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PA Ed Policy Roundup Sept. 18, 2019
New Report: Cyber
Charter Waste Grows to $290 Million in Taxpayer Money Annually
Education
Voters PA Published by EDVOPA on September 16, 2019
Philadelphia can’t
impose conditions on charter operator seeking to open middle school, state
appeal board rules
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison September 17, 2019
A powerful state
board decided on Tuesday that the Philadelphia school district, home to more
charter schools than any other public school system in the state, cannot impose
conditions on a charter school operator before allowing it to open a new campus
in the city. The five-member Charter School Appeal Board voted
unanimously during its brief meeting at Pennsylvania Department of Education
headquarters in Harrisburg on Tuesday to grant an appeal filed by Franklin
Towne Charter Schools, which currently operates two public charter schools in
Philadelphia. The decision repeals the conditions that Philadelphia’s
School Reform Commission placed on Franklin Towne’s 2018 application to open a
middle school for 450 students. Tuesday’s vote by the appeal board took
place after just a few minutes of discussion among its members, all of whom
joined the meeting by phone. Board member Julie Cook, a teacher at
Souderton Charter School Collaborative in Montgomery County, said Philadelphia
district officials offered a “justified argument” against Franklin Towne’s
enrollment lottery, which critics say is unorthodox among Pennsylvania charter
schools. Nonetheless, Cook concluded that the charter school’s policies
were legal and that the conditions imposed by Philadelphia school officials
were “outside the bounds” of Pennsylvania’s charter school law, which was
passed in 1997. “I may personally wish the law were updated to address the
issues that this [case] brings forward, but this is not my role,” Cook said
before voting with her colleagues to grant the appeal.
In-house, charter
cyber schools at odds over funding
Johnstown Tribune
Democrat By Joe Sylvester jsylvester@dailyitem.com Sep 14, 2019
All Valley school
districts have their own cyber school programs, but the districts still spend
millions of dollars on outside cyber charter schools to educate their students.
In the most recent school year for which statewide data is available —
2017-2018 — Valley school districts sent more than $7 million to cyber schools
to educate all students, including children with special needs. Statewide, the
number is $519 million, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Valley
superintendents say they would love to expand their own cyber schools rather
than continue to pay more each year to private cyber schools. Patricia Leighow,
chief executive officer of Susq-Cyber Charter School, said, though, school
districts are spreading misinformation. Valley districts are shorting cyber
schools on the cost-per-student payment, she said. In a letter to taxpayers
last school year, the superintendents of school districts in the Central
Susquehanna Intermediate Unit — which covers 17 public school districts and
three technical schools — supported two bills in the state legislature, House
Bill 526 and Senate Bill 34 — that they say would save millions of dollars for
school districts that pay tuition payments for their students to attend cyber
charter schools. The bills would require parents to pay for their child’s
education in an outside cyber charter school if the school district where they
live offers a full-time cyber school.
Report: Cyber Charters Wasting Millions
Students in
Pennsylvania cyber charters lose 103 days of learning in reading and 118 days
of math compared with other students.
Public News Service
September 17, 2019
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A
new report says Pennsylvania is wasting $290 million on cyber charter schools
each year. The
report, from
Education Voters of Pennsylvania, says cyber charters are paid based on what
the districts pay per student in brick-and-mortar schools, not on the actual
cost of educating them at home on a computer. In one 2-year period, the total
paid to cyber charters rose by more than $54 million, but nearly half was from
increasing average tuition, not increased enrollment. According to Education
Voters executive
director Susan Spicka, last year school districts paid cyber charters more than
$500 million. "In every corner of the Commonwealth, school districts are
raising taxes to pay these increasing cyber charter bills. And they're also
cutting programs and they're not making new investments in students,” Spicka
said. Cyber charter schools say they receive only 71% of the amount spent
per-student in regular schools while being required to educate students to the
same standards. But Spicka cited a recent study that found cyber charter
students in the state lose an average of 106 days of learning in reading and
118 days of learning in math each year compared with other students. "Most
of them fall further and further behind their peers who are in district
schools,” she said. “And so, Pennsylvanians are paying over half a billion
dollars for cyber school failure."
