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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup May 17, 2016:
Study calls for at least
$3.2 billion in added Pa. school funding
Make
the new funding formula permanent; pass a budget for 2016-17 that increases
funding for public schools by at least $400 million
Pennsylvania has the widest funding gap between wealthy & poor
schools in the country.
Contributing only 36%, PA is ranked 46th in the US for its
share of education funding.
Campaign for Fair Education
Funding Website
Joint public hearing on Every Student Succeeds Act
Wednesday May 18th
PA House and PA
Senate Education Committees
Harrisburg Wednesday
May 18th 9:00 AM Hearing Room #1 North Office Building
“The Law Center's report finds that if the tenets of the
new formula are applied to the average instructional costs of schools
statewide, a "conservative" estimate shows the need for $16.5 billion
dollars in added support — $3.2 billion of which it says should come from the
state. To put that in context, the state
spent $5.72 billion in 2014-15 on regular education. To reach this $3.2 billion figure, The Law
Center and other advocates are pushing for a $400 million increase in each of
the next eight years.”
Study calls for at least
$3.2 billion in added Pa. school funding
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN MCCORRY MAY 17, 2016
The advocacy group
Public Interest Law Center says the commonwealth's own data point to the need
for at least $3.2 billion in added state funding. When the state's bipartisan basic education
funding commission published its report last year, it came up with a new
formula for distributing new state education dollars. The formula acknowledges
that districts face added burdens, for instance, when educating students in
poverty, or those still learning English.
But the panel very specifically avoided a crucial question: how much
money would it take for all students to score proficient on state tests? So the Public Interest Law Center did its
own analysis. "Nobody has been actually talking about
what districts really need," said staff attorney Michael Churchill.
Report: PA Needs to Spend at Least $3.2 Billion more
to Educate Students
PA BASIC EDUCATION FUNDING COMMISSION FORMULA
MEANS DISTRICTS NEED AT LEAST $3.2 BILLION MORE IN STATE FUNDING
Public Interest Law
Center of Philadelphia Website May 16, 2016
- Download
this report
- Distribution
of Adequacy Amounts spreadsheet
- Executive Summary
Early this year,
Pennsylvania joined 47 other states in the nation when the legislature passed a
formula for funding public education. It adopted the formula created in 2015 by
the bi-partisan Basic Education Funding Commission. The Commission’s formula
was based upon a number of factors described below, to equitably distribute
state education dollars.[1] Although the Commission provided a
guide for how to distribute state funds, it did not provide an answer to
another crucial question: how much actual state funding do all
Pennsylvania schools need to properly educate their students? We call
this the State Adequacy Cost.
This report uses the
Commission’s own formula to answer that question. It concludes that in
order for districts to have adequate funding to enable their students to meet
state standards, the state must provide school districts with between $3.188
and $4.280 billion in additional funding.
Take Note: Is Pennsylvania
Breaking Its Promise To Provide A "Thorough And Efficient" Education?
WPSU By EMILY REDDY • MAY 13, 2016 Audio runtime:
29:00
A current lawsuit
alleges that Pennsylvania has broken its constitutional obligation to provide a
"thorough and efficient system of public education." As part of a
collaborative series for NPR, the new education reporter for Keystone
Crossroads has been looking into education funding. WPSU's Emily Reddy
talked with Kevin McCorry, who says there
are huge funding disparities among Pennsylvania's 500 school districts and
with Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg, an attorney at the Public
Interest Law Center in Philadelphia, which is a part of the lawsuit.
Here's why Gov. Wolf
should veto that teacher layoff bill: Jerry Oleksiak
PennLive
Op-Ed By Jerry Oleksiak on
May 16, 2016 at 12:00 PM
Jerry Oleksiak, a special education teacher
in the Upper Merion Area School District, is president of the Pennsylvania
State Education Association.
Pennsylvania's 500 school
districts faced a substantial funding cut under former Gov. Tom Corbett,
resulting in the loss of thousands of education jobs. And the General
Assembly's response is ... to make things worse? Sometimes it's just hard to make sense of
what some lawmakers call "education policy." The last few days have been one of those
times.
Last week, the state
Senate sent a bill to the governor's desk to make it easier to get rid of teachers who have a lot of
classroom experience. Think about
that.
