PA Ed Policy Roundup Nov. 20: School shootings have fueled a $2.7 billion school safety industry. Does any of it work?

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PA Ed Policy Roundup Nov. 20, 2018

School shootings have fueled a $2.7 billion school safety industry. Does any of it work?

100 Notable Books of 2018: The year’s notable fiction, poetry and nonfiction, selected by the editors of The New York Times Book Review.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/19/books/review/100-notable-books.html

PA Senate Releases 2019 Spring Schedule, Governor's Budget Address Feb. 5
Crisci Associates Posted by PA Capitol Digest at 1:35 PM 
The Senate Monday released its voting session schedule through June 2019:
January 1, 28, 29, 30
February 4, 5, 6  
March 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27
April 8, 9, 10, 29, 30
May 1, 6, 7, 8
June 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
Gov. Tom Wolf will deliver his next budget address to a joint session of the House and Senate on February 5.
http://pacapitoldigestcrisci.blogspot.com/2018/11/senate-releases-2019-spring-schedule.html

No more excuses. Fix Pa. pension funds | Editorial
The Inquirer Editorial Board Posted: 32 minutes ago
What happens when an alarm goes off and everyone ignores the sound for years?  Look to the pension funds for state and school workers of Pennsylvania: The cost for both funds have been of concern for years.  Those pension payments have increased from $1.2 billion in 2014 to $3.2 billion just four years later.   That's why lawmakers should pay attention to an upcoming report on pension reform. They should also start insisting on transparency from the funds, which have been hiding billions paid to private investment firms, according to  September hearings of the Public Pension Management and Asset Review Commission.   Over the last decade, private investment managers made $3.8 billion in hidden payments from the funds, according to Ludovic Philippou, an Oxford University finance professor who testified. Earlier this month, the school pension fund reported that its private investment firms took in more than $5 billion since 1980. The state worker fund has yet to issue a similar disclosure, and it should. In a Nov. 12 opinion piece, commission vice chairman and state Treasurer Joe Torsella,  rightly argued for tougher negotiations with fund consultants, noting that the fees are money that doesn't go into paying pensions. Knowing about payments to consultants would also help the public know the full costs of carrying these funds.
http://www2.philly.com/philly/opinion/editorials/state-workers-pensions-school-pensions-pa-funds-editorial-20181120.html

Philly doctors join national debate with NRA over gun safety
WHYY By Nina Feldman November 19, 2018
As the director of orthopedic trauma at Penn Medicine, Dr. Samir Mehta treats a lot of gunshot victims. He doesn’t always see them in a crisis setting, like an ER doctor would, but he’s dealing with the long-term impacts. One of his patients, who was shot trying to break up a dispute over traffic, suffered a spinal cord injury and paralysis. He will likely enter hospice care soon. Along with thousands of doctors across the country, Mehta said caring for patients like these puts those in the medical profession on the front lines of dealing with gun violence. To assert that position, doctors have taken to social media recently in response to a tweet from the National Rifle Association that demanded doctors stop speaking out about gun control and “stay in their lane.” Thousands of doctors reacted to the tweet, describing their experiences treating patients with gunshot injuries, and maintaining that the topic is, in fact, very much in their lane. Now, the Philadelphia-based American College of Physicians has issued a statement affirming the role of doctors in treating gun violence as a public health crisis.
https://whyy.org/articles/philly-doctors-join-national-debate-with-nra-over-gun-safety/

“Of the 79 schools contacted, 34 provided answers, including Sandy Hook Elementary. Their responses to questions about what they learned — some brief but many rich in detail — provide valuable insight from administrators in urban, suburban and rural districts who, as a group, have faced the full spectrum of campus gun violence: targeted, indiscriminate, accidental and self-inflicted. When asked what, if anything, could have prevented the shootings at their schools, nearly half replied that there was nothing they could have done. Several, however, emphasized the critical importance of their staffs developing deep, trusting relationships with students, who often hear about threats before teachers do. Only one school suggested that any kind of safety technology might have made a difference. Many had robust security plans already in place but still couldn’t stop the incidents.”
Armored school doors, bulletproof whiteboards and secret snipers
Billions are being spent to protect children from school shootings. Does any of it work? School shootings have fueled a $2.7 billion school safety industry. What makes kids safer?
Washington Post By John Woodrow Cox and Steven Richin Orlando Nov. 13, 2018
The expo had finally begun, and now hundreds of school administrators streamed into a sprawling, chandeliered ballroom where entrepreneurs awaited, each eager to explain why their product, above all others, was the one worth buying. Waiters in white button-downs poured glasses of chardonnay and served meatballs wrapped with bacon. In one corner, guests posed with colorful boas and silly hats at a photo booth as a band played Jimmy Buffett covers to the rhythm of a steel drum. For a moment, the festive summer scene, in a hotel 10 miles from Walt Disney World, masked what had brought them all there. This was the thriving business of campus safety, an industry fueled by an overwhelmingly American form of violence: school shootings.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/school-shootings-and-campus-safety-industry/?utm_term=.50659646af05

