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Tuesday, July 18, 2017

PA Ed Policy Roundup July 18: McConnell Abandons Health-Care Bill; Still no PA Budget Deal

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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup July 18, 2017:


GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell Abandons Health-Care Bill
Majority leader says ‘it is now apparent’ Republican effort to repeal and replace Obamacare won’t be successful
Wall Street Journal By Kristina Peterson and  Stephanie Armour Updated July 18, 2017 12:28 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON—Senate GOP leaders gave up their effort to dismantle and simultaneously replace much of the Affordable Care Act, after the defections of two more Republican senators left the party short of the votes needed to pass President Donald Trump’s top legislative priority of his first seven months in office.  In a stinging defection for party leadership, GOP Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moranof Kansas on Monday night became the third and fourth Republicans to oppose the latest version of the GOP bill, which would roll back and replace much of the Affordable Care Act.  Senate Republicans had already lost two GOP votes, from Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, and the new opposition from Messrs. Lee and Moran meant Senate leaders didn’t have enough support to advance the bill in a procedural vote.

Two more Senate Republicans oppose health-care bill, leaving it without enough votes to pass
Washington Post By Sean Sullivan and Lenny Bernstein July 17 at 9:06 PM 
Two more Senate Republicans have declared their opposition to the latest effort to overhaul the nation’s health-care system, leaving the measure without sufficient support to pass and potentially ending a months-long effort to make good on a longstanding GOP campaign promise.  Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) issued statements declaring that they would not vote for the revamped measure. They joined Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), who also oppose it. With just 52 seats, Republicans can afford to lose only two votes to pass their proposed rewrite of the Affordable Care Act. All 48 Democrats are expected to vote against it.  “In addition to not repealing all of the Obamacare taxes, it doesn’t go far enough in lowering premiums for middle class families; nor does it create enough free space from the most costly Obamacare regulations,” Lee said in a statement.  Moran said the bill “fails to repeal the Affordable Care Act or address healthcare’s rising costs.”  The two conservatives timed the release of their statements and made clear that modest tinkering around the edges of the legislation drafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would be insufficient to meet their demands.  They joined a pair of other GOP colleagues in calling for a long process of completely redrawing the legislation that would take months and months, short-circuiting McConnell’s wish to end the debate this month.

Health Care Overhaul Collapses as Two Republican Senators Defect
New York Times By THOMAS KAPLAN JULY 17, 2017
WASHINGTON — Two more Republican senators declared on Monday night that they would oppose the Senate Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, killing, for now, a seven-year-old promise to overturn President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement.  The announcement by the senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, left their leaders at least two votes short of the number needed to begin debate on their bill to dismantle the health law. Two other Republican senators, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine, had already said they would not support a procedural step to begin debate.  With four solid votes against the bill, Republican leaders now have two options.  They can try to rewrite it in a way that can secure 50 Republican votes, a seeming impossibility at this point, given the complaints by the defecting senators. Or they can work with Democrats on a narrower measure to fix the flaws in the Affordable Care Act that both parties acknowledge.

Republican Health Care Bill Falls Short, Dealing Blow To Trump Agenda
NPR by ARNIE SEIPEL SCOTT NEUMAN July 17, 20179:01 PM ET Updated 11 p.m. ET
After seven years of promising to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Republican efforts at passing a health care bill on their own may have ended Monday night as the bill working its way through the Senate was effectively blocked. Two more GOP senators – Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas – came out in opposition to the bill, which means it cannot get enough support to pass.  Shortly afterward, President Trump wrote, "Republicans should just REPEAL failing ObamaCare now & work on a new Healthcare Plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in!"  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put out a statement promising to do just that, pointing to a 2015 bill passed by Congress and vetoed by President Obama. It would repeal the ACA with a two-year delay, giving a fixed deadline for Congress to replace the law. McConnell would still need 50 votes to bring that to the floor and it's not clear he would have those votes.