This bill would make
it easier to fire experienced teachers – after legislators have neglected to
provide adequate or equitable funding to school districts, creating a situation
where many are struggling just to keep the doors open for students. Pennsylvanians are still reeling from the
chaos caused by nearly $1 billion in school funding cuts five years ago - cuts
that increased classroom sizes, slashed student programs, and eliminated 27,000
education jobs.
Biennial budgeting is bipartisan solution to annual
impasses
Lancaster Online
Opinion by LT. GOV. MIKE STACK AND SEN. RYAN AUMENT | SPECIAL TO LNP May 15,
2016
To the frustration
of many Pennsylvanians, the 2015-16 state budget took almost nine months to
complete. While this was the longest
budget impasse in our commonwealth’s history, it certainly was not the first
time Pennsylvania struggled to enact a timely annual spending plan. In fact, over the
past 2 1/2 decades, four other state government budget impasses have lasted
longer than 10 days: in 2009, 2007, 2003 and 1991. And over the last 10 years,
Pennsylvania has seen only three budgets enacted on time. What do all these late budgets have in
common? For one thing, they
all occurred in years when state government was split between a governor of one
political party and at least one chamber of the General Assembly controlled by
the other party. For another, they all occurred in years that did not involve
elections for either the Legislature or governor. Clearly, there is a pattern that, if left
unaddressed, will likely continue to be repeated.
“The 2.26 mill increase would generate $1.2 million, all of
which would be taken up by a one-year increase in contributions to the
underfunded Pennsylvania State Employee Retirement System.”
Norwin schools' budget includes tax increase
Post Gazette By Anne
Cloonan May 16, 2016 11:48 PM
The Norwin school
board tonight passed a preliminary budget for the 2016-2017 school year that
would raise school real estate taxes by 2.26 mills. If the budget is approved by the end of June,
it would raise the tax of a home with a median assessed value of $21,630 by
$48.88 per year. Interim business
Manager Jude Abraham said expenses in the preliminary budget are $67.4 million,
and income is projected to be $66.2 million.
“Expenditures total more than $2.85 million over the
current year, with the majority of the increase coming from a mandated 4.19 percent,
or nearly $1 million increase in the Pennsylvania Public School Employees'
Retirement System; $506,204 more in salaries; and nearly $400,000 more, or an
18 percent increase, in medical insurance.
Even with the proposed tax increase, the district will need to pull $4.1
million from its fund balance to balance the budget, leaving a projected $7.4
million as of June 30, 2017.”
Susquehanna Township
School District proposed budget calls for 3 percent tax increase, position
eliminations and additions
By Tricia Kline |
Special to PennLive on May 16, 2016 at 10:26 PM
SUSQUEHANNA
TOWNSHIP—The Susquehanna Township School Board on Monday night voted 7-1 to
display and advertise a $50.8 million proposed final budget for 2016-17 with a
3 percent tax increase. Member Cole
Goodman voted against the proposed budget, and member Helen Spence was absent
from the meeting. The board plans to vote on the final budget June 20. The tax increase,
which includes exceptions to raise the rate above the Act 1 index, would equal
$57.47 more each year for the average assessed property value of $112,550. The district has raised taxes only once before
in the last four years—1.07 percent in 2014-15—and remains the second lowest
tax rate among districts in Dauphin County, according to business manager
Oslwen Anderson.
No tax hike in draft
Pottstown schools budget
By Evan Brandt,
The Mercury POSTED: 05/15/16,
2:00 AM EDT |
POTTSTOWN >>
For the second year in a row, the Pottstown School Board is poised to adopt a
budget that will not raise taxes. The
news came just two days after the neighboring Pottsgrove School Board voted for a zero tax
hike budget as well. Business
Manager Linda Adams delivered the good news for Pottstown taxpayers Thursday at
a meeting of the school board’s finance committee. She said the primary reason for the zero tax
hike is a 12 percent drop in health insurance costs — worth more than $1
million — that are a result of the district “self-insuring” through a regional
cooperative rather than traditional private health insurance.
Highlands
School District furloughs 3 teachers
BY TOM
YERACE | Monday, May 16, 2016, 11:20 p.m.
