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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup Sept. 6, 2017:
Redistricting Reform: Join @FairDistrictsPA
in Harrisburg on Sept 12 in the Capitol Rotunda to ask our legislators to hold
hearings on SB 22 & HB 722.
Gov. Wolf: Time for House Republicans to act on budget
Inquirer Opinion by Governor Tom Wolf Updated: SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 — 9:47 AM EDT
On June 30, working with Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly, we passed a bipartisan, compromise budget that cut more than $2 billion in government waste and streamlined services for the people of Pennsylvania. We also invested more in our classrooms and directed greater resources to medical professionals and law enforcement to fight the commonwealth’s opioid and heroin crisis. This budget avoided dire financial consequences and House Republicans supported it overwhelmingly with 98 House Republicans voting for the legislation. Unfortunately, to date, House Republican leaders who control the legislative calendar have not held a vote on the additional budget-related bills to put the agreed to spending plan into balance. After unilaterally leaving bipartisan negotiations and then failing to pass their own ‘plan B’ in July, House Republican leaders have since refused calls to act with any urgency to complete the budget. This is despite warnings from outside credit agencies that they will downgrade Pennsylvania’s credit rating. Those agencies have made it clear: If a revenue package is not passed to balance the budget in the next couple of weeks, they will further downgrade our already diminished credit rating following five downgrades during the previous administration.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/gov-wolf-time-for-house-republicans-to-act-on-budget-20170905.html
Gov. Wolf: 'Pennsylvanians are going to get hurt.'
Inquirer by Angela Couloumbis & Liz Navratil, HARRISBURG BUREAUS Updated: SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 — 2:51 PM EDT
HARRISBURG – With the budget impasse now in its third month, Gov. Wolf on Tuesday warned that he will have to make painful cuts in the state budget at the end of next week, and that funding for roads, schools and other essential services may be on the chopping block. Come next Friday, the governor said, the state will run out of options to pay for government services if the Republican-controlled House does not act on a proposed plan to fund the $32 billion spending plan that became law earlier this summer. “There are some tough things that I’m going to have to do,” Wolf, a Democrat, said during a morning interview on KDKA-AM radio in Pittsburgh. “We’re talking about things that aren’t going to work in terms of roads and schools. Our children are going to get hurt by this….volunteer fire companies around the state.” The governor’s comments came a few hours before a group of rank-and-file, conservative House Republicans unveiled their own plan to balance the budget, largely by transferring money from 41 special funds that pay for things like 911 centers, hazardous site cleanup, transportation and environmental projects.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/state/gov-wolf-pennsylvanians-are-going-to-get-hurt-20170905.html
Here's a breakdown of "Taxpayers' Budget" and how it avoids a major tax increase or borrowing money
Penn Live Posted September 05, 2017 at 06:20 PM | Updated September 05, 2017 7:56 PM
Rep. Dan Moul, R-Adams County, introduced the Taxpayers' Budget and the lawmakers who worked on it at a Capitol news conference on Tuesday. After spending more than six weeks kicking over stones to find existing money to fully balance the enacted $32 billion state budget, a group of rank-and-file Central Pennsylvania Republican lawmakers came up with a plan to accomplish that without raising a major tax or borrowing money. Calling it the “Taxpayers' Budget,” the plan taps various funds that are designated for a specific purpose, eliminates $189.4 million of previously approved spending for this fiscal year, and does other maneuvers to more than cover the need for $2.2 billion in revenue. It is proposed to raise $2.44 billion. “Until and unless every source of reserve revenue is exhausted, we should not and are not asking more of our taxpayers. We’re simply doing what we should be doing: serving as good stewards of their hard-earned tax dollars,” said Rep. Dan Moul, R-Adams County, at a Capitol news conference on Tuesday when the revenue plan was unveiled. Moul stood with 17 lawmakers who worked on crafting this revenue alternative to the Senate-passed tax and borrowing revenue package that he expects will receive a vote in the House of Representatives next week.
http://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/09/taxpayers_budget_breakdown.html
Pennsylvania House Republicans unveil budget plan with no tax hikes
Morning Call by Steve Esack Contact Reporter Call Harrisburg Bureau Sept. 5, 2017
After more than a month of secretive budget work, House Republicans unveiled a plan Tuesday to fill the state’s $2.2 billion deficit without tax increases or going to a bank for a big bond. But critics say the fiscally conservative GOP lawmakers’ plan would hurt the people it is meant to protect by siphoning money from dozens of public projects. The plan — which is a long way from becoming law and elicited misgivings from other Republicans and from Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf — would take:
·
$507 million from mass transit, ports, rails and infrastructure
accounts.
