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administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
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Keystone
State Education Coalition
Gerrymandering cases
to get started in state & federal court
The tax bill approved by the Senate will be coming
back to the House for another vote to reconcile differences between the bills
passed by both chambers.
You can find your Pennsylvania Congressman’s contact
info here:
Did you catch our weekend posting with reactions
to the Senate’s passage of HR1?
PA Ed Policy Roundup Dec. 3, 2017:
Here’s what the Senate tax bill could mean for K-12 education.
You can use this link to send email to
your Congressman regarding the tax bill:
Take
Action: Say NO to the Senate Tax Bill
Sponsored by the PA
Budget and Policy Center
Pennsylvania taxpayers, specifically homeowners,
would be hurt by the current version of the GOP tax bill in the Senate.
Deductions of state and local property taxes, sales taxes and income taxes —
“SALT” tax write-offs — take a heavy hit under the Senate bill. Property
taxes, state income and state sales taxes previously deducted from federal
income taxes would no longer be eligible for a deduction. The Senate’s total
wipeout of the deduction would raise federal tax bills for many
middle-income Pennsylvanians and their families. The true cost of your property
taxes will increase by 10 to almost 40%. This provision makes a bad tax even
worse. Only the top 1% and major corporations benefit from the Senate tax cut
plan.
Gerrymandering: Looming
court cases could change voting districts - and who your representative is
Penn Live By Charles Thompson cthompson@pennlive.com Updated Dec
2; Posted Dec 2
The long-running debate over gerrymandering
in Pennsylvania's Congressional districts is about to get real serious real
fast, as two back-to-back court cases starting Monday
will let judges decide whether Pennsylvania's political mapmakers have gone too
far. Critics argue the cases are six years too late, noting the current maps
have been used for three election cycles with no prior legal challenges. But in
a surprising set of rulings this fall, both federal and state courts ordered
speedy trials to consider partisan gerrymandering claims in a manner that - if
needed - would also preserve the right to order new maps in time for the 2018
elections. "It is an important moment on this issue," said Ben
Geffen, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Public Interest Law Center,
which is helping to argue a challenge brought by the Pennsylvania League of
Women Voters in Commonwealth Court.
Gerrymandering: Pennsylvania case takes new approach
to redistricting rules
AP State Wire By GEOFF MULVIHILL Published:
Yesterday
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Judges have been asked
repeatedly to decide whether the lawmakers in charge of drawing congressional
district lines have gone too far to favor their parties. A group of Democratic voters from Pennsylvania is
approaching the issue in a different way, asserting it's wrong for the
congressional map to be made to boost one party - at all. The case is scheduled
to be tried starting this week before a three-judge federal panel. The
potential fallout is immense in a state where Republicans have consistently
controlled 13 of 18 congressional seats even though statewide votes for
congressional candidates are usually divided nearly evenly between Republicans
and Democrats. A victory for the plaintiffs could mean a quick redrawing of
districts before the 2018 midterm elections and could establish new rules for
how congressional districts are remade after the 2020 census. An appeal of the
verdict would go straight to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is already weighing
another closely watched partisan gerrymandering case out of Wisconsin.
Gerrymandering:
In eastern Pa. senate districts, incumbents feel safe, but many voters feel out
of the loop
WHYY By Katie Meyer, WITF December 4, 2017
On the eastern
border of Pennsylvania, north of the Philadelphia suburbs, a cluster of state
Senate districts appear — at first glance — to be arbitrarily drawn. They twist
and tangle their way through Bucks, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, Chester
and Monroe Counties. It’s an area that’s long been a Republican enclave, but
has more recently started to lean further left. But the way the districts are drawn happens to give
many Republicans wide margins, while sometimes making things confusing for
individual cities and communities.
“The negotiations are to begin as
Congress faces a Friday deadline to pass separate spending legislation or face
a government shutdown, and for that task Republicans may need votes from
Democrats. Yet Democrats are not at all eager to bail out the GOP on any issue,
even keeping the government open, after watching helplessly as Republicans
sidelined them to ram through a tax bill that is heavily weighted in favor of
corporate America and the wealthy.”
Next
step for Republicans: Reconcile tax bills
Trib Live by THE
WASHINGTON POST | Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017,
9:30 p.m.
WASHINGTON — Republicans will try Monday to urgently
reconcile the tax overhaul bills they passed in the House and Senate, entering
a delicate period where they have to retain the support of their party's
conservative and moderate members. Party leaders insist that there are no
showstopping differences between their two bills, each of which features a
decrease in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. Still, the
bills feature differences worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Lawmakers are
expecting an intense period of work starting Monday as lobbyists descend on the
conference committee that will negotiate differences between the two pieces of
legislation. Of particular concern will be changes made hours before the Senate
passed its final legislation early Saturday morning, when the Senate changed
its bill to preserve a provision of the current tax code that sets an
alternative minimum tax floor for very wealthy individuals. That provision
would be eliminated in the House bill, and scrapping the alternative minimum
tax has long been a priority for GOP tax writers.
Trib Live by MADASYN CZEBINIAK | Sunday, Dec. 3, 2017, 11:00 p.m.
