Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's
staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, Wolf education transition
team members, superintendents, school solicitors, principals, charter school
leaders, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, business leaders,
faith-based organizations, labor organizations, education professors, members
of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional
associations and education advocacy organizations via emails, website,
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
More than half of Pa. districts have no teachers of color
“According to a new report by the Education Law Center
and the statewide coalition PA Schools Work, spending on special education has
risen among the state’s 500 school districts. But the study says state funding
has failed to keep up with rising costs, creating an ever-widening funding gap.
Spending across the commonwealth on special education increased 51 percent to
$4,545,979,595 between 2008-09 and 2016-17. Meanwhile, the state’s share rose 7
percent to $1,041,792,660, over the same period, according to a Morning Call
analysis of the study’s data.”
SPECIAL REPORT: As costs
skyrocket, Pennsylvania's share of special education funding has fallen
Sarah
M. Wojcik and Eugene Tauber Contact
Reporter Of
The Morning Call October 29, 2018
Griffin Farrell sits in an East Hills Middle School
eighth-grade class learning equations alongside his peers. It’s something the
14-year-old with Down syndrome has done since kindergarten. Griffin’s brothers go to Catholic school. But his mother,
Dena Farrell, said the Bethlehem Area School District has the best resources to
work with her son’s unique learning needs and allow him to be part of a regular
classroom. “It’s been nothing but a positive experience. We’ve always wanted to
do this as a team,” Farrell said, referring to the district’s special education
program. “And they do everything as a team.” Griffin’s inclusive curriculum has
become standard for many special education students. At the same time, it has
become costlier for districts to provide.
The gap between student and teacher demographics in
Pennsylvania is among the highest in the country.
The notebook by Lijia Liu and Dale Mezzacappa October 30 — 2:18 pm, 2018
More than 60 years after the Brown v. Board of
Education ruling, an analysis of state data shows persistently stark
racial disparities in the demographics of Pennsylvania’s teachers and
students — among the widest gaps in the country. Just 5.6 percent of
Pennsylvania’s teachers are persons of color, compared to 33.1 percent of its
students. The data also show that 55 percent of the state’s public schools
and 38 percent of its school districts employed only white teachers. Among the
districts in the Philadelphia suburbs, more than half have no black teachers. Nearly three in four of the state’s black teachers — 72
percent — work in Philadelphia and Allegheny County, where 54 percent of the
state’s black students attend. But these two counties, too, have racial
disparities — 40 percent of the students are black, compared to 14 percent of
the teachers. These numbers are based on information provided by the
Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) for the 2016-17 school year. The
nonprofit organization Research for Action(RFA) created a data
set containing
the racial breakdown of teachers and students in every school, district, and
county in Pennsylvania, as well as summary statistics for the entire state. RFA
also published a brief of the main findings to
accompany the new data.
It’s not just Trump: Education a big issue in 2018. ‘No candidate
wants to be seen as stingy’
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Updated: 57 minutes ago
Hot-button issues like immigration and guns might
be commanding more attention, but in Pennsylvania and around the country,
education has become a major player in state elections. From Arizona
and Oklahoma to Florida and Maryland, candidates for governor across
party lines have been committing to steer more money toward schools
and, in a number of states, pledging to boost teacher paychecks — elevating a
lower-profile issue into a campaign-trail talking point. Gubernatorial
campaigns always feature "sort of a litany of issues — create jobs,
improve the state's economy, educate our kids. But this time, it really is more
top of mind, and I think more pivotal in a number of races," said
Jennifer Duffy, a senior editor who tracks governors' races for the
nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Midstate school district
becomes first in Pa. to allow armed teachers
WITF Written by Avi Wolfman-Arent/WHYY | Oct 29, 2018 6:42
PM
A Schuylkill County school district recently, and rather
quietly, became Pennsylvania's first to pass a policy permitting teachers to
carry guns in schools. But a backlash has since developed, setting up a
showdown over the place of guns in Pennsylvania schools that could set
statewide precedent. In September, the Tamaqua Area School District revised a
policy to explicitly allow "administrators, teachers, or other
employees" to have guns on school district property, so long as they meet
certain training and certification requirements. Although the policy itself
says little about implementation, school board member Nicholas Boyle said he
and others envision a program where, at any given time, about three
unidentified staffers in each school carry concealed weapons. Boyle thinks the
initiative would give schools in this largely rural district a better chance of
fighting off an attacker, while also acting as a deterrent.
