Pages

Monday, November 18, 2019

PA Ed Policy Roundup for Nov. 18, 2019 Tuition vouchers will do more harm to Harrisburg’s recovering schools than good | Opinion


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

If any of your colleagues would like to be added to the email list please have them send their name, title and affiliation to KeystoneStateEdCoalition@gmail.com

PA Ed Policy Roundup for Nov. 18, 2019



PA Schools Work Webinar: Focusing on School Funding Advocacy
Tuesday November 19th 12:00 p.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Join us for an Education Advocacy Lunch & Learn webinar Tuesday at noon. It's a brief 30-min session on how to effectively communicate with your state legislators about doing more to support our schools, so that all #PASchoolsWork. Register below! http://register.createdacard.me/9zIdB



PA Capital Star By Kia Hansard, Carrie Fowler, and Jody Barksdale Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor November 17, 2019
Kia Hansard is the co-founder of Concerned About the Children of Harrisburg (CATCH), a community/parent group. Carrie Fowler is a member of the Harrisburg School Board. Jody Barksdale is a Harrisburg teacher and president of the Harrisburg Education Association.
For the first time in many years, the Harrisburg School District is on the right track. The district finally has the right administrative team and a supportive school board to turn things around after years of fiscal mismanagement by the prior administration. Challenges still lie ahead, but the path is clear now. Why then would we want to upend this progress and replace it with an untested tuition voucher program that will siphon millions of dollars in funding from Harrisburg’s financially distressed schools? That is what some lawmakers in Harrisburg, led by Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, want to do. Turzai has introduced House Bill 1800, which requires Harrisburg’s receiver, Dr. Janet Samuels, to establish a tuition voucher program for students in the district. Harrisburg has been in receivership for less than six months now. When Speaker Turzai first floated this voucher program in August, district officials rightly pointed out the proposal was ill-timed and could disrupt the district’s recovery process. Now, the proposal is set for a vote in the Pennsylvania House Education Committee on Monday and could get a full House vote soon after that. Lawmakers should defeat it. The legislation doesn’t give Dr. Samuels the option of creating a voucher program. It orders her to create one. The bill also forbids the district from putting any limits on the number of vouchers issued and even prevents officials from putting student accountability standards in place.

Tell Your State Representative to Oppose Voucher Bill HB1800
PA Council of Churches  by s.strauss@pachurches.org November 15, 2019
From Education Voters of Pennsylvania (http://www.educationvoterspa.org/):
State Representative Mike Turzai recently introduced a school voucher bill (House Bill 1800) that would create a costly school voucher experiment in the Harrisburg School District,  just when the district is beginning to recover from years of financial crisis. We expect the state House Education Committee to take up HB 1800 on Monday, November 18. It could see a full House vote later in the week. If HB 1800 passes, this expensive voucher program would drain up to $8.5 million out of the Harrisburg School District. The bill is also written in a way to expand vouchers to other school districts in Pennsylvania in the future.
Go to https://actionnetwork.org/letters/stop-hb-1800-the-school-voucher-bill to contact your state representative and ask him or her to OPPOSE House Bill 1800. Alternatively, you can contact them directly—find contact information at http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/index.cfm#address.
Rep. Turzai’s HB 1800 would provide tuition vouchers worth up to $8,200 to students in the Harrisburg School District, including students who are already enrolled in a private school and can afford to pay tuition without a taxpayer-funded subsidy.