Education Week November 2016
With growing evidence that the nation's cyber
charter schools are plagued by serious academic and management problems, Education
Week conducted a months-long investigation into what is happening in
this niche sector of K-12 schooling. The result is a deep-dive account of
what's wrong with cyber charters. Education Week uncovered
exclusive data on how rarely students use the learning software at Colorado’s
largest cyber charter, the questionable management practices in online
charters, and how lobbying in scores of states helps keep the sector growing.
Charter School Supporters Rally Against Gov. Wolf’s
Reform Proposals
WENY Monday,
September 16th 2019, 4:22 PM EDT by Cody Carlson
Harrisburg, PA
(WENY)-- Parents and students of Pennsylvania’s Charter Schools filled the
Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg Monday to voice their opposition to Governor
Wolf’s proposals to overhaul the charter school system. In August, Governor
Wolf took executive action by proposing reform to the Pennsylvania Charter
school system, calling current regulations flawed and outdated. Now, Charter
School officials are pushing back, saying these proposals would limit
educational opportunities for students. "District schools versus charter
schools, it’s not about that. It’s about the freedom to choose what is best for
their family and their child’s learning needs,” says Ana Meyers, Executive
Director of PA Coalition of Public Charter Schools. “If the Governor, and other
elected officials, seek to hold public charter schools more accountable, they
need to take steps to hold traditional school districts accountable,” Meyers
adds.
Local charter school pushing back against new proposals
by Gov. Wolf
FOX56 by Viktoria
Hallikaar Tuesday, September 17th 2019
WILKES-BARRE (WOLF)
— The only charter school in Luzerne County has joined others to fight
proposed changes by Governor Tom Wolf. He wants to strengthen accountability
and transparency of charter and cyber schools. Hundreds of people gathered in
Harrisburg Monday for a rally against a proposed overhaul of PA's current
charter school law. Among them, about 36 people, parents, grandparents, and
staff, from the Bear Creek Community Charter School. Bear Creek has 464
students in grades K through 8, from 12 school districts in three counties.
Many parents opting for this school because of the small school vibe and the
unique offerings like environmental education. "There's just so much more
to learn here than I feel there is in a public school," said Meghan
English, a parent of two kids at the school. Charters are technically public
schools, though admission is mainly through a lotto system. "Our concern
is is this is going to have a dramatic impact on school choice in Pennsylvania
and none of the parents or charter school advocates have paid any role,"
said Jim Smith, the chief executive officer at Bear Creek Community Charter
School.
York County districts forgoing charter tuition but
charters hit with fee
Lindsay C VanAsdalan, York
Dispatch Published 1:27 p.m. ET Sept. 17, 2019 | Updated 1:29 p.m. ET
Sept. 17, 2019
Four York County
school districts have not paid charter school tuition directly in at least
a year and the Pennsylvania Department of Education is picking up the
slack, a pro-charter financial consultant said. For instance, what started out
as a protest for South Western School District years ago turned to a
convenient alternative to making payments each month. And more than 150
districts across the state are also shirking payments that state taxpayers are
covering, said Ana Meyers, executive director of charter advocacy
organization PA Coalition for Public Charter Schools. "PDE acts as
the debt collector and pays the charter schools," said Michael Whisman, a
certified public accountant from independent educational consulting firm
Charter Choices, which has consulted with the coalition, in an email. Northern
York County, South Western, South Eastern and York City school districts made
no monthly payments from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019, he reported.
When tuition is not paid, charter schools dispute it and PDE redirects money
from the district's state funding to cover the costs.
Aspira sues Philly School District, board in charter
renewal fight
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Updated: September 17, 2019- 11:46 AM
Aspira Inc. of
Pennsylvania has sued the Philadelphia School District and its board over their
failure to renew the charter schools Aspira manages, leaving them in limbo for
years. The lawsuit, served on the district Monday, alleges the “interminably
long and fraught” charter
renewal process has
hurt Aspira financially and violated the Latino organization’s due-process and
contract rights. Aspira’s attorney said it could have “far-reaching
consequences" for how the district regulates Philadelphia’s 89 charter
schools, which educate 70,000, or one-third of the city’s public-school
students. It comes after the school board held nonrenewal hearings in March for
the Aspira-run Stetson and Olney schools, whose charters expired in 2015 and
2016 and were recommended for nonrenewal by the district for academic and
financial reasons. Since the hearings, the board has not acted to renew or
non-renew the schools. Stetson enrolls students in grades 5-8, and Olney, those
in high school.
