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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup April 25, 2017:
Taxpayers
shouldn’t lose their voice when parents make a choice; urge your legislators to
vote “NO” on #HB97
Blogger Commentary:
HB97 is on the House calendar for today.
Instead of insisting on an omnibus
charter reform bill, the legislature should consider a stand-alone, separate
bill creating a charter school funding commission modelled after the successful
Basic Education Funding Commission and Special Education Funding Commission,
with a task of work limited to charter school funding issues and comprised
solely of legislators and executive branch members. This would be a significant first step in
untying the Gordian knot that PA charter reform has become.
HB97 would stack the state’s Charter
Appeals Board in favor of charter proponents.
HB97 would increase the terms of charter
authorizations and renewals; shouldn’t taxpayer’s elected officials be able to
review and approve the expenditure of tax dollars annually?
HB97 does virtually nothing to address
the total lack of transparency for public tax dollars spent by charter
management companies.
Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts
never authorized the 13 chronically underperforming cyber charters and many
districts offer cyber programs at significant savings to taxpayers yet all 500
districts are required to send tax dollars to cyber charters. The legislature should consider a separate piece
of legislation dealing solely with cyber charter issues.
Please
call your legislators and urge them to work with PSBA/PASA to improve #HB97
#HB97 None of Senate
Appropriations Committee Chairman .@SenatorBrowne's
school districts ever authorized a cyber charter. In 2015-16 they had to pay over $19.5 million
in cyber charter tuition. Not one of
Pennsylvania’s 13 cyber charter schools has ever achieved a passing score of 70
on the School Performance Profile. Many
school districts have in-house cyber programs that are able to serve students
at considerable savings over cyber charter costs.
#HB97 None of House
Appropriations Committee Chairman .@RepStanSaylor's
school districts ever authorized a cyber charter. In 2015-16 they had to pay over $3.8 million
in cyber charter tuition.
#HB97 None of
gubernatorial candidate .@SenScottWagner's
school districts ever authorized a cyber charter. In 2015-16 they had to pay over $11.9 million
in cyber charter tuition.
#HB97 None of Senate
Education Committee Minority Chairman @SenatorDinniman's school
districts ever authorized a cyber charter.
In 2015-16 they had to pay over $13.4 million in cyber charter tuition.
#HB97 None of House
Education Committee Chairman Eichelberger's school districts ever authorized a
cyber charter. In 2015-16 they had to
pay over $11.6 million in cyber charter tuition.
#HB97 Neither of House
Speaker .@RepTurzai's school
districts ever authorized a cyber charter.
In 2015-16 they had to pay over $1.8 million in cyber charter tuition.
#HB97 None of Senate
President .@senatorscarnati's
school districts ever authorized a cyber charter. In 2015-16 they had to pay over $9.4 million
in cyber charter tuition.
#HB97 None of Senate
Majority Leader .@JakeCorman's
school districts ever authorized a cyber charter. In 2015-16 they had to pay over $5.1 million
in cyber charter tuition.
Thanks to PCCY for compiling these cyber
tuition figures from data on PDE’s website.
“While Pennsylvania ranks 12th
nationally in terms of the amount of spending per student, it ranks near the
bottom at 46th when looking at the amount of funding coming from the state,
leaving local taxpayers to fill the void.”
PSBA
2016-17 State of Education report highlights success, challenges facing public
education
PSBA
Website April 24, 2017
Representatives of several
education leadership associations today released the 2016-17 State of Education report
highlighting the many successes and challenges facing public education in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This
72-page document covers a vast array of statistics gathered from data available
from public sources, as well as responses from a survey sent to all school
districts, career and technology centers, and intermediate units in the state
in December 2016. The report delves into school finances, student achievement,
budget pressures and teacher shortages, to name a few. This year’s report will
establish a baseline which can be used moving forward to show changes and
trends over time. Some key findings: Survey respondents identified the
top three challenges facing education as budget pressures (86%), bargaining
issues (39%) and school construction/maintenance (26%). While pension costs
(85%), charter school payments (66%) and inadequate state funding (53%) were
identified as the top budget pressures. The
State of Education report also captures the huge disparities in funding between
the richest and poorest districts and the unfortunate impacts of this disparity
on student achievement. There was a 32.6% difference in the average
eighth-grade PSSA proficiency between districts with the highest and lowest
poverty and a 35.2% difference in fourth-grade PSSA proficiency.
