Started in November 2010, 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, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Signe Wilkerson nails it in this political cartoon…
Pennsylvania Cyber Charters
Philly.com by Signe Wilkinson Updated: January 16, 2019 - 5:00 AM
Plugged in for Profits But Not for Learning
http://www.philly.com/opinion/cartoons/pennsylvania-cyber-charters-20190116.html
Blogger note: below is a co-sponsorship memo from last year that was introduced by newly appointed House Ed Committee Chairman Curt Sonney (4-Erie). Curious to see whether it might be reintroduced this year…..
PA House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session
“…if a student lives in a school district that offers a full-time cyber education program but still chooses to enroll in a cyber charter school, the student or the student’s parent or guardian must pay the cyber charter school a per-student amount calculated in accordance with the charter school funding formula set forth in the Charter School Law.”
https://www.legis.state.pa.us//cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=H&SPick=20170&cosponId=21497
Not one of Pennsylvania’s cyber charters achieved a passing School Performance Profile score of 70 in any of the five years that the SPP was in effect.
Here’s a reminder of what school districts are spending on cyber charter tuition:
Total cyber charter tuition paid by PA taxpayers from 500 school districts for 2013, 2014 and 2015 was over $1.2 billion; $393.5 million, $398.8 million and $436.1 million respectively.
https://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2019/01/pa-ed-policy-roundup-jan-4-between-2008.html
@PASchoolsWork: Delaware County Unites for Education; Public Meeting
Delaware County Intermediate Unit 200 Yale Avenue, Morton, PA 19070 Sat, February 2, 2019 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
by
PA Schools Work January 15, 2019
Delaware
County students need YOUR support!
Join the DCIU and the PA Schools Work coalition to
work together to advocate for PA public schools, their students and the
communities they serve.At the event, you will:
·
Hear stories about
how funding affects students and educators across Delaware County
·
Learn how to speak
with your local legislators to advocate for the needs of our students
·
Connect on social
media and grow your network to influence stakeholders in your community
Let's Unite for education for all of Delaware
County's students!
Contact: Theresa Marsden, DCIU Legislative and Communications
Specialist, at 610.938.9000 ext. 2058 for more information. Register at
the link below:
Blogger
note: Pottstown Mercury, West Chester Daily Local and Delco Times are some of
the holdings of Digital First Media…
Digital First Media: This obscure company is
doing more to destroy a free press in America than Trump | Will Bunch
Will
Bunch | @will_bunch | bunchw@phillynews.com Updated: January
15, 2019 - 1:50 PMThe problem really hit home for Dave Krieger — the now-former editorial page editor of the Daily Camera in fast-growing Boulder, Colorado — when a lawyer friend sent in a letter to the editor questioning what was happening at his hometown newspaper. The attorney said he didn’t understand why the price of his subscription was just jacked up 20 percent when the actual paper kept showing up with fewer and fewer pages. Krieger knew exactly why, but at that moment it dawned on him that most citizens in Boulder didn’t know what he knew: That the newspaper’s shrinkage was the direct result of a distant Wall Street hedge fund that — through its investment vehicle with the Orwellian-like dishonest name of Digital First Media — had since 2013 been sucking money in full vampire-squid mode out of the Daily Camera’s newsroom revenue stream. Much of the cash that formerly paid reporters, editors and photojournalists instead went into the pocket of billionaire Randall Smith as Smith added to his collection of multi-million-dollar mansionsaround Palm Beach and the Hamptons (said at one point to be 18 — that’s not a typo — and counting). “The daily paper is the community’s storyteller,” Krieger, a 60-something veteran of a half-dozen newsrooms, thought to himself, “and we’ve never told this story.” So Krieger sat down to write an editorial pleading for help, and what happened next was truly astounding. Randall Smith read it, saw the error of his ways, sold his mansions, and moved into a modest ranch house as he used the real-estate proceeds to hire a small army of investigative reporters that has begun exposing corporate greed and venal politicians from Key West to Kalamazoo. Ha ha, just kidding ... everything in that last sentence was made up.
