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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup Feb 3, 2017
Facing
a deficit of $3 Billion, HB250
would divert another $75 Million to Unaccountable Private & Religious
Schools
Blogger note: The PA House Education Committee
will be considering HB250 during their 11 am meeting this morning. On top of
the $175 million already going to the EITC and OSTC programs, HB250 would divert an
additional $75 million in tax dollars to private and religious schools that
have virtually no fiscal or student performance accountability.
Educational Improvement Tax Credit and Opportunity Scholarship Tax
Credit IncreasesMajority Leader TurzaI’s Cosponsorship Memo December 8, 2016
I am preparing to introduce legislation that will increase the amount of tax credits available under the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program by $50 million (to $175 million) and the amount of tax credits available under the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) program by $25 million (to $75 million), to grow school choice opportunities and help more students escape from failing schools. As you know, strengthening school choice opportunities, especially for those students who would not otherwise be able to attend a school of their choice, has been a priority for the General Assembly, through both the EITC and OSTC programs. This past July, the General Assembly increased the amount of available EITC tax credits by $25 million, expanding the EITC program from $100 million available in 2015-2016 to $125 million available in 2016-2017. This boosts the availability of scholarships for students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, as well as funding for innovative educational programs. To follow up on our important work last summer, my proposed legislation will increase the amount of tax credits available under both the EITC and OSTC programs. First, my proposal will further expand the amount of available EITC tax credits by $50 million, with the increase allocated proportionally among scholarship organizations, educational improvement organizations, and pre-kindergarten scholarship programs. Second, my bill will increase the amount of available OSTC tax credits by $25 million. The OSTC program, which was created by the General Assembly in 2012, is different from the EITC program in that the OSTC program dedicates tax credits toward businesses that contribute to scholarship programs aimed specifically at students trapped in underperforming schools. While the General Assembly constantly seeks to improve academic outcomes for all children, the OSTC program provides critical educational opportunities for kids who desperately need the chance to succeed.
http://www.legis.state.pa.us//cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20170&cosponId=21219
“Sitting Republican senators have
received $115,000 from Betsy DeVos herself, and more than $950,000 from the
full DeVos clan since 1980. In the past two election cycles alone, her family
has donated $8.3 million to Republican Party super PACs.”
Here’s How Much Betsy DeVos And Her Family Paid To Back GOP
Senators Who Will Support HerIt’s good to be a donor.
Paul Blumenthal Money in Politics Reporter, The Huffington Post 02/02/2017 07:22 pm ET | Updated 4 hours ago
WASHINGTON ― The nomination of
billionaire heiress Betsy DeVos to head the Department of Education is one vote
shy of failing in the Republican-controlled Senate. One thing that could come
to her aid is that she and the entire DeVos family are massive Republican Party
donors who helped fund the election of the remaining senators who will decide
her fate. Big donors often get positions in
government, ambassadorships or ceremonial titles, but rarely do they come as
big as DeVos. Sitting Republican senators have received $115,000 from Betsy
DeVos herself, and more than $950,000 from the full DeVos clan since 1980. In
the past two election cycles alone, her family has donated $8.3 million to
Republican Party super PACs.
So here's how you can tell it's going to
be a big bucks Guv race: Thursday Morning Coffee
Penn Live By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
February 02, 2017 at 8:07 AM, updated February 02, 2017 at 8:13 AM
THE MORNING COFFEE
Good Thursday Morning, Fellow
Seekers.
The dust has barely settled on President Donald Trump's inauguration and we're already elbows deep in the 2018 gubernatorial campaign, and one thing is already abundantly clear:
The dust has barely settled on President Donald Trump's inauguration and we're already elbows deep in the 2018 gubernatorial campaign, and one thing is already abundantly clear:
It's going to be a hugely
expensive contest pitting Democratic incumbent Gov. Tom Wolfagainst
whoever emerges from a likely demolition derby of a Republican primary. As PennLive's Wallace McKelvey reported on Wednesday, Wolf
enters the very young 2018 cycle with $1.7 million in his campaign account.
He's already shifted key staffers, including former press secretary Jeff
Sheridan and ex-Chief of Staff Mary Isenhour over to the
campaign operation.