Charter law vote postponed, District to
vote on 26 renewals next week
Universal gave up its last
charter in Milwaukee this month.
The notebook by Dale Mezzacappa
April 24, 2017 — 6:14pm
The state House on Monday did not
take an expected vote on HB97, legislation that would overhaul the state's
20-year-old charter school law. Advocates and District officials have been
lobbying against parts of the bill they say will make it harder to regulate
charter expansion and quality. At the
same time, the District announced that the School Reform Commission will vote
on 26 charter renewals next Monday, May 1, at a special 3 p.m meeting. In
addition, it said it would consider three charter amendments at its Thursday
meeting, to Keystone Charter, Laboratory Charter, and Russell Byers Charter. it
has not yet posted the content of the amendments. Despite concerns
expressed by advocates and school districts, including the Pennsylvania School
Boards Association, legislators sought to fast-track HB97, which
was voted out of committee last week. While its leading sponsors
called it a "work in progress" when it left the committee, it has not
been amended. SRC Chair Joyce
Wilkerson was among those in Harrisburg Monday talking to legislators about the
bill, which would have a bigger effect on Philadelphia than anywhere else.
Philadelphia has half the charter schools in the state. A statement shared with
legislators said that the District "is committed to supporting legislation
that expands high achieving charter seats," but added that in this
bill, largely supported by the charter sector, "a lack of
standards, transparency and accountability" will make it difficult to
promote quality.
“The bills range in reforms from
preventing conflicts of interest in building leases to stopping charter schools
from using “free” or “tuition free” claims on advertisements. “Public education shouldn’t be about private
profit; in some cases, it has become that,” said Rep. Mark Longietti,
D-Mercer. Longietti's bill would limit
management fees to no more than 5 percent of tuition per pupil. Longietti said
he hopes his bill will “shine a light” on what he claims are large amounts of
public tax dollars going to for-profit management organizations.
At the moment, there is no limit beyond
negotiation that dictates what management companies may charge charter schools
in the commonwealth.
“When it comes to public tax dollars,
(school management is) not what it should be about,” Longietti said.”
House Dems tackling charter
school reform
David Weissman
and Junior Gonzalez ,
York Dispatch 9:34
p.m. ET April 24, 2017
Unhappy with a comprehensive
charter school reform bill being pushed by House Republicans, House Democrats
recently unveiled a package of nine separate bills aimed at solving the
issue. Among the nine bills is one
sponsored by Rep. Carol Hill-Evans, D-York City, that would prevent charter
schools from continuing to enroll new students if the school has been notified
its charter will be terminated or not renewed.
House Bill 1249, the first bill authored by the first-term
representative, would allow a charter school to continue enrolling
students if the school has filed an appeal but require it
to immediately stop if that appeal is denied. “In York, we know how difficult the closure
of a charter school can be. We shouldn’t allow charter schools to continue
enrolling students if they know they are going to close,” Hill-Evans said in
the release. “It’s unfair to those children and unnecessarily disruptive to
their education.” New Hope Academy
Charter School was closed in York City School District in 2014, and Helen
Thackston Charter School is at risk of the same fate because of troubling test
scores and a lack of financial transparency.
Who Pays for School Property Tax
Elimination? An Analysis of School Property Tax Burdens in Pennsylvania
Keystone research Center
Report by Mark
Price April 6, 2017
Executive Summary: Far from providing relief for
working families, recent proposals to eliminate school property taxes
in Pennsylvania would increase taxes on the middle class while
sabotaging the chance to adequately fund Pennsylvania schools for middle- and
low-income families. This report provides the first
estimates of the impact of property tax elimination proposals on families in
Pennsylvania. Echoing recent debates about U.S. health care policy, our
findings demonstrate that, in the case of proposed property tax elimination in
Pennsylvania, the devil is in the details.
Across all Pennsylvania families, property tax elimination would
increase taxes by $334 per family. While property taxes would fall by an
average of $1,685 per family, sales and income taxes would rise by over $2,000
on average per family. Moderate-income
families (earning between $22,000 and $63,000), many of who live in
rural areas, would see the biggest increase in taxes as a
share of their income (0.6 percent). In dollar terms, these moderate-income
families would see an average increase in taxes of around $300 ($269 to $326). There are two main reasons that the proposed
property tax elimination increases taxes on middle-class families. First, the
proposal would shift taxes from corporations to families, exacerbating a
decades-old shift of taxes in Pennsylvania away from corporations. Second, the largest
amounts of property tax relief would go to affluent families in rich school
districtsthat have the highest property taxes because those school
districts choose to amply fund local schools:
“In fact, all over South Philadelphia
— from Front Street to Broad, from South Street to Snyder — public school
enrollments are swelling. The extent and consistency of the trend reaffirms
that the urban revival begun in Center City a couple decades prior has advanced
well past downtown. Jackson's overcrowding problem is, at least in part, the
latest high-tide mark from a wave that seems to advance further south every
year.”