Why should Jefferson’s cancer center get
property tax exemption, asks suburban school district
Inquirer by
Harold Brubaker, Updated: 55 minutes agoAnother Philadelphia-area school district has joined an emerging trend of cash-strapped schools questioning why some highly-profitable organizations should be let off the hook when it comes to paying property taxes. Upper Moreland School District is challenging the property-tax exemption of Jefferson Health’s new Asplundh Cancer Center, arguing that the facility does not meet the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s standard for exemption. The appeal in Montgomery County’s Court of Common Pleas is no guarantee of victory, but it challenges the longstanding tradition of exempting large, profitable health systems from the property tax net. The legal challenge comes at a time when school districts are desperate for more property tax collections as state funding only covers a fraction of their expenses. When Tower Health bought five hospital from the for-profit Community Health Systems Inc. in 2017 for $418 million, school districts in Pottstown, Phoenixville, and elsewhere were not ready to grant a property tax exemptions on the facilities just because their new owner qualified as a nonprofit under the federal law. Those cases are still in court.
“The
lawsuit occurs as the Stroudsburg School District and Upper Moreland School
District file similar complaints against St. Luke’s University Hospital and
Abington-Jefferson Health, respectively.”
Salisbury School
District takes LVHN to court over property taxes
The Salisbury School District is challenging
Lehigh Valley Hospital's property tax exemption.
Jacqueline
Palochko Contact
Reporter Of The Morning Call January 15, 2019 7:00 p.m.
The Salisbury School District is challenging Lehigh Valley Health
Network’s property tax exemption, arguing the hospital system is not a “purely
public charity” and should pay its “fair share of property taxes.” The school
district filed a complaint in Lehigh County court last week asserting the
hospital should pay more than $5 million a year in property taxes. The lawsuit
occurs as the Stroudsburg School District and Upper Moreland School District
file similar complaints against St. Luke’s University Hospital and
Abington-Jefferson Health, respectively. “These major, mega health networks
function more like corporations than charities,” said attorney Aaron J.
Freiwald, representing Salisbury. Stroudsburg and Upper Moreland. “School
districts need money. Mega health care corporations are not paying their fair
share.” Nonprofits like Lehigh Valley Hospital, part
of the Lehigh Valley Health Network, are typically tax-exempt because of their
charitable contributions. Salisbury claims LVHN’s property tax avoidance
penalizes all other taxpayers. If LVHN’s hospital property at 1210 South Cedar
Crest Blvd., was reassessed, it could result in even more revenue for the
district, according to a news release from the attorneys representing
Salisbury. “These uncollected revenues could help support core programs and
even limit future tax increases,” Superintendent Randy Ziegenfuss said in a
statement. The school district raised taxes by 2.4 percent last year.
“The
Bethlehem Area School District says it is not receiving what is due to it under
the formula, Reynolds said. His resolution cited comments from BASD
Superintendent Joseph Roy, who maintains the district is receiving about $23
million less per year than the Basic Education Formula stipulates. During 2018,
less than 10 percent of Pennsylvania's total education budget was actually distributed
to schools districts based on the application of the funding formula, according
to Reynolds' resolution.”
Bethlehem City
Council stands up for public education funding
By: Stephen
Althouse Posted: Jan 16, 2019 12:15 AM EST Updated: Jan
16, 2019 04:45 AM
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Saying it provides a "great equalizer" to the
unfairness of wealth distribution, Bethlehem City Council approved a resolution
urging the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to change how it funds public
education. The vote during council's Tuesday night meeting was 7-0. The resolution, sponsored by Councilman J. William Reynolds, urges the
state House and Senate to pass legislation to fully implement what is called
the Basic Education Formula, or Fair Funding Formula. The formula, signed into
law in 2016 by Gov. Tom Wolf, utilizes various factors to ascertain how much
money each public school system will receive. Those factors include the
percentage of students living in poverty, the current level of district
taxation, the number of English language learners and the financial impact of
charter schools.