Three teachers at
Highlands High School were furloughed Monday because of declining enrollment,
according to district officials. The
layoffs came as the school board also approved its 2016-17 preliminary budget,
which holds the line on real estate taxes.
In an 8-0 vote with board member Eric Miles absent, the board approved
the furloughs of English teacher Lindsay Cable, math teacher Jessica Faish and
science teacher Michael O'Toole. Superintendent
Michael Bjalobok said all three are first-year teachers. Solicitor Ira Weiss said the teachers could be
called back contingent on retirements by their colleagues. Along with the furloughs, Business Manager
Jon Rupert said two more teaching positions at the middle school will be cut
through attrition because of retirements.
Rupert said overall, cutting the five teaching positions will save the
district about $480,000.
Dozens of Erie district teachers intend to retire
By Erica Erwin 814-870-1846 Erie Times-News May 14, 2016 06:35 PM
ERIE, Pa. -- Fifty-five
Erie School District teachers have indicated their intent to take advantage of
retirement incentives the district is offering in an attempt to whittle a
2016-17 budget deficit that could be as much as $12 million. Friday was the deadline for employees to
submit a revocable notice of intent to take advantage of the offer, approved by
the Erie School Board in April. Employees
have until June 13 to submit irrevocable notice. "We are not happy to lose this level of
experienced teachers, but in order to avoid more painful cuts (to the
students), this was the reality," said Daria Devlin, the district's
coordinator of grants and community relations.
Erie schools Superintendent Jay Badams in April outlined $9.8 million in
potential budget cuts, including eliminating full-day kindergarten and closing
a high school. The Erie School Board will discuss budget options at its next
meeting, set for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the district's administration
building, 148 W. 21st St.
'Top priority' to
negotiate fair contract with Harrisburg teachers, board member says
Penn Live By Julianne
Mattera | jmattera@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
May 16, 2016 at 11:49 PM, updated May 16, 2016 at 11:52 PM
Harrisburg School
Board members on Monday night overwhelmingly spoke in support of wrapping up
contract negotiations with the teachers, and that gave the union's president
hope. Jody Barksdale,
president of the Harrisburg Education Association, said she was
"pleasantly surprised" after school board members voted in favor of
adding a resolution to the agenda that called for the district to negotiate a
"fair teacher contract as expeditiously as possible." The resolution said
a teacher contract was "long overdue" and the school board recognized
that the district could "afford a fair contract with our committed
educators." Board members said they
understood that teachers jobs weren't easy, and they wanted parties to work
together for a new contract. The union, which represents the district's
teachers, nurses, counselors and others, has been negotiating
a new contract from more than 1,400 days. Union officials say 400 union
members have left the district in the past four years.
Phoenixville Area School
Board OKs 3-year teacher contract
By Eric Devlin,
The Mercury POSTED: 05/15/16,
11:41 AM EDT | UPDATED: 1 DAY AGO
PHOENIXVILLE
>> For the first time in six years, teachers in the Phoenixville Area
School District will head into summer vacation knowing they are under contract
once school starts up again next fall. The
Phoenixville Area School District and Phoenixville Area Education Association
reached an early-bird, collective bargaining agreement at Thursday night’s
school board meeting following the school board’s unanimous approval. The
3-year contract between the district and the teachers union is effective from
July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2019. With
this agreement, all represented groups in the district are under contract for
the next three years. This unique position allows the school district to set
plans for the future while providing financial stability and continuing to grow
the district, a press release states. There
are several noteworthy changes within the new contract. With this new contract,
all district employees will be in a high deductible health care plan starting
with the 2016-17 school year. This mirrors most industry standards, and is a
first for Chester County school districts, the release states.
Peters Township teachers, district ratify new contract
By Janice Crompton /
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette May 16, 2016 10:03 PM
After a contentious
school year of tense contract negotiations -- including a 21-day strike --
teachers in the Peters Township School District tonight have a new contract. The agreement, ratified tonight by the
district and the Peters Township Federation of Teachers, comes after a series
of meetings that took place today at the request of an arbitration panel that
had worked with both sides for months to resolve the impasse. The new six-year pact is retroactive to Aug.
