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
“ln 2016,
Pennsylvania enacted a fair funding formula that takes student need into
account when considering how much districts should get. The problem is, because
this only applies to new money, that is, increases to the state budget, less
than 10% of the state's basic education budget goes through the fair funding
formula. That mean more than 90% of state funding is distributed inequitably. Funding
disparities among districts are not simply economic, they discriminate based on
race. distributed inequitably. According to a POWER analysis, students in the
least white Pennsylvania districts receive $2,100 less per student than the
state funding formula says they should receive. ln contrast, students in the
whitest districts are given $2,100 more than the formula determines they should
have.”
Pottstown Mercury
Letter May 22, 2019
By Johnny Corson,
president Pottstown NAACP #2288
Stacey Woodland,
CEO YWCA Tri-County Area
Trenita Lindsay,
Pottstown Borough Council
Marlene Armato,
POWER Statewide Education Team
On May 17 the
nation commemorated the 65th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, when
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that separate schools for black and white students
is inherently unequal. The landmark decision was seen as a major victory in the
civil rights movement. But sadly, Brown's
legacy is not fully realized today, surrounded as we are by lack of educational
opportunities for black and Latino students. School integration, as a strategy
to access equal educational resources, was limited in what it could achieve.
Although school integration reached its peak in the 1970s, it has been in
decline since then, largely due to the court's ruling in Board of Education of
Oklahoma City v. Dowell (1991) which released districts from court oversight if
they had achieved integration. With districts no longer under court order to
integrate, today's levels of school segregation have returned to those of the
1960s. Yet as many activists understand, integration was never the end goal,
and so advocates of racial equality in education continue to fight the good
fight. Equal educational opportunity is now waged on other grounds: securing
adequate and equitable school funding. POWER lnterfaith, a statewide
faith-based organization, is one such organization working to pressure state
legislators to change unjust school funding policies.
Break Ground on PlanCon 2.0: Contact Your Senator!
PASBO Website
A year after the
PlanCon Advisory Committee issued it's final recommendations for moving forward
with a new PlanCon program, their recommendations have still not been
implemented. As a result, school districts with school construction needs have
no option for obtaining any state support for their projects, meaning that
needed projects will be deferred or property taxes will increase. Senator Pat
Browne (R-Lehigh)--co-chair of the PlanCon Advisory Committee--is reintroducing
legislation to implement the recommendation of the Committee. Those
recommendations include streamlining the PlanCon funding formula and making it
electronic, developing a small projects grant program targeted to maintenance
needs and requiring guidance on what constitutes a maintenance project for the
purposes of determining prevailing wage applicability.
Senator Browne’s Co-Sponsorship Memo: Plan Con -
Construction and Renovation of Buildings by School Entities and Establishing a
Grant Program for Maintenance Projects
Blogger note: Total cyber charter tuition paid by PA taxpayers
from 500 school districts for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 was over $1.6 billion;
$393.5 million, $398.8 million, $436.1 million and $454.7 million respectively.
We will continue rolling out cyber charter tuition expenses for taxpayers in
education committee members, legislative leadership and various other
districts.
In 2016-17, taxpayers in House Ed Committee
member Rep. Mike Jones’s school districts in York County had to send over $4.3
million to chronically underperforming cybers that they never authorized. #SB34
(Schwank) or #HB526 (Sonney) could change that.
|
Data
Source: PDE via PSBA
|
|
|
Dallastown
Area SD
|
$658,342.15
|
|
Red
Lion Area SD
|
$1,451,502.00
|
|
South
Eastern SD
|
$864,892.24
|
|
Southern
York County SD
|
$460,042.21
|
|
Spring
Grove Area SD
|
$892,731.28
|
|
|
$4,327,509.88
|
This morning there
are 67 bipartisan cosponsors on this bill; has your state representative
cosponsored HB526?
Has your state
senator cosponsored SB34?
