PA Ed Policy Roundup Aug 29: At the 1974-75 “high-water mark”, PA reimbursed districts for 55% of their costs. The state currently funds about 38% of districts costs.

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PA Ed Policy Roundup August 29, 2018

At the 1974-75 “high-water mark”, PA reimbursed districts for 55% of their costs. The state currently funds about 38% of districts costs.

Tell your PA House member we need graduation reforms under SB 1095, which was unanimously passed by the Senate in June

PSBA Legislative Alert August 27, 2018

https://www.votervoice.net/PSBA/Campaigns/60649/Respond?vvsn=BkHHbAwkACpzOAzZfFT7EAA

"Pennsylvania’s system for funding school construction projects is old. How old, you ask? Current statute requires school districts submit their proposals in microfiche format."
Pa. lawmakers want to reform school construction program, but funding remains a question
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent May 23, 2018
Pennsylvania’s system for funding school construction projects is old. How old, you ask?
Current statute requires school districts submit their proposals in microfiche format.
“[Anything] that mentions microfiche is probably worth revisiting and looking to update,” said Pedro Rivera, Pennsylvania’s secretary of education. Over the last two years, Rivera and a group of lawmakers from both chambers and parties have done just that: revisit Pennsylvania’s reimbursement protocol for school construction projects, known colloquially as PlanCon. The PlanCon advisory committee released and adopted recommendationsTuesday that called for streamlining the reimbursement process and creating a carveout for schools to make needed repairs. It did not, however, call for new money to revive the program, which hasn’t been funded since it became a casualty of the historically prolonged state budget battle of 2015.  
https://whyy.org/articles/pa-lawmakers-want-to-reform-school-construction-program-but-funding-remains-a-question/

State education funding hit the “high-water mark” in 1974-75 when the state was awash with money from a new state income tax, said Ron Cowell, a former Democratic state legislator who served as chair of the state House Education Committee. Cowell is now president of the Education Policy and Leadership Center in Harrisburg. At the “high-water mark”, the state was reimbursing districts for 55 percent of their costs. Funding has never been as good since. The state currently funds about 38 percent of districts costs.
Has there been a return to ‘pauper schools’ in Pennsylvania? A brief history of public education in the state.
Part of the PublicSource series By Mary Niederberger August 28, 2018
Does every student in Pennsylvania have the right to the same quality of education regardless of the wealth of their family and community? That question is at the heart of the debate expected to take place in Commonwealth Court in the coming year as a result of a lawsuit whose plaintiffs seek to get the state Legislature to fund education more equitably. Officials from the Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center, who represent the districts and parents who brought the current lawsuit, estimate it would cost $3 billion to $4 billion more than what is currently appropriated for all districts to meet the academic standards set by the state and to ensure that each student is career or college ready. While the courtroom debate is a new development, the issue of disparity is as old as the state’s public education system, which was established in 1834.
Prior to that, children of wealthy families were educated in private academies or by private tutors while children of poor families attended government-sponsored “pauper schools,” which provided a minimal education. “The pauper schools, that was the original way [public] schooling started in Pennsylvania,” said Michael Churchill, a school lawyer affiliated with the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia.
https://schoolfundingpa.publicsource.org/stories/has-there-been-a-return-to-pauper-schools-in-pennsylvania-a-brief-history-of-public-education-in-the-state/

Commentary: School Funding Reform (Part 1)
Pottstown Mercury Commentary by Tom Hylton August 28, 2018
In what seems to be a ritual with each state legislative session, there has been a flurry of bills to eliminate the local school property tax, either for residences alone or for all property owners. Gov Wolf has said he’s open to any legislation that would move more of the school funding burden from local school districts to the state.
https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-mercury-pottstown-pa/20180828/282213716687361