PA Senators return to Capitol, but budget deal remains elusive
AP News by MARC LEVY July 17, 2017
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania senators returned to the Capitol on Monday but with no agreements in sight on the 17th day of a stalemate on elements of the state government’s threadbare budget that, by all projections, will lack the tax collections to sustain it for an entire year.  Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf last week let a nearly $32 billion budget bill become law without his signature, even though budget negotiators say it is about $1.5 billion out of balance. Held up in the Legislature are measures to deliver approximately $600 million to Penn State, Pitt, Temple, Lincoln and Penn.  Here is a look at the differences between the various parties in the negotiations:

PA Senate GOP leader says 'we have some work to do yet' to finalize a 2017-18 state budget
Penn Live By Jan Murphy jmurphy@pennlive.com Updated on July 17, 2017 at 9:55 PM Posted on July 17, 2017 at 7:36 PM
If an effort to finalize a 2017-18 general fund revenue package were determined by the length of a meeting where it was discussed, Pennsylvania might possibly have had an agreement on one by day's end Monday.  But that's not how it works.  A meeting between the top two Republican leaders that lasted 105 minutes ended in no deal on a plan to close a $1.5 billion budgetary hole and fully fund the approved $32 billion state spending plan that is now law.  Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, emerged from that meeting inside the Capitol office of House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny County, saying, "We'll take into consideration what we talked about and see what direction we try to head."  But he added, "We have some work to do yet."  House Republican spokesman Steve Miskin said he was told the meeting was positive and touched on a whole array of issues along with the House Republicans' goal of not raising taxes.

A severance tax needs to be part of the final budget deal, here's why: Opinion
Penn Live Guest Editorial By Herb Field Posted on July 18, 2017 at 8:00 AM
At least 36 states impose a severance tax of some kind, 31 on oil and/or gas, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.  But Gene Barr, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, would have us - and in particular, state lawmakers - believe that this is a really bad idea for Pennsylvania, one that would set the state back economically.   He would rather have lawmakers focusing on infrastructure and similar business-friendly programs, but he doesn't tell us where the money for such efforts is to be found.  Meanwhile, the state is in such dire financial straits that consideration has been given to putting video-gambling devices in every gas station and borrowing money from the tobacco fund. 

Montco Dems pushing for return to Pa. budget talks
WHYY Newsworks by Tom MacDonald JULY 17, 2017
Some Pennsylvania lawmakers are getting increasingly upset about the state of the state. It has a budget, but no revenue plan to fund it.  Without a funding plan to support the budget, Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery, said she's worried rating agencies again will downgrade Pennsylvania, driving up the cost of borrowing money.  "Over the past six years, we've had five credit downgrades that cost us an awful lot of money in increased borrowing interest, more than $100 million," she said Monday.  And borrowing is not the way to fund the spending plan, said fellow Democrat Rep. Mary Jo Daley, also of Montgomery County.  "The Republican revenue proposals we've been hearing about fail to provide fair and sustainable solutions to our budget mess — and are heavily reliant on borrowing more money and increasing our debt to provide for operating costs," she said.

Unbalanced 
Chester County Press Opinion 07/17/2017 12:33PM, Published by Steven Hoffman
The proposed revenues and expenditures in Pennsylvania’s state budget for the 2017-2018 fiscal year remain unbalanced—and so is the process that state lawmakers use to develop a spending plan each year.  Gov. Tom Wolf announced last week that, for the second year in a row, he intended to allow a budget crafted by the State Legislature to become law without his signature after he and the lawmakers failed to reach an agreement. The result will be a spending plan that is unbalanced and does not address the state’s ongoing budgetary issues.  Three years ago, Gov. Wolf and the State Legislature failed to agree on a spending plan, creating a nine-month budget impasse that hurt school districts and municipalities and threatened social service organizations that rely, at least in part, on funding from the state.  It’s easy to understand why state lawmakers have a difficult time passing a balanced and sensible budget. The state has a budget deficit that exceeds $2 billion. In order to address the budget deficit, spending would have to be cut or the revenues would have to be increased.  It’s not easy to convince Democrats to cut spending, which would likely mean less money for public schools and social services. And increasing revenues enough to balance the spending would likely mean tax increases, and Republican lawmakers are adamantly opposed to that.

Women lawmakers in Pennsylvania more successful than men, study finds
Lancaster Online by SAM JANESCH | Staff Writer July 18, 2017
Women legislators in Pennsylvania are more collaborative and more successful at getting their bills passed into law than their male colleagues, a recent study found.  In a report titled “Few, but Mighty,” researchers at Chatham University’s Center for Women & Politics found women are statistically more effective while being underrepresented.  In Pennsylvania, the underrepresentation of women is particularly stark,” researchers wrote, noting that women hold just 19 percent of the seats in the 253-member General Assembly.  That’s not much more than the 11.1 percent of seats women hold in Wyoming (the smallest portion of any state) and far less than the 39.7 percent of seats women hold in Nevada (which has the highest percentage), according to the study.  At the federal level, women make up 19 percent of the spots in Congress despite representing 51 percent of the population, according to the study. None of Pennsylvania’s 18 congressional representatives are women.

