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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup April 17, 2017:
HB 97 Stacks the Charter Appeal Board; Diminishes
Authorizer/Taxpayer Oversight
Please Vote No: House Bill 97 does not
provide real charter school reform
The PA House of
Representatives is preparing to fast-track another charter school proposal.
House Bill 97 (Rep. Reese, R-Westmoreland) was introduced this week and
is scheduled for vote by the House Education Committee next Tuesday, April18. Once
passed out of the committee, House Bill 97 will move to the House floor so it
is important to reach out to all House and Senate members now to make them
aware of your position on the proposal.Tell your legislator to vote "No" on House Biill 97. Here are some of the reasons why -
·
School districts won't get a fair trial: House Bill 97 stacks the
Charter School Appeal Board (CAB). The CAB would move from 6 to 9 members with
only one of the three new members representing traditional public schools.
·
Lack of accountability and oversight: The bill expands the terms
for charter school approval and extensions from 3 to 5 years to 5 to 10 years.
This will leave longer periods of time with charters going unchecked by their
authorizers.
·
Commission misses the mark: The proposed Charter School
Funding Commission created in House Bill 97 goes way beyond addressing funding
issues with charter schools and dives into charter authorization and a
performance matrix. A true Charter School Funding Commission should focus
solely on funding issues.
Once again, the stage is
being set to rush through another comprehensive charter bill under the guise of
“reform.” Tell your legislators to vote NO on House Bill 97. http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/cteeInfo/Index.cfm?CteeBody=H&Code=12
“Balancing the charter appeal board. – This is the group that can certify or override the decision of the local district. HB 97 would like to "balance" this group by adding more charter people, including switching the parent seat to a parent of a charter student seat. The resulting board would be far more charter-friendly. This would be the group that could tell taxpayers in your district that they are going to help support a charter school even though they and their duly-elected school board rejected it.”
PA HB97: Charter Reform Sort of Revisited
Curmuducation Blog by Peter Greene Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Pennsylvania charter law is rather a mess. In April of 2016, State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale issued a blistering report, dubbing PA charter law the "worst in the nation." There have been occasional legislative attempts to address the issue, but these bills have often confused "reform" with "give charters more freedom and opportunities to suck up public tax dollars." Harrisburg has a history of using charter reform as a fig leaf to cover up charter giveaways. Early egregious attempts included a bill that would have taken a swipe at cyberschool funding but also would have made all sorts of folks authorizers of charter schools, making it infinitely easier to launch one in PA. There was an attempt to fix things, sort of, back in 2015-2016 with proposed HB 530, a bill that public school organizations like the school board association declared a non-starter because it loosened accountability on charters, allowed the state charter appeal board to overrule local districts, and didn't address the out-of-control costs of charters in Pennsylvania. The reasons to oppose the bill were many. The bill passed both the house and senate, but was ultimately a victim of the Great Budget Snafu of 2016 and was last seen disappearing into the rules committee in June of 2016. Now it's back.
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/04/pa-charter-reform-sort-of-revisited.html?spref=tw
Blogger Opinion: This fast-tracked latest
version of PA Charter Reform legislation still would facilitate authorization
and expansion of charters without sufficient oversight/approval by locally
elected school boards representing the taxpayers who pay for these privately
managed schools.
Please review the full analysis of HB97 and reach
out to your legislators and ask them to vote “NO” on HB97, which is expected to
be reported out of the House Education Committee on Tuesday morning and could
go to a full vote in the House shortly after.
PSBA
Analysis: Charter Bill: HB97
Excerpts from PSBA Analysis of Charter Reform Bill House Bill 97
(Reese) April 13, 2017
Charter School Appeal Board: The bill expands the state
Charter School Appeal Board (CAB) from six to nine members with only one new
member (a principal) representing traditional public schools. These
changes provide an opportunity for charter school representatives to control
the CAB in a majority of cases.
Charter Terms and Renewals: The bill expands the terms
for the initial charter period and renewal terms in a manner that further
removes authorizer oversight by eliminating the ability of school districts to
review renewed charters annually.
Focus of the Funding Commission: The issues to be considered
by Charter School Funding Commission created House Bill 97 go way beyond
addressing the most critical need, which is to consider ways to fairly provide
relief to the climbing costs and overpayments to charter schools made by school
districts.
Did you catch our holiday weekend
postings?