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/bill_history.cfm?syear=2019&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=34
Pay close attention to House Bills 356 and 357. Tell your
legislator charter legislation that removes local authority and leaves out
funding reform has missed the mark! Visit our website to send a letter to your
legislator:
PSBA Website May
14, 2019
Tell your legislator to vote NO on charter bills
fast-tracked for a House vote
Significant concerns, expansion without oversight
Monday the House Education Committee reported out a package of four bills addressing various charter school issues. The package is expected to be positioned on a fast track, with a vote on the House floor to occur as early as this Wednesday, May 15. Unlike attempts in previous sessions to move one omnibus charter “reform” bill, the plan now is to separate issues into a series of bills and push the package as a whole. While PSBA supports two of the bills in the package, the other two present significant concerns and are not supported by PSBA.
Please contact your legislators in the House immediately and tell them to vote NO on the charter package.
Significant concerns, expansion without oversight
Monday the House Education Committee reported out a package of four bills addressing various charter school issues. The package is expected to be positioned on a fast track, with a vote on the House floor to occur as early as this Wednesday, May 15. Unlike attempts in previous sessions to move one omnibus charter “reform” bill, the plan now is to separate issues into a series of bills and push the package as a whole. While PSBA supports two of the bills in the package, the other two present significant concerns and are not supported by PSBA.
Please contact your legislators in the House immediately and tell them to vote NO on the charter package.
Find your State Representative’s Contact Info Here:
PSERS Board of Trustees adopts new defined contribution
retirement plan
PSERS PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release May 23, 2019
For More
Information Contact: Steve Esack Press Secretary Public School Employees’
Retirement System Phone: 717-720-4770 e-mail: stesack@pa.gov
HARRISBURG -- The
Board of Trustees of the PA Public School Employees' Retirement System [PSERS]
voted Thursday to adopt six resolutions that finalized its fiduciary and
operational rules for a new defined contribution retirement plan for school
employees hired on or after July 1, 2019. Each resolution was adopted
unanimously pursuant to changes the Board had to make to the system to abide by
a new Pennsylvania law, Act 5 of 2017. The act was the most significant change
to the plan design since PSERS began issuing benefits a century ago. “Today’s
Board votes officially mark the beginning of a new chapter in our long history,”
said PSERS Executive Director Glen Grell. “Our next generation of school
teachers and other employees hired after July 1 will have a new defined
contribution component to their retirement benefit. This is a significant
change for PSERS and our staff are working very hard to make this new System as
seamless as possible for the new incoming members and their future employers.”
“Parker said he understood the board had a lot
of bad options to choose from. The district has pointed to a significant
charter school tuition bill that has grown since it was $13.5 million in
2010-11. The board also approved two recent budgets with no tax increase,
meaning no additional revenue was coming into the district.”
Allentown School District looking at 3.5% tax hike, not
filling positions to reduce $21 million deficit
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO | THE MORNING CALL | MAY 23, 2019 | 9:49 PM
The Allentown
School District is considering a 3.5% tax hike and not filling about 50
positions, including 28 paraprofessionals, five teachers and three
psychologists, to help reduce the 2019-20′s deficit to $12 million. At a
special finance meeting Thursday, district officials said they are facing a $21
million deficit. Earlier this month, the district originally said its deficit
was at $18 million after the board
decided to take out a $10 million bond to close a deficit in this current school year’s budget due
mostly to spending more on salaries than was budgeted. But after a possible
increase in charter school tuition, the district now projected its deficit to
be $21 million. Charter school tuition is projected at $63 million. The
district gave the board some options that would reduce the deficit to $12
million in a $347 million budget. Those options include raising taxes by 3.5%
that will bring in an extra $3.5 million in revenue. A taxpayer with a home
valued at $110,000 would pay an extra $76 annually in property taxes.