How Pittsburgh-area classrooms are addressing Squirrel Hill
massacre with students
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette by MATT MCKINNEY, ELIZABETH BEHRMAN AND BILL SCHACKNER'
OCT 29, 2018 7:58 PM
David Brown had planned all along to return to work on
Monday after spending several weeks on leave to care for his newborn daughter,
Avery Elizabeth, named for his late grandmother, a Holocaust survivor. But his
first day back Monday took on added significance for the Woodland Hills High
School teacher, who leads classes on world cultures and the Holocaust, after
the mass shooting Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue, the same building
where his parents worship in a separate congregation. He and his family live in
Squirrel Hill. He grew up there. He returned, in large part, because of its
cultural identity. And so on Monday, Mr. Brown embraced the doleful task of
explaining to his students that anti-semitism festers beyond their history
books and that people in their own community have been gunned down in 2018 – in a neighborhood many of them recognized
for its diversity – apparently because of their faith.
Pittsburgh shootings a reminder: state gun laws matter | Editorial
The Inquirer Editorial Board Posted: October 29, 2018 -
6:00 PM
This one hit close to home. The Pittsburgh shooting that
left 11
Jewish worshippers dead occurred in our sister big city — a member of the family. Since
the modern era of mass shootings, we've come to expect similar responses to each
one: despair, numbness, and surprise that once again, nothing is
different, that nothing has changed. Unfortunately, Saturday's shooting comes
at a point where things have changed – for the worse. The divides among us, the
anger and fear that is often encouraged – explicitly and implicitly — by our
leaders, including the president, have grown deeper. As
"the other" is seen as a threat, we are being trained to suspect one
another. Outrageous theories are given credence and not shoved back
into a dark hole where they belong. In an armed nation, that's going to have
dire consequences. Some voices of reason said in response to the weekend
shooting, "This isn't who we are," and that expecting
armed guards in places of worship "isn't America." But it is who
we are. It is America. In fact, it's only America.
It's also Pennsylvania. This weekend is a tragic reminder of why state gun laws
matter. The Pennsylvania state legislature has routinely
killed efforts at reasonable gun control, prohibiting municipalities to make
their own laws and supporting the right for the NRA to sue cities. The
legislature recently had a chance to pass three major gun laws. It
managed only one — making it easier to require violent domestic abusers to
surrender their guns.
Small but real steps: Time for reason on
gun safety
It is long past time for rational
action on gun laws in America
THE
EDITORIAL BOARD Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette NOV 1, 2018 6:00 AM
Robert Bowers, the alleged assailant in the mass shooting
at the Tree of Life synagogue, had 21 firearms registered to his name,
including the rifle and the three handguns used in the attack. Mr. Bowers got his guns legally and there was little
warning that he was someone who might snap, and hence no legal reason to deny
him his guns. And there is little doubt that anyone determined to do harm can
get a gun in this country, somehow and easily. Or he can use a knife, a car or
a van. It is impossible to anticipate every act of hate or violence and very
hard to prevent a determined hater who wants to kill. That said, it is
indisputable that there is an epidemic of gun violence in our land. We make it
easy for haters and killers by making guns so abundant and readily available. According
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of annual firearm
homicides is nearly 13,000. Many
thousands more are injured in non-fatal shootings each year. But the Second
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ensures “the right of the people to keep and
bear Arms,” and the Supreme Court has ruled that it means what it seems to say.
All gun laws must be subservient to the Second Amendment. It is as real as the
First.