PA Ed Policy Roundup April 14, 2017: Keystone State Education Coalition
HB97: Fast-tracked latest version of PA Charter Reform legislation still would facilitate authorization and expansion of charters without sufficient oversight/approval by locally elected school boards representing the taxpayers who pay for these privately managed schools
Gerrymandering: Local activists drawing
the line on who gets to change congressional borders
Inquirer by Michaelle Bond, Staff Writer @MichaelleBond | mbond@phillynews.com Updated: APRIL 14, 2017 — 11:38 AM
EDT
The maps that Amy Finkbiner was
showing at the borough council meeting looked like so many random, ill-fitting
puzzle pieces. They depicted the
outlines of U.S. congressional districts in Pennsylvania -- how they connected
regions with little in common, how they carved up towns and even neighborhoods. Her own town, Malvern, has found itself configured
into three different, radically reshaped districts in the last three decades. "It has been getting worse and worse,”
Finkbiner, a planning board member, said after her presentation. “So I think
people have been getting more fed up." Typically, municipal meetings such as this
one last week are left to the likes of discussions about speed bumps and
housing permits, and recognition of community members for their service. These days, however, a fundamental issue
of democracy is making the agenda list: redistricting. Residents and advocates are asking just where
congressional and legislative boundaries should be drawn to represent voters
accurately – and who should draw them as populations change and shift. For decades, activists and some lawmakers
turned off by politicians’ creating voting districts designed to keep their
parties in power — gerrymandering — have tried and failed to change
the redistricting process in Pennsylvania.
We choose to be optimistic
that the governor and Legislature can find common ground on property taxes and
pension reform
Lancaster Online Editorial by The
LNP Editorial Board April 16, 2017
THE
ISSUE: In a meeting with LNP’s Editorial Board Tuesday, Gov. Tom Wolf said
his re-election campaign is already underway. Wolf discussed a variety of
issues with the board including education, the opioid crisis, senior citizens
and jobs. Wolf also addressed property taxes and pension reform, and said that
he and the Republican leadership in the Legislature are making progress on both
issues.
Optimism is rare in Harrisburg.
Sincere belief that the governor and Republican-controlled Legislature can
resolve intractable problems is even rarer.
So forgive us if we overreact to even a tiny sliver of hope. Wolf introduced his budget in February. House
Republicans countered with their version in early April, sooner than expected,
Wolf said. And while the governor told the board that the two sides have much
to work out, he also said there is a basic agreement to “reinvent government”
to better serve the public and save money.
Wolf said, “We keep getting closer” on property tax relief and
“we’re making real progress” on pensions.”
Is this a dream? Philadelphia
Daily News columnist John Baer, whose column frequently appears on LNP’s
Opinion pages, is wide awake. “The skids
are getting greased for another phony-baloney fiscal plan to pass before, on,
or near the June 30 deadline,” Baer wrote Tuesday. “Once again, it will likely
ignore property taxes, pension reform, or any reform of a sorry system that
sees ‘solutions’ as merely shifting problems to already-strapped local
governments.”
“Combined with projected increased costs
to school districts to pay their share of pensions, the $50 million proposed
cut in transportation aid would wipe out Wolf's proposed $125 million boost in
funding for basic and special education payments, he said. “In essence, you’re in the negative,” he
said.”
Busing payment cuts worry
school leaders
Meadville Tribune By John
Finnerty CNHI News Service April 14, 2017
HARRISBURG — A proposal by Gov.
Tom Wolf to cut state funding for school busing costs by almost 9 percent while
changing the formula used to figure out how much they should get has school
officials concerned. School officials
and lawmakers say they’re still in the dark about how the Education Department
would retool the funding formula. House
Republicans included the governor’s proposal to redo the busing aid formula in
their budget, said Stephen Miskin, a spokesman for House Republican leaders.
But at this point, the Wolf administration has not provided legislative leaders
with a description of what the reworked formula would look like, he said. John Callahan, assistant executive director
of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said that just the funding cut
alone is alarming. Most years, the
state’s payments toward busing costs have been “stable and predictable,” he
said. Not this year.
“Details of SB 76, both pro and con,
cannot be addressed within this limited space. The AAUW State College Branch
invites you to attend an informational panel discussion to learn more about the
proposed legislation on April 29 at the Central Pennsylvania Convention and
Visitors Bureau, 800 E. Park Ave., State College. Refreshments, 9 a.m.; panel
discussion, 9:30 a.m.”