Eastern York School District to raise tax rates to
near-max cap
Lancaster Online by
CHRIS A. COUROGEN | LNP Correspondent May 24, 2019
As anticipated,
property taxes will increase in Eastern York School District. Under the terms
of the 2019-20 budget passed May 16 by the school board, the real estate tax
rate will increase by 0.71 mills, just shy of the state’s tax cap. Property
taxes in the district are currently set at 23.98 mills. For a property assessed
at $122,000, the district average, that equates to $2,925 in taxes. That bill
would increase $88 if taxes go up 0.72 mills, the maximum allowed under the
state index formula. The increased property tax rate is expected to generate
close to $750,000 in additional revenue for the $47.5 million spending plan.
Overall, spending in the district will be up around 4.4% from 2018-19 levels.
All other district taxes remain the same. Earlier in the budget process, the
district was anticipating having a deficit of more than $100,000, even with the
maximum indexed tax increase. District business manager Teresa Weaver said in
an emailed response that in the end no programs or positions needed to be cut
because “the district’s local revenue estimates were higher than originally
anticipated.”
Octorara Area eyes lower real estate tax increase
Lancaster Online by
MARCELLA PEYRE-FERRY | LNP Correspondent May 24, 2019
Octorara Area
School District business manager Jeff Curtis advised the board May 20 he will
have a revised version of the 2019-20 budget ready next month, using a real
estate tax rate increase of 2.1%. In April, the board approved a proposed final
budget in the amount of $56.66 million using the full 2.9% tax increase allowed
under the state’s Act 1 index this year. That spending plan also uses about
$500,000 from the district fund balance to balance the budget. After discussion
at the finance committee preceding the full board meeting, Curtis was directed
to prepare an alternative version of the budget using the lower tax increase.
The board will also consider possible budget reduction strategies to be
implemented in the new school year. Curtis also reported that figures are in
for the homestead/farmstead reduction for the coming year. In both Lancaster
and Chester counties, eligible property owners will receive a reduction of $269
from their property tax bills. The board will review the revised budget in June
with final budget adoption set for the board’s June 17 meeting.
“The list of all
selected schools, districts, colleges and universities, as well as their
nomination packages, can be found here. A report with highlights on the 53 honorees can be
found here. More information on the federal recognition award can
be found here. Resources for all schools to move toward the three
Pillars can be found here.”
U.S. Department of Education Names EH 2019 Green Ribbon
School
Pine Creek Journal by
Rachel Hathhorn Thursday, May 23, 2019 | 1:14 PM
The U.S. Department
of Education announced today that Eden Hall Upper Elementary School in
Gibsonia, Pennsylvania is among the 2019 U.S. Department of Education Green
Ribbon Schools award honorees. Eden Hall Upper Elementary School was nominated
by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Students at Eden Hall have an
environment rich in learning opportunities, and they regularly participate in
activities that are focused on engaging in a healthy and sustainable
environment. Sustainable features include natural lighting through skylights;
plants and trees native to Pennsylvania on the school grounds; no-mow native
grasses on the grounds; heat-reclaiming devices for efficiency; room sensors to
monitor and control carbon dioxide, lighting, and heat; wood paneling to keep
noise down; and a maker roof to reflect heat. Together, these features allow
for excellent learning programs that provide students at EHUES with the
knowledge and experiences to have healthy bodies, healthy minds, and a healthy
environment as they learn and grow.
Transgender issue possibly why Elanco school board
members Rodney Jones and Melissa Readman weren't on Tuesday's primary ballot
Lancaster Online by
ALEX GELI | Staff
Writer May24, 2019
Perhaps the most
notable names on Tuesday’s Republican primary ballot in Eastern Lancaster
County were those that were missing. Rodney Jones and Melissa Readman, two
incumbents with 16 years of combined school board experience, did not run for
re-election this year. Their votes against
a student privacy policy that
would force transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that adhere
to their biological sex may be the reason why. Neither Jones nor Readman earned
the local Republican Party’s endorsement, despite being endorsed in previous
elections. The committee instead chose five who support separation by
biological sex. “I’m upset. I’m angry,” Jones said. “I don’t believe that the
local Republican committee reflects the views of the community in its
entirety.” While area party chair Chris Buck said endorsement decisions weren’t
based on a single issue, the biological sex debate “certainly played a role in
whether a candidate was endorsed or not endorsed.”