Blogger note: Senator Folmer has also
been a long time member of the Senate Education Committee.
BREAKING: AG Josh
Shapiro brings child porn charges against state Sen. Mike Folmer
PA Capital Star By
Elizabeth Hardison| Stephen Caruso September 17, 2019
State Sen. Mike
Folmer, R-Lebanon, was charged with possession of child pornography after law
enforcement agents found images depicting “indecent contact with a minor” on
his cell phone, Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Tuesday night. The
charges come after law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security, executed a search warrant at Folmer’s Lebanon residence on
Tuesday, Shapiro’s office said in a statement released shorty after 9 p.m. The
officers were investigating a complaint the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children received from the blogging platform Tumblr, which reported
in February that a user had uploaded at least one image of “suspected child
pornography” to its website in December 2017.
Pa. must increase minimum teacher salary to prevent
looming educator shortage (opinion)
York Daily record Opinion by Timothy P.
Williams Published 1:01 p.m. ET Sept. 16, 2019
Timothy P. Williams, Ed. D., is
superintendent of the York Suburban School District.
If you have young
children or are thinking about starting a family, or if your own children are
starting families of their own, you should be very concerned. If you have no
school-aged children and Social Security is in your future, you should also be
very concerned. Pennsylvania is facing a crisis it has not faced in
decades: highly qualified classroom teachers are becoming scarce. As the number
of applicants for teaching positions continues to decline, schools consider
themselves fortunate if they have one or two applicants for certain positions. Data
recently released by the Pennsylvania Department of Education points to the
reason why school districts are finding it challenging to draw qualified, let
alone certified, candidates for their vacant positions. PDE’s data shows a
disturbing decline in the number of college graduates earning teaching
certificates. The downward trend is troubling for the future of the state and
the nation.
Meetings on English learners present an opportunity to
find answers and push for change
Starting
this evening and over the next two weeks, the District's Office of Multilingual
Curriculum and Programs will facilitate three meetings about EL education.
The notebook Commentary by Cheryl Micheau September 17, 2019
Starting this
evening and over the next two weeks, the School District of Philadelphia’s
Office of Multilingual Curriculum and Programs will facilitate three meetings
about English Learner (EL) education and the policy governing EL education
(Policy 138). At these meetings, parents, students, teachers and school administrators,
community members, and staff from organizations serving immigrants are invited
by the District to provide input on services for English Learners.
Participants may describe any linguistic, academic or cultural challenges faced
by English Learners and their families in the District, offer suggestions for
improvement in EL services, and make requests for assistance from the Office of
Multilingual Curriculum and Programs (OMCP). These meetings can serve as a test
case of the District and Board of Education’s stated goals of promoting
meaningful community participation, more open transparent communication, and
public accountability at a time when many advocates feel that these goals are
not being met. In reality, there are few opportunities for authentic two-way
conversations between community stakeholders and District administrators or
Board members.
Changing the status quo: Retailers should unite behind
Walmart gun stance
The retailing
giant has decided to halt sales of ammunition for assault-style rifles
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Pittsburgh Post-Gazette SEP 18, 2019 6:15 AM
Retailing giant
Walmart is doing its part to reduce gun violence, action that other stores
should follow and which should stoke an awakening in Congress to the need for
reasonable gun control measures in America. Walmart decided it would halt sales
of ammunition for assault-style rifles and handguns in its stores after its
current inventory is gone. The retail behemoth also asked customers not to
openly carry guns in its 4,700 U.S. stores and called upon federal lawmakers to
increase background checks for gun purchases and to consider a new assault
rifle ban. It was a bold move announced by Doug McMillon, Walmart’s chief
executive, who walked a careful line. Walmart isn’t stripping store shelves of
hunting rifles and shotguns or their ammunition or other gear for sports
shooters. But the retailer is giving up money. Its share of the ammunition
market, the company projects, will drop from 20 percent by one-half to
two-thirds.