·
$440.5 million from hazardous waste and industrial cleanups, and
agriculture, environmental, conservation and recycling programs.
·
$65 million from 911 improvements and volunteer fire companies.
·
$26 million from health, substance abuse and job training
endeavors.
The plan, which adds up to $2.4 billion, also would cut
corporate tax credits to save $28.3 million, take $20 million from the
Legislature’s reserve accounts and raise $1 million annually by selling
advertising on state-owned buildings.http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-nws-pa-house-tax-budget-20170905-story.html
House Republicans advocate smashing piggy banks to solve Pa's budget crunch
Penn Live By Charles Thompson cthompson@pennlive.com Updated on September 5, 2017 at 8:44 PM Posted on September 5, 2017 at 7:57 PM
A group of fiscally conservative state House members went public Tuesday with their way to close the state's $2.2 billion budget hole. Like those before it, it calls for trade-offs. But the 18 backers of this rank-and-file driven plan said it's a better trade than anything they've seen to date: No increases in broad-based taxes, in exchange for short-term hits on a variety of causes that have won specific legislative support over the last few decades, including farmland preservation; state support for public transportation; treating gambling addictions, and more. The so-called "Taxpayers' Budget" would sweep more than $1.2 billion in accumulated reserves from 41 of those special accounts. An additional $1.1 billion would come from a combination of other sources like court settlements, unspent funds from prior year budgets, legislative surpluses and nearly $200 million in funding freezes in the current budget.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2017/09/house_members_smashing_piggy_b.html#incart_river_index
Details on the House GOP "Taxpayers' Budget" Revenue Plan
PA House Republican Caucus Website September 5, 2017
How We Got Here
When the Senate passed legislation to fund the budget using tax hikes and reckless borrowing, House leadership challenged our caucus to come up with a viable alternative. A group of rank-and-file members has spent the majority of the summer taking on that challenge and is ready to roll out our plan. The Taxpayers’ Budget is the result of an in-depth examination of the state budget that uncovered existing taxpayer dollars that are sitting idle in special government accounts with high, unused balances. These accounts were created by previous legislatures and serve as specialized lock boxes, storing money for issue-specific projects or programs of the past. Accessing these accounts has been done before but never on this scale. The group has performed its due diligence, vetting each revenue source through the Treasury Transparency Portal, House Appropriations Committee staff, House legal staff and the governor’s own budget documents. We have drawn the conclusion that there are adequate, recurring resources located in special funds to help balance this year’s budget. Some of the accounts are dormant, and have not seen any activity in recent years. We are not asking more of our taxpayers. We are simply doing what we should be doing – serving as good stewards of their hard-earned dollars. The Taxpayers’ Budget will not cost one job, compromise one service or close one agency. It does not call for a tax increase or need one dollar to be borrowed.
http://www.pahousegop.com/statebudget1718.aspx
PRESS MEMO: ON THE PA HOUSE GOP BUDGET PLAN TO RAID SPECIAL FUNDS
Third & State Blog Posted by Marc Stier on September 5, 2017 4:00 pm
MEMO
To: Editorial Page Editors, Editorial Board Members, Columnists, and Other Interested Parties
From: Marc Stier, Director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
Date: September 5, 2017
Re: On the PA House GOP Budget Plan to Raid Special Funds
In addition, in some cases, the plan transfers monies that have been received by these special funds by bond issues. We believe that this is illegal.
https://www.thirdandstate.org/2017/september/press-memo-pa-house-gop-budget-plan-raid-special-funds
“The League of Women Voters’ lawsuit alleges that Republican legislators who drew the maps in 2011 “dismantled Pennsylvania’s existing congressional districts and stitched them back together with the goal of maximizing the political advantage of Republican voters and minimizing the representational rights of Democratic voters.” Under the state’s current maps, Democratic voters are “packed” into five districts where they win in landslides and “cracked” across the other 13 districts where they have no chance of winning a majority of the votes, Gersch said when announcing the lawsuit in June. The maps, and therefore the congressmen, are “unresponsive to the will of the people,” Gersch said. The Commonwealth Court will hear arguments at 10 a.m. Oct. 4on Scarnati and Turzai's application for a stay in the case.”