Elanco school board to forge ahead with controversial
student privacy policy following primary
Lancaster Online by
ALEX GELI | Staff
Writer May 24,
2019
If the Eastern
Lancaster County community hasn’t made its conservative values clear in the
past, it certainly has now. All five Republican-endorsed candidates for school
board earned
GOP nominations in
Tuesday’s primary. The group, which has taken a unified stand against allowing
transgender students access to the
bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice, defeated the lone Democrat who
cross-filed on both parties’ ballots, Bryan Hower. “It’s
nothing surprising,” Hower said. “I mean, the results fit the community. I was
glad to be a part of the process and be a voice for the 7% or 8% of the vote I
got myself.” While Hower will appear on the Democratic ticket in November’s
general election, he faces an uphill battle in a mostly ultra-conservative
community. That leaves
conservative-leaning school board members, and the Republican candidates that
are all but shoo-ins, to focus on implementing the policy, including the
controversial biological sex provision, next school year.
The SAT’s new ‘adversity score’ is a poor fix for a
problematic test | Opinion
By Leigh Patel Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor May 23, 2019
Leigh Patel
is the Associate Dean for Equity and Justice at the University of Pittsburgh.
She wrote this piece for The
Conversation,
where it first appeared.
The College Board
recently revealed a new “adversity score” that it plans to use as part of the SAT in order to reflect
students’ social and economic background. The mere fact that the College Board
sees a need for an “adversity score” is a tacit admission that the SAT isn’t
fair for all students. But will the new score – formally called the
Environmental Context Dashboard – truly capture the challenges that students
face? As an education
researcher who
focuses on matters of equity, I believe the new adversity score will be an
inadequate remedy for a test that has been inequitable from the start. Here’s
why.
SAT announcement reflects an appreciation for grit |
Opinion
Penn Live Opinion By
Thomas Charlton Posted May 23, 9:57 AM
Thomas Charlton is
Chairman and CEO of Goliath Technologies, a Philadelphia-based software
company.
Last week’s
announcement that the SAT will now incorporate social and economic factors into
its scoring sparked a national conversation. While I will leave it to the
college admissions officers to determine the validity of the new scoring or
even the value of the test, I do think the recognition of the role adversity
plays in determining the potential of a person to succeed is timely and
necessary. Over the past few decades our country has placed more and more
emphasis on academic scoring and degrees as indicators of success. As CEO of a
technology company and two decades in executive leadership, I’ve learned that
personality traits are equally important to skill sets. When making hiring
decisions, I dig deeper to identify habits and characteristics that indicate a
strong performance drive and work ethic.
Counselors Blast College Board's Plan to Assign Students
a 'Disadvantage' Score
Education Week By Catherine Gewertz May 20, 2019
The College Board's
plan to expand a program that’s designed to help colleges see students’ SAT
performance more fairly, by scoring students’ high schools and neighborhoods by
“level of disadvantage,” has rattled college counselors and reignited
decades-old debates about how college admission decisions are made. As soon as
news broke last week that 150 colleges and universities would pilot the testing
organization’s “Environmental
Context Dashboard” next
fall—three times the number that used it in 2018-19—counselors were juggling
phone calls from parents and jumping into debates on Twitter and Facebook. The
conversations took on an added charge since they come at a time when parents
and counselors are particularly on edge about fairness in admissions.
Persistent underrepresentation of black, Latino, and low-income students on
elite campuses, a trial that showcased preferences for the children of alumni
and big donors in Harvard’s admission policies, and a spectacular
college-admissions bribery prosecution have all turned up the volume on the debate.
For sale on Craigslist: 1 central Pa. high school,
slightly used
Penn Live By Megan Lavey-Heaton
| mheaton@pennlive.com Updated May
23, 4:34 PM; Posted May 23, 3:22 PM
The senior
class of 2019 listed Carlisle High School for sale on Craigslist.