In South Philadelphia, a public school
revival pushes against its limits
WHYY Newsworks by Avi Wolfman-Arent
April 24, 2017 — 4:00pm
On a rain-drenched Friday in late
March, about 75 people pack into a cinder block room at South Philadelphia's
Hawthorne Recreation Center just north of Washington Avenue. The rhythmic blare of a nearby Mexican dance
class bleeds through the walls. Along the room's perimeter women saddled with
baby bjorns rock infants to sleep. If
ever a scene captured the new face of South Philadelphia this might be it: a
room full of young, mostly white professionals chatting over the muffled hum of
latin folk music. The topic this evening
is overcrowding at nearby Andrew Jackson School, a K-8 school about five blocks
south that serves parts of Bella Vista and East Passyunk. Before the meeting
starts I sidle up to Stephen Dunne, a lawyer who recently bought a house across
the street from the school. "Oh
it's an incredible turnout," he said with an eager smile. "You'd
think this was a private school. It's a public school in Philadelphia." Dunne and his wife picked their house because
of its proximity to Jackson, one of four or five public elementary schools they
considered viable. That dynamic isn't new — there's long been a select
band of schools deemed good enough by the city's middle class. What is new is Jackson's presence among that
group. Less than a decade ago, Jackson
sat half empty--just another three-story reminder of the city's crumbling
public school system. Today it can barely contain the 567 children scurrying
through its corridors.
Philly charter officials call for charters
for 20 schools but not Laboratory
Inquirer by Martha Woodall, Staff Writer @marwooda | martha.woodall@phillynews.com Updated: APRIL 24, 2017 — 9:28 PM EDT
The Laboratory School of
Communications and Languages was once the flagship of a group of charter
schools founded by former district administrator Dorothy June Brown. The academics at the K-8 charter school with
campuses in West Philadelphia and Northern Liberties were so strong that
Laboratory was awarded national Blue Ribbons from the U.S. Department of
Education in 2004 and 2013. But
Laboratory has such serious problems with finances and governance that the
Philadelphia School District office that oversees charters is recommending that
the school -- among the city’s first charter schools in 1997 -- not
be granted a new five-year operating agreement.
Among other things, a report posted on the charter office’s website late Monday
afternoon said the district had concerns about Laboratory’s special education
screening, certification of its staff, and school safety. The office also found that Laboratory’s
application process did not comply with state law; that auditors raised
questions about the school’s financial practices; and that Laboratory had
failed five times to make timely payments to the state teachers’ retirement
system.
#PHLed SRC to vote Thurs
on 8 5-yr contracts w providers-Camelot, OIC, etc- to run alternative schools
for $146M
Tweet from Paul Socolar
@PaulSocolar April 24, 2017
Liguori
Acad is up for a $6.7M alt school contract. Remember how their website looked
b4 secular makeover 2 yrs ago?
Tweet from Paul Socolar
@PaulSocolar April 24, 2017
“Universal Companies has eight campuses
in Philadelphia, and its website noted the company operated 11 charter schools
that served 5,000 students. The nonprofit was formed in 1993 by efforts of
Gamble, the legendary songwriter and CEO of Philadelphia International Records,
and his wife Faatimah. It expanded to Milwaukee when Greg Thornton, a
Philadelphia native, was serving as MPS superintendent.”