SB76:
A tax increase by any other name?
Centre Daily Times Opinion April 15,
2017
The American Association of
University Women State College Branch is part of a nationwide network of about
1,000 branches that are dedicated to advancing equity for women and girls.
A bill centered on eliminating
property tax and shifting control of school funding to the state is set to come
up during this year’s legislative session.
Senate Bill 76 (SB 76), named the Property Tax Independence Act by its
proponents, promises to eliminate school property taxes. On the surface, it’s
an appealing bill, if it weren’t for the tradeoff of increases in both sales
tax and personal income tax. Not only would those taxes go up, they would rise
and fall with the economy, unlike property taxes, which are more stable. The bill aims at taking the burden of funding
local schools off property owners. Homeowners in danger of losing their homes
due to their inability to pay their property taxes could expect to see relief
as a result of the shift, although currently, nothing prevents school districts
from mitigating the effects of rising property taxes on elderly residents who
are on fixed incomes and must pay other taxes.
Pennsylvania is using its
newfound ESSA-empowered freedom to create a new dashboard for measuring school
awesomeness-- Future
Ready PA. Many folks in Harrisburg are very excited about it and are touting
it as a relief from the standardized tests that are
"failing" PA students. Let's grab our flux capacitor and our supply
of illegal plutonium! Is Future Ready PA
all that and a bag of Snyder's chips? Well, I've
looked at it before and, spoiler alert-- no. But it's time revisit this
mess in more detail. Let's look at a breakdown of the pieces parts courtesy of the
state's own power point slides from its webinar presentation about
FRPA. I'm going to skip some of the boring history stuff and cut straight to
what's there on the dashboard. FRPA has
three main components. Let's take each one at a time, and see how the state
will free us form the shackles of standardized testing.
An unconventional teacher-prep program on
the rise in Philly
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Staff Writer @newskag | kgraham@phillynews.com Updated: APRIL 16, 2017 — 9:00
AM EDT
On a recent Wednesday evening,
Leandra Handfield spent her graduate-school class practicing delivering an
English lesson, fine-tuning it and getting feedback from professors and peers.
The next morning, she taught it to her class of seventh graders at Mastery
Charter Prep Middle School in North Philadelphia. Welcome to Relay Graduate School of
Education, a new and controversial kind of teacher-preparation program whose
prominence is rising in the city. The School Reform Commission recently
approved a $150,000 contract with Relay to train 20 teachers to
work in the Philadelphia School District, and signaled that it wants to expand
the partnership. Relay has positioned
itself as a disrupter. It has no buildings and few Ph.D.-level faculty. It
de-emphasizes theory and academic research. It was founded by three
charter-school networks in 2011 and is unaffiliated with any college or
university.
Music, arts, sports on
chopping block in Quakertown Community School District
Intelligencer By Gary
Weckselblatt, staff writer April 14, 2017
The Quakertown Community School
District is considering cuts to its music, arts and sports programs after board
members rejected other cost-saving options recommended by the administration. The news broke Friday afternoon following a
3½-hour school board meeting in which directors were unable to reach a
consensus on ways to slice into a $4.7 million structural deficit. "If we don't close the structural
deficit this year, next year's problem becomes even worse because we used
one-time money," Superintendent William Harner said Friday. "Not
closing it is not an option. It would be fiscally irresponsible." The school board, which previously directed
Harner to develop a plan to save money, picked apart his options at Thursday
night's board meeting but failed to agree on anything other than to not fill
administrative openings. "Our challenge remains the
same — to operate the district within our available revenues,"
Assistant Superintendent Nancianne Edwards said. "If the options we have
identified, which have minimal impact on programs, are not acceptable to the
board or community, then we don't have anywhere else to look except to consider
program cuts." That's what Harner
heard Friday in a conference call with school board President Paul Stepanoff
and Vice President Charles Shermer.