Opinion: All schools
and all students need libraries
Dignitaries gathered recently to celebrate a
community campaign that opened a long-shuttered school library. What does that
say about our priorities and commitment to equity?
The notebook Commentary
by Lisa Haver and Deborah Grill January 15 — 4:53 pm, 2019The opening of a new library this month at Bache-Martin Elementary in Fairmount has been reported as a feel-good story – one about a community pulling together to fund and build something that most students in Philadelphia haven’t seen in years. The occasion was considered so momentous that Mayor Kenney, City Council President Darrell Clarke, and U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans were there to celebrate what the Inquirer headline proclaimed to be a “miracle.” But there is nothing miraculous about communities having to fend for themselves in providing the necessary resources for Philadelphia students. A true miracle would be the District making a commitment to bringing back libraries and librarians in all schools. A “Hunger Games” mentality has seeped into our collective consciousness. Teachers create GoFundMe accounts for supplies and school trips. Elementary students write letters to local politicians to plead for new playground equipment. High school seniors reach out to community donors to put books and furniture in an underused classroom to create a school library. Movie and sports stars select schools to receive new playgrounds, local politicians and District officials show up for the ribbon-cutting, and the news stories celebrate yet another charitable event, as we witness the continual underfunding of the city’s public schools.
Susan Wild lands spot
on House's Education and Labor panel
Laura
Olson Contact
Reporter Morning Call Washington Bureau January 15, 2019
Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild has been named to the House Education and
Labor Committee, according to an announcement from the House Speaker’s office. The
committee post was among several that Wild has said she’s seeking for the
two-year congressional session. She said in a statement Tuesday that the
position will give her “a powerful platform to fight for working families.” “When
I was running for office, I made a promise to fight for an education system
that provides Pennsylvania students with the tools they need to succeed in the
21st century workforce, to fight for a strong economy with the good-paying jobs
they deserve, and I promised to preserve Social Security so folks who have
worked their entire lives can retire with dignity,” Wild said. Her predecessor,
Rep. Charlie Dent, had spent much of his tenure on the House
Appropriations Committee, where he rose to lead one of the powerful panel’s
subcommittees. Rep. Matt Cartwright, whose district had included Easton
until this session, also serves on the Appropriations Committee.
National Teacher of
the Year Set to Join House Education Committee
Education Week By Andrew Ujifusa on January
15, 2019 11:50 AM
The 2016 National Teacher of the Year is slated to join the House committee
that oversees K-12 education. U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., will
become a member of the House education committee—which Democrats have
rechristened from the House Education and Workforce Committee to the House
Education and Labor Committee—once the House Democratic Caucus approves
recommendations for new committee assignments Tuesday. Hayes won her House seat after
an upset win in the Democratic primary last year and her November victory in
the general election for an open House seat. Hayes put education at the
forefront of her campaign, as our colleague Sarah Schwartz wrote after her
November win. Among other things, she campaigned on providing teachers with
more resources, more career training, and making college more affordable.
In a subsequent interview with our coworker Madeline Will, Hayes said, "I
understand the importance of public education. I know for so many of our
children, that's their only option." And she questioned the value of
school choice for those children who don't have a parent to help make education
decisions.
Tom Wolf calls for 'hope, empathy, action’ in
second term as Pa. governor
Inquirer by Angela Couloumbis and Liz
Navratil, Updated: January 15, 2019- 4:53 PMHARRISBURG — Gov. Tom Wolf took the oath of office Tuesday for a second term as Pennsylvania government’s chief executive, urging “faith” in the state’s ability to rise above ideological divides to fix problems together while embracing tolerance and diversity.
In his speech outside the state Capitol, the mild-mannered Democrat noted that his administration, working with a Republican-led legislature, was able to achieve major policy changes in the last four years, including legalizing medical marijuana, relaxing the state’s iron grip over alcohol sales, and beginning to rein in public pension costs.
