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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup August 3, 2016:
Former
PA Cyber CEO takes position at rival Agora charter
Public News Service August 2. 2016
PHILADELPHIA - A lawsuit claiming
that state school funding levels violate the state constitution is set to go to
court next month. Pennsylvania has the most inequitable school-funding system
in the entire country. Although passage of the fair funding formula and a
modest increase in state funding for this coming school year is a step in the
right direction, advocates say it isn't enough. According to attorney Michael Churchill, with the Public Interest Law Center,
they looked at the standards set by the formula, and what poor districts need
now to meet them. "We just applied
the median statewide average costs that are currently being spent and it comes
out to $3.1 billion that is needed in additional state funding," he said. The lawsuit was filed almost two years ago.
Next month the state Supreme Court will hear oral arguments to determine
whether the courts can intervene and hold the Legislature accountable.
Auditor
General DePasquale to Discuss How Millions in Education Funding Pays Questionable
Charter School Leases
Tweet from @PAAuditorGen August
2, 2016
What:
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale will discuss how the Pennsylvania Department
of Eduction (PDE) is spending millions of dollars to reimburse some charter
schools for questionable real estate lease payments. He will highlight findings
from charter schools in nine counties.
When:
1:30 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 3, 2016
Where: Media Center, East Wing, Capitol, Harrisburg
Why:
Since 2013, the Department of the Auditor General has cited nine charter
schools for collecting millions of dollars in questionable real estate lease
reimbursements. The millions of dollars
in questionable real estate lease payments to some charter schools is money
that would be better used in classrooms for student education.
“PA Cyber and Agora, respectively the
state’s largest and second-largest virtual charter schools, have confronted
controversies in recent years. PA Cyber’s founder, Nick Trombetta, faces nearly a dozen charges,
including fraud, filing false tax returns and conspiracy in federal court.
Critics spotlighted the charter’s poor test performance and questioned its
relationship with Lincoln Learning Solutions, an independent curriculum provider
affiliated with the publicly funded online school. …PA Cyber enrolled more than 10,000 students
last year, compared to about 8,500 at Agora.”
Former PA Cyber CEO takes
position at rival Agora charter
Beaver County Times By Katherine
Schaeffer kschaeffer@timesonline.com
August 2, 2016
MIDLAND -- Former Pennsylvania
Cyber Charter School CEO Michael Conti has taken the helm of yet another
embattled virtual charter school, this time on the other side of the state. The board of trustees for Agora Cyber Charter
School -- PA Cyber’s main competitor -- hired Conti Monday as CEO for the
school, headquartered in King of Prussia.
Conti resigned his
post at Midland-based PA Cyber on July 18 after four years as the school’s CEO.
Conti’s departure was amicable, and he did not indicate he was leaving PA Cyber
to take another position, board President Brian Hayden said Tuesday. Conti requested a letter of recommendation
from PA Cyber last week, but the board did not know he had applied to the rival
organization until it was announced early this week, Hayden said.
Lots of changes in top echelons of Philly District
The notebook by Dale Mezzacappa August
2, 2016 — 5:15pm
There is a big shakeup going on
at top levels of the School District, with the latest departure being Jura
Chung, the Director of Performance.
Chung's last day was Friday. Her
departure comes on the heels of the resignations of Chief Counsel Michael Davis
and Deputy Chief of Communications Fernando Gallard. Davis, who led the general
counsel's office for six years, left last month. Miles Shore will
temporarily lead the office. Gallard,
who spent 13 years in the District's communications office, is
leaving Friday, Aug. 5. Raven Hill, the Communications Director who
worked with Gallard, left in July to become Communications Officer in the
Prince George's Public Schools. She joined the District in 2012. Although there was no announcement, Kevin
Geary was hired in the spring as the Director of External Relations. Among
other responsibilities, Geary was hired to oversee the communications
office. The District is seeking to hire communications personnel to work
with Geary and deal directly with media.
KPCC by Kyle Stokes August 01 2016
California law lays out a
straightforward admissions process for charter schools: charters, like all
public schools, essentially must admit any student who wants to enroll so long
as there’s space. But "at least”
253 of the state’s 1,200 charter schools ask students and their families to
jump through extra hoops before letting them in, according to a report the ACLU
and Public Advocates released Monday.