“HB1800 is on the agenda for consideration by the House Education Committee on Monday, Nov. 18, with subsequent consideration by the full Pennsylvania House as soon as Thursday, Nov. 21. This bill would be a “camel’s nose under the tent.” Though funded by taxpayer dollars, it paves the way for future expansion of the program across the state – far from scrutiny and accountability by taxpayers. Public money is public money and it belongs in our public schools.”
Guest Column: Turzai’s ‘gold standard’ for education is lacking
Delco Times By Lawrence Feinberg Times Guest Columnist November 16, 2019
Lawrence A. Feinberg was just elected to serve his 6th four-year term as a locally elected volunteer school director in Haverford Township. He also serves as Co-Chair of the Delaware County School Boards Legislative Council.
The 2022 governor’s race has begun, and Pennsylvania House Speaker Mike Turzai wants to make it clear that he shares Betsy DeVos’ vision for privatization of public education. In a recent opinion piece Speaker Turzai touted our state “as a gold standard with respect to funding public school districts”, completely ignoring the fact that Pennsylvania is home to the widest per pupil funding gap between wealth and poor districts in the country. Under his leadership, the Pennsylvania Legislature has been negligent, willfully and deliberately ignoring the state’s historic gross inequity in the distribution of school funding and locking students in poorer districts into their underfunded and under-resourced predicament. A school funding lawsuit is pending, with the trial tentatively set to begin in summer 2020. In 2015-16, only 36.8 percent of aggregate education funding came from the state while 57.2 percent came from local sources, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Annual Financial Reports. The U.S. Census’ Annual Survey of School System Finances data from fiscal year 2015 ranks Pennsylvania 47th out of the 50 states in state support for public schools. Instead of addressing the funding issue, he has consistently and aggressively promoted anything but democratically governed public schools that are accountable to taxpayers. While he supported the Financial Recovery Act of 2012 setting in motion a plan for distressed school districts to get back on track, he is thwarting that effort by ensuring that such districts remain in financial distress.

“Turzai described the bill as a “pilot tuition grant program” upon introducing it in September, hinting at the possibility that it could be expanded to other parts of the state. The idea is scheduled for a vote Monday in the House Education Committee.”
GOP leaders want to pilot private school vouchers in Harrisburg
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent November 18, 2019
A bill introduced this fall by Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, would add a new branch to Pennsylvania’s school-choice tree — school vouchers.
Najmiah Roberson could be the poster mom for school choice in Pennsylvania.
The Harrisburg mother of three has children in three different schools — a Catholic school, a cyber charter school, and a non-denominational private school. And Roberson doesn’t pay a cent out of pocket, she says, thanks to scholarship money — some of it backed by state subsidies. She’s the beneficiary of a system that has made Pennsylvania a leader in expanding school choice. Still, she knows other parents who want to ditch their local public schools and can’t — either because they don’t qualify for existing state help or are stuck waiting in line for the limited supply of available assistance. “I have been that parent before,” said Roberson. “It was frustrating and scary.” A bill introduced this fall by Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, would add a new branch to Pennsylvania’s school-choice tree — school vouchers. Turzai’s bill is narrow in scope. It would allow parents living in the city of Harrisburg to use as much as $8,200 in taxpayer money toward private school tuition or the cost of attending another public school district. Half of that money would come out of the state’s annual subsidy to the Harrisburg City School District. The other half would be taken from local coffers. The Harrisburg City School District would still receive some state aid for students who opt to leave — about $4,000.

“Now, almost two centuries later, the mission is still the same: Fund pubic education fairly and equitably for all children.”
Thaddeus Stevens was right on education
Post-Gazette Letter by Kate Daher, Wilkinsburg NOV 18, 2019 12:00 AM
In response to Brian O’Neill’s Nov. 14 column, “City and Schools in a Fight Over Money,” we need only learn from Thaddeus Stevens, who served in the Pennsylvania state House before graduating to the U.S. Congress. During his time in the Legislature, Stevens wrote in defense of the Free Schools Act of 1834:
“Many complain of the school tax, not so much on account of its amount, as because it is for the benefit of others and not themselves. ... Why do they not urge the same objection against all other taxes? The industrious, thrifty, rich farmer pays a heavy county tax to support criminal courts, build jails, and pay the sheriffs and jailkeepers, and yet probably he never has had any direct personal use for either. ... He cheerfully pays the tax which is necessary to support and punish convicts, but loudly complains of that which goes to prevent his fellow being from becoming a criminal, and to obviate the necessity of those humiliating institutions. ...
“... I trust that when we come to act on this question, we shall all take the lofty ground — look beyond the narrow space which now circumscribes our vision — beyond the passing, fleeting point of time on which we stand; and so cast our votes that the blessing of education shall be conferred on every son of Pennsylvania, shall be carried home to the poorest child of the poorest inhabitant of your mountains so that even he may be prepared to act well his part in this land of freemen.”

