Friday, March 10, 2017

PA Ed Policy Roundup March 10: PA could lose $140M in Medicaid reimbursement for services to special ed kids; HB250 $75M EITC/OSTC expansion could run as early as Monday

Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition team members, superintendents, school solicitors, principals, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations, education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn

These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup March 10, 2017:
PA could lose $140 million in Medicaid reimbursement for services to special ed kids; HB250 $75M EITC/OSTC expansion could run as early as Monday


PA’s School-Based ACCESS Program is jeopardized under proposed federal cuts to Medicaid
Pennsylvania public schools are currently at risk of losing millions of dollars in federal funding to help pay for mandated services for students with special needs.
A PSBA Closer Look March 2017
https://www.psba.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ACL_ACCESS-program-jeopardized.pdf

Call your Congressman’s office today to let them know that Pennsylvania could lose over $140 million in reimbursement for services that school districts provide to special education students

“The message is simple.  Tell Congress to keep their hands off Medicaid funds for kids.”
Network for Public Education Legislative Alert March 9, 2017
Did  you know that many schools use Medicaid funding to help cover the cost of services to students in special education? Medicaid funding is used for speech therapy, occupational therapy, special education providers, school-based health services and assistive devices, such as wheelchairs. In some states, Medicaid dollars are used by schools for vision and hearing screening for eligible students.  The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) estimates that districts receive about $4 billion a year through Medicaid funding. Read their informative booklet, which you can find here to find out how our most vulnerable students could be hurt by cuts.  Right now the House of Representatives led by Paul Ryan is debating whether to slash Medicaid or to shift it to a block grant as part of their "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act.  Neither choice is good for children. If a per-capita cap or block grant is enacted, schools would lose a dedicated funding source for services, and would have to compete with health care providers and hospitals for limited funds.  And all of this would be part of a budget package with large tax cuts for the rich.
We need you to act now.
1. Click here to send an email to your Congressperson.
2. Call today. Call your representative directly, or call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

New education report slams Pennsylvania school funding
KPVI by Maya Earls Tribune Staff Writer Mar 9, 2017 Updated 5 min ago
A recent report by the Education Law Center found years of state underfunding has led to widespread inequalities in Pennsylvania public schools.  Titled “Money Matters in Education Justice: Addressing Race and Class Inequities in Pennsylvania’s Public School System” and released on March 3, the report found those inequalities are felt most by students of color and students in low-income communities.  “Of the funding we have and we do appropriate, Pennsylvania is doing it in ways that reinforce inequality,” said Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center.  The Education Law Center is a nonprofit law firm that advocates for public school students. Klehr said the firm launched the study on fair education funding in 2013. Pennsylvania did not have a fair funding formula at the time, which helps the state find a way to distribute dollars to school districts equally.  “As we started looking at the data, what became so clear is the racial justice lens you need to see what’s happening,” Klehr said in an interview.  Pennsylvania ranks 46th in the nation when it comes to the state’s share of education funding. The report found the state is also “overly reliant” on local funding for schools. This is because Pennsylvania is one of 14 states that regressively funds schools.  Regressive school funding means that the state gives less money to schools with a larger number of students that come from low-income families. As a result, schools with fewer white students fall short in funding by nearly $2,000 per student.

Ed Law Center Report: Money Matters in Education Justice: Addressing Race and Class Inequities in Pennsylvania’s School Funding System
Education Law Center March, 2017
The Pennsylvania Constitution guarantees that children across the state have access to a “thorough and efficient” system of public education, one that enables them to meet comprehensive state academic standards and graduation requirements. Despite this constitutional mandate, hundreds of thousands of children—particularly children of color and children in poorer communities—are denied the school resources they need to be successful in school and beyond. This Education Law Center report details the race and class inequities in Pennsylvania’s school funding system, building on ELC’s 2013 report “Funding, Formulas, and Fairness.”
Download the full report, “Money Matters in Education Justice.”
Download the Executive Summary.
Read our press release.