Cost reductions identified to help close
Quakertown Community School District deficit
WFMZ By: Bryan
Hay Posted: Apr 14,
2017 12:56 AM EDT Updated: Apr
14, 2017 05:13 AM EDT
QUAKERTOWN, Pa. - After agreeing
to a series of cost reductions recommended by the administration Thursday
night, the Quakertown School Board will receive a proposed budget that helps
close a $4.7 budget shortfall for the 2017-18 school year. Nancianne Edwards, assistant superintendent,
presented a series of recommended cuts that totaled $1.2 million by eliminating
the cyber program, an academic support program and a district level
administrative position and moving forward with middle and elementary school
consolidations. Superintendent William Harner and school board President Paul
Stepanoff were absent. Since the board
must act on the proposed preliminary budget at its April 27 meeting, 30 days
before the budget comes up for a final vote, the administration’s cuts for the
2017-18 budget did not include the $1 million in savings that would be realized
by the closing of Milford Middle School.
A decision on Milford Middle School will not be made until July at the
earliest. The school’s fate was the central topic at a hearing that drew a
packed house Tuesday night.
Pat Howard: A glimmer of optimism about
Erie’s schools
Go Erie Opinion by Pat Howard Sunday April 15 Posted at 2:00 AM
As Erie schools Superintendent
Jay Badams ran through the latest accounting of the Erie School District’s
forbidding financial prognosis and evolving options on Wednesday evening, his
tone was striking. It seemed that an
earlier, more hopeful incarnation of Badams had reported to the Erie School
Board meeting. Dude’s got his mojo back, I thought to myself. An interview in his office on Thursday
afternoon confirmed it. He didn’t seem like the same guy who had reached a
point where, if not burned out, he had at least been enduringly singed by the
relentless heat of events. “I feel like
I have my optimism back,” Badams said. “I’ve had my optimism beaten out of me
for the last seven years.” He said the
uptick in outlook is recent. “This would
have been a very different conversation the week after we got our rejection
letter,” he said of state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera rebuffing the
district’s financial recovery plan in late February. “And you would have had to
bleep out a lot of things.” That
rejection didn’t change the reality that saving Erie’s school system from
insolvency still rests heavily on sizable assistance from Harrisburg. The
situation will likely remain fluid as the state budget process plays out. But Rivera’s stiff-arm also sent Badams and
company back to the drawing board. What’s taken shape is increasingly
intriguing and tantalizingly plausible.
Our view: Full speed ahead on Erie school
changes
Go Erie By the Editorial
Board Sunday April 15 Posted at 2:00 AM
The Erie School Board and Erie
schools Superintendent Jay Badams are operating on a proverbial high wire —
facing a $9.5 million 2017-18 deficit and uncertain state funding prospects,
all while planning a sweeping reconfiguration of the city’s schools. It’s a critical and fluid situation. But it’s
clear that however the funding from Harrisburg shakes out, part of the solution
has to be cutting down on excess building capacity, especially in the city’s
four high schools. The truth is that
further building consolidation should have happened already. But members of the
School Board, sensitive to public opinion, weren’t willing to consider closing
high schools in past years. All of the scenarios in play call
for converting East and Strong Vincent high schools into middle schools;
pooling all of the city’s high school students in the Central Career and
Technical School and Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy buildings;
standardizing the grade configuration of elementary schools at pre-K to fifth
grade; and closing two elementary schools, Emerson-Gridley and Wayne. The big question before the School Board this
week is whether to tackle the changes all at once in 2017-18 for maximum
savings and impact, or phase in the moves over as many as four years. The board
is scheduled to vote on that Wednesday.
Change coming to Erie community schools
Expected closings of
Emerson-Gridley, Wayne would lead to new locations for two of five programs
that provide health and dental care and other services to needy students.
Go Erie By Ed Palattella April 125,
2017The Erie School District still will have five community schools in the fall, though two of them will most likely be in different locations. The changes will be due to what appears to be the inevitable closings of Emerson-Gridley and Wayne elementary schools as part of the district’s reconfiguration plan. The community schools programs, launched in 2016, is designed to bring social services like health and dental care and after-school programming into school buildings to make them directly accessible to students from high-poverty households. The five community school directors have been in place since January. The Erie School District’s three other community schools are Edison, Pfeiffer-Burleigh and McKinley. The community schools will continue there in 2017-18, and the district will move the other two community schools to different locations if Emerson-Gridley and Wayne close, said Daria Devlin, the district’s spokeswoman and coordinator of grants. “We are still committed to five community schools in the fall,” she said.