GOP leaders react to
Gov. Wolf’s inaugural address with optimism but ‘we’ll see where it goes’
Penn Live By Jan
Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Updated Jan 15, 3:56 PM; Posted Jan
15, 3:18 PM
Optimism, hope and a feeling of bipartisanship filled the air at the
state Capitol following Gov. Tom Wolf’s second inauguration Tuesday. In his
address, Wolf cited accomplishments made during his first four-year term
through compromise with the GOP-controlled General Assembly. The governor said
he wanted that bipartisanship to continue. Republican legislative leaders and
others in attendance said they came away inspired and hopeful. “It was a good
speech. It was a positive speech,” said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman,
R-Centre County. “We’ll have our differences as time goes on. How we handle
those differences will define us. Whether we compromise as we did the last two
years and get significant things passed as the governor mentioned that we all
get a little bit of something, that’ll be positive for Pennsylvania.” He added:
“So today’s a day of hope and a positive feeling. We’ll see where it goes from
here.”
Dinniman appointed minority chair of Senate
Education Committee
West Chester Daily Local Digital First Media January 15, 2019
WEST CHESTER—State Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19, announced that he was
reappointed to his leadership role as Minority Chair of the Senate Education
Committee for the 2019-20 legislative session. This marks the sixth consecutive
session that Dinniman, who holds a doctorate in education, has been appointed
to the post. “The upcoming legislative session will be a pivotal time for
education in the Commonwealth,” Dinniman said. “While we’ve already made important
progress in ensuring our schools are safer and reining in the role of
standardized testing and graduate requirements, there is much more work to done
in these areas, not to mention the importance of achieving equitable funding in
public education.” In the fall, the legislature passed Act 158 of 2018,
providing alternative pathways to graduation in place of the controversial
Keystone Exams and delaying their use until the 2021-2022 school year. In
addition, the Senate passed Senate Resolution 322 to study the effectiveness of
standardized testing, including the Keystone Exams and SATs, and their use as
indicators of student academic achievement, school building performance, and
educator effectiveness. In the new legislative session, Dinniman said he plans
to bring those efforts full circle by working to replace the Keystones with the
SAT to realize a combination of fiscal and educational benefits. “The Keystone
should be replaced with a test, like the SAT, that many high school students
already take, that is aligned with our curriculum, and that federal government
will accept for accountability,” he said. “Furthermore, using the SAT in place
of the Keystones will open up college scholarship and post-secondary
opportunities to thousands of students who may not be able to access them on
their own.” As minority chair of the Senate Education Committee, he will also
continue to serve as a member of the state Board of Education, the Pennsylvania
State Public School Building Authority, the Pennsylvania Higher Education
Facilities Authority and the Education Commission of the States.
Letter: PA Schools
Work Advocates for Our Schools
StateCollege.com Letter by State
College AAUW Education Committee on January 15, 2019
Do you know that Pennsylvania ranks 46th in the country in the state
share of K-12 education funding? The average state covers 47 percent of school
funding costs, but our state contributes only 38 percent, according to the US Census
Bureau. In fact, state funding for classroom costs has declined since 2013,
falling by $155.3 million. Increases in state education appropriations have not
kept pace with rising costs; the funding gap between Pennsylvania's low- and
high-wealth districts is the largest such gap in the nation. Local revenues
average 56 percent of school funding. Dependence on local
revenue leads to inequities — wealthy districts support their schools much
better than economically distressed districts that often have students with the
greatest needs. The Campaign for Fair Education Funding successfully pushed for
bipartisan enactment of a fair funding formula in 2016. In 2018, many of the
Campaign’s partners formed PA Schools Work, a bipartisan advocacy group that is
pushing for enactment of the 2016 fair funding formula.