But no right is absolute, or infinitely applicable.
Wolf, Casey maintain big
leads in new F&M Poll
Penn Live By Ron Southwick | rsouthwick@pennlive.com
rsouthwick@pennlive.com Updated Oct 31, 3:44 PM; Posted 6:00 AM
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf holds a 26-point lead over
Republican challenger Scott Walker among likely voters, according to the new
Franklin & Marshall College poll. In Pennsylvania’s other key statewide
contest, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., also holds a big edge over U.S. Rep.
Lou Barletta, the F&M Poll found. Among likely voters, Casey leads his
Republican challenger by 15 percentage points, according to the poll. Both Wolf
and Casey have consistently held double-digit leads in independent polls for
months. G. Terry Madonna, director of the F&M Poll, didn’t discount the
possibility that Wagner and Barletta could close the gap in their races if the
Republican base gets more fired up. “The Republicans can do better,” Madonna
said. "The real question is: How much better?” Voters are motivated by
President Donald Trump, one way or the other. Most Democrats say they are
casting their ballots as a vote against Trump, while Republicans say supporting
the president’s agenda is a primary factor in backing the GOP’s candidates, the
poll found. Here’s a quick look at the F&M Poll’s key findings. The poll
was released Thursday morning.
Read the Latest F&M Poll Results
The October 2018 Franklin & Marshall College Poll finds
that nearly three in four (71%) of the state’s registered voters are “very
interested” in the 2018 elections, an increase of ten points since our
September survey. At the moment, similar proportions of Republicans (75%) and
Democrats (73%) say they are “very interested” in the election which is a
change from our September survey when more Democrats (64%) than Republicans
(58%) or independents (49%) were “very interested.” Interest in the
election is higher among all three groups than it was in August or
September. Voters’ evaluations of how well key political figures are
doing their jobs have remained remarkably stable compared to prior surveys.
About one in two (54%) registered voters in Pennsylvania believes Governor Wolf
is doing an “excellent” or “good” job as governor. Two in five (43%) registered
voters believe Senator Casey is doing an “excellent” or “good” job as the
state’s US Senator. About one in three (36%) registered voters in Pennsylvania
believes President Trump is doing an “excellent” or “good” job as president.
MAPS:
See who is contributing to Pennsylvania governor and Senate races and how much
Steve
Esack and Eugene
TauberContact
Reporters Of The
Morning Call October 31, 2018
Polls have shown that the races
for Pennsylvania governor and one U.S. Senate seat have not been competitively close
for months. But polls aren’t the only way to judge how well a candidate is
doing. Money — and who is contributing and how much — is another telltale sign.
So what is the flow of money in the gubernatorial race — featuring Democratic
incumbent Tom Wolf and his opponent Republican Scott Wagner —
and the Senate race — featuring incumbent Democrat Bob Casey and his Republican challenger
U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta? The Morning Call teamed up with National
Institute on Money in Politics, a Helena, Mont., nonprofit, to offer a new
visual way to gauge the candidates’ support.
A blue wave? These Pa. House races could show if it takes shape
Inquirer by Jonathan Tamari, Posted: October 31, 2018- 3:03
PM
If a Democratic wave takes shape on Election Night, some of
the first warning signs could arrive in Harrisburg or Erie County, Pa. Democrats
are targeting two solidly Republican districts in those areas, hoping that a
surge could give them a chance in races well outside the typical swing
districts. The party's best chance for a U.S. House majority still runs
through suburbs like those around Philadelphia and other big cities. But
their shot at a true wave could hinge on difficult exurban and rural races
like these. The district around Harrisburg has given Republicans the most
anxiety. Recent polls from
the New York Times/Siena College and Susquehanna Polling and Research both
found virtual ties between U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.)
and his Democratic challenger, George Scott. "If Scott Perry loses,
people better be battening down the hatches elsewhere. It's going to be a long,
wet night," said Charlie Gerow, a Republican strategist who lives in the
district. One poll out this week even suggested
a close contest between U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R., Pa.) and
challenger Jess King in a Lancaster County-based district that President Trump
won by nearly 26 percentage points. By contrast, another dark horse race in the
Scranton area could send up a warning sign for Democrats, as Republicans hope
to unseat U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright in a district that swung strongly
toward Trump.
