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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup Nov 14, 2016
Fiercest MA Question 2 opponents often
from communities with existing charter schools
Regional Basic Education Funding Formula
Workshops
PASA,
PSBA, PAIU, PARSS, the PA Principals Association and PASBO are traveling around
the state to conduct regional workshops for school leaders to provide them with
more information on the new basic education funding formula. Register below to
attend a regional workshop to learn more about the new formula and what it
means for your school district and for the state. Please note that capacity is
limited at each location and registration is required. A webcast option is also
available. These regional workshops are being supported by a grant from the
William Penn Foundation.
Monday, November 14, 2016 @ 6:00
pm: Colonial IU 20
(6 Danforth Drive, Easton, PA 18045)
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 @ 9:00
am: Luzerne IU 18
(368 Tioga Ave, Kingston, PA 18704)
Tuesday, December 6, 2016 @ 6:00
pm: Chester County IU 24
(455 Boot Road, Downingtown, PA 19335)
Wednesday, November 16, 2016 @ 9:30 am: Webcast
Registration: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BEFworkshop
Did you catch our weekend postings?
Pence accomplished what Trump wants for
national education: Vouchers and charters
“Still, Corman made it clear that
Republicans would continue to pursue their agenda, such as advancing alternatives
to traditional public schools. Larger Republican majorities also make it at
least slightly more likely that Wolf will have to make even bigger concessions
if he wants to advance his priorities.”
Power
sharing between governor, GOP enters new territory
Morning
Call by Marc Levy Associated
Press November 13, 2016
Political-power sharing at
Pennsylvania's Capitol will enter unexplored territory when Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the largest legislative majorities of
any political party in modern Pennsylvania history — in this case Republicans — begin a new two-year
legislative session. The legislative
elections took place amid a wave breaking across Pennsylvania for
President-elect Donald Trump. Republicans
picked up three seats in each chamber. Voters helped the GOP successfully
defend seats in moderate suburban Philadelphia where Trump was deeply
unpopular, and continued a longer-term trend of tilting western Pennsylvania to
Republicans. That means in January the
House GOP will seat the largest majority of either party in the chamber in 60
years, when the Constitution allowed seven more seats, or 210. In the Senate,
the GOP will seat the biggest majority of either side in almost 80 years, since
the 1949-50 session.
Fate of high schools looms over Erie
schools plan
Closing one is 'an eventuality,'
superintendent says
By Ed Palattella
Erie Times-News November 13, 2016
Erie schools Superintendent Jay
Badams still is considering closing Erie's four high schools to offset a
projected $10 million budget deficit in 2017-18 and more deficits in the years
ahead. But even if that drastic measure
does not occur, the Erie School District is likely to shut down one of the four
high schools sometime in the future, Badams said. He said shrinking enrollment has left the
11,500-district with too many "empty seats" — about 4,000, with most
of those spots spread across the four high schools: East, Central Career &
Technical Institute, Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy and Strong
Vincent. "We see it as an eventuality,
unless Erie attracts more residents and businesses," Badams said of
closing one of the high schools. "We have to make decisions based on
reality — and, right now, we have too much capacity."
Running for resources at a city school
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Staff Writer Updated: NOVEMBER 14, 2016 —
3:01 AM EST
The young ladies flopped onto the
ground, their sneakers squeaking on the gym floor.
The Mitchell Elementary girls,
gathered for a workout for their after-school running club, circled around
their principal, Stephanie Andrewlevich. She leveled with them. On Nov. 20, she told them, she's running 26.2
miles. She's a runner, but she's not entering the Philadelphia Marathon for fun
or exercise. She's doing it because the school needs computers badly - 240, to
be exact, at a total price tag of $94,000. The principal hopes her effort
raises awareness of her students' plight.
"Mitchell doesn't have $94,000," Andrewlevich said. The K-8 school at 55th and Kingsessing sits
in a distressed neighborhood in the country's poorest big city, and its 550
students have enormous needs.
Under improved truancy law, Pa. parents
still face jail and even higher fines
Inquirer by Kathy Boccella, Staff Writer Updated: NOVEMBER 13, 2016 —
1:09 AM EST
Ellen DiNino, a 55-year-old
mother of seven from Reading, had accumulated more than $2,000 in fines and
court costs for her children's chronic school absences. With no way to pay, she
was sent to jail for two days under Pennsylvania's truancy law. The first night, she complained of chest
pains and difficulty breathing. A doctor would see her the next day, she was
told. But the next day, June 8, 2014, she was dead of heart failure. From DeNino's death grew a groundswell to
radically change the way the state dealt with truancy. The law's harsh
penalties, critics said, created a kind of debtors' prison for poor families
already buried by social and financial crises. But what has emerged from the
sausage grinder of lawmaking in Harrisburg - a truancy overhaul package signed
by Gov. Wolf earlier this month – isn't quite what reformers had in mind.