Tamaqua puts gun
policy on hold
Sarah
M. Wojcik Contact
Reporter Of The Morning Call January 15, 2019
As the Tamaqua Area School District voted to suspend its controversial
policy to allow school district staff to carry guns, parents noted a shift in
tone toward the Second Amendment rather than school safety. Nick Boyle, the
school board member who helped craft what’s known as Policy 705, provided the
only vote opposed to pausing the policy’s implementation at a board meeting
Tuesday night. Boyle said that while he agreed that it made financial sense to
put the measure on hold while two lawsuits wind through the court system, he
was distressed by a feeling that the district was under attack by outside
interests. Tamaqua’s policy, which would allow district staff to volunteer for
training to stop a school shooter, was approved in September and is the first
of its kind in the state. In his statement explaining his vote, Boyle said he
didn’t believe the board “should allow an anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment group
from Philadelphia to dictate school board policy.” Boyle said later he was
referring to CeaseFirePA, a gun violence prevention organization. CeaseFirePA
has not joined the Tamaqua Area Education Association’s lawsuit or the one
filed by families in the district. But it has been a vocal opponent of the
policy and arranged a press conference two weeks ago to announce the filing of
the second lawsuit.
Pennsylvania's lax approach to vaccine
exemptions is ill-considered
Lancaster Online Editorial by THE LNP EDITORIAL
BOARD
THE ISSUE: As LNP’s Heather Stauffer reported
Monday, exemptions to Pennsylvania immunization requirements
rose from 2.3 percent to 3.6 percent of students statewide, and from 8.6
percent to 9.5 percent in Lancaster County. (A parent can claim a student
exemption on more than one ground, but there’s no way to discern from the
reported numbers if they do, Stauffer noted.) The state’s annual immunization
reports cover only kindergarten and seventh-grade students.
Here’s the good news: More students are getting
fully vaccinated before the start of school. The grace period for students who
were not fully immunized was tightened from eight months to five days — a much-needed change — at
the start of the 2017-18 school year. The result? “Statewide, reports show the
number of students using the grace period dropping from 24,724 the previous
year to 6,531, or from almost 11 percent to 2.5 percent,” Stauffer wrote. “In
Lancaster County, the drop was from 2,023 to 359, or from almost 17 percent to
3 percent.” This represents a victory for school administrators, school nurses
and, most importantly, for student health. Now the bad news. The World Health
Organization reports that vaccine “hesitancy — the reluctance or refusal to
vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines — threatens to reverse progress
made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases.” Measles, for example, saw a 30
percent increase in cases around the world in 2017, according to the World Health Organization.
There’s a new school
safety initiative in Pa. How will it affect Centre County schools?
Centre Daily Times BY
SARAH PAEZ JANUARY 15, 2019 07:34 PM, UPDATED 11 HOURS 59 MINUTES
AGO
A school lockdown is a precautionary
measure issued in response to a direct or nearby threat. It requires staff and
students to respond quickly and comply with rules. Here’s how it often
works.
An anonymous reporting system for all schools in Pennsylvania called the
Safe2Say Something tip line went live Monday, providing a way for students,
teachers and community members to report threatening behavior that may endanger
an individual or school institution. The S2SS tipline was brought through a
partnership with the state’s Office of the Attorney General and Sandy Hook
Promise, a nonprofit organization that trains students and adults to look for
signs of gun violence in order to prevent tragedies like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary
School on December 14, 2012 that killed 20 children and six
staff members. The new tipline fulfills requirements outlined in Act 44, the school safety and
security bill passed by the state Legislature in 2018. State College Area
School District is working on implementing the tip line, which allows students
and adults to use the S2SS app, website, or a dedicated hotline to report a
tip, each of which is reviewed by the S2SS crisis center housed in the Office
of Attorney General. The call center will process and refer each tip to the
appropriate school crisis teams and law enforcement according to the level of
the threat, said SCASD Assistant Superintendent Will Stout.
Is LA teachers strike
a sign of things to come in Philly?
