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,
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
In the last three
school years, 12 of the state’s 14 cyber charter schools spent more than $21
million combined in taxpayer dollars promoting their schools
Political Cartoon: Reparations? For what?
Inquirer by Signe Wilkinson Updated: June 23, 2019 - 5:00 AM
Three centuries of
slavery, then another century of lynchings, cross burnings, redlining, and
discrimination lasting until today. The issue of reparations is debatable as a
means of making amends for systemic inequality, but we at least need to
recognize the inequality and injustice that got us here and still lingers.
Nowhere is it more infuriatingly evident than in the differences in public
schools for the wealthy and the poor, particularly poor black students. Fair
and equitable funding for all students would be one place to start.
Reprise Aug. 2017: Pa. charter schools spend millions of
public dollars in advertising to attract students
Public Source By
Stephanie Hacke and Mary Niederberger AUG. 29, 2017
PART OF THE SERIES The Charter Effect|
If you’re a parent,
it’s likely Facebook knows it.
If you’re not happy
with your child’s current school, Facebook probably knows that, too. And you
are likely to be hit with paid, highly targeted ads offering alternatives.
That’s why when you scroll through your news feed on Facebook you may see a
sponsored photo of a wide-eyed child and parent thrilled about their
tuition-free, personalized education at a Pennsylvania cyber charter school. If
you pay property taxes, you likely paid for this ad campaign. See the ad on the
side of the Port Authority bus that shows happy students and a message that
Propel Montour High School has spaces available in grades 9 and 10. Your
property taxes paid for that, too. Television ads, radio promotions, social
media ads and billboards promoting cyber and brick-and-mortar charter schools
are everywhere. Some charter operators pay for online keyword searches that
prompt their school’s websites to show up first when a parent searches for
certain terms related to charter schools or a student’s need for an alternative
education setting. In the last three school years, 12 of
the state’s 14 cyber charter schools spent more than $21 million combined in
taxpayer dollars promoting their schools, PublicSource found through
Right-to-Know requests. The Commonwealth Charter Academy spent the most of the
cyber charters on advertising; it spent $3.2 million in 2015-16 and $4.4
million in 2016-17.
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.
In 2016-17, taxpayers in Senate Education Cmte Majority Chairman .@SenLangerholc’s districts had to send over $10.5.3 million to chronically
underperforming cybers that their locally elected school boards never
authorized. . #SB34 (Schwank) or #HB526 (Sonney) could change that.
Data source: PDE
via PSBA
|
Bedford
Area SD
|
$195,903.70
|
|
Blacklick
Valley SD
|
$172,928.49
|
|
Cambria
Heights SD
|
$171,102.13
|
|
Central
Cambria SD
|
$147,481.76
|
|
Chestnut
Ridge SD
|
$334,862.00
|
|
Claysburg-Kimmel
SD
|
$108,164.64
|
|
Clearfield
Area SD
|
$847,317.65
|
|
Conemaugh
Valley SD
|
$277,810.82
|
|
Curwensville
Area SD
|
$165,465.87
|
|
Dubois
Area SD
|
$781,498.59
|
|
Everett
Area SD
|
$352,172.57
|
|
Ferndale
Area SD
|
$231,971.23
|
|
Forest
Hills SD
|
$248,609.94
|
|
Glendale
SD
|
$157,426.86
|
|
Greater
Johnstown SD
|
$2,532,971.00
|
|
Harmony
Area SD
|
$127,540.41
|
|
Moshannon
Valley SD
|
$200,674.93
|
|
Northern
Bedford County SD
|
$225,181.66
|
|
Northern
Cambria SD
|
$251,658.09
|
|
Penn
Cambria SD
|
$428,637.20
|
|
Philipsburg-Osceola
Area SD
|
$697,580.57
|
|
Portage
Area SD
|
$182,599.03
|
|
Purchase
Line SD
|
$358,211.18
|
|
Richland
SD
|
$264,415.85
|
|
Tussey
Mountain SD
|
$253,595.93
|
|
West
Branch Area SD
|
$323,061.45
|
|
Westmont
Hilltop SD
|
$0.00
|
|
Windber
Area SD
|
$467,326.78
|
|
|
$10,506,170.33
|
Has your state
senator cosponsored bipartisan SB34?
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billInfo/bill_history.cfm?syear=2019&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=34
Is your state
representative one of the over 70 bipartisan cosponsors of HB526?
