes
Elementary needs help
After
his visit to E.W. Rhodes Elementary School, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
president Jerry Jordan proclaimed that the school "doesn't need to be
turned around again" ("Union opposes plan to turn around
school," Thursday). Katie McGinty, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate,
called the North Philadelphia school an "inspiration." The data tell a different story. In the
2014-15 school year, only 9 percent of its students were rated at least
"proficient" on the state reading exam, and 1 percent - three
students - were proficient in math. Low
test scores aren't the only source of concern. Rhodes ranked 135th of 139
schools citywide, and 41st of 45 peer schools, on the district's school-climate
metric. Additionally, 75 percent of students and 40 percent of teachers were
absent for at least 10 school days. In
short, Rhodes isn't meeting the needs of its students and families. If our city and state leaders believe that
Rhodes is a success, I would implore them to reevaluate their expectations for
our children.
Garnet Valley
takes national Hi-Q crown
Delco Times By Anne Neborak, aneborak@21st-centurymedia.com, @AnnieNeborak on Twitter
POSTED: 04/13/16,
9:16 PM EDT | UPDATED: 50 SECS AGO
MORTON
>> Nathan Katragadda looked down at his shoes, exclaiming that he had
worn his lucky sneaks. Lucky or just well prepared, the Garnet Valley Hi-Q Team
took home the national championship on Wednesday. The team competed with two other teams — Henry
M. Jackson High School in Washington and Peshtigo High School in Wisconsin —
via video conferences. The questions covered all types of academia from art
history to science. The final scores for the competition were: Garnet Valley,
48; Wisconsin, 46 and Washington, 33.
Nebraska Legislature Sends Redistricting
Reform Bill to Governor’s Desk
Common
Cause Posted on April 13, 2016
Today
the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature passed LB
580, a bill that would create a nine-person independent citizens commission
tasked with redrawing congressional and state legislative districts after each
census. The final tally was 29-15 in favor. Currently, legislators are
responsible for drawing their own districts and congressional boundaries. The
bill will land on Gov. Pete Ricketts’ desk no later than Tuesday, April 19. He
has not indicated whether he will sign the bill. The commission would include five individuals
who are a member of the party whose gubernatorial candidate won the previous
election and four individuals whose party came in second. This legislation
would put in place strong conflict-of-interest provisions that prohibit from
the commission individuals with a personal or professional stake in the drawing
of districts.
The plan to get every California kid into
preschool
Los
Angeles Times By Sonali Kohli
April 13, 2016
Three
billion dollars may sound like a lot of money to spend on preschool -- but
maybe it isn't enough. That's what a
group of advocates, former policymakers, researchers and business executives is
saying in its push to remake the state's early childhood education landscape.
The
$3-billion figure is an estimate of the state and federal dollars that
California spends on preschool and childcare each year -- but the group of
12, called the Right Start Commission, is calling for the state to increase
that expenditure by at least $5 billion each year.
The goal
is to get every 4-year-old in the state into a good, free preschool, and to
enable every family to send its younger children to an affordable
daycare on a sliding pay scale based on family income. Common Sense Kids Action, an arm of
the nonprofit advocacy group Common Sense Media, convened the
commission. Common Sense made its name vetting television content for
children. n Wednesday, the
commission is releasing a report that calls for universal childcare and
preschool, as well as the creation of a single online portal where parents
can access childcare options, instead of navigating the confusing maze of
providers.
Survey: Nearly
53 percent of LI students opt out of math tests
Newsday By Joie
Tyrrell joie.tyrrell@newsday.com Updated April 13, 2016
10:31 PM
More than 71,000 elementary and middle school students refused to take the state Common Core math test Wednesday in 80 of Long Island’s 124 school districts that responded to a Newsday survey — nearly 53 percent of those eligible for the exam in those systems.
More than 71,000 elementary and middle school students refused to take the state Common Core math test Wednesday in 80 of Long Island’s 124 school districts that responded to a Newsday survey — nearly 53 percent of those eligible for the exam in those systems.
Wednesday’s
exam administration marked the first of three days of math testing for nearly
200,000 Long Island students in grades three...