Pennsylvania legislative leaders seek delay in gerrymandering lawsuit
York Dispatch by Jason Addy, 505-5437/@JasonAddyYDPublished 1:11 p.m. ET Sept. 1, 2017 | Updated 6:23 p.m. ET Sept. 4, 2017
After months of judicial system red tape, the League of Women Voters’ gerrymandering lawsuit against Pennsylvania legislators is finally kicking into gear. The League of Women Voters filed the suit June 15, asking the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court to strike down the state’s current congressional map, drawn and approved in 2011, and order new maps to be created before the next election. Eighteen individuals, each representing one of Pennsylvania’s congressional districts, joined the League’s lawsuit against a number of top state officials, including Gov. Tom Wolf, Lt. Gov. Mike Stack, House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati. With nearly two dozen petitioners and eight respondents named in the suit, it took some time to certify an almost endless stream of applications from both sets of lawyers to argue the case in front of the Commonwealth Court.
http://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/news/politics/elections/2017/09/01/pennsylvania-legislative-leaders-seek-delay-gerrymandering-lawsuit/625221001/?platform=hootsuite
Study: Low-income students don't fare well in Pennsylvania, particularly in Philadelphia
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Setember 5, 2017
Pennsylvania's largest city is the one of the worst when it comes to serving economically disadvantaged students, a studyrecently published by Education Cities and GreatSchools says. The Commonwealth as a whole isn't too impressive, either. Using a measurement called the Educational Equality Index, which assigns an assessment-based score to the country's major cities as well as schools within those cities, the study compared how well schools in the nation's 300 largest metropolitan areas are teaching their poorest students. Overall, the study confirmed that low-income students are still performing well below national averages, although some bright spots in the country remain. Pennsylvania, according to the study's findings, is not one of those bright spots. Each of the three Pennsylvania cities included in the study -- Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Allentown -- earned an "average" rating, between 30 and 70, while Allentown was the only city with a score exceeding the national benchmark of 50. Philadelphia, home to nearly 250,000 students, ranks in the bottom 40 with a score of 40.7 out of a possible 100. Pittsburgh, which serves about 35,000 students, received a score of 45.4. Allentown, home to about 22,000 students, scored a 52.7.
http://lancasteronline.com/news/pennsylvania/study-low-income-students-don-t-fare-well-in-pennsylvania/article_2438134e-9190-11e7-9c57-5b70f9a0d8b0.html
As school starts, Hite looking forward to a year of stability
Although the District has a small fund balance now, shortfalls loom without additional money.
The notebook by Dale Mezzacappa September 5, 2017 — 8:25am
Philadelphia is opening the school year with hard-won labor peace and a small fund balance, representing a window of stability that Superintendent William Hite finds gratifying and hopeful. “I am looking forward to starting the year without a looming crisis and excited about the fact that we have contracts with all our major labor unions,” Hite said in an interview last week. He also pointed to other achievements: progress toward the goal of having more children read proficiently by grade 4, an uptick in the graduation rate, and the opening of two new schools. In June, Hite achieved his goal from last year of finally reaching a settlement with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, whose members worked for four years without a new contract and five years without a raise. And the principals’ union just recently agreed to a new contract after rejecting one 16 months ago. “We’re not starting the year with the elimination of something, the cutting of something, the reduction of something, but instead starting with investments of $526 million” over five years to maintain sufficient levels of counselors and nurses, upgrade some early childhood classrooms and install hydration stations in each school, among other improvements.