Universal Companies exits from schools in Milwaukee
Philly Trib by Ryanne Persinger
Tribune Staff Writer Apr 22, 2017
In 2013, Universal Companies, the nonprofit
education and community development firm co-founded by Kenny Gamble, expanded
its charter schools outside of Philadelphia to Milwaukee, some 850 miles away. But early this month, all three of the
Universal schools were returned to Milwaukee Public Schools to operate and
manage. Two campuses were turned over in November and the latest, Universal
Academy for the College Bound, reverted to MPS’ control April 7. The change followed a letter, dated March 9,
to MPS Superintendent Darienne Driver from Universal’s Superintendent of
Schools and Senior Executive Vice President of Education Penny Nixon that
stated: “We believe that we have had a productive and positive partnership with
the Milwaukee Public Schools in our efforts to provide a high quality education
to the students of UACB. “Despite our
efforts, we believe that it would be in the best interest of the students and
families of UACB to transition the management of operations to MPS,” the letter
continued. “We are confident that MPS will maintain an academically sound,
operationally efficient, safe and stable climate to continue to increase
student achievement for our scholars.” Universal
said the company was proud of the work it started at UACB and thought it had
made a positive impact on the students and their communities.
Charters host forum to hear from city
school board
MOLLY BORN Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette mborn@post-gazette.com
12:00 AM APR 24, 2017
The first candidate forum last
week for those vying for a seat on the Pittsburgh Public Schools board had an
unlikely host: A group of Pittsburgh charter schools. Environmental Charter School at Frick Park
held a similar forum for a single district race in 2015. But Thursday’s event
is thought to be the first coordinated effort from a group of charters inviting
all city school board candidates to share their views on topics — including the
well-established tension between them. “I think the culture around
charters and the district is becoming unnecessarily contentious. At the end of
the day, we all want great schools for our kids,” said Chase Patterson,
business manager for Urban Academy of Greater Pittsburgh Charter School, which
hosted the event. Pittsburgh Public Schools
has “tremendous authority” over the 11 charter schools serving nearly 3,500
students in the city, from determining whether a charter is renewed to
authorizing a school’s move to a new site, noted Rachel Amankulor, deputy
director of policy for the research and advocacy group Pennsylvania Campaign
for Achievement Now (PennCAN). “These
elections matter as much for charter school families as they do for district
school families,” she said.
Which Philly area high schools are the
best in the U.S.?
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Staff Writer @newskag | kgraham@phillynews.com Updated: APRIL 25, 2017 — 5:00 AM EDT
Philadelphia’s Julia R. Masterman
is among the nation’s best public high schools in 2017, U.S. News and World
Report found in its annual rankings, released Tuesday.
Masterman, at No. 51, is the only
school in the region in the top 100. It ranked 46th in the publication’s 2016
list of best high schools. U.S. News and
World Report also ranks the best high schools in every state. Schools in the
region dominated the Pennsylvania list, with Masterman claiming the top spot.
New Hope-Solebury, Conestoga, Unionville, Radnor, Strath Haven, Lower Moreland
and Great Valley High Schools were all in the top 10.
One proposal to solve Pennsylvania's
gerrymandering problem
Reading Eagle
Sunday April 23, 2017 12:01 AM
Fair Districts PA wants to take
the legislative district drawing process out of political leaders' hands and
turn it over to an independent commission. Here's a look at the coalition's
proposal. Current system: GOP
and Democratic leaders of the state House and Senate each select a member of a
five-person commission that draws the maps. Those members select the fifth. If
they can't agree, the state Supreme Court decides. The state House and Senate district maps are
finalized by the commission. The congressional map is crafted into a bill that
must be passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor. State courts
decide legal challenges. Proposed
change: Redistricting would be handled by an 11-member commission that
includes four members each from the two major parties and three not registered
with either party. Citizens could apply to be among the pool of potential
commission members.
“I'm annoyed as hell that we're still in
a situation where the state makes trying to figure out what we're going to do
so difficult,” school board President Jim Winslow said. “I think it's horrible
that every year, we essentially have to start juggling the lesser of two evils.
I hate it. I think it's wrong.”
Greencastle-Antrim school board struggles to fund new budgetHerald Mail Media by Joyce Nowell Apr 24, 2017
GREENCASTLE, Pa. — A longstanding
feud between the Greencastle-Antrim School District and the state likely won't
end this year as local officials struggle to find ways to maintain current
programs for the 2017-18 school year. The
school system is in line to receive a little more than $6 million in basic
education funding — an amount that officials believe falls below the growing
district's needs. In addition to
covering increased costs for the public-employees pension fund, Franklin County
(Pa.) Career and Technology Center and debt service, the school board is faced
with how to staff its schools for the coming year and how to pay for it. Four staffing options have been developed by
the district's administrative team.
District director of business services
Jeremy Melber presented a preliminary budget outline this month that showed
total expenses of $64.9 million, $1.5 million more than this year's outlay. The
budget total for 2016-2017 was $63.4 million.