Testing Resistance & Reform News:
April 6 - April 12, 2016
FairTest
Submitted by fairtest on April 12, 2016 - 1:36pm
Moving
into the peak weeks of the 2016 standardized exam season, the assessment reform
movement continues to notch more victories as test-opt outs and other forms of
protest accelerate in many states.
“A group of organizations — including the the National
Governors Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the
National Association of States Boards of Education and the two largest teachers
unions in the country — just sent King a letter warning his department
“to refrain from defining terms and aspects of the new law that Congress gave
communities the flexibility to determine.” (See the letter below.)”
Didn’t take long: New education secretary
starts butting heads in nation’s capital
Washington
Post Answer Sheet By Valerie Strauss April
13 at 3:40 PM
This didn’t take long: The new U.S. education secretary, John
King, is already butting heads with people in Washington, D.C. Just a month after being approved by the U.S.
Senate as education secretary (he had been acting secretary for a few months),
King has sparked the ire of none other than Republican Sen. Lamar
Alexander of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate education committee,
who had pushed President Obama to nominate him.
What’s more, it isn’t just Alexander who isn’t thrilled with King, the
former commissioner of education in New York state. King led a series of
reforms in New York for 3½ years that were so badly administered that he
abruptly left his position in late 2014 amid a tornado of criticism and moved
to Washington to become No. 2 to then-education secretary Arne Duncan, who
didn’t seem to mind King’s controversial N.Y. tenure.
Sen. Alexander
to John King: Rethink Your Draft ESSA Spending Rules, Or Else
Education
Week Politics K-12 By Andrew Ujifusa on April
12, 2016 12:37 PM
The
federal requirement that federal dollars supplement state and local spending on
education is proving to be one of the thorniest issues under the Every Student
Succeeds Act. In a testy Senate
education committee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., told
Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. that he believed the U.S. Department of
Education's proposal for regulating that spending requirement violates the
language and spirit of ESSA. "Not
only is what you're doing against the law, the way you're trying to do it is
against another provision in the law," Alexander told King in his opening
remarks. And Alexander said he'd use
every power available to him, including the federal appropriations process, to
overrule the regulations King's department comes up with. He also said he'd
encourage a lawsuit against the Education Department if it does not reconsider
its proposed language. But King
denied that his department was overstepping its authority. He said the agency
is merely trying to ensure that districts are using an appropriate approach to
following federal requirements for accessing federal funds.
Blogger comment: The Walton Family Foundation has spent
tens of millions of dollars funding this “emperor has no clothes” organization
that is based on putting college grads with just 5 weeks training into our
toughest school environments. To my
knowledge, the Waltons have yet to fund early childhood education or early
reading programs that might actually help kids in high poverty school
districts.
Teach for America CEO blames 'toxic
debate' about education after applications plummet by 35% in 3 years
Business
Insider Abby
Jackson April 13, 2016
Applications
for Teach for America (TFA), the venerated yet polarizing teacher recruitment
and training organization, have plummeted for the third year in a row, The
Washington Post reported. The
37,000 applications in 2016 were down from 57,000 in 2013, marking a 35% dip
over the period. It's sobering news for
an organization that was at the forefront of innovative education policy in the
1990s, with its unique approach to funneling recent college graduates into
two-year stints in schools. Elisa
Villanueva Beard, chief executive of TFA, pointed to the financial incentives
of employment in other sectors as a potential explanation for decreasing
applications.
And in a
nod to some of the critics TFA, she said negative attacks on TFA discourage new
teachers from applying.
“Questioning the work of megaphilanthropists is a tricky
business. Many readers of this article will be fuming in this way: Would you
rather let children remain illiterate, or allow generous people to use their
wealth to give them schools? Would you rather send more money to our bumbling
government, or let visionary philanthropists solve society’s problems? Here is
a counterquestion: Would you rather have self-appointed social engineers—whose
sole qualification is vast wealth—shape public policy according to their
personal views, or try to repair American democracy?”
Charitable
Plutocracy: Bill Gates, Washington State, and the Nuisance of Democracy
Nonprofit
Quarterly By JOANNE BARKAN | April
11, 2016
Once
upon a time, the super-wealthy endowed their tax-exempt charitable foundations
and then turned them over to boards of trustees to run. The trustees would
spend the earnings of the endowment to pursue a typically grand but wide-open
mission written into the foundation’s charter—like The Rockefeller Foundation’s
1913 mission “to promote the well-being of mankind throughout the world.”