Local advocates brace for changes in federal education civil rights policy
The notebook by Darryl C. Murphy July 17, 2017 — 4:33pm
Local advocates and civil rights leaders are preparing to be more watchful in response to the decision under the Trump administration to scale back investigations of civil rights violations by the U.S. Department of Education.  The department announced in early June that it is changing its approach to dealing with discrimination complaints.   Through an internal memo, Candice Jackson, acting head of the USED’s Department of Civil RIghts, stated that investigations into systemic discrimination will no longer be required, and cases will be treated on an individual basis. Civil rights advocates, including those in Philadelphia, say the new protocol could spell disaster for the nation’s most vulnerable students.  “If they’re not going to look at patterns the way you would normally investigate discrimination in institutions, then we’re in trouble,” said Harold Jordan, senior policy advocate at ACLU-PA.  Jordan and others said as a result of the change in policy, local advocates will need to step up their vigilance.  “We advocates have to be raising both the instances of discrimination against individuals and also instances of the systemic deficiencies and discrimination,” said Deborah Gordon Klehr of the Education Law Center.

Big Soda appeals the Philly beverage tax to the PA Supreme Court
Billy Penn by ANNA ORSO JUL 17 2017  ·  2:58 PM
Opponents of Philadelphia’s soda tax might have another chance to fight it in court. This time, it’d take place in the highest court in the state.  The American Beverage Association and a number of other organizations and individuals who opposed Philadelphia’s sugar-sweetened beverage tax have appealed their lawsuit against the city to the state Supreme Court, court records show. It remains unclear whether or not the court will accept the case.  In June, Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court — the appeals court that’s a step below the state Supreme Court — upheld the 1.5-cent-per-ounce levy and sided with Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration, with five judges in favor and two dissenting.  The sugar-sweetened beverage tax that was proposed by Kenney and adopted by City Council in last year was put in place, according to the administration, to fund projects like universal pre-K, community schools and a project to rebuild the city’s libraries, parks and community centers. Some of those projects have been put on hold, including delaying adding new pre-K seats, a move the city blames on the lawsuit filed by the American Beverage Association and on behalf of local distributors.

U.S. judge set to hear suit on Boyertown district's transgender policy
WHYY Newsworks BY ASSOCIATED PRESS JULY 17, 2017
A federal judge is set to hear a lawsuit by students who say an Eastern Pennsylvania school district's transgender locker room policy violates their privacy and amounts to sexual harassment.  The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group, is representing the four Boyertown Area School District students. They argue that their right to not undress in front of someone of the opposite sex is being violated.  The suit says a plaintiff, identified as Joel Doe, was changing into gym clothes in the boys' locker room when he saw a student, wearing shorts and a bra, who had recently begun transitioning from female to male.  The district said its policy allowing students to use facilities corresponding to their stated gender identity is legal.  A judge set a hearing for Monday in Easton.

'This is who I am:' Transgender grad weighs in on school's controversial bathroom policy
Penn Live By Matt Miller mmiller@pennlive.com Updated on July 17, 2017 at 7:45 PMPosted on July 17, 2017 at 5:10 PM
Aidan DeStefano didn't have the typical high school experience.  Born a girl, he always identified as male, DeStefano told a federal judge Monday.  For his first two years at Boyertown Area Senior High School, he was on the girl's track and cross-country teams. By the time he was a senior he was openly male and was running on the boy's cross-country team.  His initial experiences of trying to use the boys' bathrooms in that Berks/Montgomery County district were "disheartening" to the point where he resorted to using the nurse's restroom at the high school, DeStefano said.  "I got yelled at," he said of those first ventures into the boys' bathrooms.  DeStefano, a recent graduate of Boyertown High, was called as a witness on behalf of the school district, which is fighting a lawsuit by four students who seek to overturn a new district policy that allows students to use the bathrooms that best fit their gender identities. The ACLU and the Pennsylvania Youth Congress are backing the district in that battle.