He said pension costs accounted for 2 percent or about $900,000 of the
increase.
Small
Southern Lehigh property tax hike in preliminary budget
Charles
Malinchak Special to
The Morning Call April 24, 2017
CENTER VALLEY — Southern Lehigh
School Board Directors narrowly approved a tiny property tax hike for 2017-18,
but it may not be a hike etched in stone.
The board approved a preliminary budget in a 5-4 vote Monday night that
woud raise taxes by 0.20-mill to 15.82 mills, generating about $500,000 more
for the district. The 1.2 percent increase translates to a $40 jump to $3,164
for the owner of a home assessed at $200,000.
The district raised taxes last year by 1.6 percent and forecast similar
hikes for the next five consecutive years.
“The budget represents a $3.5 million
increase from the current budget of $81.2 million; $1.1 million more to cover
benefits, a 4.91 percent increase; and nearly $200,000 more in transportation
costs. Also included is $1.7 million to
fund tuition costs for 133 students to attend charter and cyber-charter schools,
a 25.5 percent rise over the current budget.”
Nazareth
Area schools budget to include property tax hike
Kevin
Duffy Special to The
Morning Call April 24, 2017
Will Nazareth Area School
District property owners see a tax hike?
NAZARETH — School board members
in the Nazareth Area School District formally adopted a budget and property tax
rate for the 2017-18 school year, but not by unanimous vote. School Directors on Monday voted 8-1 in favor
of a millage rate increase of 1.238 mills, which takes the district to 53.268
mills, a 2.38 percent increase, as well as a 4.41 percent increase to its
spending budget, setting it at $84.8 million for next year. While the district did apply for exceptions
to the allowable Act 1 index cap of 2.5 percent to raise taxes by up to 1.3
mills, it chose not to exercise them to meet special education and retirement
obligations. The tax increase equates to
$8.24 more per month, or $98.92 more per year, for a homeowner in the district
whose property is at the average assessed value of $79,900.
Proposal
introduced to alter school day in State College area
Centre
Daily Times From CDT staff reports APRIL 24, 2017 10:49 PM
Could school days be changing in
the Centre Region?
That is what’s on the table at
State College Area School District.
On the agenda for Monday’s school
board meeting was a proposal to change the school day starting in 2018. The change would move the elementary start
from 8:44 a.m. back to 8 a.m., and see the day end at 3 p.m. instead of 2:50
p.m., a move that would put an extra 54 minutes into kids’ days. At the middle and high school levels, the day
would start at 8:40 a.m. instead of 8:10 a.m., ending at 3:44 p.m. and 3:40
p.m. respectively. “The shifted middle
school and high school days were prompted by sleep research. Numerous studies
show that adolescents need ample rest for productive learning and sound
physical and mental health. Transportation is also a consideration — busing all
district students, as well as private and charter school students, at the same
time is not feasible,” the district said in a release. The issue is not slated for a vote until
October. However, district spokesman Chris Rosenblum said in a statement that a
unanimous vote on contract addendums did open the door to the possibility.
Union work on your dime? Pa. Senate bill
would ban 'ghost' teachers, report: Monday Morning Coffee
Penn Live By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
April 24, 2017 at 8:08 AM, updated April 24, 2017 at 8:38 AM
THE MORNING COFFEE
Good Monday Morning, Fellow
Seekers.
Do you feel like starting this gray day of a Monday off with a ghost story?
Do you feel like starting this gray day of a Monday off with a ghost story?
Excellent. Let's begin. We begin in Pittsburgh, where our friends at The Tribune-Review report that
Senate Republicans are renewing a push to outlaw "ghost teachers," or
those educators who take extended leaves of absences to do union work, even as
they rack up salaries, pension credits and seniority on the backs of local
taxpayers. The upper chamber is set to
take up a bill banning school districts from allowing teachers to leave the
classroom (sometimes up to a year or more) to do work for their local or
statewide unions.
Editorial: Stand with newspapers, ‘Demand
Facts’
Delco Times POSTED: 04/23/17,
10:11 PM EDT | UPDATED: 13 HRS AGOTeri Henning is the president of the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
The term ‘news media’ can mean a
lot of different things these days, but at the Pennsylvania NewsMedia
Association, the news media that we work with are Pennsylvania’s newspapers and
online-only news publications. There are
77 daily newspapers in Pennsylvania, more than 175 non-daily publications,
including college newspapers, and a significant number of online-only news
sites. The number of Pennsylvania’s print-based publications has not changed
much in the last 10 years, and even in this era of media consolidation,
Pennsylvania continues to have more family-owned newspapers than any other
state in the country. We also enjoy very strong readership, with 82% of all
Pennsylvania adults reading a newspaper, in print or online, each week.