“The plan caps online cyber school tuition payments and applies the special education funding formula to charter schools, as it does for traditional public schools, as recommended by a bipartisan Special Education Funding Commission. ….The Achieving Community Transformation Academy, the lowest-performing cyber school in Pennsylvania, will close by the end of December.”
Gov. Wolf’s Charter School Accountability Plan Saves Nearly $280 Million
Gant News Posted on Saturday, November 16, 2019 by Gant Team in Local News
HARRISBURG – Gov. Tom Wolf’s plan to improve the educational quality of charter schools and control rising costs will save nearly $280 million a year, the governor told the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators on Friday. The governor has a three-part plan to fix Pennsylvania’s charter school law, which he said is regarded as one of the worst in the nation. “Every student deserves a great education, whether in a traditional public school or a charter school, but the state’s flawed and outdated charter school law is failing children, parents and taxpayers,” said Wolf. “Pennsylvania has a history of school choice, which I support, but there is widespread agreement that we must change the law to prioritize quality and align funding to actual costs. “My plan will hold charter schools accountable so parents and students have a high-quality option that prepares students for success and protects taxpayers.” Taxpayers spent $1.8 billion on charter schools last year, including more than $500 million on cyber schools. The rising cost of charter schools is draining funding from traditional public schools, which has forced cuts to classroom programs and property tax increases. The governor’s proposal would save school districts an estimated $280 million a year by better aligning charter school funding to actual costs.

Gov. Wolf calls for constraints on Pennsylvania charter schools at school administrator meeting
The Neighbor By Dave Lemery | The Center Square Nov 15, 2019
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday that the state’s charter and cyber charter schools are overfunded at the expense of traditional public schools and largely immune from public scrutiny – accusations that he intends to address through what he calls a “charter school accountability plan.” Speaking at a meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, the governor renewed his claims that Pennsylvania’s charter school law is one of the worst in the country and argued that reforms are needed to put traditional public schools on more solid footing and to avoid the annual drumbeat of property tax increases. Wolf, a Democrat in his second term in office, insists that implementing his accountability plan will result in $280 million being redirected annually from charters to traditional public schools. To justify such a move, Wolf pointed to a Stanford study that showed that some cyber charter schools are underperforming. “Every student deserves a great education, whether in a traditional public school or a charter school, but the state’s flawed and outdated charter school law is failing children, parents, and taxpayers,” Wolf said in a statement. “Pennsylvania has a history of school choice, which I support, but there is widespread agreement that we must change the law to prioritize quality and align funding to actual costs.”

State considers fix for special education funding split
Johnstown Tribune Democrat By John Finnerty jfinnerty@cnhi.com Nov 15, 2019
HARRISBURG – A legislative panel must deliver recommendations by the end of this month on how the state can better divide its special education funding among its 500 school districts. As that process has unfolded, two issues in particular, seem to have caught the attention of lawmakers on the commission, said state Rep. Mark Longietti, D-Mercer, a member of the special education funding commission. One is when school districts learn how much special education money they’re going to get from the state. The other is that the state may need to re-examine how it determines which schools get special assistance to help cover the cost of educating students with exceptionally-expensive special education needs,  Longietti said. The contingency fund is supposed to provide help for school districts that have children with very expensive special education needs. To qualify, a student’s special education costs must exceed at least $75,000 a year, according to Department of Education data. In the current fiscal year, the budget includes almost $10 million in the contingency fund. Because that’s just a fraction of the $1 billion in special education spending, there are far more requests for contingency fund help than the fund can support, said Hannah Barrick, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.

“Even though it found he violated the law, the Ethics Commission stressed that “this case should not be misunderstood as reflecting negatively on Conti’s character. Furthermore, we recognize the difficult position that Conti found himself in when he was abruptly informed that (PA Cyber) was terminating his employment regardless of whether he accepted the proffered separation agreement.” Conti resigned from PA Cyber without explanation in July 2016 amid the criminal trial of PA Cyber founder Nick Trombetta, who would later plead guilty to tax conspiracy and be sentenced to up to 20 months in federal prison.”
Ethics Commission: Former PA Cyber CEO violated law, but avoids fine
Beaver County Times By J.D. Prose Posted Nov 14, 2019 at 3:38 PM
PA Cyber’s former CEO violated the law by taking payments from the Midland school while working for another cyber charter near Philadelphia, the State Ethics Commission ruled.
The State Ethics Commission has ruled that former Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School CEO Michael Conti violated the law by accepting compensation from the Midland school while working for another cyber charter near Philadelphia, but it has declined to fine him. In a ruling signed by Ethics Commission Chairman Nick Colafella, a Center Township resident and former Democratic state representative, the commission said it was not fining Conti “due to lack of prior precedent.” According to the ruling, Conti maintained through the investigation that the nearly $146,000 he received from PA Cyber from Aug. 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017, while also being paid $159,390 by Agora, was part of a severance agreement he received when told by the PA Cyber board of trustees that he would be fired whether he accepted the agreement or not. Conti, in an interview with an Ethics Commission investigator, said in May 2018 that, “I don’t believe that was compensation.” The ruling also said that Conti said he did not perform any work for PA Cyber and there was no conflict with his position at Agora, where he remains the chief executive officer. He was named Agora’s CEO in September 2016.