Masterman student accepted
into eight top U.S. colleges
Philly Trib by Ryanne Persinger
Tribune Staff Writer Apr 14, 2017
When Rayshawn Johnson would tour
college campuses, he made his mother a promise that he would bring back a
pennant from each school. College and university banners adorn the walls of his
room, his mom Jessica said. “When he
came back, the pennants had to go on the wall and we made a vision,” Jessica
Johnson said. “Everyday (Rayshawn) woke up and had a vision of where he wanted
to go. That was part of the process. Making a claim, never saying you can’t.” Now a graduating senior at Julia
R. Masterman Middle and High School at 1699 Spring Garden St., letters of
acceptance from all eight of the distinguished colleges he applied to now fill
his wall as well. The 18 year-old been
accepted into four liberal arts colleges, three Ivy League schools and one
Historically Black College, University. They include: Yale University, Brown
University, Morehouse College, University of Pennsylvania, Amherst College,
Bowdoin College, Swarthmore College and Orberlin College. He received a full academic scholarship to
attend Morehouse, but his heart has led him to his first choice, an Ivy League
school that has an acceptance rate of just six percent. “There is no question about it, I love the
community,” said Johnson of Yale University. “I like the city of New Haven
(Conn.) and I like the programs that Yale has to offer.”
Johnson plans to double major in
political science and finance. He has a 3.97 grade point average and is the
president of his school’s African American Cultural Committee, vice president
of the Peer Counseling Group, a member of the Student Government Association, a
volunteer mentor and tutor in the city’s library’s and a member of Enon
Tabernacle Baptist Church.
DCTS students get hands on experience with
police, firefighters and EMTs
Delco
Times By Anne Neborak, aneborak@21st-centurymedia.com, @AnnieNeborak on
Twitter
POSTED: 04/16/17,
10:53 PM EDT | UPDATED: 5 SECS AGO
DARBY TOWNSHIP >> For 35
students at Delaware County Technical School it was a day for hands-on
experience to learn from police, firefighters and EMTS at the Delaware County
Emergency Training Center. It was a day to see if individuals participating had
it in them to pursue a career in fields that demand bravery and keeping your
wits while under a great deal of pressure.
Delcoville was hopping at, the Delaware County Emergency Training
Center. Students under supervision took control of pseudo situations that felt
real. How would you handle a hostage situation, go into a burning building or
save someone having a heart attack? Many of the students participating are
planning to pursue a career in Emergency Protection Services. This was their
chance to get out of the classroom, away from the books and the lectures to
real live settings.
Philly’s 7th Ward Blog BY SHARIF EL-MEKKI APRIL 17,
2017
I recently had the opportunity to
meet with the new U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and her senior
advisers. It was an invitation I wasn’t sure if I would initially accept.
However, I am glad I did. Although,
several of Secretary DeVos’s stances and philosophies about
public education are very disconcerting to me, I went for several reasons. I believe in engaging with folks I
diametrically am opposed to on issues because it is one of the ways to become
more informed about the root causes of their beliefs and actions. It is easy to
have circular dialogues that exist in an echo chamber that reinforces our own
conversations, but doesn’t move us forward. Even at times of war, sometimes,
folks have to pitch tents and make themselves heard.
Bullying bills come back in
the state House
Beaver County Times By J.D. Prose
jprose@calkins.com April 16, 2017
Two state legislators who are sponsoring
bills addressing children’s issues also reintroduced three bills on bullying
last week. State Rep. Karen Boback,
R-Luzerne County, introduced House Bill 1185, which seeks to raise awareness of
bullying through a new special license plate, and House Bill 1183, which
requires that teacher training include bullying awareness and prevention. House Bill 1147, introduced by
state Rep. Tim Briggs, D-Montgomery County, expands the bullying policy for
public schools and mandates certain actions that schools must take to ensure
their bullying policies are effective.
Should taxpayer dollars fund private education?
Kevin Welner, Professor, Education Policy & Law; Director, National Education Policy Center, University of Colorado April 14, 2017 9.56am EDT\
As Republican lawmakers craft a tax
reform bill, there’s speculation on
the import taxes, value-added taxes and tax cuts it may usher in. Meanwhile,
it’s likely that the bill will also include a major education policy initiative
from the Trump administration: a tax
credit designed to fund private school vouchers. A decade ago I started researching this new kind of
voucher – funded through a somewhat convoluted tax credit mechanism –
that appears to have particular appeal to President
Trump and other Republicans. These
new vouchers (or “neovouchers”) are similar to conventional vouchers in many
ways, but there are some important differences. It’s those differences that
neovoucher advocates most care about and that everyone should understand.