Even if a blue wave hits,
Republican lawmakers favored to keep control in Harrisburg
Keystone Crossroads By Jim Saksa October 29, 2018
“Do you walk that slow?” Tina Davis is impatient. It’s cold
and blustery on this Sunday morning in Levittown, but it’s not the weather that
has her so eager to get going. Davis is a Democratic state representative
challenging long-time incumbent Robert “Tommy” Tomlinson for the Pennsylvania
6th Senate District seat, and she’s the underdog. If she wants a shot at
winning, Davis knows she needs to out-hustle her opponent. Incumbents usually
have a big leg up on their challengers — more than 90 percent of state
legislators win reelection. But registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in
this part of Bucks County, and the district backed Hillary Clinton over Donald
Trump in 2016. Over the last few months, Democrats seem to be more motivated to
vote in the upcoming midterms than Republicans, and have donated more money.
While the enthusiasm and money gaps have narrowed in recent weeks, forecasters
still expect a blue wave to sweep Democrats into control of the U.S. House of
Representatives. Harrisburg, though, isn’t Washington D.C., and in
Pennsylvania, operatives from both parties expect only a blue ripple to hit the
General Assembly. No neutral observer thinks Democrats can retake either
chamber of the state legislature this year.
Pa. bill would open major school-construction projects to
competitive bidding
Inquirer by Gillian McGoldrick, Posted: October 31,
2018- 11:07 AM
Citing a 2010 study that shows schools across Pennsylvania
wasted tens of millions in taxpayer dollars on roofing projects, a state
legislator has introduced a bill to open major construction projects to
competitive bidding. State Rep. Jesse Topper said his bill, now in the State
Government Committee, would improve on so-called cooperative purchasing. That
system is intended to save time and money on classroom and cafeteria supplies,
but Topper said he's "not convinced" it's a money-saver on
bigger projects such as roof repair or replacement. "Co-op purchasing has
some things it can do for time factor and familiarity, but we need to balance a
lot of that to ensure we're getting the best bang for our buck," said
Topper, a Republican who represents parts of Bedford, Franklin, and Fulton
Counties. By using cooperative purchasing instead of competitive bidding,
school districts overspent by more than $100 million on school roofing
projects from 2005 to 2010, according to an
assessment by market research firm Ducker Worldwide commissioned by
the Coalition for Procurement Reform.
Mandated: Fiscal pressures make nonmandated program cuts more
tempting
By Joseph Cress The
Sentinel Oct 29, 2018
About 67 percent of school districts statewide are in
survival mode, according to Richard Fry, president of the Pennsylvania
Association of School Administrators and superintendent of Big Spring School
District. Such districts tend to be driven by the strictest compliance of state
testing requirements and the mandated curriculum standards of the core content
areas, according to Fry. He said districts statewide have shed 22,000 teaching
positions since the Great Recession of 2008. While Fry did not have statistics
on the breakdown of lost positions by content area, he suspects a “substantial
slice” of the job loss was in such nonmandated curriculum programs as art,
business education, family/consumer science, music, technology education,
library science and world languages. Districts statewide struggle with budget
pressures brought on in part by rising health care costs and double-digit
annual increases in their contributions to the Pennsylvania Public School
Employee Retirement System.