PPG Editorial: Early to bed, early to rise: Lack of sleep can have broad implications for teens
Shifting the early-morning start times for school is a good idea
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Pittsburgh Post-Gazette NOV 16, 2019 7:00 AM
The research is clear — and obvious to anyone with late-sleeping teenagers at home — that shifting the early-morning start times for school is a good idea. Experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics to the American Medical Association recommend that high school classes not begin before 8:30 a.m. And studies have shown that when schools push back their start times, grades and attendance go up. The Brookings Institution has quantified the benefits in dollars and cents. Its research shows that shifting the start of school until at least 8:30 a.m. can increase lifetime earning for students by $17,500. The majority of Pennsylvania schools start their days between 7:30 a.m. and 7:59 a.m. Though the conclusion is not in dispute, postponing the start of the standard school day is not as simple as setting a new bell schedule. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill that will mandate start times of no earlier than 8 a.m. for middle schools and 8:30 a.m. for high schools. The process will be phased in over three years and some rural districts are exempt. And Mr. Newsom’s predecessor, Jerry Brown, refused to sign a similar bill during his administration. Starting a school day later may sound easy, but it can disrupt after-school activities and jobs; it can boost transportation costs for districts; and it often isn’t embraced initially by teachers or the community. Schools boards should begin to engage in a public conversation on the subject.

Student lunch debt: Here’s how Lehigh Valley districts handle it
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO THE MORNING CALL | NOV 15, 2019 | 9:11 PM
Quakertown is the latest school district to address rising lunch debt. (For The Washington Post)
Quakertown became the latest school district Thursday night to approve a policy that deals with student lunch debt. Under Quakertown’s policy, parents will be given written notice when a student has accrued debt and the school principal will meet with parents. The district will allow 30 days for the debt to be paid. If full payment is not received within 30 days, the student could be prohibited from attending events such as class trips, school dances and graduation ceremonies. Debt of $1,000 or more will be sent to a collection agency. Under state law, districts can take away student privileges for unpaid meals as long as it is the same policy for other debts, such as overdue books. Quakertown officials say they adopted this policy because of the $27,000 lunch debt students amassed at the end of last school year. The district paid that off with money from the general fund budget. Quakertown is not the first district to adopt a policy dealing with lunch debt. Since a 2017 law that banned schools from stigmatizing children for having debt, a practice known as “lunch shaming," districts have seen their meal debt skyrocket.
Here’s what some Lehigh Valley districts do:

Paul Muschick: Blame Quakertown parents, not school board, for unpaid lunch consequences
By PAUL MUSCHICK THE MORNING CALL | NOV 15, 2019 | 12:39 PM
The Quakertown Community School Board is taking a lot of heat for authorizing students to be banned from dances, class trips and graduation ceremonies if they have an unpaid lunch tab or overdue or lost books. We should be lauding them for being responsible. What they’re doing should be a model for other school districts. I said the same last year when the Bethlehem Area School District started siccing debt collectors on families with unpaid lunch bills. At some point, we have to draw a line. Asking taxpayers to eat lunch debt is crossing that line. That’s not an educational expense. It’s a family expense. Children don’t have to buy lunch at school. They can pack. I wonder how many people who are calling for all students to be fed at the district’s expense would feel if their property taxes jumped to cover the cost. Don’t get distracted by the inclusion of lost and overdue books in Quakertown’s policy, adopted at Thursday night’s school board meeting. This is being driven by lunch debt. The policy was written to cover all debts so it would comply with state law, which allows districts to take away student privileges for unpaid meals only if that’s the policy for other debts, too.