Are
charter schools truly public schools?
“The whole people must take upon
themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expense
of it.” – John Adams
Network for Public Education
Toolkit April 2017
No. Charter schools are
contractors that receive taxpayer money to operate privately controlled schools
that do not have the same rules and responsibilities as public schools.
Top Dem. Senators Ask for Federal Study of
Tax-Credit School Choice Programs
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on April
14, 2017 12:01 PM
Three Democratic senators have
asked the Government Accountability Office for more information about states' tax-credit K-12 choice
programs. In a Thursday letter,
Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Sheldon Whitehouse of
Rhode Island, and Ron Wyden of Oregon said they are interested in
more information about these programs given "the strong possibility of
federal legislative activity on tax-credit vouchers at the federal level in the
near future." Murray is the top Democrat on the Senate education
committee, while Wyden is the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee,
which would be the committee responsible for writing a tax credit for private
school scholarships into the federal tax code. Whitehouse is also on the Senate
education committee. The senators
asked the GAO to examine these four questions about tax-credit programs:
1. How have states structured tax
credit voucher or incentive programs?
2. What financial accountability
regulations—including any requirements intended to guard against fraud, waste,
and abuse—have states established for organizations that administer and manage
the programs?
3. How have selected organizations
adminstered tax credit voucher or incentive programs (including any steps taken
to ensure transparency, efficiency, and accountability)?
4. How have selected states
monitored these programs? What are the best practices and the challenges the
programs have encountered?
Noting how these programs vary
across states, the three senators wrote to the GAO that, "These
inconsistencies make it challenging for policymakers to assess the consequences
of of instituting these types of tax credit schemes on fiscal
accountability."
“Tax-credit scholarship programs
function much like traditional private-school vouchers, but they were designed
to work differently to get around state bans on using public funds to benefit
religious institutions. Companies can receive a full or partial state tax
credit if they donate funds to help children pay for private school, which
means instead of sending tax dollars to the state treasury, they send the
money to a scholarship-granting organization. That organization is then
responsible for giving out the money to families.”
Democrats ask GAO to examine tax-credit
programs as Trump pushes public dollars for private schools
Washington Post By Emma Brown April
14 at 6:00 AM
Senate
Democrats are asking the Government Accountability Office to examine state
programs that offer tax credits in exchange for donations for
private-school scholarships, arguing that it’s important to identify potential
risks of financial misconduct at a time when the Trump administration might
push for a new tax credit at the federal level. “With the strong possibility of federal
legislative activity on tax-credit vouchers at the federal level in the near
future, we are interested in how states have designed these programs, whether
they have strong internal controls, and whether they pose a risk of waste,
fraud, abuse, misconduct, or mismanagement,” three senators wrote in a letter
to Gene L. Dodaro, head of the GAO. “A
multi-state analysis of this issue by GAO would help inform the advisability of
any future federal programs and help ensure proper fiscal accountability and
transparency for federal funds,” they wrote. The letter, dated April 13, was
signed by the ranking Democrats on the Senate education and finance
committees, Sens. Patty Murray (Wash.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.),
and by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).
Minority teachers in U.S. more than
doubled over 25 years — but still fewer than 20 percent of educators, study
shows
Washington Post By Valerie Strauss April
14
The
number of minority teachers more than doubled in the United States over a
25-year period but still represent less than 20 percent of the country’s
elementary and secondary school teaching force, a new statistical analysis of
data shows. And black teachers, while seeing an increase in the number of
teachers, saw a decline in the percentage they make up of the overall teaching
force. (See full report below.) From
1987 to 1988 and 2011 to 2012, researchers found that the teaching force
became much larger, by 46 percent; more diverse, though minority teachers
remain underrepresented; and less experienced. There were, however, large
differences among different types of schools and academic subjects. For example, the number of teachers in
English as a second language, English/language arts, math, foreign language,
natural science and special education all grew at above-average rates, while the
fields of general elementary, vocational-technical education and art/music each
had below-average growth.
