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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup Oct. 6, 2017:
Editorial - How
fracking-friendly legislators are running PA into the ground
Reclaiming Our Democracy: The Pennsylvania Conference to End
Gerrymandering Saturday, October 14th, 2017 9:00am-5:00pm Crowne Plaza
Harrisburg, PA
Here's hoping the Supreme Court will put
an end to partisan gerrymandering of legislative districts
Lancaster Online Editorial The
LNP Editorial Board October 6, 2017
THE ISSUE - The
U.S. Supreme Court is weighing the role political partisanship plays in drawing
legislative district lines. This week, the court heard a case from Wisconsin
where Democratic voters sued after Republicans drew political maps in 2011 that
Democrats say entrenched the GOP’s hold on power in a state that is essentially
evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. A handful of Republican
elected officials, including U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and
Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, have joined in the call for the court to rein in
extreme partisan gerrymandering. Gerrymandering isn’t good government. It’s not good for
Republicans or Democrats. And it’s certainly not good for voters. Of course,
for the party in power — whichever party that happens to be when the lines are
redrawn every decade — the current system works just fine. At the moment,
Republicans control 32 state legislatures, including Pennsylvania’s, so
Democrats are squawking. If the situation were reversed, you’d be hearing pleas
for justice from the GOP. We’ve said it before and we’ll keep saying it:
Drawing congressional districts should not be a partisan exercise. But it is,
especially in Pennsylvania, which has some of the most oddly configured
legislative territories in the country.
“It is time that rank and file members
of the general assembly have an opportunity to cast an up or down vote on
sensible proposals that raise revenues rather than awaiting a funding plan that
will likely result in another budget stalemate in 2018.”
State
budget: Enough is enough
Centre Daily Times Opinion BY
REP. SCOTT CONKLIN OCTOBER 05, 2017 6:15 PM
Scott Conklin is a state representative, D-Rush Township.
Enough is enough. Pennsylvania is
more than three months into the new fiscal year and a plan to responsibly fund
the 20I7-18 budget has not been brought up for a vote in either chamber of the
Pennsylvania general assembly. While legislative leaders and the governor
continue to negotiate a plan that relies on one-time budget gimmicks, gaming
expansion and borrowing, proposals offered by rank and file members that
generate revenues have been buried by legislative leaders and special interest
groups. For example, a Republican member of the House of Representatives
offered a proposal to tax natural gas extraction, however, the legislation has
been stalled via political maneuvering. Since the Great Recession, revenues
have lagged in Pennsylvania and the budget deficit continually grows.
Pennsylvania has an abundant resource that other states tax, yet ours is
continually harvested with very little compensation.
No
budget deal? No problem. 'I can do this indefinitely,' Wolf says
Inquirer by Angela
Couloumbis & Liz
Navratil, HARRISBURG BUREAUS Updated: OCTOBER
5, 2017 — 6:55 PM EDT
HARRISBURG — It had been a chaotic few hours in the state Capitol
when House Minority Leader Frank Dermody strode out to the hallway outside the
governor’s office to vent his frustration. Like most leaders in Harrisburg on
Wednesday, the Democrat from Allegheny County was upset that a compromise with
House Republicans to end the budget stalemate — which at the start of the week
had seemed so close — had suffered yet another spectacular collapse in public
view. “I don’t know where we are right now,” Dermody told reporters. Those
eight words encapsulated what most everyone in the Capitol was thinking as the
week drew to a close: More than three months into the impasse, those
involved in negotiations are out of new ideas for a deal on how to pay for the
state’s $32 billion budget. And it raised the prospect, for the first time
since the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, that there may be no deal this
year — and that instead, Gov. Wolf, a Democrat, will have to maneuver around
the Republican-controlled legislature.
It
should be noted that House Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) has received
almost $250,000 in campaign contributions from the industry, and Majority
Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana) has received $147,000 since 2010.