“Moore grew up in Southwest Philadelphia and attended the city's public schools, first Penrose and then Masterman, one of the district's prestigious magnets.”
Penn senior and Philadelphia native wins coveted Rhodes scholarship
Inquirer by Susan Snyder, Posted: November 18, 2018
A Philadelphia native and senior at the University of Pennsylvania, who lost both her parents while she was in high school and college, has won a coveted Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of  Oxford in England. Anea B. Moore, a senior, is a sociology and urban studies major who has a concentration in law and a minor in Africana studies. She is the first in her family to attend college and has served as co-president of the Penn branch of a nonprofit dedicated to providing more services to first-generation students such as her. "Anea is committed to the needs of low-income families, reflected in a variety of important roles in Philadelphia public schools, for City Council members, and at her university," the Rhodes Trust wrote in its profile of Moore, also noting that she was co-president of the largest student conference in the world for first-generation, low-income students.
http://www2.philly.com/philly/education/penn-senior-and-philadelphia-native-wins-coveted-rhodes-scholarship-20181118.html

OPED: Pa. must make students' mental health a priority
York Dispatch by Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania Auditor General Published 11:48 a.m. ET Nov. 19, 2018
When a student feels sick during the school day, they visit the school nurse. But if their problem is emotional or psychological in nature, where can they turn for help? That’s the dilemma some Pennsylvania students face when they are bullied by classmates. Tragically, bullying reportedly played in a role in student suicides in York, Blair, and Columbia counties this year. These heartbreaking cases of young lives cut short should be a wake-up call to parents, policy makers and school administrators. Although bullying is occasionally mentioned as a factor in school shootings, the vast majority of bullied students never pick up a gun. Instead, they often suffer in silence and internalize the emotional trauma of their experiences. Their grades may suffer and they may even drop out of school. In adulthood, the emotional scars they carry can resurface as post-traumatic stress disorder, family dysfunction, violence and addiction. We, as a society, all pay the enormous costs of these problems that can span generations. Shortly after last February’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, Gov. Tom Wolf and I launched our School Safety Task Force. Our most important goal was to listen to those on the front lines of school violence; student voices that need to be heard and amplified.
https://www.yorkdispatch.com/story/opinion/contributors/2018/11/19/oped-pa-must-make-students-mental-health-priority/2054526002/

Four reasons why Republicans lost so badly in the Philly ‘burbs on Election Day | Monday Morning Coffee
Penn Live By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com jmicek@pennlive.com Updated 9:19 AM; Posted 7:51 AM
Good Monday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
There’s little doubt that Republicans took a thumping in the Philadelphia suburbs on Election Day. And while the unpopularity of President Donald Trump undoubtedly played into the GOP’s double-digit losses across a host of races, the nation’s 45th chief executive wasn’t the only reason for it. A story in this morning’s editions of The Philadelphia Inquirer takes an in-depth look at a pronounced political shift across the four collar counties that’s been some two decades in the making. Democrats won across a host of legislative races in the 'Burbs, narrowing the GOP majorities in the state House and Senate. Democrats also picked up three out four Congressional seats in the suburbs on Election Night. And while part of that reflects prevailing historical trends (midterms are always bad for the party of the president), The Inquirer’s story suggests that broader, more tectonic factors were at play as well.
https://www.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2018/11/four-reasons-why-republicans-lost-so-badly-in-the-philly-burbs-on-election-day-monday-morning-coffee.html#incart_river_index