Blogger commentary: Speaker Turzai’s House Bill 250 may be considered as early as Monday.  It would divert an additional $50 million in tax dollars (to $175 million) to the existing Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and an additional $25 million (to $75 million) to the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC) programs.

The state is challenged to close an estimated $716 million revenue gap on this year’s budget, and is looking at a growing structural deficit at nearly $3 billion.  Now is not the time for the General Assembly to divert $75 million additional tax dollars into programs that largely benefit private, nonpublic schools.

Further, the EITC/OSTC programs fail in transparency and oversight. They are unaccountable because there is no mechanism in place to evaluate the performance of scholarship recipients. In fact, the OSTC law prohibits state administrators from requesting any information related to academic achievement, making it impossible to measure the effectiveness of the program.

There is virtually no fiscal accountability for how these diverted tax dollars are spent, and the intermediary scholarship organizations get to keep 20% of the funds.  For comparison sake, in Florida similar organizations reportedly keep 3% of the funds.


“Turzai: In short, we're spending money we don't have and trying to replace it with money we can't find.”
Turzai: Pa. budget process isn't sustainable
Inquirer Opinion by Mike Turzai Updated: FEBRUARY 27, 2017 — 3:13 PM EST
As the General Assembly begins another budget season, it's time to admit that Pennsylvania needs to overhaul state government.  In the midst of a 21st-century economy driven by new technology and fundamental changes in the markets, we are still using a formula dating to the early 20th century when economic change was glacial and industrial growth assumed.

“Turzai has a new bill that would raise the cap to $250 million — taking EITC to $175 million and OSTC to $75 million.”
Top Pa. House Republican touts expanding private school tax credits in visit to Philly
WHYY Newsworks/Keystone Crossroads by Kevin McCorry OCTOBER 12, 2016
….The EITC was passed in 2001, after then-Gov. Tom Ridge's private school voucher initiative failed to garner enough support. In addition to the scholarship funding, EITC also directs a slice of money to organizations that support public schools, as well as pre-K funding.  The OSTC was passed in 2012. All of its funding goes to scholarship organizations. The only distinction is that OSTC money can flow only to families whose neighborhood schools fall in the bottom 15 percent of statewide standardized test scores.  Currently, the tax breaks are capped. In total, they can't surpass $175 million per year— $125 million for EITC; $50 million for OSTC.  Turzai has a new bill that would raise the cap to $250 million — taking EITC to $175 million and OSTC to $75 million.

Blogger note: In 2011, the state budget line for Charter School Reimbursement to districts was eliminated, a loss of $224.083 million – These payments reimbursed school districts for about 25% of their charter school costs; helping to offset fixed costs that districts still incur when a student leaves and the district makes a payment for them.
Report: Philly schools still face costs when students go to charters
Inquirer by Martha Woodall, Staff Writer  @marwooda |  martha.woodall@phillynews.com Updated: MARCH 9, 2017 — 6:36 PM EST
When a student leaves the Philadelphia School District for a charter school, the system is left with nearly $5,000 in continuing costs, according to a report released Thursday.  The amount — $4,824 — is less than the $7,000 in so-called stranded costs that the Boston Consulting Group estimated for the district in 2012.  Uri Monson, the district’s chief financial officer, said the new estimate by Afton Partners was less important than the fact the report underscores, that there are real costs associated with opening  and expanding charter schools.  “If there are 32 students in a class and two go to charters, you still have to have a teacher for the 30 students,” he said.  The other remaining costs include building maintenance, utilities, benefits, pensions, and debt service.   “This report reaffirms much of what we knew about stranded costs, and it highlights the complexities and constraints of operating in a large urban school district, with a charter law that needs real reform,” Joyce Wilkerson, chair of the School Reform Commission, said in a statement .  “We need a charter law that allows the School District of Philadelphia to operate a logical school system that focuses on quality public education and puts the children of Philadelphia first.”

