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 Jan. 17, 2020
PARSS calls for single, statewide cyber charter tuition
rate and matching special education tuition rates with actual cost of services
for students with disabilities
“The wasteful spending and harm experienced by students and
communities would be curbed by setting a single, statewide tuition rate for
cyber charter schools and matching special education tuition rates with the
actual cost of services for students with disabilities in charter schools. Speakers
are calling on parents, staff, and community members to contact local
legislators and ask them to enact funding reforms to Pennsylvania’s charter
school law that include matching payments school districts make to charter
schools with the actual cost of educating these students.”
Local school districts seek reform to Pa. charter school
laws
Lewistown Sentinel JAN 17, 2020
McVEYTOWN — Superintendents from Fulton,
Huntingdon, Mifflin and Juniata County School Districts will join the Pennsylvania
Association of Rural and Small Schools in calling for reforms to
Pennsylvania’s charter school law. Tuscarora Intermediate Unit 11 will host a
public meeting at 11 a.m. Jan. 27 in which administrators from more than a
half-dozen area school districts will be present. They will join members of the
Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools in 152 school districts
encompassing 34 counties and 16 intermediate units in holding press conferences
during the week of January 27 to 31. The press conference will call attention
to the urgent need of reforms to Pennsylvania’s charter school law and to share
the adverse impact that inflated charter and cyber charter school tuition
payments have on students and taxpayers in their communities. According to a
press release, charter schools are primarily funded by local tax dollars paid
to them as tuition by school districts. Charter and cyber charter school
tuition payments have an adverse fiscal impact on school districts, often
causing them to cut services and/or to raise tax rates. Under current law,
state-mandated tuition rates for cyber charter students and for special
education students in both brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools are not
based on actual costs, but instead are based on a broken formula that creates
inflated tuition payments to charter and cyber charter schools and wastes
taxpayer money.
“Crider said Pennsylvania used to issue licenses to more than
14,000 new teachers annually, but in 2016-17, the state issued 4,412. He added
that the number of Pennsylvania residents seeking teaching certificates has
dropped 62% in the past three years. Nearly half of the school districts in the
Keystone State were reporting a “severe or somewhat severe” shortage of
substitutes as far back as 2013.”
Lack of substitute teachers straining Pa. districts
Herald Mail By Joyce F. Nowell jnowell@herald-mail.com Jan 14,
2020
GREENCASTLE, Pa. — The Greencastle-Antrim
School District still is facing concerns in filling substitute teacher
positions. The Franklin County district is not alone in the problem that has
been recognized at the national and state levels. In February 2019, the school
board increased the daily pay for substitute teachers from $90 to $100 per day
in hopes of helping with a shortage of the classroom subs that Superintendent
Kendra Trail first reported in December 2018. Trail said the district has found
itself having to use counselors and administrators to cover classes in the
absence of substitute teachers. The United States, including Pennsylvania, is
dealing with a teacher shortage, according to Bob Crider, chief educational
officer for the Greencastle-Antrim School District. He noted that since 1996,
the number of undergraduate education majors has declined 55%.
‘Positive’ progress in talks on Sugar Valley charter
renewal
KCSD, SVRCS officials to continue dialogue
Lock Haven Express by CHRIS MORELLI cmorelli@lockhaven.com JAN 17,
2020
MILL HALL — Prior to Thursday night’s Keystone
Central school board meeting, representatives from the Keystone Central School
District and Sugar Valley Rural Charter School reported a positive initial
dialogue regarding a charter extension for SVRCS. In an email sent to media
outlets early Thursday morning, a news release stated that there was a
Wednesday meeting between the two parties. Although the email was sent from a
KCSD address, it stated that it was sent on behalf of KCSD superintendent
Jacquelyn Martin and SVRCS CEO Tracie Kennedy. The news release read: “Last
evening representatives from SVRCS and KCSD met to discuss revisions to the
20-year-old charter. The conversation between the two has been positive and
productive thus far. Further meetings have been scheduled to meet the common
goal of charter revisions that could be approved by both the KCSD Board of
Directors and SVRCS Board of Trustees.” At last week’s KCSD school board
meeting, there was a special voting session that took place following the work
session. During the voting session, the board unanimously approved an agreement
with SVRCS for talks to proceed in an effort to resolve differences so a new
five-year agreement between the schools can be negotiated.