Western Pennsylvanians have mixed emotions regarding
a $1.5 trillion tax overhaul that Senate Republicans passed early Saturday —
some surveyed were for it, some were against and some didn't have an opinion at
all. Arnold resident Nancy Planitzer said she's taking the ignorance-is-bliss
approach when it comes to minute details of the Senate bill, which would slash
corporate tax rates and create other tax cuts while eliminating numerous
deductions. “Whatever the negatives are for the poor people — it's going to
probably affect me,” Planitzer said. “If I don't know it ahead of time, I'm
not going to have so much to worry about.” Critics of the bill say the
deductions it eliminates would hurt the working class, while Congress' Joint
Committee on Taxation estimated the deal would add $1 trillion to the federal
deficit over a decade. The bill additionally repeals the individual coverage
mandate from the Affordable Health Care Act and authorizes oil drilling in the
Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
How the
GOP plan will affect taxes in Philly, its suburbs
Inquirer by Jonathan Tamari, Washington
Bureau @JonathanTamari | jtamari@phillynews.com Updated: DECEMBER
1, 2017 — 4:16 PM EST
WASHINGTON — When it comes to the Republican tax
plan speeding toward approval, your individual results may vary. With so many
moving parts, two families with the same incomes in the same town might end up
with vastly different outcomes based on the number of children they have, the
values of their homes, or whether they commute to Philadelphia and pay the wage
tax there. “You really have to zero in on your particular tax bill, because
it’s really hard to generalize,” said Dave Jones, the Jerome Fox Chair in
Accounting, Taxation, and Financial Strategy at Temple University’s business
school. That’s particularly true in the Philadelphia suburbs, where the new
benefits of the tax bill have to be weighed against the loss of valuable deductions.
Bernie
Sanders rally against GOP tax plan draws over 1,600 to venue in Reading
Reading Eagle (paywall) Written by Beth
Brelje Monday December 4, 2017 12:01 AMU.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, calling the GOP tax plan a fraud, urged supporters at a rally Sunday in Reading to help fight the proposed measure. "We have to do everything we can to defeat this horrific piece of legislation," the Vermont senator told those who crowded into the Santander Performing Arts Center. The Senate passed an amended version of the House tax bill at 2 a.m. Saturday.
“Under pressure from Democratic senators —
“There are so many deserving schools in Oregon and Pennsylvania and elsewhere
who don’t get this special treatment,” Oregon’s Ron Wyden observed —
Toomey claimed Hillsdale’s not having to pay a tax on its endowment should be
seen as a reward for not taking federal funds (the move that frees the school
up to discriminate). He didn’t mention Hillsdale’s close connection with the family of Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos, which has donated roughly $60,000 to Toomey’s campaigns over the years.
Or its connection to the Koch brothers, the oil billionaires whose foundation
has donated to Hillsdale and who also spent millions of dollars to help Toomey narrowly
defeat Democrat Katie McGinty in the 2016 election. Even in a time when
politicians are often accused of working for their rich donors instead of
fighting for their constituents, Toomey’s move was stunningly brazen.”
Toomey's
shilling for right-wing Michigan college wasn't worst thing he did this weekend
| Will Bunch
Philly Daily News by Will Bunch, STAFF
COLUMNIST @will_bunch | bunchw@phillynews.com Updated: DECEMBER
3, 2017 — 4:02 PM EST
If you’ve never heard of a small institution of higher learning called
Hillsdale College, here are a few things you should know about it. The
school decided after a 1980s Supreme Court ruling to forego all federal funds,
which means it doesn’t need to follow the Title IX rules aimed at reducing
campus sexual assault, let alone any guidelines on affirmative action. The
college is thus mostly white — and its longtime president once referred to non-white students at a
legislative hearing as “dark ones.” It also has a reputation as an unfriendly place
for LGBTQ students — which was driven home when the school’s chaplain called for prayer against
“evil” gay marriage. And there’s also this: Hillsdale College is located
in southern Michigan, some 280 miles west of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. All
in all, to paraphrase the cliché of the moment, this was a bizarre
Hillsdale that one of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators, Pat Toomey, chose to
die on. OK, maybe “die” isn’t the right word, but the
state’s junior senator did reveal a lot about himself on the wee wee hours on
Friday when — in a strange 11-minute debate amid the dead-of-night push for the
GOP’s $1 trillion millionaire tax giveaway — Toomey tried to defend his amendment that would
mean a $700,000 annual tax break for the conservative-oriented Hillsdale by
exempting it from a levy on endowments that would hammer the University of Pennsylvania
and several other schools in the state Toomey supposedly represents.
Tell
Congress: We don't want lopsided tax reform | Guest column
Express-Times
guest columnist By Alan Jennings Updated Dec 3, 8:08 AM
Alan Jennings is the executive director of the
Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley.