For instance, 22 charter schools in California ask students to prove
they have strong grades or test scores before letting them in. In other cases,
students must prove they meet a minimum level of English proficiency or
participate in entrance interviews or essays. Sometimes schools ask families to
donate money or volunteer hours. For
vulnerable student populations — low-income kids, immigrants, English Learners
and students with disabilities — such policies erect onerous barriers to
admission in charter schools, the report's authors conclude. In some cases,
they argue the policies may even be against the law.
See Our Updated Clinton and Trump
Comparison With DNC and RNC Material
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on August 2, 2016 1:31 PM
The Democratic and Republican
conventions last month didn't produce a ton of fresh education policy talk—but
the respective nominees Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump still
gave us some more K-12 material to work with.
We've just updated the
interactive comparison between Clinton and Trump that we
published last month. The two major
party candidates didn't dramatically break with any of their previous
positions, or dish out hugely detailed policy plans. But Trump did work a line
or two about school choice into his acceptance speech. And Clinton did briefly
allude to a plan to make college more affordable.
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Alyson Klein and Andrew Ujifusa August 2, 2016
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine
Supporters of career and technical education have reason to be pleased with the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
Kaine, who served as Virginia’s governor from 2006 to 2010, gave CTE new prominence in the Every Student Succeeds Act. He introduced an amendment to a Senate version of the bill that eventually became ESSA that would have designated CTE as a “core subject.” ESSA does away with the term “core subject,” but the list of disciplines that now make up a “well rounded education” under the law includes CTE, along with 16 other subjects. In his first official appearance as Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s running mate on July 23, Kaine, the son of a welder, talked about his own experience as a career-tech educator. While serving as a Catholic missionary in Honduras, Kaine taught carpentry skills to children there. (They, in turn, taught him to speak Spanish, he said.) Introducing himself with Clinton, Kaine gave many shoutouts to education. He talked about how his father-in-law, former Virginia Gov. Abner Lindwood Holton, a Republican, integrated schools in the Commonwealth, and how his wife was among the first to attend them. He spoke about how he and his wife sent their own children to those same, integrated public schools.
Testing
Resistance & Reform News July 27 - August 2, 2016
FairTest Submitted by
fairtest on August 2, 2016 - 1:36pm
Believe it or not, summer
vacation is already over for students in several states. For example, the
public school year began across Oklahoma and in Indianapolis on August 1. Many
Florida districts re-open next week. With the start of classes, controversies
over testing policies accelerate. At the same time, scores from last year's
exams and opt-out statistics are being released. The result is a spate of
assessment reform stories from more than a third of the 50 states.
Education Bloggers Daily Highlights
8/1/2016
Registration
for the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference Oct. 13-15 is now open
The conference
is your opportunity to learn, network and be inspired by peers and
experts.
TO REGISTER: See https://www.psba.org/members-area/store-registration/
(you must be logged in to the Members Area to register). You can read more on How
to Register for a PSBA Event here. CONFERENCE WEBSITE: For all other program
details, schedules, exhibits, etc., see the conference website:www.paschoolleaders.org.
PSBA
Officer Elections Aug. 15-Oct. 3, 2016: Slate of Candidates
PSBA members seeking election to
office for the association were required to submit a nomination form no later
than April 30, 2016, to be considered. All candidates who properly completed
applications by the deadline are included on the slate of candidates below. In
addition, the Leadership Development Committee met on June 24 at PSBA
headquarters in Mechanicsburg to interview candidates. According to bylaws, the
Leadership Development Committee may determine candidates highly qualified for
the office they seek. This is noted next to each person’s name with an asterisk
(*). Each school entity will have one
vote for each officer. This will require boards of the various school entities
to come to a consensus on each candidate and cast their vote electronically
during the open voting period (Aug. 15-Oct. 3, 2016). Voting will be
accomplished through a secure third-party, web-based voting site that will
require a password login. One person from each member school entity will be
authorized as the official person to cast the vote on behalf of his or her
school entity. In the case of school districts, it will be the board secretary
who will cast votes on behalf of the school board.
Special note: Boards should be
sure to include discussion and voting on candidates to its agenda during one of
its meetings in September.
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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