Everything you need
to know about Pennsylvania’s gun laws and the debate to expand them
PA Capital Star By Sarah Anne Hughes September 17, 2019
The General
Assembly’s fall session officially kicks off today, and gun violence is
expected to be at the top of the agenda. A week from now, the Senate Judiciary
Committee will convene for two
days to
discuss “behavioral health, Second Amendment rights, and other gun related
issues.” The panel’s chairperson, Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, called the
hearings following mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas. Gun
violence will also be the first issue the Capital-Star tackles with our new
solutions-journalism series #PaForward. Over the next few months, we plan to
examine the problem, explore how people and groups are working to fix it, and
hold an event to bring stakeholders together. But we need your help. First,
check out our primer on the issue below to get up to date. Then, if you have a
question about gun violence, or know of a person or group doing important work
on this issue, use this form to let us know.
Information about the
education sessions for the 2019 @PasaSupts @PSBA School Leadership Conference are now live on our
website! We hope to see you there! #PASLC2019
What: Informal
discussion on cyber charter schools
When: 9 a.m.
refreshments, 9:30 a.m. panel, Oct. 7
Where: Central
Pennsylvania Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, 800 E. Park Ave., State College
AAUW State College
Branch invites you to attend an informational panel discussion to learn more
about background and issues connected with cyber charter schools. Join us on Oct.
7, at the Central Pennsylvania Convention and Visitors Bureau, 800 E. Park
Ave., State College (visitor center off Porter Road). Refreshments, 9 a.m.;
panel discussion, 9:30 a.m.
The American
Association of University Women State College Branch is part of a nationwide
network of about 1,000 branches that are dedicated to advancing equity for
women and girls.
Adolescent Health and
School Start Times: Science, Strategies, Tactics, & Logistics
Workshop Nov 13, Exton
Join school administrators and staff, including superintendents, transportation directors, principals, athletic directors, teachers, counselors, nurses, and school board members, parents, guardians, health professionals and other concerned community members for an interactive and solutions-oriented workshop on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Join school administrators and staff, including superintendents, transportation directors, principals, athletic directors, teachers, counselors, nurses, and school board members, parents, guardians, health professionals and other concerned community members for an interactive and solutions-oriented workshop on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Clarion Hotel in
Exton, PA
The science is clear. Many middle and high school days in Pennsylvania, and across the nation, start too early in the morning. The American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics, and many other major health and education leaders agree and have issued policy statements recommending that secondary schools start no earlier than 8:30 am to allow for sleep, health, and learning. Implementing these recommendations, however, can seem daunting. Discussions will include the science of sleep and its connection to school start times, as well as proven strategies for successfully making change--how to generate optimum community support and work through implementation challenges such as bus routes, athletics, and more. Register for the workshop here: https://ssl-workshop-pa.eventbrite.com Thanks to our generous sponsors, we are able to offer early bird registration for $25, which includes a box-lunch and coffee service. Seating is limited and early bird registration ends on Friday, September 13.
For more information visit the workshop website www.startschoollater.net/workshop---pa or email contact@startschoollater.net
The science is clear. Many middle and high school days in Pennsylvania, and across the nation, start too early in the morning. The American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control, American Academy of Pediatrics, and many other major health and education leaders agree and have issued policy statements recommending that secondary schools start no earlier than 8:30 am to allow for sleep, health, and learning. Implementing these recommendations, however, can seem daunting. Discussions will include the science of sleep and its connection to school start times, as well as proven strategies for successfully making change--how to generate optimum community support and work through implementation challenges such as bus routes, athletics, and more. Register for the workshop here: https://ssl-workshop-pa.eventbrite.com Thanks to our generous sponsors, we are able to offer early bird registration for $25, which includes a box-lunch and coffee service. Seating is limited and early bird registration ends on Friday, September 13.
For more information visit the workshop website www.startschoollater.net/workshop---pa or email contact@startschoollater.net
“Each member entity will have one vote
for each officer. This will require boards of the various school entities to
come to a consensus on each candidate and cast their vote electronically during
the open voting period (Aug. 23 – Oct. 11, 2019).”
PSBA Officer
Elections: Slate of Candidates
PSBA members
seeking election to office for the association were required to submit a
nomination form no later than June 1, 2019, to be considered. All candidates
who properly completed applications by the deadline are included on the slate
of candidates below. In addition, the Leadership Development Committee met on
June 15th at PSBA headquarters in Mechanicsburg to interview candidates.
According to bylaws, the Leadership Development Committee may determine
candidates highly qualified for the office they seek. This is noted next to
each person’s name with an asterisk (*).
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!
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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