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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup June 28, 2016:
"First-draft"
state budget passes first test in Pa. House Appropriations Committee with
strong bipartisan vote
House
panel OKs budget, full chamber to vote Tuesday
Morning
Call by Steve
Esack Contact Reporter Call Harrisburg
Bureau June 27, 2016 11:30 pm
HARRISBURG — The
Republican-controlled Legislature began voting Monday night on a $31.5 billion
budget that would increase education spending by about $260 million and could
put higher taxes on smokers while expanding gamblers' options to the internet. The 2016-17 budget bill — if it passes muster
with the House's large bloc of conservative Republicans and a growing number of conservative
senators — would be 5 percent higher than this year's budget, which limped into
law nine months late. Looked at another
way, the latest spending plan would be 5.4 percent lower than Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's February budget proposal and about 1.3 percent
lower than what he was hoping to get through summertime negotiations. The House Appropriations Committee
overwhelmingly voted to accept the budget about 9:35 p.m. The spending plan now
moves to the full 203-member House, where a vote will be held Tuesday. If the
House adopts it, the bill would move to the Senate, and if it is not changed,
to Wolf.
“The
new fiscal year may begin Friday, but Mr. Wolf and legislators blew past that
deadline last year — by nine months. In
the House Appropriations Committee meeting late Monday, that recent discord was
nowhere to be seen. The committee voted unanimously to amend the spending plan
into a bill and then voted 36-1 to send it to the House floor.”
Budget
bill clears House committee, but obstacles abound
Post Gazette By Angela
Couloumbis & Karen Langley Harrisburg Bureau June 28, 2016 12:25 AM
HARRISBURG — There may soon be a
budget bill, but there is no budget deal.
The proposal that cleared the
House Appropriations Committee on Monday night calls for the state to spend
about 5 percent more next year than it did under this year's $30 billion
budget. The boost in spending would be
propped up by legalizing online gambling, loosening the state’s monopoly over
the sale of wine, imposing new taxes on tobacco and instituting a tax amnesty
program. But neither the
Republican-dominated Senate nor the administration of the Democratic governor
has committed to support it. Jeff
Sheridan, Gov. Tom Wolf’s spokesman, said Monday that the governor has not
agreed to the plan. It doesn’t fully
fund one of Mr. Wolf’s spending priorities: new dollars for opioid abuse treatment and prevention. Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre,
expressed skepticism about aspects of the House plan: “We haven’t finalized
anything,” he said, later noting, “There is no sense sending the governor
something he doesn’t want, or at least won’t agree to sign.”
"First-draft" state budget
passes first test in Pa. House Appropriations Committee with strong bipartisan
vote
Penn Live By Charles Thompson |
cthompson@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
June 27, 2016 at 10:43 PM, updated June 27, 2016 at 11:04 PM
The Pennsylvania House
Appropriations Committee gave a strong, 36-1 start Monday to what leaders in
both parties called a "first-draft" state budget that - barring a
major surprise - is likely to be the spending template for the fiscal year
starting Friday. The $31.6 billion
spending plan will go to the full House of Representatives for a floor vote
Tuesday, and then move to the state Senate.
It is, it's worth remembering, just a start. The plan unveiled Monday is not an agreed-to
package with the sign-off of Gov. Tom Wolf or the state Senate leadership. Nor is there final agreement on a revenue
package needed to bring the plan into balance.
But sources called the House plan a good snapshot of where negotiations
stand as all sides hunker down for a final round of talks aimed at trying to
produce a completed state budget on or near the July 1 start of the new fiscal
year.
Trib Live BY BRAD BUMSTED AND
CARLEY MOSSBROOK | Monday, June 27, 2016, 11:42 a.m.