Trib Live NATASHA
LINDSTROM | Monday, April 24, 2017, 11:48 p.m.
The Penn Hills School Board voted
Monday night against accepting the results of an independent audit that flagged
several deficiencies in internal record-keeping and compliance, including
shortcomings the auditor warned could jeopardize state and federal funding. In a 4-3 vote, the board voted not to
acknowledge receipt of the final report of CPA Mark C. Turnley's audit covering
the 2015-16 academic year. Board
President Erin Vecchio — among the four who would not accept the audit — said
she did so because she refuses to vote on any financial assessments amid an
ongoing probe into the embattled, cash-strapped district by the Allegheny
County District Attorney's and state Attorney General's offices.
Penn Hills school board accepts
resignation of member charged with drug possession
PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE 11:02 PM APR 24, 2017
Penn Hills school board
unanimously accepted Monday the resignation of a member who was charged this
month with possession of cocaine, heroin and hydrocodone. Donald Kuhn Jr., who has served on the Penn
Hills school board since 2015, resigned his seat on Friday. His
resignation is effective the same day. Police
records show that Mr. Kuhn was arrested on a bench warrant on March 23 by an
Allegheny County sheriff’s deputy. Mr. Kuhn was taken to the Dormont Municipal
Building, where grand jury hearings are conducted, and was searched. The deputy
discovered various bags and coin pouches containing heroin and cocaine residue,
a straw containing cocaine residue and an Altoids tin containing a hydrocodone
pill. Mr. Kuhn, 55, was charged on April
17 with three misdemeanor counts of possession and two misdemeanor counts of
prohibited acts, according to a criminal complaint. A preliminary hearing is
scheduled for May 31. On the criminal
complaint, Mr. Kuhn’s address is listed as that of his mother, Penn Hills Mayor
Sara J. Kuhn.
Lancaster Online by CARLA K.
JOHNSON | AP Medical Writer April 25, 2017
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — When Logan
Snyder got hooked on pills after a prescription to treat pain from a kidney
stone, she joined the millions already swept up in the nation's grim wave of
addiction to opioid painkillers. She was
just 14. Youth is a drawback when it
comes to kicking drugs. Only half of U.S. treatment centers accept teenagers
and even fewer offer teen-focused groups or programs. After treatment,
adolescents find little structured support. They're outnumbered by adults at self-help
meetings. Sober youth drop-in centers are rare. Returning to school means
resisting offers to get high with old friends.
But Snyder is lucky: Her slide ended when her father got her into a
residential drug treatment program. Now 17 and clean, she credits her continued
success to Hope Academy in Indianapolis, a tuition-free recovery school where
she's enrolled as a junior. "I am
with people all day who are similar to me," she says. "We're here to
hold each other accountable." The
opioid epidemic, which researchers say is the worst addiction crisis in U.S.
history, has mostly ensnared adults, especially those in their 20s, 30s and
40s. But teens have not been spared: Each day, 1,100 start misusing pain pills.
Opioids killed 521 teens in 2015, federal data show.
ACT NOW: Urge Congress to Invest in Public
Education
NSBA Action CenterMembers of Congress return to Capitol Hill this week with the priority of passing a spending bill to fund education investments and other federal programs for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2017. Congress has only four days to pass legislation to ensure federal investments in public education continue uninterrupted, as the current funding measure expires on April 28. This is the time to contact your Members of Congress urging them to pass a spending bill that prioritizes investments for education programs that support our nation's 50 million public school students.
Please enter your information on the right to ACT NOW to urge Congress to:
1. Pass a funding measure for the
remainder of FY2017 and FY2018 that will maximize PreK-12 education
investments.
2. Prioritize funding for special
education (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) to support
the more than 6 million students with special needs in our public schools.
3. Sustain investments in Title
I grants under the Every Student Succeeds Act(ESSA) to support
disadvantaged students and help advance the range of choices that our public
school districts offer to 90 percent of our nation’s students.
“In the often-divided world of
education, the long-term benefit of early childhood education, particularly for
low-income children, is one of the few things most experts agree on.