WHYY Radio Times: Cyber charter schools
Air Date: Friday June 21, 2019 10:00 am; Runtime 49:15
Guests: Margaret Raymond, Susan Spicka, David Hardy
A new study shows
that many students enrolled in Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools are not
getting a quality education. A quarter of Pennsylvania’s charter school
students use these virtual learning programs as an alternative to attending
brick-and-mortar schools. Today, we’ll hear about the damning report, the pros
and cons of digital classrooms, and what the future holds for these types of
programs. Joining us will be MARGARET RAYMOND, founding director of the organization, CREDO, that released the report,
as well as SUSAN SPICKA of
Education Voters of PA, and DAVID HARDY, executive director of Excellent Schools Pa, a school choice advocacy
organization.
PA's year-end surplus is official. But it won't last
long.
WITF Written
by Katie Meyer,
Capitol Bureau Chief | Jun
21, 2019 6:52 PM
(Harrisburg) -- State lawmakers now have the
official report on the money Pennsylvania netted this fiscal year. As expected,
there's a surplus. But it won't go nearly as far as some officials have hoped. The Independent Fiscal
Office said Friday
that the commonwealth can count on ending the year with $910 million to spare.
That's a jump from their initial estimate of $866 million in May. But the number dwindles when factoring in
the amount the state overspent--$548 million dollars. Governor Tom Wolf said it
mostly comes from unexpected Medicaid costs. Lawmakers also tried to transfer
$200 million dollars from a state-created medical malpractice insurer for the third year in a row. But that money is tied up in court, so it'll be made up
with back-payments from the coming fiscal year. That leaves around $162 million
dollars. Wolf said he doesn't want to spend it.
"I agree with the Republicans that we ought to put that into the
rainy day fund--into our cookie jar," he said. A spokesman for Wolf noted,
since budget negotiations aren't yet final, the exact dollar amount that ends
up in the rainy day fund could change. Some Democrats have suggested other
approaches--like putting surplus dollars into an emergency fund for school repairs. Wolf said he doesn't think there's enough left
over to make a difference, and maintains the state should fund infrastructure in other ways.
Budget pressure,
policy agendas collide in Pennsylvania ahead of deadline
Pottstown Mercury By
MARC LEVY Associated Press June 23, 2019
HARRISBURG (AP) —
Toil on a $34 billion budget package in Pennsylvania's Capitol is barreling
into the final week of the fiscal year, as top lawmakers rush to wrap up
closed-door budget talks, score some pet victories and send rank-and-filers
home for the summer. The main objective is extending the state's spending
authority for another 12 months, doing it on time and without the sort of long
partisan fight that marked the first three years of power-sharing between
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature. Broad
outlines about the package are known, but many details remain under wraps,
withheld even from rank-and-file lawmakers. "This has been one
closed-lipped budget," said Rep. Dan Moul, R-Adams. The next few days also
will be crucial to the policy agendas of Wolf and top lawmakers, as they rushed
to use the deadline pressure of budget negotiations to strike deals.
Pa’s public schools
need our help. Gov. Tom Wolf was right to veto private school tax credit bill |
Opinion
By Susan Spicka Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor June 20,
2019
It’s budget season
in Harrisburg. At a time of year when we should be talking about funding to
meet public schools’ needs, instead we’ve been hearing more about massive
giveaways of taxpayer dollars to well-off families who send their children to
private schools. The Pennsylvania House and Senate passed legislation sponsored
by House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, allowing for a
massive expansion, from $110 million to $210 million, of the Educational Improvement Tax Credit. The two-decade-old
program provides tax credits to businesses and other organizations that fund
scholarship aid for religious and private schools. A built-in,10 percent annual
increase in EITC funding in Turzai’s bill would have brought the total annual
funding for the EITC program to an eye-popping $544 million in just 10 years. Gov.
Tom Wolf vetoed the legislation, and he was correct to do this. The EITC
program, and its partner, the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC)
program, are intentionally designed to provide taxpayer-funded
private/religious school tuition vouchers to well-off families that are already
comfortably paying their children’s private school tuition.
