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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup October 12, 2016
Follow
the Money: Contributions to Students First PAC in 2016
Blogger note: PA Ed Policy Roundup may
be offline until Monday, attending PSBA/PASA School Leadership Conference
Follow the Money: Contributions to Students First PAC in 2016
PA Department of State Campaign Finance Online Reporting
Contributor Date Amount
Arthur Dantchik 2/2/2016 $33,333.33
2/23/2016 $24,000.00
3/8/2016 $100,000.00
Jeffrey Yass 2/2/2016 $33,333.33
2/23/2016 $24,000.00
3/8/2016 $100,000.00
Joel Greenberg 2/2/2016 $33,333.33
2/23/2016 $24,000.00
3/8/2016 $100,000.00
Total $471,999.99
Keystone State Education Coalition Sunday, March 25, 2012
Keystone State Education Coalition Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Six millionaires/billionaires contributed $1,482,604 to privatize democratically-governed Pennsylvania public education.
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2014/10/follow-money-who-gavereceived-school.html
4 charter schools in Pittsburgh receive 5-year renewals
By Molly Born / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette October 12, 2016 12:00 AM
A judge has ordered that four
city charter schools be allowed to operate through mid-2021 as a result of a
lawsuit they filed against Pittsburgh Public Schools, claiming the school board
erred in issuing them a one-year renewal.
Arguing that they would have trouble recruiting students and staff,
getting financing and planning long-term, Urban Pathways K-5 College Charter
School, Manchester Academic Charter School, Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh
and Urban Pathways 6-12 Charter School alleged that the school district
“misread” a part of state law that allows certain school systems to issue a
one-year charter. At issue was the
interpretation of a part of the state school code, which says a “first class”
district may renew a charter for one year if members find “insufficient data
concerning the charter school’s academic performance to adequately assess the
performance.” Philadelphia is the only “first class” district in the state;
Pittsburgh Public is a “first class A” district because it serves a city whose
population does not exceed 1 million.
Decision day coming for two Aspira
charters?
Inquirer by Martha Woodall and Kristen A. Graham,
STAFF WRITERS Updated: OCTOBER
12, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT
Olney Charter High and John B.
Stetson Charter School are supposed to operate independently. But the schools, both managed by
Aspira Inc. of Pennsylvania, share board members with Aspira's three other
charters, and a majority of them are appointed by Aspira. In addition, the schools are entangled in a
web of financial transactions, including payments and loans to Aspira, to each
other, and to Aspira-related businesses, the Philadelphia School District's
charter office says. For example, Aspira
owed Olney $2.52 million in the 2015 fiscal year, and the charter office said
it could find no evidence that Olney's board approved the loans or any
documents that showed how the money was used.
Schools' lead remediation plan not enough,
teachers' union chief says
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Staff Writer Updated: OCTOBER 12, 2016 — 1:08
AM EDT
The Philadelphia School District
is not doing enough for children at 11 city schools where unacceptably high
levels of lead were found in the water, the teachers' union president said
Tuesday. Jerry Jordan said the district
was warned for years about lead problems, adding that it was "beyond
upsetting" to learn of the problems at some schools. School officials began testing water
fountains at 40 schools over the summer. They found one or more fountains at 11
schools with lead concentrations higher than 15 parts per billion. No problems were noted at 29 other schools
that were tested. The School District
strongly defended its protocols.
Chicago teachers avoid a strike and get a
new contract
Philadelphia teachers have been
working without a contract for more than 1,000 days.
The notebook by Greg Windle October
11, 2016 — 11:14am
Chicago public schools narrowly
avoided a teacher strike on Tuesday, thanks to a last-minute agreement with
district officials. Chicago teachers had
been working without a contract since November 2014. Chicago Public
Schools laid off more than 1,000 staffers before the school year
began and laid off 200 more Oct. 3, days after the Chicago Teachers Union
announced it would begin a strike on Oct. 11 that would have continued until a
new contract was negotiated. Meanwhile, Philadelphia
schools opened their doors for a “walk-in” Oct. 5, along
with more 2,000 other schools around the country. During a walk-in, school
buildings are open to the press, and staff are given an opportunity to raise
awareness about local education policy issues. Philadelphia’s Caucus
of Working Educators said its members pushed for the walk-in as
a way to draw media attention to austere school budgets and build
solidarity with parents and school communities. The conditions in Chicago are strikingly
similar to those in the Philadelphia School District.