Controller: Why don't Philly kids deserve artwork?
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Staff Writer  @newskag |  kgraham@phillynews.com Updated: JULY 17, 2017 — 5:33 PM EDT
Philadelphia City Controller Alan Butkovitz is glad that 15 significant paintings from the Philadelphia School District’s collection are now available for public viewing, part of an exhibit at the James A. Michener Art Museum.  But Butkovitz, who has long been interested in the whereabouts of hundreds of paintings, antiques, and artifacts removed from city schools in 2004, said on Monday that the exhibit represented only a “partial victory” and renewed his call for the district to move the art out of storage permanently.  Mystery has surrounded the collection, which was removed from city schools more than a decade ago, over winter break when no teachers or students were present. The art was too valuable to be hanging unsecured, officials said at the time. Its estimated value has fluctuated wildly — from as much as $30 million to less than $1 million. Most of it still sits in storage at an undisclosed facility for which the district pays $8,823.40 annually.  At various points, leaders debated selling off all or part of the collection to fund schools; ultimately, they concluded that the money the art could fetch wasn’t significant enough to offset the historical and educational value of the work.

Report: PA could lose $13 billion annually in Medicaid funds under Senate health-care plan
Beaver County Times By J.D. Prose jprose@calkins.com July 17, 2017
In light of criticism from Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus on Monday defended Republican efforts to reform health care and Medicaid funding, saying the program "is on unsustainable financial footing."  Pennsylvania could lose nearly $13 billion every year in federal funding by 2030 under the health-care plan proposed by U.S. Senate Republicans, Gov. Tom Wolf and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey warned Monday.  The two leading Pennsylvania Democratic opponents to the GOP health-care plan issued a joint statement citing a state Department of Human Services’ (DHS) study, which, they said, determined that Pennsylvania would lose between $3.6 billion and $9.2 billion in federal funds annually under the U.S. House Republicans’ American Health Care Act (AHCA) and between $5.5 billion and $12.7 billion annually under the Senate GOP’s Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA).  “This comprehensive analysis by DHS confirms that the Washington Republicans continue to ignore the concerns of Pennsylvania families and ideas proposed by bipartisan governors,” Wolf said. “The losses in federal funds to protect health-care benefits for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable are unacceptable and insurmountable.”

States may see federal Medicaid funding decline up to 39 percent under repeal
Politico By RACHANA PRADHAN  07/15/2017 11:16 AM EDT
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Senate's Obamacare repeal bill would result in reductions in federal Medicaid funding to states ranging from 27 percent to 39 percent by 2036, according to a presentation made at the National Governors Association summer meeting here.
The estimates — developed by the consulting firm Avalere Health — were presented to governors in a closed-door session on Saturday that also featured top Trump administration officials, including HHS Secretary Tom Price and CMS Administrator Seema Verma.  Fifteen states would see their federal Medicaid funding decline by more than 35 percent by 2036. They include California, Nevada, Kentucky, Washington, North Dakota, Oregon and New Mexico. States that would see reductions between 30 and 35 percent include Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Ohio, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.  Avalere also projected the effects in actual dollar amounts to states under per Medicaid capita caps between 2020 and 2036. California and New York would see the biggest declines — $535 billion and $268 billion, respectively. Texas and Pennsylvania would also see reductions upwards of $100 billion each.

“Most bills can be filibustered in the Senate and require a 60-vote threshold. What Republicans are trying to do is take advantage of an exception to that rule—the so-called reconciliation procedures allowed under budgetary law.  Under reconciliation, fiscally oriented bills can become law with a simple-majority vote in both chambers and a signature from the president. They can’t increase long-run budget deficits and must hit fiscal targets set out by the budget. To get to that point, Congress must adopt a budget first, which means the House and Senate must agree twice, once on the budget and then again on the ultimate bill.  The House Budget Committee’s release on Tuesday, followed by a committee vote slated for Wednesday, marks the first step in that process.”
House Republicans Set Out Plan to Rewrite Tax Code
Party aims to pair landmark tax bill with hefty deficit- cutting measures, all without Democratic support
Wall Street Journal By  Richard Rubin July 18, 2017 5:00 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON—House Republicans are unveiling an ambitious fiscal plan on Tuesday that could let them rewrite the tax code, revamp medical malpractice laws, change federal employees’ retirement benefits and partially repeal the Dodd-Frank financial regulations—all in a single law without any votes from Democrats.  The strategy, embedded in the House GOP fiscal 2018 budget, faces a host of political and procedural obstacles, including many of the same ones that derailed the party’s health-care bill in the Senate.  Republicans this year control the House, Senate and White House for the first time since January 2007, and they are trying to take advantage of that moment by pairing a landmark tax bill with at least $203 billion in deficit-reduction measures.  “With a Republican Congress and a Republican administration, now is the time to put forward a governing document with real solutions to address our biggest challenges,” said Rep. Diane Black (R., Tenn.), chairman of the House Budget Committee.