Today’s multi-billionaires are a different species of philanthropist; they keep
tight control over their foundations while also operating as major political
funders—think Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, or Walmart heiress Alice Walton.
They aim to do good in the world, but each defines “good” idiosyncratically in
terms of specific public policies and political goals. They translate their
wealth, the work of their foundations, and their celebrity as doers-of-good
into influence in the public sphere—much more influence than most citizens
have. Call it charitable plutocracy—a
peculiarly American phenomenon, increasingly problematic and in need of greater
scrutiny. Like all forms of plutocracy, this one conflicts with democracy, and
exactly how these philanthropists coordinate tax-exempt grantmaking with
political funding for maximum effect remains largely obscure. What follows is a
case study of the way charitable plutocracy operates on the ground. It’s a
textbook example of the tug-of-war between government by the people and
uber-philanthropists as social engineers.
“The case is being supported by Partnership for Education
Justice, a New York-based advocacy group that receives its primary funding from
the foundations of the Walton family, the founders of Walmart, and the Los
Angeles billionaire Eli Broad. Students for Education
Reform, a group that also receives funding from the Broad and the Walton Family
Foundations, is also backing the suit.”
Teacher Tenure Is Challenged Again in a Minnesota Lawsuit
New York Times By MOTOKO RICH APRIL 13, 2016
Opening
a new front in the assault on teacher tenure, a group of parents backed by
wealthy philanthropists served notice to defendants on Wednesday in a lawsuit
challenging Minnesota’s job protections for teachers, as well as the state’s
rules governing which teachers are laid off as a result of budget cuts. Similar to cases in California and New
York, the plaintiffs, who are filing the lawsuit in district court in
Ramsey County in St. Paul, argue that the state’s tenure and layoff laws
disproportionately harm poor, minority children because, they say, the most
ineffective teachers are more likely to be assigned to public schools with high
concentrations of those children.
Rally in Harrisburg with the Campaign for
Fair Education Funding on May 2nd 12:30 Main Rotunda!
Public
schools in Pennsylvania are a far cry from the “thorough and efficient” system
of education promised guaranteed under our state constitution. That’s why we
want YOU to join Education Law Center and members of the Campaign for Fair
Education Funding in Harrisburg on May 2nd! Buses of supporters are leaving
from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia - please register below so we can help you
arrive on time for the 12:30 press conference in the Main Rotunda! Questions?
Email smalloy@elc-pa.org for more
details.
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.
Electing PSBA Officers – Applications Due
by April 30th
All
persons seeking nomination for elected positions of the Association shall send
applications to the attention of the chair of the Leadership Development
Committee during the month of April, an Application
for Nomination to be provided by the Association expressing interest
in the office sought. “The Application for nomination shall be marked received
at PSBA Headquarters or mailed first class and postmarked by April 30 to be
considered and timely filed. If said date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or
holiday, then the Application for Nomination shall be considered timely filed
if marked received at PSBA headquarters or mailed and postmarked on the next
business day.” (PSBA
Bylaws, Article IV, Section 5.E.).
Open
positions are:
- 2017 President
Elect (one-year term)
- 2017 Vice
President (one-year term)
- 2017-19 Central Section at
Large Representative – includes Regions 4, 5, 6, 9 and
12 (three-year term)
In
addition to the application form, PSBA Governing
Board Policy 302 asks that all candidates furnish with their
application a recent, print quality photograph and letters of application. The
application form specifies no less than two and no more than four letters of recommendation,
some or all of which preferably should be from school districts in different
PSBA regions as well as from community groups and other sources that can
provide a description of the candidate’s involvement with and effectiveness in
leadership positions. PSBA Governing
Board Policy 108 also outlines the campaign procedures of candidates.
All
terms of office commence January 1 following election.
Join the Pennsylvania Principals Association at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at The
Capitol in Harrisburg, PA, for its second annual Principals' Lobby Day.
Pennsylvania
Principals Association Monday, March 21, 2016 9:31 AM
To register, contact Dr. Joseph Clapper at clapper@paprincipals.org by
Tuesday, June 14, 2016. If you need assistance, we will provide
information about how to contact your legislators to schedule meetings.
Click here for the informational flyer, which includes
important issues to discuss with your legislators.
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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