Keystone State key to Democrats' hopes to control the House
Morning Call Opinion by G. Terry Madonna and Michael Young August 28, 2018
Twenty-three! That number has been seared into the brains of political observers dissecting the crucial 2018 congressional midterms. Twenty-three is the number of House seats Democrats must win to gain control of the House of Representatives. Currently, the nation’s leading political prognosticators, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight and The Cook Political Report, think that is more likely to happen than not. Most believe that if it happens, Pennsylvania will play a major role. If national Democrats are to regain power, the road runs through Pennsylvania. This prominent role for Pennsylvania voters is a new one in midterm elections. Usually a battleground state in presidential elections, the state has been more of an asterisk in the midterms. Until recently the state’s congressional map overwhelmingly favored Republican candidates, allowing the GOP to capture 13 of the state’s 18 congressional seats. But that changed radically when a redrawn congressional map put into effect by the state Supreme Court made Pennsylvania’s congressional districts much more competitive.
http://www.mcall.com/opinion/mc-opi-midterm-elections-pennsylvania-20180828-story.html

Editorial: Just make schools better: Grant program should not be used to purchase guns
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Pittsburgh Post-Gazette AUG 29, 2018 12:00 AM
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has suggested that federal funds might be employed to purchase weapons for use by teachers to defend students in the classroom. She should focus on learning and teaching. The Every Student Succeeds Act grant program allows federal funds to pay for “school improvement,” and Ms. DeVos thinks guns could be interpreted as an improvement. It is safe to say that arming teachers is not what Congress had in mind when it passed the act. It may well be that, in some cases, a teacher armed and experienced in firearms could deter an attacker. And that would be, of course, highly desirable and laudable. But that is a very special, highly localized situation. The feds arming the nation’s teachers is another proposition entirely. School shootings are a huge national problem, and we need to address it with effective screening for gun ownership and limits on the availability of some guns, along with a rebuilt and widely accessible mental health system.
http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/editorials/2018/08/29/Just-make-schools-better-Grant-program-should-not-be-used-to-purchase-guns/stories/201808290065

School safety task force report gets OK from school boards group, which adds 2 suggestions
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association CEO Nathan Mains applauds the school safety task force's recognition of the need for additional resources to implement the recommendations it made. He also has two suggestions of his own for ways to address that need.
Penn Live By Jan Murphy jmurphy@pennlive.com Updated 7:43 PM August 28, 2018
The school safety task force report to enhance the safety of Pennsylvania schools was on target in its call for more funding and recognition there is not a one-size-fits-all solution to keeping kids safe at school, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association CEO. In a statement about the report released on Monday, Nathan Mains, who leads the organization representing the state's 4,500 elected school directors, said he values the many recommendations that the task force put forth for local school boards to consider in their ongoing school safety discussions. "We are appreciative that the task force recognized that many of their recommendations will require additional resources for effective implementation," Mains said. He offered two suggestions not included in the report that he would like state lawmakers to consider to address that need.  Mains is calling on them to include school safety as a component of state reimbursement for school construction projects and to allow school districts to increase property taxes above their state-set cap without going to voters for approval to pay for school safety improvements. 
https://www.pennlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/08/school_safety_task_force_repor.html

Let's send our kids back to school safely | Opinion
Penn Live Guest Editorial By Jay Costa Updated Aug 28, 9:04 AM; Posted Aug 28, 9:00 AM
State Sen. Jay Costa, a Democrat, is the minority floor leader of the Pennsylvania state Senate. He represents the Allegheny County-based 43rd Senate District.
There are so many things to worry about when getting your children ready to go back to school: clothes, a backpack, the right pencils and calculator. One thing you should not have to worry about is whether you son or daughter will be safe in their classroom. Mass shootings, and particularly mass shootings in school, have been far too numerous in recent years and before we see a Parkland, a Sandy Hook, or a Columbine here in Pennsylvania, the General Assembly took steps to address school safety. As part of the package of legislation passed with the budget, we created Act 44 which provided several new state measures to create safer school environments for students, teachers, and school personnel. It includes:
https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2018/08/lets_send_our_kids_back_to_sch.html#incart_river_index