Citizens Voice by SARAH SCINTO, STAFF WRITER / PUBLISHED: NOVEMBER 14, 2016
DALLAS TWP. — School’s out for
the strike.
Starting today, teachers in the
Dallas School District are on strike, leaving schools closed for the duration. Dallas Superintendent Thomas Duffy planned to
meet with the state department of education today to determine how long the
strike can last without taking away from the number of days students are
mandated to attend school. “My hope is
that I’ll be able to ... determine the potential for its duration,” he said.
“We’ll put out additional communication.”
This high-poverty school succeeds by
focusing on adventure, the arts, project-based learning
Washington Post Answer Sheet
Blog By Valerie
Strauss November 14 at 6:00 AM
If you
listen to the school reform debate these days, you would be forgiven for
thinking that public schools across the board are failing students and that
schools that are struggling can only improve if they fire all of their staff,
become a charter school or let the state take them over. It’s just not so. This is clear in a project called the Schools
of Opportunity, launched a few years ago by educators who sought to highlight
public high schools that actively seek to close opportunity gaps through 11
research-proven practices and not standardized test scores (which are more a
measure of socioeconomic status than anything else). The project assesses how well schools provide
health and psychological support for students, judicious and fair discipline
policies, high-quality teacher mentoring programs, outreach to the community,
effective student and faculty support systems, and broad and enriched
curriculum. Schools submit applications explaining why they believe their
school should be recognized.
Massachusetts Charter school 'No' vote:
Fiercest Question 2 opponents often from communities with existing charter
schools
By Phil Demers on
November 13, 2016 at 6:30 AM, updated November 13, 2016 at 6:33 AM
In Tuesday's election
Massachusetts voters sent a strong message on ballot Question 2 — rejecting a
proposal that would have allowed the state to approve up to 12 new or expanded
charter schools a year – despite strong support from Gov. Charlie Baker and significant
advertising dollars behind a "Yes" vote. Several school districts across the state
with existing charters — including Somerville, Easthampton, Hadley, South
Hadley, Greenfield, Holyoke and Adams/Cheshire — viewed the charter school
expansion most negatively, rejecting the proposal by a 70-30 margin on average
vs. the statewide 62-38 margin. Adams-Cheshire
Regional School District — comprising Cheshire Elementary, C.T. Plunkett
Elementary School and Hoosac Valley Middle & High School — was, at the
start of fiscal 2016 planning, stuck with a "$1 million budget deficit,
and already weighs in at about $1,500 below the state average for per pupil
spending," according to The Berkshire Eagle.
Massachusetts charter school backers
regroup after stinging setback
Providence Journal By BOB
SALSBERG The Associated Press Posted
Nov 11, 2016 at 2:07 PM Updated
Nov 11, 2016 at 2:09 PM
BOSTON (AP) — Charter school
proponents are regrouping after the lopsided defeat in Massachusetts of
Question 2, a ballot initiative that would have allowed the schools to expand
their presence beyond existing state caps.
More than 6 in 10 voters rejected the proposal, according to unofficial
returns from Tuesday's election. And some of the widest margins of defeat came
in the very cities where supporters had hoped to increase charter school
options for families whose children attend underperforming or failing schools. The measure was defeated 62 percent to 38
percent in Boston and by a slightly smaller majority in Springfield. Backers spent more than $24 million in the
unsuccessful effort, a record for any ballot question in state history.
The loss was a blow to charter
school supporters not only in Massachusetts but also around the country.
Donald
Trump Is Picking His Cabinet: Here’s a Short List
By THE
NEW YORK TIMES NOV.
12, 2016
Donald J. Trump’s transition
team, which was handed
over to Vice President-elect Mike Pence on Friday and includes a host
of corporate consultants and lobbyists in addition to independent
experts, is moving quickly to assemble leaders of the new administration. Here
are some possibilities for the cabinet and other key posts.
Diane Ravitch’s Blog By dianeravitch November 12, 2016 //
Newsweek reports that one of Donald Trump top advisors wants to return cleric Fetullah Gulen to Turkey, which seeks his extradition in connection with a failed coup attempt. Gulen is associated with or controls about 160 publicly funded charter schools in the U.S., many of whose teachers are Turkish nationals and all of whose boards are led by Turkish men.
““We need to adjust our foreign policy to recognize Turkey as a priority. We need to see the world from Turkey’s perspective,” retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn wrote for the conservative news website The Hill. “What would we have done if right after 9/11 we heard the news that Osama bin Laden lives in a nice villa at a Turkish resort while running 160 charter schools funded by the Turkish taxpayers?”