Students leaving Philly schools for charters less costly than once thought
WHYY Newsworks BY AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT MARCH 9, 2017
When charter schools expand, and more kids leave classrooms run by the School District of Philadelphia, it's not as costly as previously estimated, although the total remains significant.
That's according to a much-anticipated report commissioned by the district in 2015, completed by the consultancy Afton Partners, and obtained recently by NewsWorks/WHYY through a right-to-know request.  The new report estimates that each additional charter pupil sets back Philly's public system by $4,824. For years, the district has estimated the cost at $7,000 per new seat.  The report also concludes that much of the financial burden created by charter expansion could be eliminated if the district aggressively closed traditional public schools that have a lot of empty seats.  The new analysis found that, by 2023, charter growth will create inefficiencies that cost the district $56 million annually, or about 5 percent of its total budget. If, however, the district closed schools where half the seats are empty, it could reduce the annual hit by $33 million. That would require an aggressive campaign of school consolidation that could reduce these costs by 58 percent, bringing them down to about $2,842 per seat.  In all, the analysis found that 4 percent of district costs are truly fixed. The other 96 percent are either variable or semi-variable, meaning they don't reduce "proportionately with changes in enrollment" but can be changed over time.

Wilkinsburg experience raises troubling questions on public education's future: Colin McNickle
PennLive Op-Ed  By Colin McNickle on March 09, 2017 at 9:45 AM, updated March 09, 2017 at 1:50 PM
Colin McNickle is a senior fellow and media specialist at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy.
The transfer of middle and high school students in the Wilkinsburg School District into Pittsburgh Public Schools is raising some significant, and troubling, questions about not only this particular arrangement but about the state of education in Pennsylvania, scholars at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy say.  Flagging enrollment in grades seven through 12 led to an agreement by which Wilkinsburg Middle/High School was closed at the end of the last school year and approximately 270 students, beginning this school year, were folded into Pittsburgh Public Schools' Westinghouse Academy.  The deal runs through at least the 2021-22 school year.  But in a new white paper, think-tank scholars Jake Haulk and Eric Montarti say the most important question is why the Wilkinsburg school board thought sending its students to Westinghouse was in the best interest of students or taxpayers funding their education.

We need a public sector pension overhaul (column)
York Daily Record Opinion by Rep. Seth Grove 3:41 p.m. ET March 9, 2017
State Rep. Seth Grove is a Republican from Dover Township.
Last session, I voted with my York County Republican colleagues to move ourselves out of the taxpayer-funded pension system and into to a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan.
Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed this piece of legislation, which was Senate Bill 1. Ironically, the plan we passed is the same pension plan Wolf provided his private-sector employees. Senate Bill 1 did much more than just ensure every member of the General Assembly would have a 401(k)-style plan; it would have ensured that every new state employee hired after Jan. 1, 2016 would enter into a similar pension plan.  While this wouldn’t affect current employees – outside of making the lump sum withdrawal actuarially neutral and putting in place anti-spiking provisions – or reduce benefits for retirees, it would have stopped the bleeding of the pension system. Senate Bill 1 would have saved the state more than $18 billion over 30 years, plus added significant reforms to ensure taxpayers would never again be on the hook for billions in unfunded pension liability.

State pension plan needs reform now
Citizens Voice EDITORIAL / PUBLISHED: MARCH 10, 2017
The pension plan for more than 105,000 state employees and more than 127,000 retirees had strong investment returns in 2006. Yet the 6.5 percent in earnings as of Dec. 31 helps to demonstrate the failure of state lawmakers to reform the pension system. Despite the solid performance, the State Employee Retirement System failed, by a full percentage point, to meet its assumed investment return of 7.5 percent.  State pensions are funded by three sources — employee contributions, 16.6 percent; employer (taxpayer) contributions, 32 percent; and investment earnings, 51.4 percent. The 6.5 percent in investment earnings totaled $10.9 billion.  The assumed-earnings figure is important because it makes the SERS and the other big state-administered plan, the Public School Employees Retirement System, appear to be healthier than they actually are. Assumed returns are used to calculate the amount by which the pension systems are underfunded, which in turn determines how much taxpayers must contribute. If realistic rates of return were used in the formula, taxpayers would have to pay even more to make up the difference.