Lawmakers, Wolf need
to fix Pennsylvania’s charter school funding imbalance | Opinion
By Jay Himes Capital-Star Op-Ed
Contributor June 18,
2019
The Pennsylvania
House of Representatives recently passed a package of charter school reform
bills without considering amendments addressing the most important charter
school reform issue—funding. While debate heated up between supporters and
opponents of the bills, no matter what side of the issue you’re on, we can all
agree that all students need access to a high quality education. Our concerns
are not whether charter schools are good or bad. Instead, our concern is how
current state policy funds charter schools and the financial impact that
current policy has on all of our school districts, taxpayers and students. The
entire burden of funding charter schools falls on school districts and local
taxpayers. Last year, 37 cents of every additional dollar raised in property
taxes went to pay the increasing cost of charter school tuition, which grew
by 10 percent. If the Legislature fails to recognize and resolve the
impact of mandated charter school costs on school districts and taxpayers,
public education funding will become even more serious a problem down the road.
In fact, for school districts across the state, this problem has already
started and is forcing them into real fiscal distress.
Pa.’s charter school package doesn’t count as real reform
| Opinion
Bernie O’Neill, for the Inquirer Updated: June 19, 2019 - 1:01 PM
Bernie
O’Neill is the former Republican state representative for Bucks County.
If you weren’t
worried about the rising cost of public education before now — you should be.
If Pennsylvania passes the charter bills currently in the state Senate, expect
more of the same: higher school taxes and disappointing news on school
performance. Last week, the Pa. House passed a set
of bills proffered
to “fix”
Pennsylvania’s charter school
law. Yet the
bills fail to address necessary charter school funding reform, and two of the
bills (HB 356 and 357) specifically allow charters to expand without adequate
oversight. In fact, a proposed amendment to the package that would have
required a rigorous charter accountability system failed by a vote of 100-99.
Harrisburg — what are you thinking? Just last week, Stanford University’s
Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) released a study on charter school performance in Pennsylvania that should be
sounding alarms in the minds of legislators across the state. Despite decades
of investments, Pennsylvania’s charter school students aren’t showing the
results promised or hoped for. Student reading performance is similar for
charters and traditional public schools, and in math, charter school students are
doing worse than their public school peers.
Pa. needs more money
for public schools. Not tax credits for private schools | Opinion
By Lawrence Feinberg Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor June 15,
2019
With the
Legislature’s recent passage, and
Gov. Tom Wolf’s looming veto, of a bill that nearly doubles tax credits for private and religious
school by 90 percent, it struck me that there might be value in revisiting our
Pennsylvania constitution for some context.
Article III,
Section 14 of the state’s foundational document reads like this: “The
General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough
and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the
Commonwealth.”
Then there’s
Article III, Section 15: “No money raised for the support of the public
schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of
any sectarian school.”
And, for good
measure, Article VI, Section 3: “Senators, Representatives and all judicial,
State and county officers shall, before entering on the duties of their
respective offices, take and subscribe the following oath or affirmation before
a person authorized to administer oaths. “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that
I will support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the
Constitution of this Commonwealth and that I will discharge the duties of my
office with fidelity.”
Using the
Pennsylvania General Assembly’s own Basic Education Funding Formula, it is
estimated that 52 percent of our public school students are attending school
districts that are underfunded. That’s over 893,000 students on a “waiting
list” – waiting for the Legislature to fund that formula and fulfill its
constitutional obligation to “provide for the maintenance and support of a
thorough and efficient system of public education”.
Increasing minimum salary can help to solve the teacher
shortage | Opinion
Alan Malachowski, For the Inquirer Updated: 12 minutes ago
Alan M. Malachowski
is a music teacher in the North Penn School District and a member of the
Council for the Advancement of Public Schools (CAPS).
Over the past 30
years, the cost of living has risen, college tuition has soared, and the
education profession has changed dramatically. Yet Pennsylvania’s minimum teacher
salaryhas remained
on the books at $18,500 per year, unchanged in the school code since 1989. Now
there is a legislative proposal, recommended and supported by Gov. Tom
Wolf, to
raise the minimum salary across the state to $45,000. Why is this so important? There was a time when the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania issued more
than 14,000 licenses to new teachers each year. In the last few years, that number has dropped to fewer than 5,000.
Pennsylvania, like other states around the country (which other states?), is
experiencing a chronic shortage of certified teachers, not only in our urban
areas, but here in Bucks and Montgomery Counties as well. What’s more, the
problem is most acute in the areas of math and science, which are critical to a
twenty-first century education, and special education, where the number of
students identified and needing services has increased dramatically over the
past 30 years. Exacerbating the situation is the fact that
up to 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession in the first five years. Experts estimate that the teacher attrition rate is about eight
percent annually, with higher rates in urban districts. We need to find ways to
not only recruit a diverse educator workforce, but to retain them in our
classrooms across the state.