Think GOP’s losses in Philly suburbs are Trump’s fault? It’s more complicated.
Inquirer by Holly Otterbein, Andrew Seidman and Jonathan Lai, Posted: November 18, 2018
The midterm election was devastating for Republicans in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Losses piled up everywhere on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River: Two seats in the U.S. House, four in the state Senate, and 12 in the state House went down the drain. In the races for governor and the U.S. Senate, GOP candidates lost by double digits in the city's collar counties. Many political observers point to the political undertow effect of an unpopular President Trump, but it seems unlikely that the GOP's troubles with voters in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery Counties will immediately evaporate when he leaves office. Instead, the data show that the suburbs have been undergoing a fundamental political realignment for two decades that favors Democrats, a transformation matched in other metropolitan areas across the nation:
http://www2.philly.com/philly/news/politics/philly-suburbs-realignment-republicans-midterm-losses-20181118.html

A few thoughts on Lincoln’s legacy at Gettysburg | Mike Folmer
Penn Live Guest Editorial oped@pennlive.com By Mike Folmer Posted Nov 19, 8:00 AM
This Tuesday, Nov. 19, marks the 155th anniversary of one of the most famous speeches in American history: the Gettysburg Address. If you’ve ever visited the Lincoln Memorial, you’ve seen it etched in the white marble. In just 272 words, President Lincoln encapsulated not only the reasons for the struggles of the Civil War but also the meaning of our nation itself. The carnage and devastation of the three-day clash between Union and Confederate forces was staggering. Before the July 1863 battle, the population of the town of Gettysburg was around 2,400 people. Afterwards, Gettysburg was left to care for 14,000 wounded Union troops, 8,000 Confederate prisoners, and thousands of dead (plus 3,000 dead horses). At the time, Lincoln’s remarks were overshadowed by noted orator Edward Everett, who gave a two hour address ahead of the president as part of the dedication of the Soldier’s National Cemetery where over 3,500 Union soldiers and over 6,000 bodies total are buried.
https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2018/11/a-few-thoughts-on-lincolns-legacy-at-gettysburg-mike-folmer.html#incart_river_index

Grief groups help students cope with all-too-common trauma and violence
“You can say what you want, and no one takes offense," one participant says. "Everybody’s been through the same thing.”
The notebook by Paul Jablow November 19 — 9:34 am, 2018
He doesn’t know why it happened or who did it, but Semaj Brazzle remembers the exact date: June 12, 2018. That was the day when a friend of his, a high school basketball star who had a scholarship to college, was shot to death in North Philadelphia as he sat in his car. For Brazzle, a 17-year-old junior at CB Community School in Roxborough, it was a variation on an unfortunately common story. He estimates that in the last year or so, 20 friends of his have been shot. “Some survived and some didn’t,” he says in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. “It’s getting out of hand.” Moments later, Brazzle leaves the school conference room to join fellow students in a group designed to help them process the pain and, hopefully, allow him to thrive in and out of school. Similar groups are offered in more than 100 schools around the city by the Uplift Center for Grieving Children, a nonprofit agency that seeks to combine peer and adult support to reduce the isolation and loneliness that children often feel about the loss of a loved one.
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2018/11/19/grief-groups-help-students-cope-with-all-too-common-trauma-and-violence/

‘Almost every kid has been exposed’ to trauma from violence, school staffer says
After two students from one school were killed, the counselor wanted to act fast. She turned to the Uplift Center for Grieving Children for help.
The notebook by Paul Jablow November 19 — 9:35 am, 2018
At Smedley Elementary School in Frankford, as in many Philadelphia schools in high-crime areas, faculty and administrators work to make sure that they give students a safe harbor from potential violence outside. The building has only one entrance, lockdowns are practiced, and students can wait indoors at dismissal time. If an incident occurs near the school, parents are notified by text when possible. And to help students deal with what they or their friends and relatives may have experienced outside, Smedley, a former District school that is now operated by Mastery Charters, works with the Uplift Center for Grieving Children to help students deal with trauma resulting from violence. “Almost every kid has been exposed,” says social worker Nicole Enriquez. “It’s wild.” At Boys’ Latin High School in West Philadelphia, in a less-violent neighborhood, counselor Yolanda Morales hadn’t thought of having the center offer workshops. But after two students were killed last year in their neighborhoods – the charter school draws its enrollment from around the city – Morales brought in the center’s staff to help. “It was a heavy hit for us,” Morales says. “We knew we had to act fast.”
https://thenotebook.org/articles/2018/11/19/almost-every-kid-has-been-exposed-its-wild/