Erie School District’s woes caught in political crossfire
Dems blast GOP senator over comments about 'disgusting' buildings.
Go Erie By Ed Palattella Posted at 12:01 AMUpdated at 5:35 AM
The Erie School District's fight for more funding has turned more political in Harrisburg.
A Republican state senator's comments about the "disgusting" condition of some of the district's buildings have drawn criticism from the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, which called the senator, Scott Wagner, "anti-education" and part of "the problem" in the debate over school funding.  Wagner, from York County, has said he will run for governor in 2018. He could face Democrat Gov. Tom Wolf.  "Senator Scott Wagner has had a lot to say recently about the state of schools in Erie, but his own record on education and his votes against more funding for the district show he is the problem," according to the statement, released Thursday.  Wagner raised concerns about the condition of some Erie School District buildings at a state Senate Appropriations Committee education budget hearing on Tuesday.  Wagner, who toured Erie's Central Career & Technical School and Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy on Jan. 18, said on Tuesday that the poor physical condition of the schools was "disgusting."

Property owners would still pay school taxes for years under relief bill
York Dispatch by Alyssa Pressler , 505-5438/@AlyssaPressYD Published 1:22 p.m. ET March 8, 2017 | Updated 21 hours ago
·         Legislation to get rid of school property taxes has been reintroduced to the Legislature.
·         Local administrators are not opposed to lessening school property taxes, but are wary of the legislation.
Legislation to eliminate school property taxes in Pennsylvania might sound like music to the ears of property owners, but it wouldn't happen overnight — in some cases, some local taxpayers wouldn't see relief for more than 15 years.  In the meantime, property owners also would be paying more in sales and personal income taxes.  Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill County, plans to introduce legislation that would shift about $14 billion in taxes from property owners, including businesses, to consumers and anyone earning a paycheck. He said he's still working with Gov. Tom Wolf on the details of the bill, but plans to unveil it in the next few weeks.

Oped: It’s time to repeal the Separations Act in PA
York Dispatch OPED by Jon O’Brien, Keystone Contractors Association March 7, 2017
During the recent Pennsylvania State Senate Appropriations Committee Budget Hearings for Fiscal Year 2017-2018, the Department of General Services Secretary Curt Topper testified to discuss the proposed appropriations for his department. When Committee Chair Sen. Pat Browne opened the floor for questions, Topper gave a response to one particular question that may surprise you. He spoke in favor of modernizing the Separations Act.  Before we get to his testimony, let’s first explain what the Separations Act is. Enacted over a century ago, the Separations Act derives its name from its mandate to have separate prime contractors for one public construction project in the areas of general construction, electrical, plumbing, heating & air conditioning.  This is referred to as a Multiple Prime Delivery System. In essence, the Separations Act forces the public owner to serve as the General Contractor for a project and each of the primes contract directly to the public owner.

Thanks to Bill LaCoff for his long time board service for Owen J. Roberts School District and two terms as President of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association
Owen J. Roberts School District to replace longtime board member LaCoff
Phoenixville News By Eric Devlin, edevlin@21st-centurymedia.com, @Eric_Devlin on Twitter POSTED: 03/07/17, 9:08 AM EST | UPDATED: 1 DAY AGO
SOUTH COVENTRY >> The Owen J. Roberts School District is accepting applications to fill the seat on the school board vacated recently by a longtime board member who many said served with integrity and made the district proud.  William LaCoff stepped down from his seat effective Feb. 24 after serving nearly five terms on the school board dating back to 1996. LaCoff served as board president for three years in addition to his work on a variety of committees. He also served two separate terms as the governing board president of the Pennsylvania School Board Association and has been active with the National School Boards Association.