Politicians on both the left and the right embrace the idea of expanding access
to preschool, a rarity among educational initiatives.”
New York City
Will Offer Free Preschool for All 3-Year-Olds
New
York Times By KATE
TAYLORAPRIL
24, 2017
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
on Monday that New York City would offer free, full-day preschool to all
3-year-olds within four years, saying that he was building on the success of
the city’s prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds and that it was time to go
further. New York would be only the
second city in the country to offer free preschool to every 3-year-old, after
Washington. But New York’s program would dwarf that city’s effort, which
enrolls only 5,700 3-year-olds. In New York, officials expect to serve 62,000
children a year. Implementing the
universal prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds was the centerpiece of Mr. de
Blasio’s campaign for mayor four years ago and is considered to be one of the
biggest accomplishments of his first term. So it is not surprising that, with
his re-election effort starting, he is seeking to amplify the achievement. The announcement came shortly after Gov.
Andrew M. Cuomo established
a
first-in-the-nation program offering free college tuition at the
state’s public colleges and universities, eventually for families making up to
$125,000.
DeVos Tells Fox News: 'There Isn't Really Any Common Core Any
More'
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on April
24, 2017 4:44 PM
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy
DeVos seems to be indicating that, as far as she's concerned, the Common Core
State Standards aren't really a big point of discussion in education any
longer. But how did she express that idea, and does it hold up to
scrutiny? During
a Fox News interview Monday, anchor Bill Hemmer asked DeVos whether the U.S.
Department of Education would withhold federal money from states that use the
standards. "The Every
Students Succeeds Act ... essentially does away with the whole argument about
common core," DeVos responded, adding that the law gives states more
flexibility in education policy decisions. She added that she hoped all states
in their ESSA plans would include high expectations for students. But Hemmer pressed her again on the
question about withholding federal funds over the common core. DeVos replied,
"There isn't really any common core any more. Each state is able to set
the standards for their state. They may elect to adopt very high standards for
their students to aspire to and to work toward. And that will be up to each
state." You can watch the full clip
of DeVos' interview with Hemmer below; her remarks about the common core begin
at about the 2-minute, 12-second mark:
Betsy DeVos said, ‘There isn’t really any
Common Core any more.’ Um, yes, there is.
Washington Post Answer
Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss April
24 at 8:23 PM
Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos can’t seem to make an accurate statement about the Common
Core State Standards. The Core was among
the most controversial topics in education for years. It started as a
bipartisan effort to create a set of math and English language-arts standards
for students across the country to use, but it became an educational and
political mess. Most states adopted and implemented the standards early in the
Obama administration — but failed to give teachers sufficient time to learn it,
and critics from every part of the political spectrum found fault with some
part of the initiative. A grass-roots
revolt took place against the Core and federally funded standardized tests
aligned to the standards, and some states have either replaced the standards or
renamed them with minimal changes. When
she was first nominated late last year to be education secretary by Donald
Trump, the Michigan billionaire was described as a strong ally of former
Florida governor — and Common Core booster — Jeb Bush. She had not at that time
attacked the Core publicly but later said she was not a supporter. During the
campaign, Trump had promised “to get rid of Common Core,” and at a December
rally with the president-elect, she repeated that sentiment, saying that the
Trump administration would put an “end to the federal Common Core.”
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Don’t be left in the
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SAVE THE DATE LWVPA Convention 2017 June
1-4, 2017
Join the
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Pennsylvania Education Leadership Summit
July 23-25, 2017 Blair County Convention Center - Altoona
A three-day event providing an
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co-sponsored by PASA, the
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Level Education
**REGISTRATION IS OPEN**Early
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Keynote speakers, high quality
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Keynote Speakers:
Thomas Murray, Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools, a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education
Kristen Swanson, Director of Learning at Slack and one of the founding members of the Edcamp movement
Thomas Murray, Director of Innovation for Future Ready Schools, a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education
Kristen Swanson, Director of Learning at Slack and one of the founding members of the Edcamp movement
Breakout session strands:
*Strategic/Cultural Leadership
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*Leadership for Learning
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*Strategic/Cultural Leadership
*Systems Leadership
*Leadership for Learning
*Professional and Community Leadership
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Save the Date
2017 PA Principals Association State Conference October 14. 15, 16, 2017
Doubletree
Hotel Cranberry Township, PA
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