How
fracking-friendly legislators are running PA into the ground | Editorial
Editorial by Inquirer
Editorial Board Updated: OCTOBER 5, 2017 — 3:01 AM EDT
Pennsylvania hasn’t balanced its budget, is facing a $2 billion
deficit, and has seen its credit rating drop, yet state legislators refuse to
tap an available and abundant source of revenue.
Their stubbornness has prompted Gov. Wolf to propose a risky plan
to borrow more than $1 billion against the state’s liquor
revenue. That could be avoided if legislators who have accepted a fortune in
campaign contributions from the gas industry didn’t protect it from shouldering
its fair share of the tax burden to run the state. The fracking industry’s
wealth has drowned out the voices of everyday Pennsylvanians, who are forced to
pick up the industry’s slack. Since 2010, the drillers and their
representatives have spent $46.6 million on lobbying and $14.5 million on
strategic campaign contributions to legislative leaders and key committee
chairs, reported Harrisburg bureau staff writers
Angela Coulumbis and Liz Navratil. Those figures don’t even include campaign
donations made by gas industry beneficiaries, including pipe layers and
utilities. It’s been an effective investment. In the last seven years,
fracking-friendly legislators have quashed almost 70 attempts to impose a
severance tax on natural gas. Just this week, the House shut down a modest bill
bravely put forth by Rep. Kate Harper (R., Montgomery). In June, the Senate
passed a severance tax, but when the House took it up after its vacation in
September, it predictably killed it.
Natural
gas drillers spend more than $60 million to woo Pa. legislature
Inquirer by Angela
Couloumbis & Liz
Navratil, HARRISBURG BUREAUS Updated: OCTOBER
1, 2017 — 7:14 AM EDT
HARRISBURG — Over the last seven years, Pennsylvania lawmakers
have introduced no fewer than 67 bills to tax natural-gas drilling companies. In
nearly every instance, those measures have died. Supporters of a tax say few
other interests have managed to thwart legislation in the Capitol so
successfully and for so long, earning Pennsylvania the distinction of being the
only major gas-producing state without a severance tax. They point to one
reason: the industry’s ability to spend tens of millions of dollars on
influence. An Inquirer and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette analysis of lobbying
disclosure and campaign finance records since 2010 shows that natural gas
drilling companies and their industry groups have spent at least $46.6 million
on lobbying and another $14.5 million on political donations — many of the
latter going to legislative leaders who control the flow of bills in the
Capitol and the heads of committees that regulate their business. That does not include donations from related industries, such as
pipeline construction or utilities, which also spend generously on lobbying and
political donations. “It’s difficult to walk through the halls of the Capitol
on a session day and not see [natural-gas industry] lobbyists there,” said Rep.
Greg Vitali (D., Delaware), a longtime supporter of a severance tax. “Their
presence is constant.”
Editorial: No end in sight to Harrisburg budget follies
Delco Times Editorial POSTED: 10/05/17, 9:11 PM
EDT | UPDATED: 55 SECS AGO
Here’s a suggestion for our friends in Harrisburg: How
about we take down that beautiful, shiny dome atop the state Capitol and
replace it with a big top. That’s right, folks. Barnum & Bailey is back in
town. Welcome to governing, Pennsylvania-style. In case you haven’t been paying
attention – and we can only assume our elected representatives hope that is the
case – Pennsylvania finds itself in a bit of a fiscal crisis. We know, you’ve
heard this all before. It’s not a bad dream. It’s bad governing. Back at the
end of June, as mandated by the state constitution, the Legislature signed off
on a $32 billion budget. Unfortunately, they could not agree on a method to pay
for it, and a $2 billion-plus deficit has been looming over the state ever
since. The state Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, a few
weeks later passed a funding plan that relied on a slew of new taxes -
including the state’s first-ever severance tax on natural gas drillers. Just
one problem. The state House – which is also controlled by Republicans – wanted
no parts of any tax hikes. They dug in their heels and refused to consider the
Senate plan. Democrats? Well, they just sort of sat back and watched
this Republican tug of war play out.