31, 2015 -- when the last five-year deal expired -- and runs through June 30,
2021.
PPS
teachers, other employees OK new contracts, board of education to vote
Wednesday
Trib Live BY THE
ASSOCIATED PRESS | Monday, May 16, 2016, 11:45 p.m.
The union
representing Pittsburgh public school teachers and other employees says members
have voted overwhelmingly to ratify extensions to the contracts with the
Pittsburgh School District through June 2017.
The Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers said Monday that the professional
unit contract was accepted by a nearly 8-to-1 margin. The union said the
paraprofessional unit contract was accepted by a more than 12-to-1 margin, and
the technical-clerical unit contract was accepted unanimously. The new agreements extend the five-year
contracts that expired in June 2015. Union
president Nina-Esposito Visgitis said officials look forward to negotiating “a
longer-term contract that is in the best interests of our educators and our
students.”
Charter School Students,
Parents and Supporters Join Lawmakers in State Capitol to Rally in Support of
Preserving School Choice in Pennsylvania
Students urged lawmakers to
support fair funding for charter school students
Keystone Alliance for Public Charter Schools Press Release May 16, 2016
Harrisburg – More
than 1,200 public brick-and-mortar charter school students, parents, leaders,
educators and supporters from across Pennsylvania today filled the state
Capitol Rotunda and were joined by Sen. Ryan Aument (R-Lancaster), Rep. Bill
Keller (D-Philadelphia) and other lawmakers to call for fair funding of charter
school students and the importance of preserving public school choice across
the commonwealth. “The whole premise of
public school choice is focused solely on doing what is in the best interest of
students,” said Tim Eller, executive director of the Keystone Alliance for
Public Charter Schools. “Regardless of one’s political ideology, we have a
moral responsibility to ensure that every single child across Pennsylvania has
access to a high-quality education in a safe and secure environment, whether
it’s a public charter school or a traditional public school.” For nearly 20 years, brick-and-mortar charter
schools have served as high-quality public school alternatives for thousands of
students and families across the commonwealth. In the communities where charter
schools are located, charter school students often perform academically better
than students who attend nearby traditional public schools.
Pennsylvania school choice foes agree charter reform
is needed
Watchdog.org By Evan
Grossman / May 13, 2016 / News /
No
Comments
One of the most
successful elementary schools in Pennsylvania is a charter school.
Despite fantastic
academic performance and high demand among local parents, Souderton Charter School
Collaborative is unable to expand. A major hurdle is Pennsylvania’s existing
charter school law that allows only local districts to approve new charters. Souderton Area School District seems
unwilling to let the school expand and public comments made by the local school
board indicate a bias against school choice. Charter advocates have supported
changing the law to allow multiple authorizers and a bill is currently working
its way through Harrisburg that would reform how charters are managed.
Pine-Richland
bathroom policy for transgender students stands
Trib Live BY TONY
LARUSSA | Tuesday, May 17, 2016, 2:52 a.m.
Despite several
hours of debate on Monday night, the Pine-Richland School Board passed on
voting for a measure that, if approved, would have scrapped the district's
practice of letting transgender students use bathrooms of the gender with which
they identify. The failure to take a
vote on the resolution offered by Vice President Greg DiTullio effectively lets
stand the board's previous announcement that it would work to develop a policy
on transgender students in time for the start of the 2016-17 school year. The school board has been discussing issues
involving transgender students during the past several weeks after parents
began questioning the district's current practice of giving transgender
students the option of using a private bathroom, a unisex facility or a
bathroom that matches their sexual identity.
Philly District releases
sustainability plan
It includes more
"green" schools and healthy environments.
The notebook by
Staff report May 16, 2016 — 6:52pm
The School District
announced a five-year "sustainability" plan Monday that will reduce
its environmental footprint by more effectively conserving resources,
decreasing consumption and waste, and creating more "green" schools
and healthy indoor environments. Called
Green Futures, the plan seeks to "enhance our children's well-being
and preserve our limited resources for future generations." In addition to
changes in its generally old building inventory, the initiative will also seek
to engage students in issues such as climate change and prepare them for
careers in a new "green" economy that focuses on renewable energy,
among other technologies. The plan is based on
Greenworks, the city's sustainability framework. Mayor Kenney attended the
press conference announcing Green Futures and praised the District for the
effort, which has five-year targets and a roadmap of 60 actions to reach
them.