“Most Americans have no idea what’s going on inside the country’s schools, except for what they learn from test-score reports.  The biggest factor shaping the perception divide, however, may be data. For the past 15 years, since the passage of No Child Left Behind, Americans have had access to standardized achievement scores for all public schools. But test scores tend to indicate more about students’ backgrounds than about the schools they attend. As research indicates, out-of-school factors like family and neighborhood account for roughly 60 percent of the variance in student test scores; teachers, by contrast—the largest in-school influence—account for only about 10 percent. And test scores convey little else about the many things parents and other stakeholders care about. Consequently, when those external to a school community turn to test scores for information, they are likely to end up with a picture that is both incomplete and inaccurate.”
Why Americans Think So Poorly of the Country's Schools
Are public schools generally meeting Americans’ expectations? Or are they teetering on the brink of failure?
The Atlantic by JACK SCHNEIDER  JUL 17, 2017
Each year, parents responding to the Phi Delta Kappan poll report high levels of satisfaction with their kids’ education. Asked to assign letter grades to their children’s schools, the vast majority of parents—generally around 70 percent—issue As and Bs. If those ratings were compiled the way a student’s grade point average is calculated, the public schools would collectively get a B.  When asked to rate the nation’s schools, however, respondents are far less sanguine. Reflecting on public schools in general, a similar share of respondents—roughly 70 percent—confer a C or D. Again calculated as a GPA, America’s schools get a C or C-.  So which is it? Are public schools generally meeting Americans’ expectations? Or are they teetering on the brink of failure?  This may seem like an academic exercise. After all, school quality is what it is, regardless of perception. But, as it turns out, this gap in perceptions is a matter of tremendous importance.

DeVos Tells Special Educators: Parents 'Shouldn't Have to Sue' for K-12 Choices
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Alyson Klein on July 17, 2017 3:27 PM
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos reiterated her call for vouchers and other forms of school choice at a gathering Monday for special educators, my colleague Christina Samuels reports over at On Special Education.   Speaking at a federal gathering for special eduators, DeVos talked about the parents behind a recent Supreme Court case, Endrew F. v. Douglas County School DistrictThat case lead to a verdict that students with disabilities be given an "appropriately ambitious" education.  DeVos said she agreed with that outcome, but added, "Most families don't have that advantage and thus they don't have a choice. This is neither right nor just, and it's fundamentally at odds with the American value of equal opportunity. Every family should have the ability to choose the learning environment that is right for their child. They shouldn't have to sue their way to the Supreme Court to get it." 


 The deadline to submit cover letter, resume and application is August 25, 2017.
PSBA seeking experienced education leaders: Become an Advocacy Ambassador
POSTED ON JUL 17, 2017 IN PSBA NEWS
PSBA is seeking applications for six Advocacy Ambassadors who have been involved in day-to-day functions of a school district, on the school board, or in a school leadership position. The purpose of the PSBA Advocacy Ambassador program is to facilitate the education and engagement of local school directors and public education stakeholders through the advocacy leadership of the ambassadors. Each Advocacy Ambassador will be an active leader in an assigned section of the state, and is kept up to date on current legislation and PSBA position based on PSBA priorities to accomplish advocacy goals.  PSBA Advocacy Ambassadors are independent contractors representing PSBA, and serve as liaisons between PSBA and their local and federal elected officials. Advocacy Ambassadors also commit to building strong relationships with PSBA members with the purpose of engaging the designated members to be active and committed grassroots advocates for PSBA’s legislative priorities.  This is a 9-month independent contractor position with a monthly stipend and potential renewal for a second year. Successful candidates must commit to the full 9-month contract, agree to fulfill assigned Advocacy Ambassador duties and responsibilities, and actively participate in conference calls and in-person meetings