PSERS: Pa.’s $57 billion pension fund chooses a history
teacher as new chair
Inquirer by Joseph N. DiStefano, Updated: January
16, 2020- 3:54 PM
Christopher Santa Maria, former head of the
Lower Merion teachers union and a history teacher in that wealthy township’s
public schools, is the new chairman of the $57 billion-asset Pennsylvania
Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS). Santa Maria replaces Melva
Vogler, a retired teacher from the Wallenpaupack Area School District who had
chaired the board since 2007 and served as a trustee since 1994. She remains on
the board, which is a mix of teacher and school board reps, elected officials,
and members of Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration. Vogler was reelected to a seat
representing school retirees with two-thirds of the vote in mail balloting in
the last two elections, 2019 and 2016. In both years, more than 60,000 retirees
voted, out of more than 200,000 eligible. Members are unpaid; they go to
bimonthly meetings and travel to industry seminars, where they attend
presentations by investors who seek state business. Vogler has been a reliable
vote to endorse investments by PSERS staff, who have generally favored hedge
funds, private equity, and other private investments in recent years, betting
that the long bull market in U.S. stocks will soon slip behind private returns.
PSERS: At Harrisburg pensions panel, private equity firms
pitch their soundness as investments
PA Capital Star By Stephen Caruso January 16,
2020
Jack Glover has a simple explanation for the
rise in criticisms of his industry — private equity. The industry “has had a
lot of success,” Glover, a Pittsburgh-based private equity executive with
Incline Partners, said Thursday at a Harrisburg panel hosted by the
Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System. “And when you’ve had a lot of
success, you’re going to have a target on your back.” The industry has been
spotlighted by politicians nationally and in Pennsylvania as a factor in rising
inequality, even as public pensions invest in the firms to ensure retirees
checks don’t bounce. Thursday’s panel featured four private equity executives
from firms that PSERS is currently invested in, including two firms based in
Pennsylvania. The panelists explained the industry, answered audience
questions, and addressed criticism that the industry is too opaque or that its
profits come at the expense of workers.
Philly District “pausing” asbestos inspections to make sure
they are effective
Board of Education members closely question
officials at facilities committee meeting
The notebook by Bill
Hangley Jr. January 16 — 10:56 pm, 2020
Parent advocate Dana Carter: "We need to
make sure our children and staff members are safe." Philadelphia School District
officials say they are taking a “pause” in their asbestos inspections to make
sure that they’re effective, and an internal investigation is underway to
discover exactly how the Ben Franklin High reconstruction project went so badly
wrong. Those were two highlights from a handful of updates provided by District
officials at the Board of Education’s Facilities and Finance Committee on
Thursday evening. Board members used the meeting to say they’re trying to hold
the District officials accountable for implementing the “environmental safety
plan” announced last November by Superintendent William Hite. “The board will
continue to hold the District accountable for meeting the necessary and
ambitious goals,” said committee chair Lee Huang. “We share your concerns. We
are also upset, and we stand with everyone who wants to help us.” Advocates,
teachers and parents in the audience responded with frustration and distrust,
urging the board to take a harder line with the Hite administration and
District staff, and to make sure everyone makes good on their promises.
‘It’s not only a school; it’s a family’: Building 21
students and teachers defend their school despite its low test scores
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO THE MORNING
CALL | JAN 16, 2020 | 9:00 PM
A week after Allentown school directors
grilled Building 21 leaders about students’ performance on standardized tests,
Building 21 parents, teachers and students presented a different picture of the
innovative high school where they say teenagers are succeeding and creating
positive, close relationships with teachers. At a town hall meeting Thursday
night that lasted more than two hours, Building 21 teachers, students and
parents spoke positively about the school, which opened its doors almost five
years ago. Multiple students said they do not perform well on standardized
tests and the exam results do not show the tight-knight relationships that
students are creating. The meeting was held so district officials and school
directors could hear from those at Building 21 before making decisions about
the school’s future. In June, the contract with the Building 21 consulting
group in Philadelphia expires. “We do not want to make any decisions about
Building 21 in a bubble,” School Board President Sara Brace said. The tone of
the meeting was more supportive of Building 21 than a recent review of the
school to the school board. Last week, school directors blasted
Building 21 leaders over students’ dismal results on the Keystones, the
standardized state tests that high school students take.