HARRISBURG — The House
Appropriations Committee on Monday approved a $31.5 billion state budget that
raises taxes on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco and relies on new revenue from
a proposal for online gaming. The full
House is expected to vote on the package Tuesday. It's not a budget agreed to
by Senate Republicans and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf. But it is a first step
toward meeting a deadline of midnight Thursday for passage of a 2016-17 state
budget. “I think we have an agreement
with House Democrats. That doesn't say that everybody is going to vote for this
tomorrow,” Rep. William Adolph, R-Delaware County, said Monday. “Quite frankly,
I feel a lot better this year than I did last year at this time.” It's a budget driven by efforts to avoid
anything resembling last year's nine-month impasse between Wolf and the GOP
House and Senate. It boosts spending by
$1.4 billion, almost 5 percent, but is significantly less than the $33.3
billion sought by the governor.
GOP lawmakers complain about being frozen
out of process as 2016-17 budget continues to take shape
Penn Live By Jan Murphy |
jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
June 27, 2016 at 2:22 PM, updated June 27, 2016 at 2:39 PM
A band of fiscal conservative
House Republicans, frustrated over being kept in the dark about what is going
in budget talks, gathered on Monday morning to call on their leaders to come
clean about what's in the 2016-17 state spending plan they are crafting and
how they are expecting to pay for it. With
three days until the fiscal year ends, this group of lawmakers criticized the
House GOP leaders for being secretive with them about budget details while
being more forthcoming with Democratic leaders.
“School
officials blamed part of Chester Upland's continually skyrocketing debt on
charter schools, which enroll about half of the students in the district.
In
2015, Chester Upland official and state officials sued area charter schools, in
an extreme example of a common gripe — that the state's charter law is stacked
against school districts. The district
argued that the boatload of money it was sending to charters for
special-education students — $40,000 per student — wasn't actually being spent
on those students. Last fall, the two
sides settled and signed a new agreement, instituting a lower rate —
$27,029 for special-education students — and slightly raising regular student
tuition to $10,683. While that contract and fluctuating enrollment ended up
costing Chester Upland more in the regular tuition column, the change to
special education spending stabilized charter costs and saved the district
about $9.5 million in 2015-2016.”
After year of education
funding fixes, Chester Upland still running in the redWHYY Newsworks BY LAURA BENSHOFF JUNE 27, 2016
Prepping seniors to walk the
stage for the 2016 Chester Upland School District High School graduation
ceremony, social science teacher Sherman Lineberry was all business. "You really have nothing to do but pay
attention," he said into public-address system. "No phones, no
earphones, no texting." On a steamy
June morning, more than 200 students in matching black T-shirts practiced
proceeding on and off Chester Upland's football field. Listening to the familiar strains of
"Pomp and Circumstance," it was easy to forget Chester's schools
almost didn't open this year. This year,
battles in court and in Harrisburg sought to restore the Delaware County
district from the clutches of skyrocketing debt. These efforts helped the
district squeak by for one more year — but are not enough to put it in the
black.
Seeking academic middle: How one group
works to boost college completion in Philly
The notebook/WHYY
Newsworks BY AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT
JUNE 27, 2016George Washington High School in Northeast Philadelphia has three guidance counselors for 1,700 students. Those seeking individual attention need to be one of two things, said recent graduate Tyreek Thompkins: Really smart or really troubled. “The people in the middle are just left there,” said Thompkins. That’s no fault of the guidance counselors at George Washington, said Thompkins’ classmate Joseph Ware. He knows they’re overextended. Still, Ware can’t help but feel, in his words, “shafted.” “He was never in his office,” Ware says of his assigned counselor. “When you needed him, he wasn’t there because he always had to deal with another student who needed to graduate rather than helping someone who’s on track to do it.” Thanks to a modest budget surplus, the School District of Philadelphia will be able to put at least one guidance counselor in every school this September. But years of cutbacks have taken a toll, with outside groups often working furiously to fill in the gaps.
Commentary: SRC is acting as if it's above
the law
Philly Daily News
Opinion by Lisa Haver Updated: JUNE
28, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDTLisa Haver is a retired Philadelphia teacher and co-founder of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools.