 “The states Davis identified are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.  In Pennsylvania, which has the highest allowable donation, the potential profit is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
'Tax Credit Scholarships,' Praised By Trump, Turn Profits For Some Donors
NPR by ANYA KAMENETZ March 7, 20176:00 AM ET
President Trump has indicated several times now that his education agenda may feature a school choice program known as tax credit scholarships. He called it out in his first joint address to Congress last week, and followed that up with his first school visit as president this weekend: to a Catholic school in Florida which accepts several hundred students on the scholarships.   In these programs, sometimes called "neovouchers," people and companies earn tax credits by giving money to nonprofit scholarship funds. Students can use the scholarships to attend private schools, including religious schools. This is important because traditional school vouchers can run afoul of constitutional challenges if they allocate public money to religiously based organizations.  These programs have been growing quickly in the last few years, with a push by groups like the American Federation for Children and the American Legislative Exchange Council. They exist in 17 states and several more are currently considering them.  But as documented by Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, and as advertised by financial advisors and the scholarship organizations themselves, in 10 of these states there is a quirk that allows individuals to turn a profit on their donations.  Here's how it works: Donors to these scholarship funds can offset their state tax liability by 70 to 100 cents for every dollar given. That's already generous compared with many other tax breaks. But then, the donors can turn around and claim a federal charitable tax exemption on the same "donation."  That, says Davis, amounts to up to a 35 percent profit for individuals, depending on their federal tax bracket.  "Frankly, I was surprised," says Davis, who wrote a report on this quirk — what he calls "double-dipping" — last year. His nonpartisan group focuses on the effects of the tax code on low and middle-income families. "I think the IRS has some catching up to do," to close the loophole, he added.

States Introduce New Measure of Accountability: Arts Education
Education Week Curriculum Matters Blog By Jackie Zubrzycki on March 7, 2017 12:45 PM
As states revamp the systems they use to evaluate schools, at least five are considering using the arts as a measure of school quality.   The Every Student Succeeds Act opened the doors for states to rethink how they evaluated schools' quality. In addition to measures like English-language proficiency, graduation rates, and scores on standardized achievement tests, which are commonly used in current accountability systems, states are required to include one "additional indicator" of school quality in their system. That could include social-emotional indicators or access to certain courses —including the arts.    New Jersey was the first state to include arts in its accountability system. The state added  student enrollment in arts classes as a measure on school report cards in 2014, before ESSA was finalized.   In an email, Dale Schmid, the state's content coordinator for visual and performing arts, said, "I think it's important to note that soon after the arts were included in the state accountability plan, school principals began to tout the strength of their districts' arts programs—IN WRITING and in the press!" He said that was evidence of the significance and impact of the new regulation.   Connecticut also includes arts access as part of its "Next Generation Accountability System" for schools.

With White House Backing, Senate Overturns ESSA Accountability Rules
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on March 9, 2017 12:34 PM
The Senate on Thursday voted 50-49 to block the accountability rules for the Every Student Succeeds Act created by the Obama administration.   Without the rules, the requirements for accountability and state plans will be found in the language of ESSA itself. The Obama-era accountability rules, finalized late last year, set ground rules for how schools must be rated for school-improvement purposes, specified the requirements of (and flexibility for) states dealing with high testing opt-out rates in individual schools, and outlined how states would have to handle the "school quality" indicator in accountability systems.  The rollback measure was introduced by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate education committee, and had nine other Republican co-sponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Last month's similar House measure was introduced by Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., the chairman of the House subcommittee dealing with elementary and secondary education.   arlier the same day, the Senate also followed the House's lead by voting to overturn separate Obama-era rules governing teacher-preparation programs. 

Obama Education Rules Are Swept Aside by Congress
New York Times By DANA GOLDSTEIN MARCH 9, 2017
With all the attention paid to President Trump’s lightning-rod secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, and her advocacy for private school vouchers, little public notice has been paid to the action on education in Congress — where lawmakers have broader power than Ms. DeVos to make changes to the nation’s school system.  Now, Congress has done exactly that, voting to repeal crucial regulations associated with the Every Student Succeeds Act, one of President Barack Obama’s final legislative achievements.  When Mr. Obama signed the act in December 2015, many Democrats and Republicans alike celebrated the supposed end of what they saw as an era of federal overreach into local schools. The measure, known as ESSA, took a more collaborative approach than its predecessor, No Child Left Behind.