If you ever wanted
to own a high school, now is your chance ... at
least until Craigslist pulls the listing (update: which it has, but don’t worry. We uploaded a screenshot of it for you.) The class of 2019
decided that the solution to Carlisle Area School District’s $3 million deficit
is to list the school for sale on Craigslist, all faculty and staff included.
Photos included showed off the campus and the “sexy head principal” included in
the listing.
PDE announces additional school safety grant awards
PSBA Website POSTED
ON MAY 23, 2019 IN PSBA NEWS
The Pennsylvania
Department of Education (PDE) announced the awarding of an additional $919,000 in Safe Schools Targeted
grants to 39 school districts to purchase safety and security-related
equipment. This is in addition to the other PDE and Pennsylvania Commission on
Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) school safety grants awarded in 2018-19. A downloadable
PDF of the
complete list of 2018-19 school safety grant awards is available on
the School Safety webpage under Issues on PSBA.org.
Examine how your school district’s budget compares with
state averages
PSBA Website POSTED
ON MAY 22, 2019 IN PSBA NEWS
Each year, PSBA
compiles a budget study designed to help school officials as they prepare to
submit the annual school budget to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.
The figures used are actual budget figures for the 2017-18 school year as
reported in the annual financial report (PDE form 2057) for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 2018. This study provides school district state average per
pupil and state average percent for expenditures and revenues. It is based on
summaries of annual financial report data prepared by the Pennsylvania
Department of Education. To request a PDF copy, email research-info@psba.org, or read it online.
Philadelphia Inquirer offers buyouts to employees citing
declining revenues
Inquirer by Harold Brubaker, Updated: May 23, 2019- 5:04 PM
Citing declining
revenues, Philadelphia Media Network, which publishes The Inquirer, the Daily
News, and Philly.com, on Thursday announced buyouts aimed at eliminating 30 union jobs in the
newsroom and other departments, plus an unspecified number of nonunion jobs. The
buyout will be offered to about 140 employees, including 117 members of the
NewsGuild of Greater Philadelphia, which represents journalists, plus those who
work in advertising sales, finance, and other departments, the company said.
The union said the company’s target is 10 percent of its 302 full-time members.
“We wish we didn’t have to make these
tough choices, but these are the economic realities of journalism in 2019,”
Terrance C.Z. Egger, Philadelphia Media Network’s publisher and chief
executive, said in a statement. The news organization is a for-profit
enterprise owned by a nonprofit, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism.
https://www.philly.com/business/philadelphia-inquirer-daily-news-buyouts-media-network-20190523.html
DeVos becoming popular target for Democrats in 2020 race
New Castle News By
COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer May 23, 2019
Sen. Elizabeth
Warren calls Betsy DeVos the "worst secretary of education we've
seen." Sen. Amy Klobuchar says DeVos "shouldn't be in her job."
Beto O'Rourke's take on DeVos: "We can do better." In the hunt for a
presidential nomination, those Democrats and others are increasingly taking
swings at DeVos as a way to energize supporters, jostle for attention and curry
favor with the nation's major teachers unions, which claim millions of voters among
their members. Over the last two months, candidates have gone after DeVos at
campaign rallies, during TV appearances and in policy proposals. They have used
her name to get a rise out of crowds at events from Las Vegas to Virginia.
DeVos herself has become as much of an issue as any education policy,
attracting more attention than most other members of President Donald Trump's
administration. "When you look across the Cabinet, there really isn't
anyone else who has driven engagement at a personal level in the same way she
has," said Mike Spahn, a managing director at Precision Strategies, a
political consulting firm that works with Democrats. "She's the one who
draws the most negativity." So far at least six candidates have publicly
opposed DeVos, often as they offer their own pledges to support public schools
and raise pay for teachers across the country.
“The final
version of the bill is $11.5 billion over the next two-year fiscal period --
increasing classroom spending by $4.5 billion, lowering property taxes by $5
billion and increasing teacher salaries by $2 billion.”