CONSIDER IT: SCHOOL CHOICE AND THE CASES FOR TRADITIONAL PUBLIC EDUCATION AND CHARTER SCHOOLS
September 19 @ 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM Hilton Reading
Berks County Community Foundation
Panelists:
Carol Corbett Burris: Executive Director of the Network for Public Education
Alyson Miles: Deputy Director of Government Affairs for the American Federation for Children
James Paul: Senior Policy Analyst at the Commonwealth Foundation
Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig: Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and the Director of the Doctorate in Educational Leadership at California State University Sacramento
Karin Mallett: The WFMZ TV anchor and reporter returns as the moderator
School choice has been a hot topic in Berks County, in part due to a lengthy and costly dispute between the Reading School District and I-LEAD Charter School. The topic has also been in the national spotlight as President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have focused on expanding education choice.  With this in mind, a discussion on school choice is being organized as part of Berks County Community Foundation’s Consider It initiative. State Sen. Judy Schwank and Berks County Commissioners Chairman Christian Leinbach are co-chairs of this nonpartisan program, which is designed to promote thoughtful discussion of divisive local and national issues while maintaining a level of civility among participants.  The next Consider It Dinner will take place Tuesday, September 19, 2017, at 5 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Reading, 701 Penn St., Reading, Pa. Tickets are available here.  For $10 each, tickets include dinner, the panel discussion, reading material, and an opportunity to participate in the conversation.

Using Minecraft to Imagine a Better World and Build It Together.
Saturday, September 16, 2017 or Sunday, September 17, 2017 at the University of the Sciences, 43rd & Woodland Avenue, Philadelphia
PCCY, the region’s most influential advocacy organization for children, leverages the world’s greatest video game for the year’s most engaging fundraising event for kids. Join us on Saturday, September 16, 2017 or Sunday, September 17, 2017 at the University of the Sciences, 43rd & Woodland Avenue for a fun, creative and unique gaming opportunity.


Apply Now for EPLC's 2017-2018 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program!
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Applications are available now for the 2017-2018 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP).  The Education Policy Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania by The Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC). Click here for the program calendar of sessions.  With more than 500 graduates in its first eighteen years, this Program is a premier professional development opportunity for educators, state and local policymakers, advocates, and community leaders.  State Board of Accountancy (SBA) credits are available to certified public accountants. Past participants include state policymakers, district superintendents and principals, school business officers, school board members, education deans/chairs, statewide association leaders, parent leaders, education advocates, and other education and community leaders. Fellows are typically sponsored by their employer or another organization.  The Fellowship Program begins with a two-day retreat on September 14-15, 2017 and continues to graduation in June 2018.

Pennsylvania Education Leadership Summit July 23-25, 2017 Blair County Convention Center - Altoona
A three-day event providing an excellent opportunity for school district administrative teams and instructional leaders to learn, share and plan together
co-sponsored by PASA, the Pennsylvania Principals Association, PASCD and the PA Association for Middle Level Education
**REGISTRATION IS OPEN**Early Bird Registration Ends after April 30!
Keynote speakers, high quality breakout sessions, table talks on hot topics, and district team planning and job-alike sessions will provide practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and discussed at the summit and utilized at the district level.
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 
Breakout session strands:
*Strategic/Cultural Leadership
*Systems Leadership
*Leadership for Learning
*Professional and Community Leadership 
CLICK HERE to access the Summit website for program, hotel and registration information.

STAY WOKE: THE INAUGURAL NATIONAL BLACK MALE EDUCATORS CONVENING; Philadelphia Fri, Oct 13, 2017 4:00 pm  Sun, Oct 15, 2017 7:00pm
TEACHER DIVERSITY WORKS. Increasing the number of Black male educators in our nation’s teacher corps will improve education for all our students, especially for African-American boys.  Today Black men represent only two percent of teachers nationwide. This is a national problem that demands a national response.  Come participate in the inaugural National Black Male Educators Convening to advance policy solutions, learn from one another, and fight for social justice. All are welcome.

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

Save the Date: PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference October 18-20, Hershey PA

Registration now open for the 67th Annual PASCD Conference  Nov. 12-13 Harrisburg: Sparking Innovation: Personalized Learning, STEM, 4C's
This year's conference will begin on Sunday, November 12th and end on Monday, November 13th. There will also be a free pre-conference on Saturday, November 11th.  You can register for this year's conference online with a credit card payment or have an invoice sent to you.  Click here to register for the conference.
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/PASCD-Conference-Registration-is-Now-Open.html?soid=1101415141682&aid=5F-ceLtbZDs


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