Until Wednesday. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who supported
the Senate plan but has not exactly been out front on this issue since July,
said he’s tired of waiting for House Republicans to take action.
Delco reps explain votes for bringing shale tax to the House floor
By Kathleen E. Carey, Delaware
County Daily Times POSTED: 10/05/17,
9:11 PM EDT
The day after a discharge motion attempted to resuscitate a
Marcellus shale tax, members of the Delaware County delegation shared their
thoughts on move. All of the Republicans – state Reps. Steve Barrar, R-160 of
Upper Chichester, Nick Miccarelli, R-162 of Ridley Park, Jamie Santora, R-163
of Upper Darby, Alex Charlton, R-165 of Springfield, and Chris Quinn, R-168 of
Middletown, voted to have the bill, HB 113, introduced by state Rep. Kate
Harper, R-61, of Blue Bell, moved to the floor for a vote, bucking the majority
of their own party. The local Democrats had mixed responses to that move. State
Rep. Leanne Krueger-Braneky, D-161 of Swarthmore and Brian Kirkland, D-159 of
Chester, voted for it. State Rep. Margo Davidson, D-164 of Upper Darby, wasn’t
present for the vote and state Rep. Greg Vitali, D-166 of Haverford, was the
sole vote from the Delco delegation against it. He said that was because the
environment took too much of a hit in exchange for the tax in this version.
“Throughout the state, charter school
payments have gone up significantly over the years, Mr. Lopretto said during
his board report. In the school year starting in 2003, he said, districts in
Allegheny County paid $21.3 million to charter schools and that amount
increased to $146.6 million in 2015.”
Charter school tuition could lead to tax
hike for McKeesport Area schools
Post-Gazette by DEANA CARPENTER 6:00 AM OCT 6, 2017
The McKeesport Area School
District is paying $6.37 million to send 588 students to charter schools this
year — and that expense could lead to a tax increase, school board President
Joe Lopretto said. “What we’re putting out in charter school tuition, it’s
really hurting us,” Mr. Lopretto said. “It’s either cut programs, get rid of
teachers or raise taxes,” he said at the board’s Sept. 27 meeting. Superintendent
Mark Holtzman agreed. The district is “in dire straits” financially and the
2018-19 budget “is not going to be an easy situation,” he said. “We’re going to
have to cut staff. We’re going to have to raise taxes,” Mr. Holtzman said.
“We’re going to have some tough conversations in the next couple of months.” School
districts pay charter school tuition for each student who lives within the
district and attends a charter school.
Op-ed: Ending gerrymandering is
fundamental, but Harrisburg doesn't want to hear it
WHYY Newsworks COMMENTARY BY AARON KASE OCTOBER 5, 2017 SPEAK
EASYImagine caring enough about good government to walk over 100 miles to the state capital to make your voice heard — and then getting arrested at the end of the trip. That's what happened this spring when several dozen members of the March on Harrisburg group gathered in downtown Philadelphia on a cold, rainy May morning, circled City Hall and set out on the nine-day trek across the state. Among other reforms, the group was marching to raise support for legislation to fix the redistricting process in Pennsylvania, which for decades has been plagued by brazen gerrymandering, or deliberately drawing district lines to maximize partisan advantage and protect incumbents. Lawmakers insulated from the threat of being voted out of office are only accountable to their donors, not to everyday residents of the state.
“Republican state Sen. Guy Reschenthaler
quickly jumped into the race for Murphy’s 18th Congressional District seat by
announcing his candidacy just hours after Murphy said Wednesday that he would
not run for re-election.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy resigns
amid scandal, GOP state legislators to run for his seat
Beaver County Times By J.D. Prose
jprose@timesonline.com October 5,
2017
U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy on
Thursday resigned his seat effective Oct. 21 amid a scandal involving an
extramarital affair and, most damaging to the anti-abortion lawmaker, texts
showing he urged his married mistress to consider an abortion. “It was Dr.