Post Gazette By Rita Michael February 3, 2017 12:00 AM
Calling it a “money grab” by the
state, a loss of local control of schools and the end of quality public
education, officials at a standing-room-only crowd at Fox Chapel Area High
School Tuesday night said a proposal to change how Pennsylvania schools are
funded is a bad idea. The proposal in the Legislature,
which would significantly reduce school property taxes while raising other
levies, also got a frosty reception in Peters on Monday night. At an emergency public meeting called by Fox
Chapel District Forum, letters, phone numbers and websites were distributed so
taxpayers could let their state representatives know they are opposed to
legislation that would fund Pennsylvania schools by adding 1 percent to the
state sales tax (as well as adding taxes to food, clothing and other goods and
services) and raising the state income tax 4.95 percent, from 3.07 percent,
according to the Associated Press. The
forum is an organization obligated to act in the best interests of children,
said Elizabeth Klamut, president of the group. “This legislation is obviously
not,” she said. “Hence the calls, emails and texts inviting you to this
emergency meeting.” A vote could come as early as February or March, so parents
were encouraged to contact their senators and representatives right away.
By Mike Crowley Meadville Tribune
Area school districts are
beginning to prepare for the possibility of a major shift in how the
commonwealth funds its schools. Discussions
in Harrisburg have raised the possibility of eliminating the school property
tax and replacing it with an increased sales tax, leaving local officials
wondering what the future holds. Some have gone so far as to begin planning two
budgets, one for each method of collecting taxes. Districts in Crawford County are monitoring
the situation and agree that it’s hard to make plans at this point because of
several uncertainties. At this point, they say the state’s budget deficit is
unclear and the details of possible changes to the tax plan are still up in the
air. “It’s saying it’s eliminating a
tax, but if it’s really just shifting the tax, then what’s the goal?” asked Tom
Washington, superintendent of Crawford Central School District. “Obviously, the property tax over the course
of time has not adequately funded schools,” said Michael Healey, PENNCREST
superintendent. “I’m not sure shifting the burden to sales tax alleviates that
burden. “The public only has so much
money,” he said. “People hear property
tax elimination and they think of it as a tax cut, but it’s not really a tax
cut,” said Greg Mayle, the business manager for Conneaut School District. “It’s
a tax shift.”
Trib Live by REGINA
B. HOLLEY | Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, 4:24 p.m.
Regina B. Holley is president of the Pittsburgh Public Schools
Board.
It was disheartening to read the
suburban Allegheny Institute of Public Policy's assessment of the Council of
the Great City Schools review of Pittsburgh Public Schools ( “Saving
Pittsburgh Public Schools” ). The district is cognizant of
frustrations expressed over the years by community organizations, foundations,
parents and others. As the report states, some reform strategies have panned
out and others have not — but the district has continued to seek approaches to
improve. It's unfortunate that neither the
newspaper nor the institute attended the Jan. 10 board meeting when the
council's executive director, Mike Casserly, presented the report. He praised
the board and Superintendent Anthony Hamlet, who requested this review, for
“taking a sharp look at the work that preceded them, examining results, asking
hard questions and rethinking what needs to be done” to educate children. In
fact, rather than concluding the district is in “such academic and
administrative disarray” that state oversight or control is necessary — as the
institute suggests — Casserly emphasized that PPS has the “talent, the will and
the determination” to improve under current leadership.
How Saucon Valley avoided a legal feud
with charter school
By Sara K.
Satullo | For lehighvalleylive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
February 02, 2017 at 3:49 PM, updated February 02, 2017 at 4:38 PM
The Saucon
Valley School District and Lehigh
Valley Academy have agreed to a five-year charter extension without
enrollment caps for the charter school.
Lehigh Valley Academy Regional
Charter School's board voted to approve the new charter Tuesday night. Saucon's school
board passed the new agreement without an enrollment cap at
its Jan. 24 school board meeting. And
the charter school board unanimously voted to drop Saucon Valley from its
lawsuit filed in Northampton County Court and with the state's Charter Appeals
Board.
2016-17 Cycle New Charter Application Evaluation Reports
The following charter application evaluation reports were
presented by the Charter Schools Office during the January 2017 new charter
application hearings. In accordance with
the Charter School Law and the new charter application process established by
the SRC, the evaluation reports are dated the date of the hearing and were
based on the application submitted by the applicant in November of 2016. The
evaluation reports are the CSO's initial review of the charter applications,
and by the nature of the charter application process, do not include any
information provided by the applicant at the hearings or in the applicant's
post-hearing statement. An addendum is posted for any new
charter applicant that currently operates one or more brick and mortar charter schools
in Philadelphia.