AMERICA WAS founded on a system
of open government in which all citizens, rich or poor, should have equal
access to those who make the laws and should be able to express opinions on
those laws before they are enacted. Our nation's founders recognized that power
must be divided among branches of government and that there must be checks on
power. And when government officials betray the public trust, we can vote them
out of office. But there are no checks
on those appointed to govern the School District of Philadelphia and no way to
vote them out. The School Reform Commission, which has invoked "special
powers" when it sees the law as an impediment to its agenda, is not
compelled to follow the basic tenets of democracy. Consider: To pass a bill, City Council must
introduce the bill during a public meeting; advertise it in a major daily
newspaper; hold committee hearings with opportunity for public comment before
sending it to the full Council; give the public another chance to speak; and no
less than two weeks later, vote the bill up or down. Contrast that with the SRC's power to
compose, introduce and vote on a resolution in the same session - with no
opportunity for public review or comment. The SRC has not hesitated to use this
power, for example, to cancel the teachers' contract and to turn over a public school
to a charter company.
Philly school cafeteria workers get pay
raise
WHYY Newsworks BY AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT JUNE 27, 2016
School cafeteria workers in
Philadelphia ratified a contract extension Monday that includes wage increases
and a 3 percent bonus. The standing
agreement between Local 634, School Cafeteria Employees Union UniteHere ,and
the School District of Philadelphia wasn't slated to expire until next
September. The extension inked Monday runs through September 2019. "At the start of 2016, I made securing
new and fair labor contracts for all of our unions a priority," said
Philadelphia superintendent William Hite in a statement. "I am proud to
announce a ratified agreement with our food service employees and student
climate staff." Over the life of
the new deal, the union's lowest-paid workers will see hourly wages climb from
$11.13 an hour to $12.85. "This agreement recognizes
our members contributions to the education of our children and guarantees wages
and economic improvements over the next three years," said Nicole Hunt,
staff organizer for Local 634, in a joint news release with the district.
Millcreek
School District expects $3M surplus
By Erica Erwin 814-870-1846 Erie Times-News June 28, 2016 05:32 AM
ERIE, Pa. -- The Millcreek
Township School District expects to end this fiscal year with a roughly $3
million surplus and an uncommitted fund balance of $6.4 million, indications
that the district is back on solid ground after some financially tumultuous
years, district officials said. "We
can now get back to talking about our programs and our kids and raising the
instructional level in the classroom," Millcreek schools Superintendent
William Hall said. The surplus -- the
third in as many years -- is the result of $500,000 in additional state
revenue; health insurance expenses that were less than anticipated; the
unexpected absorption of a few positions because of retirement; and a
better-than-expected tax collection rate, said Aaron O'Toole, the district's
director of finance and accounting. The
surplus also reflects $1.5 million the district expects to receive from the
sale of Asbury Woods land. The surplus
and the fund balance were highlights of a year-end presentation O'Toole gave to
the Millcreek School Board on Monday that painted a picture of a district in
recovery.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Easton teachers' pact
expires in 3 days
By Rudy Miller
| For lehighvalleylive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on June 27, 2016 at 2:15 PM, updated June 27, 2016 at 3:52 PM
The Easton Area School
District teachers
contract will expire in three days, according to the teachers union
president. Teachers union President
Julia Miles said teachers will continue to work under the terms of the previous
deal until a new agreement is reached. "A
strike is not likely to happen," she said Monday. "At this point we
will continue on with the old contract."
School board President Frank Pintabone said the district is negotiating
four other labor deals in addition to the teachers contract. Much is at stake
with the teachers contract, so both sides are proceeding with caution, he said. "There's no argument," he said.
"There's no standstill. That's not what's holding us up."