Philadelphia Writing Project's Walk for
Literacy will be Sunday
The notebook by Greg Windle October
11, 2016 — 5:17pm
The Philadelphia Writing Project
will hold its fourth annual Walk for Literacy on Sunday at Penn Park. The
proceeds will be donated to youth writing programs around the city, such as
Project Write and the Writing Project's summer writing enrichment camp. The
walk will start at 8 a.m. at Shoemaker Green, near the University of
Pennsylvania's Franklin Field. Entertainment will
feature music by Elevate Sound Studios and a performance by a Thomas
Jefferson impersonator. “Writing programs for students
and teachers are especially important now, when teachers and schools face so
many budgetary and testing restrictions,” said Diane Waff, director of the
Philadelphia Writing Project. “The funds raised in the Walk for Literacy will
help to ensure that as many students as possible take part in engaging,
thought-provoking writing instruction.”
Bloggger note: David Shulick was also a
member of former Governor Corbett’s education transition team. Coincidentally, so were members of Students
First PAC and Vahan Gureghian
Fattah Jr.'s alternative school boss
charged with paying nannies, landscapers with school district funds
Inquirer by Jeremy Roebuck and Martha Woodall,
STAFF WRITERS Updated: OCTOBER
12, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT
The head of a now-defunct
for-profit education firm with ties to Chaka "Chip" Fattah Jr. was
charged Tuesday with bilking the cash-strapped Philadelphia School District out
of hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for educating some of the district's
most troubled children.
In an indictment filed in federal
court, prosecutors accused David T. Shulick, former president of the Bala
Cynwyd-based Delaware Valley High School Management Corp., of skimming funds
from a $2.1 million contract his company held between 2010 and 2012 to run an
alternative school in Southwest Philadelphia for students at risk of dropping
out.
Meanwhile, the American Federation for Children, a national organization that supports the growth of charter schools and “school voucher” legislation, has pumped in $3.7 million to Pennsylvania lawmakers. A trio of investors in Montgomery County— Joel Greenberg, Jeffrey Yass, and Arthur Dantchik — have donated about $4 million under a PAC dedicated to similar aims."
Reprise Feb 2015: Pa. charter schools buy influence with $10M in donations to politicians
Pottstown Mercury By Daniel Simmons-Ritchie, For The Associated Press POSTED: 02/28/15, 1:39 PM EST |
HARRISBURG >> It’s no secret that Harrisburg is a hive of lobbyists, each representing industries and interests that spend millions to persuade state lawmakers to bend laws in their favor. But perhaps what makes the charter-school lobby unique among the pack, says State Rep. Bernie O’Neill, a Republican from Bucks County, is its ability to deploy children to its cause. In 2014, O’Neill experienced that first hand after proposing changes to a funding formula that would affect charter schools. Parents and children stormed his office and barraged him with calls and emails. “They were calling me the anti-Christ of everything,” O’Neill said. “Everybody was coming after me.” In recent years, as charter schools have proliferated — particularly those run by for-profit management companies — so too has their influence on legislators. In few other places has that been more true than Pennsylvania, which is one of only 11 states that has no limits on campaign contributions from PACs or individuals. According to a PennLive analysis of donations on Follow The Money, a campaign donation database, charter school advocates have donated more than $10 million to Pennsylvania politicians over the past nine years.
http://www.pottsmerc.com/social-affairs/20150228/pa-charter-schools-buy-influence-with-10m-in-donations-to-politicians
Without fiscal transparency PA taxpayers have no way of knowing how their money is being spent.