Power Bucks launches election campaigns
Doylestown Intelligencer By Peg Quann Posted Nov 15, 2019 at 6:15 PM
Interdenominational organization wants to promote fair funding in education, voter registration.
If you haven’t noticed, the 2020 election season has begun. And not just for presidential politics. At a meeting Thursday night at the Linconia Tabernacle Christian Center in the Trevose section of Bensalem, hundreds of religious congregants and political activists showed up for the Power Bucks Campaign launch. The event was emceed by the Rev. Bill Bloom, of the United Christian Church in Levittown, and Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy, of Congregation Kol Emet in Yardley, who were joined by about 15 representatives from a wide variety of Christian denominations along with Jewish, Muslim and other religious organizations. Levy said that the group formed last November and has been meeting since then to promote racial, social and economic justice. In surveys of congregants, it found that issues that need to be addressed include “police profiling, economic injustice, the addiction crisis, immigration detention, mass incarceration, unfair education funding, access to voting, and racist, Islamaphobic and anti-Semitic hate and harassment rising out of our communities.” “We are Power Bucks and we are powerful,” chanted Bloom, asking the attendees to join in.

Boyertown School Board member to challenge Toepel for 147th House Dist.
DOUGLASS (Mont.) — Just five days after voters went to the polls ending the 2019 election cycle, a Boyertown School Board member has announced her candidacy for a 2020 race.
Democrat Jill Dennin announced her candidacy for the 147th District seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. The seat is currently held by Republican Marcy Toepel. Toepel has been in office since 2010 when she won a special election to fill the seat vacated by then-Rep. Bob Mensch, who resigned to run for the 24th District Pennsylvania Senate seat vacated by Rob Wonderling. In 2018, Toepel fended off a challenge from first-time candidate Josh Camson by winning more than 56 percent of the votes. The 147th District includes Douglass (Mont.), New Hanover, Upper Frederick, Lower Frederick, Marlborough, Upper Salford, Lower Salford, West Pottsgrove, Upper Pottsgrove townships, and Green Lane and Schwenksville boroughs. Dennin's term on the school board does not expire until 2021. “For the last 25 years I have been volunteering for various organizations in this community,” Dennin said in a press release announcing her candidacy. “We are seeing a trend in Harrisburg that leaves behind many of the people for whom I have advocated over the years.”


PSBA Alumni Forum: Leaving school board service?
Continue your connection and commitment to public education by joining PSBA Alumni Forum. Benefits of the complimentary membership includes:
  • electronic access to PSBA Bulletin
  • legislative information via email
  • Daily EDition e-newsletter
  • Special access to one dedicated annual briefing
Register today online. Contact Crista Degregorio at Crista.Degregorio@psba.org with questions.

PSBA New and Advanced School Director Training in Dec & Jan
Do you want high-impact, engaging training that newly elected and reseated school directors can attend to be certified in new and advanced required training? PSBA has been supporting new school directors for more than 50 years by enlisting statewide experts in school law, finance and governance to deliver a one-day foundational training. This year, we are adding a parallel track of sessions for those who need advanced school director training to meet their compliance requirements. These sessions will be delivered by the same experts but with advanced content. Look for a compact evening training or a longer Saturday session at a location near you. All sites will include one hour of trauma-informed training required by Act 18 of 2019. Weekend sites will include an extra hour for a legislative update from PSBA’s government affairs team.
New School Director Training
Week Nights: Registration opens 3:00 p.m., program starts 3:30 p.m. -9:00 p.m., dinner with break included
Saturdays: Registration opens at 8:00 a.m., program starts at 9:00 a.m. -3:30 p.m., lunch with break included
Advanced School Director Training
Week Nights: Registration with dinner provided opens at 4:30 p.m., program starts 5:30 p.m. -9:00 p.m.
Saturdays: Registration opens at 10:00 a.m., program starts at 11:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m., lunch with break included
Locations and dates

Congress, Courts, and a National Election: 50 Million Children’s Futures Are at Stake. Be their champion at the 2020 Advocacy Institute.
NSBA Advocacy Institute Feb. 2-4, 2020 Marriot Marquis, Washington, D.C.
Join school leaders from across the country on Capitol Hill, Feb. 2-4, 2020 to influence the legislative agenda & shape decisions that impact public schools. Check out the schedule & more at https://nsba.org/Events/Advocacy-Institute

Register now for Network for Public Education Action National Conference in Philadelphia March 28-29, 2020
Registration, hotel information, keynote speakers and panels:

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.



No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.