Moon Area taxpayers will see
slight rise in rates for 2016-17 school year
Beaver County Times Online By
Katherine Schaeffer kschaeffer@timesonline.com
June 27, 2016
MOON TWP. -- Moon Area School
District taxpayers will see a .07115 mill increase in taxes next year. The board voted 7-1 to pass a 2016-17 budget
that calls for $75,775,442 in district expenditures and will bump taxes to
19.5576 mills. Board member Jeff Bussard dissented but would not elaborate as
to why. A homeowner paying taxes on a
home valued at $148,000, the district’s median, will see an annual bill
increase of $105.51. Even with increased
taxes, the district will still operate at a net deficit of $4,874,003, which
the district will cover with a loan, Business Manager Chuck Lanna said. The district started the 2011-12 school year
with about $10 million in its general fund. That amount dwindled each year due
to former Superintendent Curt Baker and the previous board’s financial
mismanagement and overspending, Board President Jerry Testa said. Testa and Lanna both agreed the district will
have to cut costs in coming years to avoid a yawning deficit. Without any significant reduction in
expenditure, the board can expect the annual deficit to remain at at least $5
million, Lanna said.
Post Gazette By Deana Carpenter June 27, 2016 11:04 PM
A $62.4 million budget with a
2.65 mill increase was unanimously approved by the Peters Township school board
at its Monday meeting. The increase brings the millage rate in the district to
113.4 mills. A homeowner who currently
pays $2,000 in school taxes will see a $48 increase for the year. Homeowners
with a $3,000 tax bill will see an increase of $72 in school taxes. The board also unanimously
approved designating $8.5 million of the district’s fund balance for the
purpose of satisfying future debt service obligations and increases in the employer
contributions to the Public School Employees Retirement System. About $4 million will be designated for debt
service and $4.5 million to the retirement fund. The district’s remaining
unreserved fund balance is estimated at $2,085,686.
Post Gazette By Tim Means June 27, 2016 9:38 PM
Penn Hills school directors
approved an $82.6 million budget for the 2016-2017 school year that includes a
1.5 mill increase in real estate taxes bringing the rate to 23.6 mills. The tax
increase will generate $3.2 million in new revenue. According to business
manager Robert Geletko, the increase means that the owner of a $100,000 house
in Penn Hills will pay twelve dollars per month more in taxes next year. The
average home in Penn Hills is valued at $68,800. Due to extenuating
circumstances, the district was permitted to exceed the state’s Act 1 tax index
which would have capped the increase at 0.84 mills. In addition to the tax hike, the district has
budgeted $4,467,433 for student transportation., although a transportation
contract has not yet been awarded for the 2016-17 school year. This represents
a savings of $1,535,616 over last year and includes a reduction in fuel costs
of $750,000. The transportation expenditure is calculated by using the state’s formula
as recommended by the auditor general’s office.
Trib Live BY GEORGE GUIDO | Monday,
June 27, 2016, 11:00 p.m.
Real estate taxes will remain the
same in the Apollo-Ridge School District for the next school year. The school board on Monday night approved a
$24.1 million budget that keeps the real estate tax rate for Apollo, North
Apollo and Kiski Township in Armstrong County at 62.9 mills. Property owners in
Young and Blacklick townships in Indiana County will see their real estate
taxes remain at 14.9 mills. School
districts that cross county lines have an equalization process that has
residents in different counties paying roughly the same amount in property
taxes. The homestead exclusion for
qualified properties will be $331. The
budget represents a 2.62 percent increase over the current spending plan.
Jury orders Phila. schools to pay firm
$2.3 million in bias suit
Inquirer by Martha Woodall and Jeremy Roebuck,
STAFF WRITERS Updated: JUNE
28, 2016 — 1:07 AM EDT
A federal jury entered a $2.3
million judgment against the Philadelphia School District and the late
Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman on Monday, finding that she discriminated
against a Bucks County company by steering a $7.5 million no-bid contract to a
smaller, minority-owned firm that had not sought the work. Newtown-based Security & Data
Technologies Inc. (SDT) filed the racial discrimination suit after, it said,
Ackerman and the School District "deselected" it in 2010 for a
contract to install surveillance cameras at 19 schools that the state had
deemed "persistently dangerous."