Reprise June 2009: Charter school appeals to block release of records
Alliance of Charter School Employees website
The Chester Community Charter School has filed a court appeal to a recent Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruling that gave The Inquirer access to a wide range of financial records from the management company that operates the school. The Chester Community Charter School has filed a court appeal to a recent Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruling that gave The Inquirer access to a wide range of financial records from the management company that operates the school. The Delaware County school, the state's largest charter, and Charter School Management Inc., a private, for-profit management company, have repeatedly denied requests by the newspaper for details about how millions of dollars in public money were spent and how much the company and its owner, Vahan H. Gureghian, were making. Because Charter School Management Inc. is a private business that hires all school employees and manages the school's finances, it has been able to keep many aspects of its financial operations secret, in contrast to most charters, which have to disclose more information in nonprofit reports.
http://phillyacse.org/charter-news/89-charter-school-appeals-to-block-release-of-records
EPLC Presents
Its 2016 Edward Donley Education Policy Award to Donna Cooper, Executive
Director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth
Throughout her career, Donna
Cooper has been a dedicated and effective advocate for public education and
Pennsylvania’s children, and one of the most influential voices for effective
education policy both in the Commonwealth and nationally. Since January 2013, Donna has been the
Executive Director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, the Greater
Philadelphia region’s leading child advocacy organization that influences
elected officials by combining useful research, practical solution-oriented
policy recommendations with the mobilization of citizens who advance the
organization’s work on behalf of children. For two years before joining
PCCY, Donna was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she
led the Center’s research on early childhood education and public
infrastructure and was a contributing researcher to the Center’s work to reduce
the incidence of poverty. From
2003-2010, Donna served as the Secretary of Policy and Planning for the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania where she was responsible for the state’s
education, public supports, environmental, and healthcare policy. While
in this role, she led the development of the Cover All Kids program which
expanded access to affordable healthcare to nearly every child in the state.
PSBA
News Release: New partnership gives all Pennsylvania school districts access to
cutting-edge data analytics tool
The Pennsylvania School Boards
Association (PSBA) is pleased to announce a new partnership with Eidex LLC that will
enable PSBA to provide free use of Eidex Focus, a data analytics tool designed
for education, to all PSBA member school districts and Career and Technical
Centers (CTCs). For the next two years,
PSBA will provide each member school district and CTC a complimentary initial
user license to Eidex Focus. This is a cost savings worth thousands of dollars
for each and every school district. “The
PSBA Governing Board believes every school district should be able to garner
the power of data. By offering this data platform to all districts, PSBA
members will be able to benchmark their data against other districts locally
and statewide while developing better financial models – and more,” said Kathy
K. Swope, PSBA 2016 president. “This is a significant step forward for
education in Pennsylvania – it allows all public schools to adopt a single
platform for data analysis.”
Facebook-backed school software shows
promise — and raises privacy concerns
Washington Post By Emma Brown and Todd C. Frankel October
11 at 7:02 PM
Caroline Pollock Bilicki felt
uneasy about the new education program introduced this year at her children’s
Chicago school. Summit Basecamp, built
with the help of Facebook engineers, was billed as a powerful tool that could
reshape how students learn. Dozens of schools nationwide have signed up to use
the program, which tailors lessons to individual students using software that
tracks their progress. But it also
captures a stream of data, and Bilicki had to sign a consent form for her children to participate, allowing
their personal data to be shared with companies such as Facebook and Google.
That data, the form said, could include names, email addresses, schoolwork,
grades and Internet activity. Summit Basecamp promised to limit its use of the
information — barring it from being used, for example, to deliver targeted ads
— but Bilicki agonized over whether to sign the form. “I’m
not comfortable with having my kids’ personally identifiable information going
to I don’t even know where, to be used for I’m not sure what,” she said.
Share
your interest in volunteering with PSBA
Complete this form to share your
interest in volunteering with PSBA
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.
The 2016 Arts and Education Symposium will be held on October 27 at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Convention Center. Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Arts Education network and EPLC, the Symposium is a Unique Networking and Learning Opportunity for:
·
Arts Educators
·
School Leaders
·
Artists
·
Arts and Culture Community Leaders
·
Arts-related Business Leaders
·
Arts Education Faculty and Administrators in Higher Education
·
Advocates
·
State and Local Policy Leaders
Act 48 Credit is
available.Program and registration information are available here.
PA Principals Association website Tuesday, August 2, 2016 10:43 AM
To receive the Early Bird Discount, you must be registered by August 31, 2016:
Members: $300 Non-Members: $400
Featuring Three National Keynote Speakers: Eric Sheninger, Jill Jackson & Salome Thomas-EL
SAVE THE DATE LWVPA Convention 2017 June
1-4, 2017
Join the
League of Women Voters of PA for our 2017 Biennial Convention at the beautiful
Inn at Pocono Manor!
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