Garnet Valley ready to kill
off class rankings
By Susan L. Serbin Delco Times Correspondent Oct 29, 2018
CONCORD — Garnet Valley School District is taking every
necessary step in researching, evaluating and consulting with stakeholders on
the issue of class rank. In all probability, the process of identifying
placement of each graduate will be a thing of the past for the Class of 2020. The
decision is based on all relevant factors amassed under the direction of
high school Assistant Principal Greg Hilden and College and Career Guidance
Counselor Mike Salladino. “Eliminating class rank has become the trend. Half
the colleges in the country are not using rank in admissions decisions, but are
looking at students in a more total way,” said School Board Director Tracy
Karwaski at the October meeting. “We are among only a few local districts still
with a ranking system.” The majority of the county’s districts have dropped
class rank; beyond that the practice is taking hold nationwide. According to a
posting on CollegeBoard.org website, “Due to the
tremendous differences in curricula and grading standards at different high
schools, many admission officers (especially at selective private colleges)
have begun to discount the accuracy and importance of class rank as a factor in
evaluating students. Some colleges that used to rely on class rank now use SAT®
scores and GPA.
Teachers
swarm midterms as school funding given a failing grade
Trib Libe by JOSH
EIDELSON, BLOOMBERG NEWS | Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018,
10:24 a.m.
WASHINGTON — When teachers in
several U.S. states walked out of their classrooms this year to protest
stagnant pay and school funding, they struck a chord with the public. Now
they’re battling to turn that sympathy into gains at the ballot box — and
Democrats are hoping that a wave of teacher candidates will help them flip
control of statehouses and governorships. More than 1,400 current or former
education workers are contesting state seats in Nov. 6 elections, according to
the National Education Association, the largest U.S. union. More than 1,000 of
them are Democrats — accounting for 19 percent of the party’s candidates in
state elections.
Laura Chapman: The Deluge of Cash Flowing Into the Charter School
Industry
Diane Ravitch’s Blog By dianeravitch October
30, 2018 //
Laura Chapman, tireless researcher, did a cursory scan of
the abundance of billionaire cash flowing into charter schools, enhanced by
another $400 million from the U.S. Department of Education. There are literally
dozens more foundations and organizations pouring money into the charter
industry, such as Reed Hastings (Netflix), Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, John
Arnold (ex-Enron), Michael Dell (computers), the Fisher Family (Old Navy, the
Gap), and many more. Why is the U.S. Department of Education pouring
hundreds of millions of dollars into this well-funded industry? Betsy
DeVos recently handed out $399 million to jump-start new charter schools, even
in districts and states where there is no demand. Next year, Congress has
allotted $450 million for charters, whether they are wanted or not. What is
clear from Laura’s review is that charter schools are not in need of funding.
They are in need of accountability, transpency, stability, supervision,
regulation, and integrity.
Chicago Teachers Just Voted 98% to Authorize the First Charter
School Strike in U.S. History
In These Times BY REBECCA BURNS TUESDAY,
OCT 30, 2018, 5:47 PM
On Tuesday, teachers at 15 Chicago charter schools voted 98
percent to authorize a strike as they continue to bargain a contract with Acero
Schools, the largest unionized charter network in the city. On Friday, four
locations of the Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS) will take a
strike authorization vote. And teachers at nine other Chicago charter networks
are also in contract negotiations, and could similarly opt to take strikes
votes in the coming months. If no agreement is reached, Chicago could be
home to the nation’s first-ever charter strike. Teachers have been inching
closer to this possibility for the past two
years, during which time eleventh-hour deals have narrowly averted strikes
against at least three other charter operators. That’s a stunning reversal from
2012, when Chicago
charter operators bragged that, unlike unionized public schools,
charters were unaffected by teacher strikes.
Betsy DeVos Shifts School Choice, Privacy Offices at Education
Department
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Alyson
Klein on October
30, 2018 3:26 PM
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her team are
moving forward with parts of a department-wide reorganization proposal unveiled
earlier this year, including elevating the office charged with helping to
advocate for the private school community within the federal bureaucracy, and
changing the way privacy policy is handled. The office of nonpublic education,
which was previously part of the soon-to-be-defunct office of innovation and
improvement, will now report directly to the office of the secretary. DeVos is
a longtime advocate for vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and other forms of
private school choice. That move and other reorganization changes were first
reported by Politico.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2018/10/devos-reorganization-privacy-choice-budget.html
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