Sharon Higgins, a parent activist in Oakland, keeps a list of Gulen charters. Mark Hall’s documentary “Killing Ed,” focuses on Gulen charter schools. If Trump were to extradite Gulen, it is not clear who would take charge of the charter schools opened by his allies.
By David Templeton / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette November 11, 2016 12:39 AM
The periodic “supermoon,” as
described in recent years, is larger and brighter than the average full moon
and certainly worth a skyward glance as it rises like a giant spotlight above
the horizon. But on Monday, the Earth, moon
and sun will conclude an orbital do-si-do that leaves them in almost perfect
alignment, producing a supermoon unlike any other full moon in 68 years.
NASA says we’re about to witness
“an extra-supermoon,” which last occurred in 1948 and won’t recur until Nov.
25, 2034. There’s a crazy scientific
name for it — a perigee-syzygy moon. It occurs when the moon is on the opposite
side of Earth from the sun while also at perigee, which is its closest orbital
point to Earth. The perigee-syzygy
moment officially will occur at 8:52 a.m. Monday. That’s during daylight, so
the best view will be moon rise on Sunday or Monday evening, with similarly
sized nearly full moons occurring this weekend and a few days after.
Tweet from Philly Mayor’s Office of Education
Want the latest on #CommunitySchools and #PHLpreK? Sign up for our newsletter to get up-to-date info about #PHLed
http://bit.ly/2dpkGkn
PASA, PSBA, PAIU, PARSS, the PA
Principals Association and PASBO are traveling around the state to conduct
regional workshops for school leaders to provide them with more information on
the new basic education funding formula. Register below to attend one of 8
regional workshops to learn more about the new formula and what it means for
your school district and for the state. Please note that capacity is limited at
each location and registration is required. A webcast option is also available.
These regional workshops are being supported by a grant from the William Penn
Foundation.
Monday, November 14, 2016 @ 6:00 pm: Colonial IU 20 (6 Danforth Drive, Easton, PA 18045)
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 @ 9:00 am: Luzerne IU 18
(368 Tioga Ave, Kingston, PA 18704)
Tuesday, December 6, 2016 @ 6:00 pm: Chester County IU 24
(455 Boot Road, Downingtown, PA 19335)
Wednesday, November 16, 2016 @ 9:30 am: Webcast
Registration: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BEFworkshop
Join us for a public forum featuring state, city and civic leaders sponsored by Philadelphia Media Network, the Philadelphia Public School Notebook and Drexel University's School of Education.
Creese Student Center 3210 Chestnut St. Philadelphia, PA 19104
It's been 15 years since the state took control of Philadelphia's schools and created the School Reform Commission. Since then, the SRC has been a polarizing presence in the city.
With the recent resignation of two members of the commission and the term of a third expiring soon, the future of the SRC and the issue of school governance is once again at the forefront of the civic dialogue. Is the SRC the only model to consider? Should Philadelphia create an elected school board, or should the governing body be controlled by the Mayor? Are there models in other cities that could help us rethink our own school governance? The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, Philadelphia Media Network -- owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and philly.com, and Drexel University's School of Education are hosting a public forum on this critical issue.
RSVP - Admission is free, but you must register in advance. Register now, and find out more about the panelists and other details at our registration page. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/who-should-run-philadelphias-schools-tickets-28926705555
NSBA Advocacy
Institute 2017 -- Jan. 29-31, Washington, D.C.
Join school directors around the country at the conference designed to give you the tools to advocate successfully on behalf of public education.
Join school directors around the country at the conference designed to give you the tools to advocate successfully on behalf of public education.
- NSBA will help you develop a winning
advocacy strategy to help you in Washington, D.C. and at home.
- Attend timely and topical breakout
sessions lead by NSBA’s knowledgeable staff and outside experts.
- Expand your advocacy network by swapping
best practices, challenges, and successes with other school board members
from across the country.
This
event is open to members of the Federal Relations Network. To find out how you can join,
contact Jamie.Zuvich@psba.org.
Learn more about the Advocacy Institute at https://www.nsba.org/events/advocacy-institute.
Register now
for the 2017 NSBA Annual Conference
Plan to join public education leaders for networking and learning at the 2017 NSBA Annual Conference, March 25-27 in Denver, CO. General registration is now open at https://www.nsba.org/conference/registration. A conference schedule, including pre-conference workshops, is available on the NSBA website.
Plan to join public education leaders for networking and learning at the 2017 NSBA Annual Conference, March 25-27 in Denver, CO. General registration is now open at https://www.nsba.org/conference/registration. A conference schedule, including pre-conference workshops, is available on the NSBA website.
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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