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent
January 15, 2019
The
education world has its eye on Los Angeles this week, where about 30,000 school
staff members have gone on strike. The issues at stake in
LA — charter growth, class size, teacher pay, lack of support staff including
nurses — will sound familiar to those who’ve followed years of clashes between
the School District of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers. They sure sound familiar to longtime PFT head Jerry Jordan. “What
happens in LA is going to happen across the country,” said Jordan. “Things
don’t just occur in one urban setting and stop there.” It’s impossible to say
if Philly teachers will someday follow in the footsteps of their West Coast
counterparts. But the educational earthquake in California is a reminder that
Philadelphia school staff now have the option of striking, an option they
didn’t have for years. During the 17-year reign of the state-controlled School
Reform Commission, state law forbade Philadelphia teachers, and Philadelphia
teachers alone, from striking. When the SRC dissolved last year, so did the
prohibition against striking.
Charter school
teachers join picketers in Los Angeles
Posrt Gazette by CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press JAN
15, 2019 6:22 PM
LOS ANGELES — Teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District walked
picket lines again Tuesday as administrators urged them to return to classrooms
and for their union to return to the bargaining table. “It is by no means a
normal day in LA Unified,” Superintendent Austin Beutner acknowledged as the
strike by thousands of members of United Teachers Los Angeles entered its
second day. “To state the obvious, we need our educators back in our classrooms
helping inspire our students,” he said. “The painful truth is we just don’t
have enough money to do everything UTLA is asking Los Angeles Unified to do.” The
walkout Monday was marked by a plunge in attendance, which cost the district
about $25 million because funding is based on how many students come to school,
he said. Mr. Beutner urged the teachers to join him in pushing for more funding
from the state, which provides 90 percent of the district’s money. “Join me on
the bus,” he said. Some charter school teachers joined their public school
counterparts on picket lines. Educators with the Accelerated Schools charter
network, who are also union members but negotiate their contracts separately —
walked off the job Tuesday to demand better working conditions. The action was
the first by charter teachers in California, according to UTLA.
Eyes on the Philly Board
of Education: January 17, 2019
Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools January
13, 2019 appsphilly.net
by
Karel Kilimnik
Budget Issues
The largest single allotment in the District’s budget goes to the 87
charter schools. Although there are no Action Items on this month’s agenda
regarding charters, the Board will consider three new applicants next month.
The Board must remember these facts when they decide in February:
·
The District cannot
afford any more charters.
·
The Charter School
Office is seriously understaffed; it has only 12 staff members to monitor 87
schools.
·
Our review of
renewal evaluations shows consistent barriers to enrollment, lack of due
process when students are accused of infractions, and expulsion for minor
infractions such as uniform violations.
·
Many if not most
charters pay rent and management fees to private companies; the Board has no
control over those costs.
·
Neither the Board
nor the public has access to the financial records of the Real Estate/Management
companies which profit from the charter system, thus they have no control over
those costs.
·
Administrative
salaries and compensation are decided by the boards of the individual charters,
not the Board of Education. Ten charter CEOs, according to the most
recent tax information, are paid over $200,000 in salary and compensation–and
all of those schools have SPR Achievement ratings which place them in the Intervene category.
·
Charters do not
offer “choice” to parents. The charter school chooses its students.
·
The PA Charter
School Law has been called one of the worst in the country by many, including
PA Auditor General Anthony DePasquale.
Charter school
intends to honor Philadanco dance founder
WHYY By Peter Crimmins
January 15, 2019
A charter
school proposed for West Philadelphia will be named after a pioneer of dance in
Philadelphia. If String Theory Schools’ application for another charter school
is approved, the facility will be called the Joan Myers Brown Academy. Brown
founded the Philadelphia Dance Company, or Philadanco, in 1970. Since then, it
has become nationally recognized for training mostly students, primarily
African-Americans, in classical dance and ballet. String Theory, which specializes
in operating performing arts schools, already has a partnership with
Philadanco. And its modern dance instructor, Ali Willingham, trained under
Brown. On Tuesday morning, what would have been the 90th birthday of
Martin Luther King Jr., students at String Theory performed an original
choreography by Willingham. Brown, who was there to watch the performance, said
she was happy and a little amused that String Theory would honor her by giving
its new campus her name.