Murphy’s decision to move on to the next chapter of his life, and I support
it,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan in a statement released later
Thursday afternoon. The resignation triggers the need for a special election
for a seat that has already drawn widespread interest from Republicans and
Democrats. A special election is certain to draw national attention, as others
have, with it considered a referendum on President Donald Trump in a
district considered favorable for Republican candidates. Murphy’s lightning
quick fall came after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette broke the story earlier this
week about the eight-term congressman and anti-abortion advocate urging his
mistress to have an abortion when they thought she might be pregnant. At first,
he announced he would not seek re-election next year, but rumors of his
immediate resignation began swirling Thursday before Ryan’s statement.
Lehigh
Valley schools begin enrolling first students from hurricane-ravaged Puerto
Rico
Jacqueline Palochko Contact Reporter Of The Morning Call October 5, 2017 9:35
pm
Adrieliz Diaz loves her new
school. At Donegan Elementary in south Bethlehem, she takes art and music
classes, has made a best friend named Juana and gets along with her teachers. “It’s excellent,” Adrieliz, 10,
said. “I love this school very, very much.” Adrieliz and her sisters —
9-year-old Genesis and 5-year-old Danieliz — arrived in Bethlehem a week ago
with their parents, Alejandro and Jacqueline Diaz. The sisters are among 10
students who have enrolled in the Bethlehem Area School District since since
Hurricane Maria struck their home in Puerto Rico last month. Adrieliz
remembers cuddling with her sisters and mother as her father fell to his knees
and prayed, “Lord, protect my girls.” Adrieliz was scared as she heard the the
hurricane ravaging outside, knocking down trees and ripping apart houses. “It
was very shaky,” Adrieliz said. “It felt like an earthquake.” The Allentown
School District has 30 new students from Puerto Rico, although Superintendent
Thomas Parker couldn't say for sure whether they all came directly from the
island in the aftermath of the storm.
How the SLA learning approach is adjusting
to a neighborhood middle school
The notebook by Melanie Bavaria October
5, 2017 — 3:57pm
In a corner of a classroom at
Science Leadership Academy Middle School is a bookcase with green shelves and a
plaque on top, where several students wrote their names in marker. Having worked on its design, they
claimed the bookcase as their own. Visible around the school
are other bookcases, some festooned with polka dots, stripes, handprints,
and words, all built by creative 5th graders. These personalized bookcases are
the result of both a gift and a problem. Besides the normal headaches of
starting a new school — not having a copy machine until 24 hours before
students entered the building, unpacking boxes, getting the phones
properly set up — SLAMS was lacking books. The gift: Hilary Hamilton, a
math and science teacher, had received a $500 grant from the Philadelphia
Writing Project to buy books. However, she wasn’t sure which books to buy,
where to store them, and how to make sure the money went toward books that
the kids would want to read. SLAMS, as it is known, is the third of three SLA
schools in Philadelphia – the others, which are high schools, are SLA Center
City and SLA Beeber. SLAMS is the only middle school in the School District's
Innovation Network, which includes the two SLA high schools and five other
high schools. (SLA Beeber plans to add a magnet middle school next year.) Each
is working independently to overhaul what education looks like in the
School District.
WHYY Newsworks BY AVI WOLFMAN-ARENT OCTOBER 6, 2017
Philadelphia Performing Arts: A String Theory Charter School occupies an eight-floor office building at 16th and Vine streets in Center City, Philadelphia. The first seven floors contain classrooms, labs and other fairly conventional school accessories. On the eighth they're cooking up an experiment. On Thursday, the charter network formally unveiled Particle, a co-working space that now houses six startup companies (and, naturally, a pingpong table). Like other co-working spaces, Particle is sleek, open and designed with a minimalist touch. Unlike other co-working spaces, Particle's tenants don't pay a dime. Instead they receive one-year "fellowships" that allow them to use the space for free on one condition: They have to provide some educational benefit to the school, which serves students in grades five through 12 at its Vine Street campus.