The school shootings that weren’t
The U.S. Department of Education says that nearly 240 schools had a shooting incident in 2015-16. But most of the schools cited say it didn't happen.
The notebook/WHYY NEWS by Anya Kamenetz, Alexis Arnold, Emily Cardinali August 28
How many times per year does a gun go off in an American school? We should know. But we don’t. This spring, the U.S. Education Department reported that in the 2015-16 school year, “nearly 240 schools … reported at least 1 incident involving a school-related shooting.” That number is far higher than most other estimates. But NPR reached out to every one of those schools repeatedly over the course of three months and found that more than two-thirds of these reported incidents never happened. Child Trends, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization, assisted NPR in analyzing data from the government’s Civil Rights Data Collection. We were able to confirm just 11 reported incidents, either directly with schools or through media reports. In 161 cases, schools or districts attested that no incident took place or couldn’t confirm one. In at least four cases, we found, something did happen, but it didn’t meet the government’s parameters for a shooting. About a quarter of the schools didn’t respond to our inquiries. “When we’re talking about such an important and rare event, [this] amount of data error could be very meaningful,” says Deborah Temkin, a researcher and program director at Child Trends.
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2018/08/28/the-school-shootings-that-werent/

Several districts postpone start of school while battling mold, microbes
Trib Live by JACOB TIERNEY AND JAMIE MARTINES | Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018, 5:30 p.m.
Many students who expected to return to school this week instead got an impromptu lesson on the dangers of fungi. Several Southwestern Pennsylvania schools postponed the first day of school after discovering mold and other microbes in their classrooms. It’s a perennial problem, made worse by a rainy, muggy summer, said Vincent J. Valicenti, co-founder of mold remediation company Bactronix, based in Moon. “We’ve had an enormous amount of moisture this summer; that’s just exacerbated the problems that are already there,” he said. Mold issues usually begin near the start of the school year, when the air conditioners are turned on after a long, hot summer of being dormant. The cold air hits warm surfaces, creating condensation, and the perfect breeding ground for mold.
https://triblive.com/local/regional/14020546-74/numerous-districts-postpone-start-of-school-while-battling-mold-microbes

Science Leadership Academy’s Wes Matthews is new Philadelphia youth poet laureate
Inquirer by John Timpane, Posted: August 27, 2018
This is a big week for Wes Matthews, 17, of Science Leadership Academy. Monday was his first day as a senior. And Tuesday he will become the Philadelphia Youth Poet for 2018-2019. He is scheduled to receive the honor at a ceremony at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the lobby of the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, when he will also give his inaugural reading. "To be given a platform for people my age who care about poetry and what it does, it's very humbling," Matthews said by phone.  "This is just the first step. There's more work to be done. I have a sense of responsibility to the city." Matthews, a two-time Brave New Voices competitor, was also a speaker at the 2016 TEDx in his original hometown of Detroit.
http://www2.philly.com/philly/entertainment/arts/youth-poet-laureate-philadelphia-science-leadership-academy-wes-matthews-20180827.html?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar

“People tend to confuse equity with the concept of “equal treatment,” which means treating everyone the same. In fact, the two couldn’t be more different. It’s easy to treat everybody equally. In the case of promoting an innovative program, you send out a flyer to every family in the district inviting parents to an open house. But what if some parents can’t read? What if the open house is scheduled in the evening, and some parents work nights? Equal treatment doesn’t require empathy or compassion — all it takes is a Xerox machine, pumping out as many copies of the flyer as there are addresses on your mailing list. Equity, on the other hand, requires a deep understanding of the community you hope to reach. It can mean unequal levels of effort aimed at the most disadvantaged, and that’s okay. It’s more than okay — it’s equitable.”
Equity is Empathy in Action
Magazine Vunela by Jonathan P. Raymond Aug 24
Jonathan Raymond is the President of the Stuart Foundation. The Stuart Foundation is committed to improving life outcomes for young people through education.
As a first-time author, I’ve been surprised and grateful to find out how people are experiencing my book. I wrote Wildflowers, A School Superintendent’s Challenge to America to share the urgent lessons I learned about public education during my four-and-a-half years as school superintendent in Sacramento, CA. I felt the need to reach everyone: parents, educators, voters, policy experts, and legislators. Now, I’m hearing from everyone. And learning a lot. One pre-publication reader urged me to talk more about the concept of equity in Wildflowers. I’ll admit it: I am wary of terminology that goes “viral” from one day to the next. All of a sudden, equity is on everyone’s tongue — but do we even know what equity really means? (I feel the same way about the term “achievement gap.” We’ll get to that in a minute.) Wildflowers actually explores the meaning of equity:
https://magazine.vunela.com/equity-is-empathy-in-action-7323704e469b

Don't Let Schools Spend Federal Money on Guns, Democrats Urge Betsy DeVos
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on August 28, 2018 3:21 PM
More than 150 House Democrats have urged Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to tell school districts that they are not permitted to use a flexible block grant to buy guns. Democrats said that a grant under the Every Student Succeeds Act was passed by Congress to help pay for education technology, improve school climate, and increase access to a wide variety of education programs they deem helpful to students.  "Arming teachers would not only jeopardize student and staff health and safety, but also run counter to Congressional intent, precedent, and common sense," the Democrats wrote to DeVos on Tuesday in a letter headlined by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the top Democrat on the House education committee.  The Democrats' demand was spurred by reports last week that DeVos has considered whether to let districts spend Title IV Part A grants on firearms as well as firearms training. The ESSA language that governs the grants does not ban the money from being spent on guns, and districts are allowed to spend the money on school safety programs. Ultimate decisions about how to use the grants are made by district leaders.  In the past, DeVos as well as President Donald Trump have spoken in favor of allowing school staff to carry guns, although DeVos has said that ultimately the decision is best left to local education leaders. Last week's news provoked an uproar among Democrats on Capitol Hill as well as many in the education community—arming educators is not very popular, particularly among teachers, although some states do allow trained staff to carry guns under certain circumstances. 
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/08/democrats-devos-urge-schools-guns-spend-federal-money.html

“In California, it is estimated that there are 1,275 charter schools that enroll about 630,000 students. Nearly 35 charter schools with some 25,000 students are run by five for-profit companies. With more charters and charter students than any other state, California has been called the Wild West when it comes to charters because of repeated financial and other scandals.”
Will California Gov. Brown sign a bill to ban for-profit charter schools?
Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog By Valerie Strauss August 27
The California legislature has passed a bill that would ban for-profit charter schools in the state, a big toward cleaning up what has become a scandal-ridden charter sector in the state. But the question is this: Will Gov. Jerry Brown (D) sign it? You might think it would be reflexive for him to do so, given that the legislature is controlled by Democrats. But think again. Brown, who started two charter schools when he was the mayor of Oakland, refused to sign a previous bill attempting to ban for-profit charters. He also refused to sign legislation that sought to make charter schools more transparent — even after the state treasurer said it was vital to make charters more transparent to the public. California has permitted charter schools — which are publicly funded by privately operated, sometimes by for-profit companies — since 1992, when it became the second state in the nation to pass a law allowing them to operate. Since then, the charter sector has grown significantly there, though oversight has not. Charter schools are not required to follow all of the rules that traditional public schools are.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2018/08/27/will-california-gov-brown-sign-bill-ban-for-profit-charter-schools/?utm_term=.2e9c0f7135fb


EdPAC reception helps support election of pro-public education leaders
Do you want to help strengthen public education in the commonwealth? Join with EdPAC, a political action committee that supports the election of pro-public education leaders to the General Assembly. EdPAC will hold a fundraising reception at the 2018 PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 17 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in Cocoa 2-3. More details to come! Visit the conference website to register online.