Education Activists Gear Up To Defeat
Trump-DeVos Agenda
Diane Ravitch Audio
Runtime:: 17:43 April 14, 2017FEATURING DIANE RAVITCH – The march toward school privatization is expected to escalate under Donald Trump’s new Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. DeVos is a believer in religious education and charter schools, and has promised to “expand school choice,” which is code for privatization. So far however, her biggest action has been to undo the consumer protections that President Obama put in place to for student borrowers. As members of Congress go into recess to interact with their constituents activists who want to preserve and strengthen public education are taking their fight to town hall meetings.
Find more at www.networkforpubliceducation.org and www.dianeravitch.net.
Teachers unions and others are attacking charter supporters in California, New York and New Jersey for doing the administration's 'dirty work.'
Politico By DAVID SIDERS 04/16/17 03:16 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES — It’s rare that
Democrats are cast as puppets of the Trump administration. But on the issue of
education, many Democrats who have long supported school choice are newly on
the defensive within their party, forced to distance themselves from President Donald
Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The unusual dynamic started soon after
Trump’s inauguration, when a teachers union in Los Angeles sent voters mail
depicting two charter-school-friendly school board contenders, both Democrats,
as “the candidates who will implement the Trump/DeVos education agenda in LA.” The message was repeated in New York, where
the Alliance for Quality Education, an advocacy group partially funded by
teachers unions, likened Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s education policies to
Trump’s. The group urged online audiences to “stop Cuomo from doing Betsy
DeVos’s dirty work.” In New Jersey, Sen. Cory Booker opposed DeVos’
appointment but came in for criticism for working with DeVos on school choice
initiatives when he was mayor of Newark.
PSBA
Advocacy Forum and Day on the Hill APR
24, 2017 • 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Join PSBA and your fellow school
directors for the fourth annual Advocacy Forum on April 24, 2017, at the
State Capitol in Harrisburg. Hear from legislators on how advocacy makes a
difference in the legislative process and the importance of public education
advocacy. Government Affairs will take a deeper dive into the legislative
priorities and will provide tips on how to be an effective public education
advocate. There will be dedicated time for you and your fellow advocates to hit
the halls to meet with your legislators on public education. This is your
chance to share the importance of policy supporting public education and make
your voice heard on the Hill.
“Nothing has more impact for
legislators than hearing directly from constituents through events like PSBA’s
Advocacy Forum.”
— Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh), Senate Appropriations Committee chair
— Sen. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh), Senate Appropriations Committee chair
Registration:
Visit the Members Area of PSBA’s website under
Store/Registration tab to register.
PSBA Spring Town Hall Meetings coming in May!
Don’t be left in the
dark on legislation that affects your district! Learn the latest from your
legislators at PSBA Spring Town Hall Meetings. Conveniently offered at 10
locations around the state throughout May, this event will provide you with the
opportunity to interact face-to-face with key lawmakers from your area. Enjoy
refreshments, connect with colleagues, and learn what issues impact you and how
you can make a difference. Log in to the Members Area to register today for this FREE event!
- Monday, May 1, 6-8 p.m. — Parkway West
CTC, 7101 Steubenville Pike, Oakdale, PA 15071
- Tuesday, May 2, 7:30-9 a.m. — A W
Beattie Career Center, 9600 Babcock Blvd, Allison Park, PA 15101
- Tuesday, May 2, 6-8 p.m. — Crawford
County CTC, 860 Thurston Road, Meadville, PA 16335
- Wednesday, May 3, 6-8 p.m. — St. Marys
Area School District, 977 S. St Marys Road, Saint Marys, PA 15857
- Thursday, May 4, 6-8 p.m. — Central
Montco Technical High School, 821 Plymouth Road, Plymouth Meeting, PA
19462
- Friday, May 5, 7:30-9 a.m. — Lehigh
Carbon Community College, 4525 Education Park Dr, Schnecksville, PA 18078
- Monday, May 15, 6-8 p.m. — CTC of
Lackawanna Co., 3201 Rockwell Avenue, Scranton, PA 18508
- Tuesday, May 16, 6-8 p.m. — PSBA, 400
Bent Creek Boulevard, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
- Wednesday, May 17, 6-8 p.m. — Lycoming
CTC, 293 Cemetery Street, Hughesville, PA 17737
- Thursday, May 18, 6-8 p.m. — Chestnut
Ridge SD, 3281 Valley Road, Fishertown, PA 15539
For assistance
with registration, please contact Michelle Kunkel at 717-506-2450 ext. 3365.
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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