On the Ballot: Proposed Constitutional
Amendment on Property Taxes
PSBA
Handout
This
November 7, voters across Pennsylvania will be asked to consider a proposed
amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution regarding property tax reductions.
It is important to understand what the question that will appear on the ballot
means, and what the impact will be for taxpayers and taxing bodies, including
school boards.
How teacher friendly is Pennsylvania?
Penn Live Posted October 05, 2017
at 08:15 AM | Updated October 05, 2017 at 08:56 AM
Does Pennsylvania provide a
friendly work environment for teachers? According to teacher friendliness rankings by WalletHub, in some ways,
it does. Pennsylvania rings in at No. 5 in the nation based on the 21
indicators such as average teacher salary, teacher union strength, and average
commute time chosen to arrive at its rankings. “Pennsylvania's high ranking
shows that the state is on the right track, from a teacher's perspective,”
WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez said. “However, it could still use improvement”
in pension and teacher salary growth categories. With today's commemoration of
World Teacher Day – a day set aside to raise awareness of the importance of the
role played by teachers all over the world, WalletHub issued the rankings to
help inform teachers and parents about the best teaching environments in the
United States.
“U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos
has championed charters and for-profit education, contending in Congressional
testimony that school choice can lower absenteeism and dropout rates. But at
schools like Capital, a ProPublica-USA Today investigation found, the
drop-outs rarely drop in—and if they do, they don’t stay long. Such schools
aggressively recruit as many students as possible, and sometimes count them
even after they stop showing up, a practice that can generate hundreds of thousands
of dollars in revenue for empty desks.”
For-profit charter schools
bill taxpayers for empty desks
USA Today
By Heather Vogell, ProPublica Published 6:10 a.m. ET Oct. 5, 2017 | Updated 11:39 a.m. ET Oct. 5, 2017
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Last school
year, Ohio’s cash-strapped education department paid Capital High $1.4 million
in taxpayer dollars to teach students on the verge of dropping out. But on a
Thursday in May, the storefront charter school run by for-profit EdisonLearning
was mostly empty. In one room, vacant chairs faced
25 blank computer monitors. Three students sat in a science lab down the hall,
and another nine in an unlit classroom, including one youth who sprawled out,
head down, sleeping. Only three of the more than 170 students on Capital’s
rolls attended class the required five hours that day, records obtained by
ProPublica show. Almost two-thirds of the school’s students never showed
up; others left early. Nearly a third of the roster failed to attend class all
week.
Reclaiming Our Democracy: The Pennsylvania
Conference to End
GerrymanderingSaturday, October 14th, 2017 | 9:00am-5:00pm Crowne Plaza Harrisburg, PA
Crowne Plaza Harrisburg-Hershey 23 S 2nd St. Harrisburg, PA
Join us for a one-day redistricting conference in Harrisburg for volunteers, supporters, academics, press and legislators. Gubernatorial candidates, legislative leaders and national redistricting experts have been invited to speak about gerrymandering and the potential for reform. In the afternoon there will be breakout sessions on redistricting issues of interest, including new gerrymandering standards and details on litigation in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and other states.
https://www.fairdistrictspa.com/events/2017/10/14/reclaiming-our-democracy-the-pennsylvania-conference-to-end-gerrymandering
Seventh Annual Pennsylvania Arts and Education Symposium, November 2, 2017 Camp Hill
The 2017 Pennsylvania Arts and Education will be held on Thursday, November 2, 2017 at the Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Convention Center in Camp Hill. See the agenda here.
Early Bird Registration ends September 30.
https://www.eplc.org/pennsylvania-arts-education-network/
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 Is Open for the
2017 Arts and Education Symposium
|
Thursday, November 2, 2017 8:30 a.m. - 5:15 p.m.
Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Convention Center
Registration October 1 to
November 1 - $60; Registration at the Symposium - $70
Full-Time Student Registration (Student ID Required at Symposium Check-In) - $30
Act 48 Credit Available
|
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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