Former Fordham, AFC Staffers Join
Education Dept., Memo Says
Education Week Pollitics K12 Blog
By Alyson Klein on February
3, 2017 6:50 AM
Three new staffers with
backgrounds in education policy have joined a growing list of political aides
smoothing the way for President Donald Trump's administration to take over
the U.S. Department of Education, according to a memo sent to department employees
Thursday and obtained by Education Week. They include Michael Brickman, who until
recently served as a senior project director at Luntz Global Partners, a GOP
political strategy organization. Before that, he worked as a national policy
director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank in
Washington that supports high expectations for students and state flexibility.
Brickman was also a policy adviser to Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican from
Wisconsin, from 2011 to 2013. Also joining the team: Matt
Frendewey, who previously worked on communications for the American Federation
for Children, a school choice advocacy organization that education secretary
nominee Betsy DeVos chaired until recently. He's also worked in Michigan
politics, including for the Michigan Republican Party. And the list includes Jana Toner, who served
as a White House liaison for the U.S. Department of Education during President
George W. Bush's administration.
By Phyllis Bush for The News-Sentinel Thursday, February 02, 2017 8:01 AM
Every January the education reform takeover artists orchestrate countless “school choice” events, presenting us with quasi-infomercials about their miraculous successes. That said, nothing says well-financed and effective marketing like 21,392 events across all 50 states and photo ops with mayors and elected officials as they issue proclamation after proclamation about the importance of school choice. Nothing says instructional and fiscal irresponsibility as the school choice promoters who push optics over substance. Nothing says access to legislators like the bright yellow scarves (readily available in “choice” kits), which open doors of access for the scarf-wearers ahead of us non-scarf-wearing citizens who are sent to the end of the legislators’ access lines. These “reformers” are dynamic salespeople who never mention that there are negative consequences to school choice. Accordingly, the school choice rhetoric is so hypnotic that unless a person digs into the details, it is nigh on impossible to cut through all of the jargon to understand what is really meant by “school choice.” In fact, some ideas which look good on the surface often morph into some not such great realities.
House Republicans Move to Scrap Rules on
ESSA, Teacher Preparation
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on February 2, 2017 12:33 PM
Republican lawmakers in Congress
are moving to do away with regulations from the Obama administration regarding accountability under
the Every Student Succeeds Act and teacher preparation. The resolutions of disapproval for those two
sets of rules were announced Thursday in the House. They were filed under the
Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn regulations set out
by executive branch. Senate versions of these resolutions are expected some
time next week. If these
regulations are overturned, President Donald Trump's administration would
be prohibited from issuing "substantially similar" regulations on
these two issues if there isn't a new law signed. Just what that would mean in
practice, however, is unclear. "We are sending a signal
that we are unhappy with these regs," said Tyler Hernandez, a spokesman
for the House education committee.
If both sets of regulations are overturned, it could have far-reaching
consequences. States have been crafting their ESSA accountability plans for
several months, and were doing so even before Trump won the election, with the
Obama ESSA accountability rules in mind. The Trump administration has already
paused the final implementation of the accountability rules from Obama's
Education Department, but without any regulations at all, states will be in
limbo and uncertain how exactly to craft state plans that pass muster with a
Trump Education Department.
DeVos clears procedural hurdle in Senate,
setting up tight final vote
Washington Post By Emma Brown February
3 at 7:29 AM
President Trump’s nomination of
Betsy DeVos for education secretary cleared a procedural hurdle in the Senate
on Friday, setting up what is shaping up to be a nail-biter for the
confirmation vote. At a rare
early-morning session, senators voted along party lines, 52 to 48, to end
debate on DeVos’s nomination. A final confirmation vote is expected early next
week. All 48 members of the Democratic
caucus are expected to vote against DeVos’s confirmation, along with two
Republicans who have expressed their opposition, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of
Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
That would create a 50-50 tie, which would require a rare tiebreaking
vote from the vice president. The nomination
of DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who has spent decades advocating for
private-school vouchers, has unleashed a wave of opposition that is
unprecedented for a prospective education secretary. Anti-DeVos callers have been targeting
Republican senators, overwhelming their phone lines and clogging their email
inboxes. Phone lines in the office of Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) — who has
said he intends to support DeVos — were so overwhelmed that frustrated
constituents resorted to fax machines, sending more than 8,000 faxes to Toomey
within a 24-hour period late this week, according to the online publication BillyPenn.