“One program you did enact that has proven to be exceedingly
popular is the Educational Improvement Tax Credit program. It rewards
businesses with state tax credits for donations they make to private school
scholarship organizations and innovative public programs. But that wasn’t the
school voucher program you wanted. Were you satisfied with that as a
substitute?
“Wasn’t
that Frank Sinatra who sang ‘Regrets. I’ve had a few. But too few to mention.’
This one is one of them. I’m just disappointed we couldn’t get the school
choice measure across the line,” he said. “I thought we made great progress
with charter schools and digital school districts and that EITC program has
been, as you said appropriately, more successful than we could imagine. But
frankly, I wish I could have achieved my goal on school choice.”
Former Gov. Tom Ridge reflects on becoming Pa.'s chief
executive 25 years ago: ‘I loved being the guv’
Penn Live By Jan
Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Today 5:00
AM
On this day 25 years ago, Boyz II Men, the
R&B supergroup from Philly, topped the charts with “On Bended Knee.” The
Los Angeles Rams announced they were moving their professional football team to
St. Louis. And in Pennsylvania, a former congressman from Erie named Tom Ridge
raised his right hand in a ceremony outside the Capitol’s East Wing and was
sworn in for the first time as the state’s 43rd governor. Ridge vividly recalls
the gratitude and eagerness he felt that day to have the opportunity to hold
the title of governor “in a state that I love” and to work with the team he
assembled to collaborate and “make Pennsylvania a better place to live and work
and play.” "I was very excited, very excited,” Ridge said. He spoke with
PennLive on Thursday to discuss the silver anniversary of his first
inauguration and his time as governor that he said lasted six years, nine
months and five days. As much as he enjoyed being the man in the front office
at the Capitol, his second term was cut short when he resigned to become the
nation’s first homeland security director in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks on the United States.
Adams County school director launches campaign for state
33rd Senatorial seat
Carlisle Sentinel Staff January 16, 2020
A school board member in Adams County
announced he run for the 33rd Senatorial District seat. Rich Sterner, a Democrat and current vice
president of the Bermudian Springs School Board, said this week that he will
host a campaign launch from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Feb. 5 at the Thirsty Farmer on
Cashtown Road in Biglerville, Adams County. He seeks the Democratic nomination
for the 33rd Senatorial District, which covers Southampton Township,
Shippensburg Township and Shippensburg Borough in Cumberland County, as well as
parts of Franklin County and York County and all of Adams County. The current
state senator of the district, Republican Sen. Doug Mastriano, previously
announced his intention to seek re-election.
Campaign 2020: How an old debate over religion in school
is opening up again | Opinion
PA Capital Star By David Mislin Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor January 17,
2020
As the 2020 election approaches in the United
States, President Donald Trump is adding school prayer to the list of
contentious issues up for debate. At a rally in early January he announced plans to
“safeguard students’ and teachers’ First Amendment rights to pray in our
schools.” On the schedule of the White House later this week is a plan to issue new
“guidance on constitutional prayer in school.” This announcement comes after a
year in which officials in six states, including the populous swing state of
Florida, considered bills permitting
the study of the Bible in classrooms. Last January, President Trump tweeted his
support for these laws. The evangelical proponents of the legislation insist that
the Bible would be treated as a historical and literary source, not as a means
of religious guidance. Critics oppose them for
fear that their real intent is to teach Christianity. Efforts to return
religion to public schools threaten to reignite one of the oldest debates about
the separation of church and state.