The company, which had begun preliminary work, said Ackerman changed
course and ordered the emergency contract be awarded to IBS Communications,
which was not on a state list of companies eligible for no-bid contracts.
Education Secretary King calls on charters
to rethink discipline, reduce suspensions
Washington Post By Emma Brown June
28 at 6:00 AM
John
King Jr. once founded a charter school that aimed
to prepare low-income children for college, and it was known
both for posting high test scores and for issuing a lot of suspensions. Now King is U.S. Education Secretary, and he
plans to recognize the 25th anniversary of the nation’s charter school movement
by calling on charter leaders to rethink their approach to discipline
and reduce their reliance on suspensions and expulsions. Within King’s planned speech Tuesday are
echoes of critics who have long accused charter schools of using harsh “no
excuses” and “zero tolerance” discipline tactics, which often end up pushing
students out and sending them back to neighborhood schools that are responsible
for serving any child who shows up.
High
Test Scores At A Nationally Lauded Charter Network, But At What Cost?
NPR by ANYA KAMENETZ June
24, 20167:00 AM ET
Since its inception nearly a
decade ago in Silicon Valley, Rocketship has been among the most nationally
applauded charter networks, hailed as an innovative model of blended learning. Founder John Danner, who made a
fortune in Internet advertising, originally envisioned enrolling 1 million
students by 2020, relying on the strength of three pillars — "personalized
learning" with software, excellent teachers and parent involvement — to
raise the achievement of underserved students.
Today there are 13 Rocketship schools, with 6,000 students, in the San
Francisco Bay Area, Nashville, Tenn., and Milwaukee, with one scheduled to open
in Washington, D.C., this fall. The students, largely low-income and Hispanic,
outperform their peers on state tests. The
school has impressed parents like Letty Gomez, who grew up in East San Jose and
whose first-grader attends Rocketship
Fuerza Community Prep there. She
says from her very first visit, what she saw was, "Every single teacher
and administrator ... motivated the students. They were encouraging the
students. I have never seen that on any other campus [where] I myself went to
school or that my children had attended." The company says that 91 percent
of families return each year. Yet
despite its successes, as Rocketship has pushed to expand, some parents,
teachers and community
members have objected
in public meetings, raising concerns about the school's tech-heavy
instruction model, student-teacher ratio, and student health and safety.
Education Bloggers Daily Highlights
6/28/2016
Appointment
of Voting Delegates for the October 15th PSBA Delegate Assembly
Meeting
PSBA Website June 27, 2016
The governing body boards of all
member school entities are entitled to appoint voting delegates to participate
in the PSBA Delegate Assembly to be held on Saturday,
Oct. 15, 2016. It is important that school boards act soon to appoint
its delegate or delegates, and to notify PSBA of the appointment.
Voting members of the Delegate
Assembly will:
1. Consider and act upon proposed
changes to the PSBA Bylaws.
2. Receive reports from the PSBA
president, executive director and treasurer.
3. Receive the results of the
election for officers and at-large representatives. (Voting upon
candidates by school boards and electronic submission of each board’s votes
will occur during the month of September 2016.)
4. Consider proposals recommended by
the PSBA Platform Committee and adopt the legislative platform for the coming
year.
5. Conduct other Association
business as required or permitted in the Bylaws, policies or a duly adopted
order of business.
The 2016 Delegate Assembly will meet on Saturday,
Oct. 15, at the conclusion of the regularly scheduled events of the
main PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference.
Apply Now!
EPLC’s 2016-2017 Pennsylvania Education Policy Fellowship Program
Nominations now open for PSBA Allwein Awards (deadline
July 16)
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.
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:
PA Supreme Court sets Sept. 13 argument
date for fair education funding lawsuit in Philly
Thorough
and Efficient Blog JUNE 16, 2016 BARBGRIMALDI LEAVE A COMMENT
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