Behrend gets $1 million grant to develop math teachers
GoErie by Ed
Palattella Posted Jun 23, 2019 at 2:00 AM
Penn State
faculty using National Science Foundation funding to work with Erie, Corry,
Iroquois, Northwestern districts.
Penn State Behrend
wants to add to the number of math teachers in Erie County and nationwide. It
has a big number to help reach its goal. Behrend received a $1 million grant
from the National Science Foundation to partner with the Erie School District
and three other school districts in the county to offset teacher shortages in
math. Over five years starting this coming school year, Behrend will use the
grant to develop what it calls “a pipeline of highly qualified mathematics
teachers who are committed to teaching in ‘high-need’ school districts.” The
initiative will include scholarships for Behrend students who will teach math
after graduation in high-need schools locally or across the country. The other
local school districts involved in the Behrend initiative are Corry Area,
Iroquois and Northwestern. The U.S. Department of Education defines a school as high need if it is in an area where a large number of
students live below the poverty line, where the turnover rate for teachers is
high or where a large number of teachers are “out-of-field,” or teaching
outside of the academic areas in which they were trained.
Your Guide to Education in the Democratic Debate: Charter
Schools, Teacher Pay, and Betsy DeVos
Education Week Politics
K12 Blog By Evie Blad on June 23, 2019 9:50 AM
The 2020
presidential election will turn on one issue: Education.
Just kidding. It
almost certainly won't.
But there's been
more talk of education and education-related issues in the Democratic primary
than in some past contests. Candidates have released competing proposals on
issues like raising federal education spending, addressing student debt, and
boosting teacher pay. And some have criticized charter schools. But education
is often left out of presidential debates or barely mentioned at all. Will it
come up in the Democrats' first debate this week? And if it does, what are the
issues candidates are most likely to comment on? Grab your popcorn and tune in
with the Politics K-12 team on our Twitter feed as we watch slates of ten
candidates tackle the issues on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Until then, study up on the
issues here.
The deadline to
submit a cover letter, resume and application is August 19,
2019.
Become a 2019-2020 PSBA Advocacy Ambassador
PSBA is seeking
applications for two open Advocacy Ambassador positions. Candidates
should have experience in day-to-day functions of a school district,
on the school board, or in a school leadership position. The purpose of the
PSBA Advocacy Ambassador program is to facilitate the education and engagement
of local school directors and public education stakeholders through the
advocacy leadership of the ambassadors. Each Advocacy Ambassador will
be responsible for assisting PSBA in achieving its advocacy goals. To
achieve their mission, ambassadors will be kept up to date on current
legislation and PSBA positions on legislation. The current open
positions will cover PSBA Sections 3 and 4, and
Section 7.
PSBA Advocacy
Ambassadors are independent contractors representing PSBA and serve
as liaisons between PSBA and their local elected officials. Advocacy
Ambassadors also commit to building strong relationships with PSBA members with
the purpose of engaging the designated members to be active and committed
grassroots advocates for PSBA’s legislative priorities.
PSBA: Nominations for The Allwein Society are open!
This award program
recognizes school directors who are outstanding leaders & advocates on
behalf of public schools & students. Nominations are accepted year-round
with selections announced early fall: http://ow.ly/CchG50uDoxq
EPLC is accepting
applications for the 2019-20 PA Education Policy Fellowship Program
Education Policy & Leadership Center
PA's premier education policy leadership program for education, policy
& community leaders with 582 alumni since 1999. Application with program
schedule & agenda are at http://www.eplc.org
2019 PASA-PSBA School
Leadership Conference Oct. 16-18, 2019
WHERE: Hershey Lodge and
Convention Center 325 University Drive, Hershey, PA
WHEN: Wednesday, October
16 to Friday, October 18, 201
Registration is now open!
Growth from knowledge acquired. Vision inspired by innovation. Impact
created by a synergized leadership community. You are called upon to be the
drivers of a thriving public education system. It’s a complex and challenging
role. Expand your skillset and give yourself the tools needed for the
challenge. Packed into two and a half daysꟷꟷgain access to top-notch education
and insights, dynamic speakers, peer learning opportunities and the latest
product and service innovations. Come to the PASA-PSBA School Leadership
Conference to grow!
NPE Action National
Conference - Save the Date - March 28-29, 2020 in Philadelphia, PA.
The window is now open for workshop proposals for the Network for Public
Education conference, March 28-29, 2020, in Philadelphia. I hope you all sign
on to present on a panel and certainly we want all to attend. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NBCNDKK
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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