Trump moves to protect prayer in public schools and funds
for religious organizations
Post Gazette by THE WASHINGTON POST / JAN 16,
2020 7:26 PM
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is
moving to strengthen protections for students who want to pray or worship in
public schools and proposing changes that would make it easier for religious
groups that provide social services to access federal funds, a development that
comes as the president seeks to shore up support among evangelicals. Nine
federal agencies — including the Education Department, the Department of Health
and Human Services and the Justice Department — are advancing rules that would
reduce requirements for those religious organizations. The rules would lift an
Obama-era executive order that compelled religious organizations to tell the
people they serve that they can receive the same service from a secular
provider. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said her department plans to remind
schools that students and teachers have a constitutional right to pray in
public schools, and that student-led religious organizations should get to
access to public facilities just as secular groups do.
The guidance also clarifies that teachers, administrators
and coaches are not permitted to lead school prayers or devotional readings of
the Bible, “nor may school officials use their authority to attempt to persuade
or compel students to participate in prayer or other religious activities.”
What Trump's Action on School Prayer Means (and Doesn't
Mean) for Students and Educators
Education Week By Evie Blad on January
16, 2020 9:39 AM
President Donald Trump will promote new guidance on prayer in schools in an
Oval Office event Thursday afternoon, part of several steps the administration
will take to mark National Religious Freedom Day, administration officials
said. That guidance—which comes as the president continues election-year
outreach to Evangelical Christians—does not introduce any new legal requirements,
but it does outline existing legal precedents. Courts have held that
students may pray at school alone or in groups, but that prayer may not be
organized or sanctioned by the school. And, as with other forms of
expression protected by the First Amendment, schools may only intervene if the
prayer is disruptive to the learning environment. That means a student can
silently pray at her desk before taking a test or in the cafeteria before
eating lunch or with a group of friends around
the flagpole before school, as many students do. The Elementary
and Secondary Education Act, in its current and past versions, requires the
U.S. Department of Education to provide guidance on prayer in schools every two
years, but that guidance hasn't been updated since 2003, a senior
administration official said.
PARSS Annual Conference April 29 – May 1, 2020 in State
College
The 2020 PARSS Conference is April 29 through
May 1, 2020, at Wyndham Garden Hotel at Mountain View Country Club in State
College. Please register as a member or a vendor by accessing the links below.
Allegheny County Legislative Forum on Education March 12
by Allegheny Intermediate Unit Thu, March
12, 2020 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM EDT
Join us on March 12 at 7:00 pm for the
Allegheny Intermediate Unit's annual Allegheny County Legislative Forum. The
event will feature a discussion with state lawmakers on a variety of issues
impacting public schools. We hope you will join us and be part of the
conversation about education in Allegheny County.
Five compelling reasons for .@PSBA .@PASA .@PAIU school leaders to
come to the Capitol for Advocacy Day on March 23rd:
Charter Reform
Cyber Charter Reform
Basic Ed Funding
Special Ed Funding
PLANCON
Register at http://mypsba.org
School Leaders: Register today for @PSBA @PASA @PAIU Advocacy Day at the
Capitol on March 23rd and you could be the lucky winner of my school board
salary for the entire year. Register now at http://mypsba.org
For more information: https://www.psba.org/event/advocacy-day-2020/
Charter
Schools; Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
PENNSYLVANIA BULLETIN PROPOSED RULEMAKING DEPARTMENT
OF EDUCATION [ 22 PA. CODE CH. 711 ]
PSBA New and Advanced
School Director Training in Dec & Jan
Additional sessions now being offered in
Bucks and Beaver Counties
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
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
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
- Saturday, January 25,
2020 — Bucks County IU 22, 705 N Shady Retreat Rd, Doylestown, PA 18901
- Monday, February 3,
2020 — Beaver Valley IU 27, 147
Poplar Avenue, Monaca, PA 15061
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
All school
leaders are invited to attend Advocacy Day at the state Capitol in
Harrisburg. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA), Pennsylvania
Association of Intermediate Units (PAIU) and the Pennsylvania Association of
School Administrators (PASA) are partnering together to strengthen our advocacy
impact. The day will center around meetings with legislators to discuss
critical issues affecting public education. Click here for more information or register
at http://www.mypsba.org/
School
directors can register online now by logging in to myPSBA. If you need
assistance logging in and registering contact Alysha Newingham, Member Data
System Administrator at alysha.newingham@psba.org
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.