Want to Fix Schools? Go to the Principal’s Office
New York Times Opinion by David Leonhardt  MARCH 10, 2017
CHICAGO — Gregory Jones, the principal of Kenwood high school, has learned that when spring finally arrives in Chicago, trouble often arrives with it. He saw it happen again on a warm afternoon last May, when students were lingering outside the school, on the city’s South Side, and a fight broke out.  Jones, a trim 46-year-old with a calming presence, went to investigate. He passed a junior named Maya Space and asked her. She said she hadn’t been there. He sensed she was lying, and a cellphone video would confirm she had been in the scrum.  Maya had started high school as a solid student, but by junior year she was getting D’s and F’s. Her backpack was a disorganized mess of papers. Her discipline record was growing.  So in August, before her senior year, Jones called her and her mother — an assembly-line worker at Ford Motors — into his un-air-conditioned office. He and an assistant principal laid out every report in her school file. Maya was on a path, they said, not to graduate.

Former Jeb Bush Foundation Staffers Working at Trump's Ed. Dept.
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Alyson Klein on March 9, 2017 7:11 AM
At least three staffers who are part of the initial Trump administration team at the U.S. Department of Education appear to have, at one point or another, worked for the Foundation for Excellence in Education. That's the education reform organization started by former Gov. Jeb Bush, a Republican from Florida and President Donald Trump's one-time GOP primary rival. 
They include:
·         Josh Venable, who has played a key role in the transition, spent almost two years as the national director of advocacy and legislation at the foundation;
·         Andrew Kossack, who did a seven-month stint at the foundation as a deputy policy director;
·         Neil Ruddock, who appears to have served as the foundation's regional advocacy director for the past four years.
Bush's foundation advocates for school choice, requiring students to demonstrate literacy at the end of 3rd grade, and digital education, among other issues.

Betsy DeVos' Holy War
Her appointment as education secretary marks the crowning achievement of the Christian right's campaign to infiltrate America's secular institutions
Rolling Stone By Janet Reitman Mrch 8, 2017
A few weeks after September 11th, 2001, with the nation reeling from the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., about 400 or so of the country's leading Christian conservative investors convened at the luxury Phoenician resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. They were there for the 17th annual meeting of the Gathering, a four-day, invitation-only philanthropic and networking event for the Christian donor class, whose members often describe themselves, simply, as "believers." The perks awaiting them in their off hours included a 27-hole golf course, nine crystalline swimming pools and a luxury spa. At dusk, the ruddy hues of the desert rippled across the stone patios where, warmed by fire pits, some of the most important funders of Christian charity, and the Christian right, sipped cocktails and talked about expanding the Kingdom of God.
She and her family are likely just getting started trying to buy Republican support for their radical education agenda  Among the evangelical super-rich at the Gathering that weekend were Donald Trump's recently appointed secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, and her husband, Richard "Dick" DeVos Jr., scion of the multilevel marketing behemoth Amway. The DeVoses are conservative Christian royalty with deep roots in Republican politics, and Betsy, a skilled political operator, had just finished a stint as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. During a talk one evening in the Phoenician's elegant grand ballroom, DeVos mentioned her latest project: recruiting Christians to run for the state legislature. "It is critically important that we have believers involved in public life," she said.


Briefing: Public Education Funding in Pennsylvania March 15, from 5:30-7:00 p.m.,
On March 15, from 5:30-7:00 p.m., join attorneys Michael Churchill, Jennifer Clarke and Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg for a briefing on public education.
Topics include:
·         the basics of education funding
·         the school funding lawsuit
·         the property tax elimination bill and how it would affect school funding
1.5 CLE credits available to PA licensed attorneys.

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 #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

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.

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!
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/SAVE-THE-DATE--LWVPA-Convention-June-1-4--2017.html?soid=1102026610927&aid=sie1JiXCxws

Save the Date 2017 PA Principals Association State Conference October 14. 15, 16, 2017
Doubletree Hotel Cranberry Township,  PA


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