Texas House and Senate strike deal on bill to fund
schools, teacher pay raises, tax relief
Dallas News Written
by Rebekah Allen,
Texas government reporter May23, 2019
AUSTIN -- Texas's
top elected officials have struck a deal on the priority legislative issues of
increasing school funding, giving teachers raises and delivering property tax
relief. At a Thursday afternoon press conference, with four days left in
the legislative session, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House
Speaker Dennis Bonnen -- flanked by the lawmakers who crafted the school
and property tax bills -- announced the House and the Senate had smoothed
over their differences to deliver final legislation that will be passed
into law by Monday. The final version of the bill is $11.5 billion over the
next two-year fiscal period -- increasing classroom spending by $4.5 billion,
lowering property taxes by $5 billion and increasing teacher salaries by $2
billion. "I made some pretty bold promises to the people of
Texas," Abbott said. "I said we must reward teachers and
school districts that achieve results, we've done that. I said we must
prioritize spending in the classroom. We've done that." "I said
we will do what no one thought possible. We will finally fix school finance in
Texas. And I'm proud to tell you today we are announcing that we have done
exactly that."
PA Schools Work Capitol Caravan Days Wed. June 5th
and Tues. June 18th
If you couldn’t
make it to Harrisburg last week, it’s not too late. We are getting down to the
wire. In a few short weeks, the budget will likely be passed. Collectively, our
voices have a larger impact to get more funding for Pennsylvania’s students.
Legislators need to hear from you!
Public Citizens for
Children and Youth (PCCY) will be at the Capitol on Wednesday, June 5th and
Tuesday, June 18th for our next PA Schools
Work caravan days. We’d love to have you join us on these
legislative visits. For more details about the caravans and to sign up, go
to: www.pccy.org/k12caravan . Please call Tomea Sippio-Smith at (O) 215-563-5848, ext. 36
or (C) 215-667-9421 or Shirlee Howe at (O) 215-563-5848, ext. 34 or (C)
215-888-8297 with any questions or specific requests for legislative
meetings.
Do you have strong communication and leadership skills and a vision for
PSBA? Members interested in becoming the next leaders of PSBA are encouraged
to submit an Application for Nomination no later than
May 31 to PSBA's Leadership Development Committee (LDC).
The nomination process: All persons seeking nomination for elected
positions of the Association shall file with the Leadership Development
Committee chairperson an Application for Nomination (.PDF) on a form to be
provided by the Association expressing interest in the office sought. The
Application for nomination shall be marked received at PSBA Headquarters or
mailed first class and postmarked no later than the application deadline
specified in the timeline established by the Governing Board to be considered
timely-filed.” (PSBA
Bylaws, Article IV, Section 6.E.). Application Deadline: May 31, 2019
Open positions are:
- 2020
President-Elect (one-year term)
- 2020 Vice
President (one-year term)
- 2020-22
Central At-Large Representative – includes Sections 2, 3, 6, and
7 (three-year term)
- 2020-21
Sectional Advisors – includes Sections 1, 3, 5 and 7 (two-year term)
PSBA Tweet March 12,
2019 Video Runtime: 6:40
In this installment of #VideoEDition, learn about legislation
introduced in the PA Senate & House of Representatives that would save
millions of dollars for school districts that make tuition payments for their
students to attend cyber charter schools.http://ow.ly/RyIM50n1uHi
PSBA Summaries of Senate Bill 34 and House Bill 526
PSBA Sample Board Resolution in Support of Statewide
Cyber Charter School Funding Reform
PSBA Sample Board Resolution in Support of Senate Bill 34
and House Bill 256
How much could your school district and taxpayers save if
there were statewide flat tuition rates of $5000 for regular ed students and
$8865 for special ed.? See the estimated savings by school district here.
Education Voters PA
Website February 14, 2019
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/bill_history.cfm?syear=2019&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=34
Has your state representative cosponsored HB526?
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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