“The
camp is the unlikely U.S. center of a vast network of enterprises Gülen
controls across the globe. The cleric, who has tens of thousands of followers,
runs a sprawling international conglomerate of newspapers, television stations,
and charter schools, more than 2,000 in all, including more than 100 in this
country.”
The cleric next door: Pocono neighbors weigh
in on Fethullah Gülen, the man Turkey wants back
by
Vinny Vella, Updated: January 16, 2019- 5:00 AMSAYLORSBURG, Pa. — In this rural mountain town, no matter how long ago you moved in, you’re still an outsider. Be it a transplant from New York or Jersey lured by cheap property here in the ‘90s or one of the most wanted men in the Middle East. Fethullah Gülen, the 80-year-old Turkish leader of a religious offshoot of Islam, has lived in exile in this pastoral slice of the Pocono Mountains for two decades. He spends his days praying, writing, and entertaining visitors on a 26-acre property on Mount Eaton Road that previously served as a family-run resort for hunters and a summer camp for Muslim youth from New York.
“Here
are the facts: the Gülen Movement operates over 173 taxpayer financed charter
schools that enroll 83,000 students in locations in 26 states. Several new
schools are opened each year. This makes the group the second largest charter
school operator in the nation. In 2017, these schools received an estimated
$729,000,000 in tax funds. Additionally, in Texas where the lack of funds for
traditional public schools is currently being debated, over $645,000,000 has
been issued in state-guaranteed bonds for the 63 charter schools identified as
Gülen-affiliated. A significant portion of the funds the Gülen Movement
receives are diverted through various means (bid rigging, inflated lease backs,
‘consulting fees,’ mandatory tithing by Turkish H1-B hires, etc.) to the
non-educational, political goals of the cult. Followers who have left the Gülen
Movement have outlined how significant amount of these tax dollars are kicked
back through various methods to Fethullah Gülen and others leaders of the Gülen
Movement at its headquarters in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.”
DOES
@EDUCATIONNEXT STILL GET IT WRONG ON GÜLEN CHARTERS?Cloaking Inequity Blog Posted on January 15, 2019 by Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig
I am glad
that Harvard’s EducationNext changed the original language in
this piece about the Gulen charter schools and Turkey that
incorrectly argued that the NAACP had rescinded its call for a charter school moratorium
by stating that it had not been “renewed.” They have now taken that language
out of the article online, but they still have not issued a public correction
for the misinformation (For more see
also: Breaking News: California NAACP calls for investigation of ALL Gülen
charters). However, Mark Hall, Director of the Killing Ed film, has
several other issues that he feels it’s important to raise with the piece. Are
more corrections necessary? I feel compelled to respond to the inaccuracies and
the omission of facts in a recent article in EducationNext which may lead your
readers to a false conclusion.
The article, “Turkey’s
Fight Against U.S. Charters,” discusses the network of
taxpayer financed charter schools operated by the Gülen Movement, a
transnational religious cult originally from Turkey. The title of the article
itself is misleading – suggesting that the Government of Turkey is somehow
against charter schools in general in the United States. This is untrue; the
only schools Turkey is interested in are those founded by members of the Gülen
Movement. Many of the established facts about this relatively new and
mysterious cult are outlined in my documentary film, “Killing Ed:
Charter Schools, Corruption and the Gülen Movement in America” which
was released in March, 2016 and independently produced. I first learned of the
Gülen Movement in 2005 after witnessing the group’s intense influence on
politicians in Texas. When I began production on the film in 2011, not much had
been pieced together about how the Gülenists operated in America. However,
enough research and factual evidence now exists to connect the cult’s religious
and political goals to the lucrative operation of its charter schools in the
USA.
A study shows the Asian-American gender
academic gap starts later, giving educators insight into how to help boys of
all races and pointing to the influence of social pressures.
New York Times By Claire Cain Miller Jan.