The Hill
BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 02/02/17 12:13 PM EST 115
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
on Thursday blasted Betsy Devos, saying the Education secretary nominee is an
example of the issues that Democrats have with most of President Trump's picks. "Many of the nominees have philosophies
that cut against the very nature of the department to which they are
nominated," he said. "We're in unchartered waters with this
administration." The New York
Democrat said DeVos noting "didn't know basic facts about Education
law" during her confirmation hearing. "When you judge her in
three areas — conflicts of interest, basic confidence and ideology, views on
Education policy, it is clear that Betsy DeVos is unfit for the job of
Education secretary," he said. "In all three areas... she ranks among
the lowest of any cabinet nominee I have ever seen." DeVos, a GOP mega-donor, has been the subject
of fierce opposition from teachers unions and other liberal groups opposed to
her support for charter schools and tuition vouchers using public funds. Democrats also hounded Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.),
the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, for
limiting the amount of time senators had to ask questions of DeVos during her
confirmation hearing.
Wanted:
One Republican With Integrity, to Defeat Betsy DeVos
New
York Times By THE EDITORIAL BOARD FEB. 2, 2017
This country needs a few good
Republicans — one more would do — to rescue it from Betsy DeVos, one of
President Trump’s worst cabinet choices and his pick to run the Department of
Education. The vote to confirm Ms. DeVos
is expected as soon as Monday, and the Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of
Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine now
say they’ll vote against her, citing hundreds of calls they’ve
received from furious voters. The result would be a tie that Vice President
Mike Pence would break in Ms. DeVos’s favor. The extra Republican vote could
come from one of several independent-minded senators; one candidate is Lamar
Alexander, an expert on public schools who actually owes the country a good
turn because of his failure as chairman of the committee vetting Ms. DeVos to
question her closely and to give more time to her critics. There are few more telling examples
of Mr. Trump’s disdain for the federal government’s critical role in lifting up
America’s schoolchildren than his choice of Ms. DeVos. She has spent years
funneling her inherited fortune into a campaign to replace the nation’s
traditional public schools with federally funded charter schools, regardless of
the latter’s performance, and supporting vouchers, which help families send
children to private or parochial schools and drain funds from public schools
that need more, not less, support.
Betsy DeVos,
Pick for Secretary of Education, Is the Most Jeered
New
York Times By DANA GOLDSTEIN FEB. 3, 2017
By most any measure, the
secretary of education is one of the least powerful cabinet positions. The secretary is 16th in the line
of succession to the presidency. Education accounts for a paltry 3 percent of
the federal budget, compared
with 24 percent for Social Security and 16
percent for defense. And the most recent major federal education law curtailed
Washington’s role on testing, standards and accountability, turning much of the
firepower in education policy back to states and school districts. That is what has made the protest movement
against Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s nominee to be secretary of education,
all the more remarkable. After an
underwhelming confirmation hearing in which Ms. DeVos seemed
ignorant of major provisions of federal education law, such as the
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, some Senate offices reported
receiving more calls opposing Ms. DeVos than any other Trump nominee.
Unions and education activists
urged Lisa Murkowski to oppose Trump’s education pick. On Tuesday, in
a testament to the power of grass-roots resistance, Murkowski switched.
Moyers
& Company BY JOHN
NICHOLS |
FEBRUARY 2, 2017
This post originally appeared at The Nation.
Donald Trump’s most absurd
Cabinet nominee, billionaire campaign donor Betsy DeVos, made the case against
her selection to serve as secretary of education during her Senate Committee on
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions hearing. Ill-prepared, uninformed and by
her own admission “confused,” DeVos confirmed the concern expressed by Vermont
Sen. Bernie Sanders when he asked: “Do you think, if you were not a
multibillionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millions of dollars
of contributions to the Republican Party, that you would be sitting here
today?” The best response DeVos could
muster was a tepid imagining that “I do think that there would be that
possibility….” Of course, she was wrong. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she got
“thousands, truly, thousands” of calls opposing the DeVos nomination. But that did not prevent the Republican-controlled
committee to vote 12-11 to approve the DeVos nomination. The committee vote on Tuesday broke along
party lines. And the assumption was that the full Republican-controlled Senate
would do the same — giving Trump another Cabinet pick, and giving a fierce
critic of public schools a defining role in setting education policy. But on Wednesday the DeVos
juggernaut was upset. Though she could still be confirmed, DeVos suddenly
looked vulnerable.