PSBA Officer Elections: Slate of Candidates
PSBA members seeking election to office for the association were required to submit a nomination form no later than June 1, 2018, to be considered. All candidates who properly completed applications by the deadline are included on the slate of candidates below. In addition, the Leadership Development Committee met on June 17 at PSBA headquarters in Mechanicsburg to interview candidates. According to bylaws, the Leadership Development Committee may determine candidates highly qualified for the office they seek. This is noted next to each person's name with an asterisk (*). Voting procedure: Each school entity will have one vote for each officer. This will require boards of the various school entities to come to a consensus on each candidate and cast their vote electronically during the open voting period (Aug. 24-Oct. 11, 2018). Voting will be accomplished through a secure third-party, web-based voting site that will require a password login. One person from each member school entity will be authorized as the official person to register the vote on behalf of his or her school entity. In the case of school districts, it will be the board secretary who will cast votes on behalf of the school board. A full packet of instructions and a printed slate will be sent to authorized vote registrars the week of August 7. Special note: Boards should be sure to add discussion and voting on candidates to their agenda during one of their meetings in August, September or October before the open voting period ends.
https://www.psba.org/2018/07/psba-officer-elections-slate-candidates/

Apply Now for EPLC's 2018-2019 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program!
Applications are available now for the 2018-2019 Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP).  The Education Policy Fellowship Program is sponsored in Pennsylvania by The Education Policy and Leadership Center (EPLC). 
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 13-14, 2018 and continues to graduation in June 2019.
Applications are being accepted now.
Click here to read more about the Education Policy Fellowship Program.
The application may be copied from the EPLC web site, but must be submitted by mail or scanned and e-mailed, with the necessary signatures of applicant and sponsor.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of the Fellowship Program and its requirements, please contact EPLC Executive Director Ron Cowell at 717-260-9900 or cowell@eplc.org.

2nd Annual National Black Male Educators Convening, Oct. 12-14, Philly

by The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice

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 2nd National Black Male Educators Convening to advance policy solutions, learn from one another, and fight for social justice. All are welcome. Register to attend. Nominate a speaker. Propose a workshop. Sponsor the event.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2nd-annual-national-black-male-educators-convening-tickets-46322952197

Save the Dates PASA/PSBA School Leadership Conference – Hershey, Oct. 17-19, 2018 

Mark your calendar! The Delegate Assembly will take place Friday, Oct. 19, 2018, at 2:30 p.m.
Housing now open!

“Not only do we have a superstar lineup of keynote speakers including Diane Ravitch, Jesse Hagopian, Pasi Sahlberg, Derrick Johnson and Helen Gym, but there will be countless sessions to choose from on the issues you care about the most. We will cover all bases from testing, charters, vouchers and school funding, to issues of student privacy and social justice in schools.”
Our Public Schools Our Democracy: Our Fight for the Future
NPE / NPE Action 5th Annual National Conference
October 20th - 21st, 2018 Indianapolis, Indiana
We are delighted to let you know that you can purchase your discounted Early Bird ticket to register for our annual conference starting today. Purchase your ticket here.
Early Bird tickets will be on sale until May 30 or until all are sold out, so don't wait.  These tickets are a great price--$135. Not only do they offer conference admission, they also include breakfast and lunch on Saturday, and brunch on Sunday. Please don't forget to register for your hotel room. We have secured discounted rates on a limited basis. You can find that link here. Finally, if you require additional financial support to attend, we do offer some scholarships based on need. Go here and fill in an application. We will get back to you as soon as we can. Please join us in Indianapolis as we fight for the public schools that our children and communities deserve. Don't forget to get your Early Bird ticket here. We can't wait to see you.

Any comments contained herein are my comments, alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other person or organization that I may be affiliated with.