http://thenotebook.org/articles/2017/09/05/as-school-starts-hite-looking-forward-to-a-year-of-stability
As school begins anew, NewsWorks talks with Philly superintendent William Hite
WHYY Newsworks BY AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT SEPTEMBER 5, 2017
Superintendent William Hite made a joke. hen I sat down with Hite last week for an interview and asked him to state his name and title —standard practice for radio reporters — he responded with my name and title. Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite a joke. But it did sound uncharacteristically playful for a leader who — at least in public meetings — tends to play the straight man. Perhaps he was loopy from three days of back-to-school media interviews. Or perhaps this breezier version of Hite was always there, buried under years of bad news and grim prognoses. This year Hite didn't have to answers questions about school closings or staff layoffs or fiscal deficits. "Stability" is the buzzword around district headquarters these days.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/106943-as-school-begins-anew-newsworks-talks-with-philly-superintendent-william-hite?_topstory
“All three cities have two things in common, besides widespread poverty: all have made chartering a core strategy, and all have seen significant collaboration between charters and traditional schools. They have shown that when charter authorizers do their jobs, closing or replacing schools where students are falling behind, cities can double the effectiveness of their schools.”
These three fast-improving school districts have lessons for Philly
Inquirer Opinion by David Osborne Updated: SEPTEMBER 6, 2017 — 3:01 AM EDT
David Osborne, author of “Reinventing America’s Schools: Creating a 21st Century Education System,” directs a project of the same name at the Progressive Policy Institute. dosborne@ppionline.org He will talk about his book at a Philadelphia Education Forum at 8:30 a.m. Friday at the Union League. For information, email info@philaedfund.org.
For almost two decades, education reform has been a source of conflict in the City of Brotherly Love. Much progress has been made, but too much energy is still devoted to fruitless district vs. charter debates. Those invested in such debates should take a look at the nation’s fastest-improving big cities, to see what can happen when conflict turns to collaboration. The most rapid improvement over the last decade has come in New Orleans, where all but a handful of public schools have been converted to charter schools. Charters are public schools operated independently of the district, with freedom from many state and district rules but accountable for performance. If their children are not learning, they are supposed to be closed or replaced by a stronger operator. Like Philadelphia, New Orleans has intense poverty: more than 80 percent of its public school students are low-income, and an equal percentage are African American. Yet on two key measures — graduation and college-going rates — New Orleans is the first high-poverty city to outperform its state.
http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/philly-schools-charters-denver-washington-new-orleans-20170906.html
Lower Merion teachers hire PR firm to help secure raises
Inquirer by Kathy Boccella, Staff Writer @Kathy_Boccella | kboccella@phillynews.com Updated: SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 — 6:22 AM EDT
It’s one heck of a public relations challenge — persuading Lower Merion taxpayers to give a raise to the highest-paid teachers in the state. On the opening day of school Tuesday in one of the wealthiest, top-rated districts in Pennsylvania, the Lower Merion Education Association is asking the public to sign an online petition that asks the school board to give teachers a “fair contract.” The petition — at FairPayForLMEA.org − says Lower Merion teachers go above and beyond in their service to students yet have received raises averaging only a half to 1 percent annually over the last seven years. “It’s just not fair,” the petition said. LMEA’s two-year pact expired June 30, and union president Chris Santa Maria said that this summer brought little progress in forging a new deal. The organization, which represents 772 teachers and about 660 support staff, has now hired a public relations firm, DDCworks in Philadelphia, to drum up community support. “We needed the community to understand that we’re part of the Lower Merion success story,” Santa Maria said, “and that we’re also very dedicated teachers.” And very well paid, according to state Department of Education data that list the average Lower Merion teacher salary as $99,253, the highest in the state.
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/lower-merion-teachers-hire-pr-firm-ask-residents-to-sign-petition-as-they-negotiate-new-contract-20170905.html
Michigan Gambled on Charter
Schools. Its Children Lost.
New York Times Magazine Education Issue By MARK BINELLI SEPT. 5, 2017
Free-market boosters, including Betsy DeVos, promised that a radical expansion of charter schools would fix the stark inequalities in the state’s education system. The results in the classrooms are far more complicated.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/magazine/michigan-gambled-on-charter-schools-its-children-lost.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
The War on Public Schools
Americans have underestimated the value of public education—and forgotten its purpose.