Tell them you don't want your money back. Tell them
you believe in America, that America's promise is a level playing field and
that public education, infrastructure and not letting a child starve are
investments in ourselves as a civilized society, that taxes are the price we
pay for that civility. Tell them what really irks you is when people who
already have all the gifts they need to thrive in a complex world are given
even more. Tell them that Jesus never suggested cutting taxes for the luckiest
few while cutting food assistance for the unfortunate many. Tell them you see
through their charade that they side with the middle class, that even the
middle class needs a little help: student aid, schools, unemployment
compensation, catastrophic health care, nursing care for our parents.
Without Congressional action, thousands of local kids in jeopardy
Titusville Herald By Sean P. Ray Herald Staff Writer Posted: Saturday, December 2, 2017
A little more than 1,000 children in Crawford County will lose health insurance funding should Congress fail to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, most commonly known as CHIP. CHIP provides funding for families who are not eligible for medical assistance, but cannot afford healthcare on their own. The program usually enjoys broad bi-partisan support, but Congress failed to renew CHIP when it expired at the end of September. According to CHIP’s website, there are 1,077 enrollees in the program in Crawford County, 717 in Venango, and 386 in Warren. Across all of Pennsylvania, the program assists 176,000 kids. Gov. Tom Wolf released a statement, decrying Congress for its inaction. “Right now, the Republican-controlled Congress is steamrolling through a massive tax cut for the ultra-wealthy,” the statement reads. “Yet, it has not found time to simply reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program that benefits more than 9 million children and expecting mothers.” Gov. Wolf also wrote that Pennsylvania’s CHIP funding will run out in the first quarter of 2018.
School
Voucher Programs Should Be Clear About Disability Rights, Report Says
NPR by CORY TURNER December 4, 20176:11
AM ET
School voucher programs need (at least) three key
ingredients:
1. Multiple schools (don't roll your eyes, city
dwellers, this one's a brick wall for many rural parents).
2. A system that makes private schools affordable
for low-income parents. Choice isn't choice if it's only the rich who get to
choose.
3. And transparency, so that a child's caregiver can
review the options and make an informed choice.
This story is about that last ingredient.
A new report from the
nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office says many of the nation's
voucher programs — and the private schools that participate in them — aren't
giving parents the information they need to make an informed choice, especially
parents of kids with disabilities.
AP Study: US
charter schools put growing numbers in racial isolation
Inquirer by IVAN MORENO, LARRY FENN & MICHAEL
MELIA, The Associated Press Updated: DECEMBER 3, 2017 — 6:25 PM EST
ILWAUKEE (AP) - Charter schools are among the
nation's most segregated, an Associated Press analysis finds - an outcome at
odds, critics say, with their goal of offering a better alternative to failing
traditional public schools. National enrollment data shows that charters are
vastly over-represented among schools where minorities study in the most
extreme racial isolation. As of school year 2014-2015, more than 1,000 of the
nation's 6,747 charter schools had minority enrollment of at least 99 percent,
and the number has been rising steadily. The problem: Those levels of
segregation correspond with low achievement levels at schools of all kinds.
In the AP analysis of student achievement in the 42
states that have enacted charter school laws, along with the District of
Columbia, the performance of students in charter schools varies widely. But
schools that enroll 99 percent minorities - both charters and traditional
public schools - on average have fewer students reaching state standards for
proficiency in reading and math.
Register
for New School Director Training in December and January
PSBA Website October 2017
You’ve started a challenging and
exciting new role as a school director. Let us help you narrow the learning
curve! PSBA’s New School Director Training provides school directors with
foundational knowledge about their role, responsibilities and ethical
obligations. At this live workshop, participants will learn about key laws,
policies, and processes that guide school board governance and leadership, and
develop skills for becoming strong advocates in their community. Get the tools
you need from experts during this visually engaging and interactive event.
Choose from any of these 11
locations and dates (note: all sessions are held 8 a.m.-4 p.m., unless
specified otherwise.):
·
Dec. 8, Bedford CTC
·
Dec. 8, Montoursville Area High School
·
Dec. 9, Upper St. Clair High School
·
Dec. 9, West Side CTC
·
Dec. 15, Crawford County CTC
·
Dec. 15, Upper Merion MS (8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m)
·
Dec. 16, PSBA Mechanicsburg
·
Dec. 16, Seneca Highlands IU 9
·
Jan. 6, Haverford Middle School
·
Jan. 13, A W Beattie Career Center
·
Jan. 13, Parkland HS
Fees: Complimentary to All-Access
members or $170 per person for standard membership. All registrations will be
billed to the listed district, IU or CTC. To request billing to
an individual, please contact Michelle Kunkel at michelle.kunkel@psba.org. Registration also includes a
box lunch on site and printed resources.
NSBA 2018
Advocacy Institute February 4 - 6, 2018 Marriott Marquis, Washington D.C.
Register
Now
Come a day early and attend the Equity Symposium!
Join hundreds of public education advocates
on Capitol Hill and help shape the decisions made in Washington D.C. that
directly impact our students. At the 2018 Advocacy Institute, you’ll gain
insight into the most critical issues affecting public education, sharpen your
advocacy skills, and prepare for effective meetings with your representatives. Whether
you are an expert advocator or a novice, attend and experience inspirational
keynote speakers and education sessions featuring policymakers, legal experts
and policy influencers. All designed to help you advocate for your students and
communities.
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