What's next for the Philly
WE caucus?
The Working Educators advocate
for "deep organizing," not "shallow mobilizing."
The notebook by Greg Windle May 16,
2016 — 1:34pm
The Caucus
of Working Educators appeared in headlines during February when it
ran against the incumbent leadership of the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers. It was the first time since 1992 that the leadership was challenged
by a full slate of 35 educators running for all the contested positions.
Although they lost the election, with 30 percent of the vote, members
of the WE caucus say it is not going away. The group is determined to
change the way that the PFT does business, mobilize more rank-and-file
teachers, and focus more visibly on social and racial justice issues. The caucus is a member of UCORE, a network of
20 locals and caucuses within both the American Federation of Teachers and the
National Education Association. UCORE’s
members consider
themselves social justice unionists working to create more equitable
school districts, and, as Michael Gunderson wrote in Labor Notes, “keep public
schools in the hands of communities rather than private enterprises.”
“The lawmakers said they are most concerned about the
proposal to change the eligibility threshold for the Community Eligibility
Provision — a program that allows schools and local educational agencies with
high poverty rates to provide free breakfast and lunch to all students — from
40 percent of students to 60 percent. “To
say this change would be detrimental would be an understatement,” their letter
said. “Raising the threshold to 60 percent would lead to far fewer schools
qualifying for the program and more low-income children going hungry every
day.”
Dems call for changes to
child nutrition bill
The Hill By Lydia
Wheeler - 05/16/16 04:11 PM EDT
House Democrats are
pushing for changes to legislation they claim will weaken the first lady’s
prized school lunch standards and make it more difficult for low-income and
minority children to access meal programs. In a letter led by Rep. Rosa
DeLauro (D-Conn.), 111 Democrats asked House Education and the Workforce
Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) and ranking member Bobby Scott (D-Va.) to strengthen proposed legislation to
reauthorize the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act that they say now includes
“misguided changes.” The letter was also
addressed to the chairman and ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Early
Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, Reps. Todd Rokita (R-
Ind.) and Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio).
Girls outscore boys on inaugural national test of
technology, engineering skills
Washington Post By Emma Brown May
17 at 12:01 AM
Girls
outperformed boys on a national test of technology and engineering
literacy that the federal government administered for the first time in
2014, according to results made public Tuesday. Among eighth-grade
students in public and private schools, 45 percent of girls and 42 percent of
boys scored proficient on the exam, the National Assessment of Educational
Progress, or NAEP. Overall, 43 percent of all students were proficient. The test was designed to measure students’
abilities in areas such as understanding technological principles, designing
solutions and communicating and collaborating. Girls were particularly strong
in the latter. There also were large
racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, mirroring results on standardized
tests in other subjects. Just 25 percent of students who received free and
reduced-price lunch scored proficient, compared to 59 percent of more affluent
students. Eighteen percent of black students and 28 percent of Latino
students scored proficient, for example, compared to 56 percent of white and
Asian students.
The Nation’s Report Card: 2014 | Technology
& Engineering Literacy (TEL)
An Innovative Assessment in an
Era of Rapid Technological Change
In 2014, the
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) administered the first-ever
nationally representative assessment of technology and engineering literacy.
Eighth-grade students were presented real-world scenarios involving technology
and engineering challenges. Students were asked to respond to questions aimed
at assessing their knowledge and skill in understanding technological
principles, solving technology and engineering-related problems, and using
technology to communicate and collaborate. Students also were surveyed on their
opportunities to learn about technology and engineering in and out of school.
Highlights of
what we learned about eighth-grade students include the following:
Automatic Voter
Registration in Oregon Is Revolutionizing American Democracy
The state’s new registration system is a
model for the rest of the country.