New
PSBA Winter Town Hall Series coming to your area
Introducing a new and exciting
way to get involved and stay connected in a location near you! Join your PSBA
Town Hall meeting to hear the latest budget and political updates affecting
public education. Enjoy light hors d’oeuvres and networking with fellow
school directors. Locations have been selected to minimize travel time. Spend
less time in the car and more time learning about issues impacting your
schools.
Agenda
6-6:35 p.m.
Association update from PSBA
Executive Director Nathan Mains
6:35 -7:15 p.m. Networking
Reception
7:15-8 p.m.
Governor’s budget address recap
Dates/Locations
Monday, February 20 Forbes Road Career and Technology Center,
Monroeville
Tuesday, February 21 Venango Technology Center, Oil City
Wednesday, Feb 22 Clearfield County Career and Technical
Center, Clearfield
Thursday, February 23 Columbia Montour AVTS, Bloomsburg
Monday, February 27 Middle Bucks Institute of Technology,
Jamison
Tuesday, February 28 PSBA, Mechanicsburg
Wednesday, March 1 Bedford County Technical Center, Everett
Thursday, March 2 West Side CTC, Kingston
Registration
This is a complimentary PSBA
member event – please register and complete the check-out process through the Store/Registration section
of Members area of the website.
Ron Cowell at
EPLC always does a great job with these policy forums.
RSVP Today for a Forum In
Your Area! EPLC is Holding Five Education Policy Forums on Governor Wolf’s
2017-2018 State Budget Proposal
Forum #1 – Pittsburgh Thursday, February 23, 2017 – Wyndham University Center –
100 Lytton Avenue, Pittsburgh (Oakland), PA 15213Forum #2 – Harrisburg Area (Enola, PA) Tuesday, February 28, 2017 – Capital Area Intermediate Unit – 55 Miller Street (Susquehanna Room), Enola, PA 17025
Forum #3 – Philadelphia Thursday, March 2, 2017 – Penn Center for Educational Leadership, University of Pennsylvania, 3440 Market Street (5th Floor), Philadelphia, PA 19104
Forum #4 – Indiana University of Pennsylvania Tuesday, March 14, 2017 – 1011 South Drive (Stouffer Hall), Indiana, PA 15705
Forum #5 – Lehigh Valley Tuesday, March 28, 2017 – Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit #21, 4210 Independence Drive, Schnecksville, PA 18078
Governor Wolf will deliver his
2017-2018 state budget proposal to the General Assembly on February 7. These
policy forums will be early opportunities to get up-to-date
information about what is in the proposed education budget, the budget’s
relative strengths and weaknesses, and key issues. Each of the forums will take following
basic format (please see below for regional presenter details at each of
the three events). Ron Cowell of EPLC will provide an overview of the
Governor’s proposed budget for early education, K-12 and higher
education. A representative of The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
will provide an overview of the state’s fiscal situation and key issues that
will affect this year’s budget discussion. The overviews will be followed by
remarks from a panel representing statewide and regional perspectives
concerning state funding for education and education related items. These
speakers will discuss the impact of the Governor’s proposals and identify
the key issues that will likely be considered during this year’s budget
debate.
Although there is no
registration fee, seating is limited and an RSVP is required.
Offered
in partnership with PASA and the PA Department of Education March 29-30, 2017 at
the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg - Camp Hill, PA . Approved for 40
PIL/Act 48 (Act 45) hours for school administrators. Register online
at http://www.pasa-net.org/ev_calendar_day.asp?date=3/29/2017&eventid=63
PA
Educational Technology Exposition & Conference (PETE&C), February
12-15, Hershey Lodge and Convention Center.
PASBO
62nd Annual Conference, March 21-24, David L. Lawrence Convention Center,
Pittsburgh.
Register now
for the 2017 NSBA Annual Conference March 25-27 Denver
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.
Register
for the 2017 PASA Education
Congress, “Delving Deeper into
the Every Student Succeeds Act.” March 29-30
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!
Save the Date
2017 PA Principals Association State Conference October 14. 15, 16, 2017
Doubletree
Hotel Cranberry Township, PA
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