15, 2019
Over all, girls outperform boys in school. It starts as early as
kindergarten. By the time students reach college, women graduate at a higher
rate than men. But there’s an exception. Asian-American boys match the grades
of Asian-American girls in elementary school, a new study has found. For
them, the gender achievement gap doesn’t appear until adolescence — at which
point they start doing worse as a group than Asian-American girls. The study
adds to a growing body of research suggesting that
boys’ underperformance is not because of anything innate to boys. Instead, it
seems, it’s largely because of something external: their school environments
and peer influences.
Karen Pence,
America’s second lady, is teaching at Virginia religious school that bars LGBTQ
students and employees
Washington Post Answer
Sheet By Valerie
Strauss January 16 at 12:39 AM
Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Pence and the nation’s second
lady, is now teaching art at a local Christian elementary school that reserves
the right to reject LGBTQ students and employees, according to documents on its
website. The school also asks prospective employees to explain their views of
the “creation/evolution” debate, and it has planned field trips for students to
the Creation Museum in Kentucky. The museum displays exhibits depicting the
world as 6,000 years old — which is the belief of “Young Earth Creationists” —
and rejects the scientific theory of evolution, the animating principle of
modern biology. An employment agreement posted on its website for applicants
spells out the church’s “Statement of Faith,” including: “A husband is
commanded to love his wife as Christ loved the church. A wife is commanded to
submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33).” The
office of the nation’s second lady announced Tuesday that she was taking a
part-time job teaching art at the Immanuel Christian School in Northern
Virginia, where she taught for 12 years when Mike Pence served in Congress
serving as a representative from Indiana from 2001-2013.
Open Board Positions
for 2019 PA Principals Association Election
Thursday, January
10, 2019 9:05 AM
Margaret S.
(Peg) Foster, principal,
academic affairs, in the Crestwood School District, has been appointed by
President Michael Allison to serve as the chairperson of the 2019 PA
Principals Association Nominations Committee to oversee the 2019
election. Her committee consists of the following members: Curtis
Dimmick, principal in the Northampton Area School District; Jacqueline
Clark-Havrilla, principal in the Spring-Ford School District; and Joseph Hanni,
vice principal in the Scranton School District. If you are interested in running for one of
the open board positions (shown below) in the 2019 election,
please contact Stephanie Kinner at kinner@paprincipals.org
or (717) 732-4999 for an application. Applications
must be received in the state office by Friday, February 22, 2019.
Join A Movement that Supports our Schools & Communities
PA Schools Work website
Our students are in classrooms that are underfunded and overcrowded. Teachers are paying out of pocket and picking up the slack. And public education is suffering. Each child in Pennsylvania has a right to an excellent public education. Every child, regardless of zip code, deserves access to a full curriculum, art and music classes, technical opportunities and a safe, clean, stable environment. All children must be provided a level chance to succeed. PA Schools Work is fighting for equitable, adequate funding necessary to support educational excellence. Investing in public education excellence is the path to thriving communities, a stable economy and successful students.
http://paschoolswork.org/
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.
PSBA Board Presidents’ Panel
Nine locations around the state running Jan 29, 30 and 31st.
Share your leadership experience and learn from others in your area at this event designed for board presidents, superintendents and board members with interest in pursuing leadership roles. Workshop real solutions to the specific challenges you face with a PSBA-moderated panel of school leaders. Discussion will address the most pressing challenges facing PA public schools.
https://www.psba.org/2018/11/board-presidents-panel-2/
Annual PenSPRA Symposium set for March 28-29, 2019
Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association Website
Once again, PenSPRA will hold its annual symposium with nationally-recognized speakers on hot topics for school communicators. The symposium, held at the Conference Center at Shippensburg University, promises to provide time for collegial sharing and networking opportunities. Mark you calendars now!
We hope you can join us. Plans are underway, so check back for more information.
http://www.penspra.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: PSBA Advocacy Day at the Capitol in Harrisburg has been scheduled for Monday April 29, 2019
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.
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