The Nation By Ari BermanTwitter May 16, 2016 12:42 PM
Oregon’s presidential primary is tomorrow, but
the bigger story is how many new voters there are in the state. More than 100,000 new voters have registered
so far in 2016, over half through the state’s new automatic
voter registration system. The 51,558 voters signed up through
automatic registration is an average of 12,889 new voters per month, three
times higher than the average of 4,163 monthly registrants in 2012. “It
looks like it’s going to be a big success,” says Nikki Fisher, executive
director of The Bus Project, which helped conceive of the program. The number
of voters registered has been higher than initial projections and half of new
registrants are under 35. “All indications are that new people are being
brought into the system,” Fisher says. This year Oregon
became the first state to automatically register eligible citizens who request
or renew a driver’s license through the DMV. They are sent a card informing
them of their registration status and have 21 days to opt out from the voting
rolls. The burden of registration shifts from the individual to the state.
44 Colleges to Participate
in Pell Grant Dual-Enrollment Experiment
Education Week
Politics K-12 By Daarel
Burnette II on May 16, 2016 4:08 PM
The U.S. Department
of Education Monday named the 44 colleges chosen to participate in an
experiment to provide low-income high school students with Pell Grant money to
take college courses. The program
will allow more than 10,000 high school students to tap into $19 million of the
$67 billion in federal money typically reserved for such students to take
college courses. Department officials hope that by providing low-income
students with money to participate in dual-enrollment programs, the
program will help curtail skyrocketing college costs and start working earlier
toward the completion of an associate or bachelor's degree. A growing body of reserach shows that low-income high
school students who participate in dual-enrollment programs are more likely to
boost their high school GPA, less likely to drop out of high school, and more
likely to earn either an associate or bachelor's degree. But even as
dual-enrollment opportunities have expanded in recent years (more than 1.4
million students participated in the 2010-11 school year), low-income students
have been reluctant to participate because of the tuition and transportation
costs.
Nominations now open for PSBA Allwein Awards
PSBA Website POSTED
ON MAY 16, 2016 IN PSBA
NEWS
The Timothy M.
Allwein Advocacy Award was established in 2011 by the Pennsylvania School
Boards Association and may be presented annually to the individual school
director or entire school board to recognize outstanding leadership in
legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of public education and students that
are consistent with the positions in PSBA’s
Legislative Platform. The 2016 Allwein Award nominations will be
accepted starting today and all applications are due by July 16, 2016. The
nomination form can be downloaded from the website.
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:
“NATIONAL ANTHEM “SING-A-LONG”
When: September 9, 2016, 10:00 am PST/1:00pm EST
Where: Schools across America
Sponsor: American Public Education Foundation (APEF)
The National Anthem “Sing-A-Long” is a movement to teach K-12 students the
words, meaning,
music and history of the Star-Spangled Banner. This annual event is held
each year on the
second week of September to honor 9/11 families, victims and heroes and
celebrate the historic
birthday of the National Anthem on September 14. Those who join the
“Sing-A-Long” are singing in unison at the exact same time at multiple sites
across the U.S. The APEF has also created a robust, companion curriculum
recognized by numerous State Departments of Education, available online
at www.theapef.org (see the “Educate”
tab) for free download.
The Foundation hopes to have the support of the Alabama Department of
Education as we
commemorate the 15th Anniversary of 9/11 this year. Teachers are encouraged
to sign up
before the end of the school year at www.theapef.org.
Also online is a "how-to" guide on
holding an event at your school and sample press release. If you do not
wish to hold a full
ceremony at the school, your students can simply stand up and sing
at 10 am PST/1:00pm EST.
The Star-Spangled Banner Movement is a simple, elegant way to honor 9/11
while also teaching students how the world came together in the days, weeks and
months after the September 2001 terrorist strikes. The APEF also offers a host
of other free educational material on its website, including polls, contests
and grant information.
Pennsylvania
Partnerships for Children (PPC), a statewide children's advocacy organization
located in Harrisburg, PA has an immediate full-time opening for an Early
Learning and K-12 Education Policy Manager.
PPC's vision is to be one of the top ten states in which to be a child
and raise a child. Today, Pennsylvania ranks 17th in the nation for child
well-being. Our early learning and K-12 education policy work is focused on
ensuring all children enter school ready to learn and that all children have
access to high-quality public education. Current initiatives include increasing
the number of children served in publicly funded pre-k and implementing a fair
basic education formula along with sustained, significant investments in
education funding.
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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