Education organization recommends streamlining school applications
Philly Trib by Ryanne Persinger Tribune Staff Writer Nov 17, 2018
Philadelphia parents don’t like filling out multiple applications for city schools and would prefer a simpler enrollment process, according to a recent report. The report, “Finding a Seat: How to Navigate the School Application and Selection Process in Philadelphia” — released last week by the grassroots organization Educational Opportunities for Families — examined the School District of Philadelphia’s school selection process, a requirement for K-12 admittance if parents choose not to send their children to their zoned district neighborhood or feeder school. “Parents and families tell us over and over again that the school application and selection system is difficult to navigate, and that they often must do so without any help whatsoever from the schools themselves,” Sylvia P. Simms, executive director of EOF, said in a statement. “But make no mistake; families are determined to find the best school options for their children, and they want to see the process simplified and made fairer for applying and selecting schools in Philadelphia.”
http://www.phillytrib.com/news/education-organization-recommends-streamlining-school-applications/article_4c017a2e-29b4-5430-a61f-8967d0873ba4.html

Why is There a Racial Achievement Gap?
Gadfly on the Wall Bog by Steven Singer November 16, 2018
Sometimes the most racist aspects of a society are right there in front of you, but no one seems to notice. Take the racial achievement gap. It’s a term used to describe the fact that black and Latino students don’t do as well academically as white students. Why does it even exist? Why do students of color in the United States achieve less than their white peers? They have worse grades, lower test scores, meager graduation rates and fewer achieve advanced degrees. As of 2018, they had the lowest mean score of any racial group on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). And it’s been like that for more than half a century.
https://gadflyonthewallblog.com/2018/11/16/why-is-there-a-racial-achievement-gap/


Build on finance, policy, board culture skills at PSBA’s Applied School Director Training
Four convenient locations in December and January
Take the next step in your professional development with Applied School Director Training. Building upon topics broadly covered in New School Director Training, this new, interactive evening event asks district leaders to dive deeper into three areas of school governance: school finance, board policy and working collaboratively as a governance team. Prepare for future leadership positions and committee work in this workshop-style training led by experts and practitioners. Learn how to:

·         Evaluate key finance documents such as budget and audit materials

·         Review and analyze board policies and administrative regulations

·         Build positive board culture by developing strong collaboration skills

Locations and Dates:
Dec.11, 2018 — Seneca Valley SD
Dec. 12, 2018 — Selinsgrove, Selinsgrove Area Middle School
Jan. 10, 2019 — Bethlehem, Nitschmann Middle School
Jan. 17, 2019 — State College
Cost: This event is complimentary for All-Access members or $75 per person with standard membership and $150 per person for nonmembers. Register online by logging in to myPSBA.
https://www.psba.org/2018/11/applied-school-director-training-state-college/

NSBA 2019 Advocacy Institute January 27-29 Washington Hilton, Washington D.C.
Register now
The upcoming midterm elections will usher in the 116th Congress at a critical time in public education. Join us at the 2019 NSBA Advocacy Institute for insight into what the new Congress will mean for your school district. And, of course, learn about techniques and tools to sharpen your advocacy skills, and prepare for effective meetings with your representatives. Save the date to join school board members from across the country on Capitol Hill to influence the new legislative agenda and shape the decisions made inside the Beltway that directly impact our students. For more information contact federaladvocacy@nsba.org. 

2019 NSBA Annual Conference Philadelphia March 30 - April 1, 2019
Pennsylvania Convention Center 1101 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19107
Registration Questions or Assistance: 1-800-950-6722
The NSBA Annual Conference & Exposition is the one national event that brings together education leaders at a time when domestic policies and global trends are combining to shape the future of the students. Join us in Philadelphia for a robust offering of over 250 educational programs, including three inspirational general sessions that will give you new ideas and tools to help drive your district forward.
https://www.nsba.org/conference

Save the Date:  PARSS Annual Conference May 1-3, 2019
Wyndham Garden Hotel, Mountainview Country Club
Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools
https://www.parss.org/Annual_Conference

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.