The Atlantic by ERIKA CHRISTAKIS OCTOBER 2017 ISSUE
Public schools have always occupied prime space in the excitable American imagination. For decades, if not centuries, politicians have made hay of their supposed failures and extortions. In 2004, Rod Paige, then George W. Bush’s secretary of education, called the country’s leading teachers union a “terrorist organization.” In his first education speech as president, in 2009, Barack Obama lamented the fact that “despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we’ve let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short, and other nations outpace us.” President Donald Trump used the occasion of his inaugural address to bemoan the way “beautiful” students had been “deprived of all knowledge” by our nation’s cash-guzzling schools. Educators have since recoiled at the Trump administration’s budget proposal detailing more than $9 billion in education cuts, including to after-school programs that serve mostly poor children. These cuts came along with increased funding for school-privatization efforts such as vouchers. Our secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, has repeatedly signaled her support for school choice and privatization, as well as her scorn for public schools, describing them as a “dead end” and claiming that unionized teachers “care more about a system, one that was created in the 1800s, than they care about individual students.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-war-on-public-schools/537903/?utm_source=twb
Here's Where School Choice Bills Stand as Congress Restarts
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on September 5, 2017 7:59 AM
School choice programs the Trump administration wants in next year's budget haven't gotten traction, at least with House lawmakers. (We still don't know yet how the Senate feels.) But those aren't the only choice plans Congress has the chance to consider. So how are these doing? We checked in on the progress of a few, relatively high-profile pieces of legislation on Capitol Hill designed to expand school choice in various ways, and to various degrees. Here's a status report for each.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/09/school_choice_bill_stand_in_congress_restarts.html
What Really Makes a "No Excuses" Charter School?
Jersey Jazzman Blog Saturday, September 2, 2017
Once again, Matt Barnum points us to a study showing positive effects from a "no excuses" charter school. The paper, by Matthew Davis and Blake Heller, takes advantage of the fact that, for three years, the Noble charter school network on Chicago had more applicants than it had available seats, and therefore held a lottery. The research compared students who were and weren't offered a seat a Noble, and found those who were offered charter admission were somewhat more likely to attend and persist in college. I've written quite a bit about the limitations of these charter "lottery" studies before: see here, here, and here. And one of the biggest issues I've consistently found is that the definition of the treatment -- here defined as acceptance into a "no excuses" charter school -- is quite fuzzy. What exactly does "no excuses" actually mean? Davis and Heller cite five factors identified by Dobbie & Fryer in a 2013 paper: "frequent teacher feedback, data driven instruction, high-dosage tutoring, increased instructional time, and a relentless focus on academic achievement."* But Dobbie & Fryer never describe how these factors vary when compared to public district schools; they only studied how they vary within a group of NYC charter schools. So we really don't know if these are the behaviors that lead to the effects found in the lottery studies when charters are compared to counterfactual public district schools. This is serious limitation, because it may well be that the five factors aren't the differences that really lead to these charter school outcome gains.
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2017/09/what-really-makes-no-excuses-charter.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FCqnJA+%28Jersey+Jazzman%29
Bipartisan swath of lawmakers files Supreme Court briefs against gerrymandering
Politico By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE 09/05/2017 10:35 PM EDT
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s push for nonpartisan redistricting gained significant Republican support on Tuesday, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich signing on to his amicus brief at the Supreme Court and Arizona Sen. John McCain filing a separate friend-of-the-court brief. Then 36 current and former members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, filed yet another amicus brief that includes the chairman of the Freedom Caucus and the former chairman of the Progressive Caucus. The court is scheduled to hear a case in October, Gill v. Whitford, that could abolish partisan gerrymandering. Schwarzenegger, the former California governor, has made gathering support for it a priority. He spent last week calling members of Congress and governors directly, urging them to sign on. Kasich tweeted on Tuesday evening: “Gerrymandering erodes democracy. ‘We the people…’ still needs to mean something. Unfortunately, gerrymandering restricts voters’ ability to keep our leaders in check.” McCain and his colleague Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) wrote that they “see firsthand the concerns of constituents who increasingly view politics as a game run by powerful special interests that have changed the rules to win the game,” calling their brief a “bipartisan report from the political front lines” that they hope will sway the Court.
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/05/gerrymandering-lawmakers-opposed-supreme-court-242359
Private school tax credit surprises, riles some in Illinois
ABC News By SOPHIA TAREEN AND SARA BURNETT, ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO — Sep 3, 2017, 11:32 AM ET
Democratic-leaning Illinois is the latest state to direct taxpayer money to private schools, a development that's caught some by surprise and brought condemnation from politically powerful teacher unions and Democrats looking to defeat the Republican governor in 2018.
Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled Legislature last week approved a sweeping overhaul of the way Illinois funds schools. It included a new $75 million tax credit for people and companies that donated to private school scholarships. "It's an important way for lower income parents to have choices that higher income parents already enjoy because of the financial circumstances that they are blessed with," said Rauner, a multimillionaire and longtime advocate for school choice. The program allows people and companies to get a credit worth 75 percent of their donation, up to $1 million. Lawmakers say it will provide scholarships for 6,000 to 10,000 students statewide to attend private schools, where teachers and other staff typically aren't unionized. The students must come from households with an annual income below 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $73,000 for a family of four. Unions argue it will take money from public education to benefit the governor's wealthy friends. The credit "is tantamount to planting a ticking time bomb on a bus and driving through school districts throughout the state, creating even greater debt and fiscal distress," the Chicago Teachers Union said.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/private-school-tax-credit-surprises-riles-illinois-49596870
Arizona voucher battle spurs legislative ethics complaint, robocalls
AZCentral.com by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Alia Beard Rau, The Republic | azcentral.com Published 7:00 a.m. MT Sept. 1, 2017 | Updated 7:47 a.m. MT Sept. 1, 2017
Supporters of Arizona's school-voucher program are attacking some of its most prominent opponents. A Republican state lawmaker this week filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Isela Blanc, D-Tempe, who helped gather signatures to refer the program expansion to the ballot. Such complaints are rare and can result in expulsion from the Legislature. At the same time, the "dark money" group American Federation for Children unleashed robocalls in east-central Phoenix and Paradise Valley targeting 2016 Teacher of the Year Christine Marsh, a Democrat running for state Senate in that district.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2017/09/01/arizona-school-voucher-battle-spurs-legislative-ethics-complaint-robocalls/621980001/
Testing Resistance & Reform News: August 30 - September 5, 2017
FairTest Submitted by fairtest on September 5, 2017 - 1:13pm
As school doors open after the Labor Day holiday, challenges to standardized testing misuse and overuse continue to accelerate across the U.S. -- make sure your assessment reform stories and resources are included in these weekly roundups by sending links to bobschaeffer@fairtest.org
http://www.fairtest.org/testing-resistance-reform-news-august-30-september
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
Jonathan Cetel: Founding
executive director of PennCAN
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.
Education Law Center’s 2017
Annual Celebration
ELC invites you to join us
for our Annual Celebration on September 27 in Philadelphia.
The Annual Celebration will take place this year on September
27, 2017 at The Crystal Tea Room in Philadelphia. The
event begins at 5:30 PM. We anticipate more than 300 legal,
corporate, and community supporters joining us for a cocktail reception, silent
auction, and dinner presentation. Our
annual celebrations honor outstanding champions of public education. This proud
tradition continues at this year’s event, when together we will salute these
deserving honorees:
·
PNC Bank: for the signature philanthropic cause of the PNC Foundation, PNC
Grow Up Great, a bilingual $350 million, multi-year early education initiative
to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life;
and its support of the Equal Justice Works Fellowship, which
enables new lawyers to pursue careers in public interest law;
·
Joan Mazzotti: for her 16 years of outstanding leadership as the Executive
Director of Philadelphia Futures, a college access and success program serving
Philadelphia’s low-income, first-generation-to-college students;
·
Dr. Bruce Campbell Jr., PhD: for his invaluable service to ELC, as he rotates out of
the chairman position on our Board of Directors. Dr. Campbell is an Arcadia
University Associate Professor in the School of Education; and
·
ELC Pro Bono Awardee Richard Shephard of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
LLP: for his exceptional work as pro bono counsel, making lasting contributions
to the lives of many vulnerable families.Questions? Contact Tracy Callahan
tcallahan@elc-pa.org or 215-238-6970 ext. 308.
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
http://myemail.constantcontact.com/PASCD-Conference-Registration-is-Now-Open.html?soid=1101415141682&aid=5F-ceLtbZDs
Registration Opens Tuesday, September 26, 2017
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