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 Feb 14, 2020
|
Estimated Charter Reform Savings
|
|
|
for Selected School Districts
|
|
|
Penn Hills SD
|
$1,392,255
|
|
Pittsburg SD
|
$14,045,456
|
|
Wilkinsburg SD
|
$1,497,214
|
|
Woodland Hills
|
$4,075,582
|
|
Ambridge Area SD
|
$943,789
|
|
Reading SD
|
$1,006,876
|
|
Bensalem Twp SD
|
$1,867,487
|
|
Bristol Twp SD
|
$1,996,964
|
|
Coatesville Area SD
|
$9,824,168
|
|
West Chester Area SD
|
$2,066,951
|
|
Keystone Central SD
|
$2,816,717
|
|
Central Dauphin SD
|
$1,203,692
|
|
Harrisburg City SD
|
$2,673,916
|
|
Chester Upland SD
|
$2,357,653
|
|
Southeast Delco SD
|
$923,842
|
|
Upper Darby SD
|
$1,362,996
|
|
William Penn SD
|
$2,218,250
|
|
Erie SD
|
$3,849,710
|
|
Scranton SD
|
$1,120,875
|
|
Lancaster SD
|
$1,202,250
|
|
Allentown SD
|
$3,766,279
|
|
Wilkes Barre SD
|
$1,522,341
|
|
East Stroudsburg Area SD
|
$1,421,081
|
|
Pleasant Valley SD
|
$1,081,116
|
|
Pocono Mountain SD
|
$2,828,656
|
|
Norristown Area SD
|
$1,934,040
|
|
Pottstown SD
|
$1,084,269
|
|
Bethlehem Area SD
|
$2,016,934
|
|
Philadelphia SD
|
$106,250,493
|
|
York City SD
|
$2,051,355
|
|
Source: PA House Appropriations Committee (D)
|
|
Blogger note: support Governor Wolf’s proposed charter reforms:
Reprise: PA Ed Policy Roundup for Feb 10, 2020
1. Adopt resolution for charter funding
reform
2. Ask your legislators to cosponsor HB2261
or SB1024
3. Register for Advocacy Day on March 23rd
Adopt: the 2020 PSBA resolution for charter school funding
reform
PSBA Website POSTED ON FEBRUARY 3,
2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
In this legislative session, PSBA has been
leading the charge with the Senate, House of Representatives and the Governor’s
Administration to push for positive charter reform. We’re now asking you to
join the campaign: Adopt the resolution: We’re asking all school
boards to adopt the 2020 resolution for charter school funding reform at your
next board meeting and submit it to your legislators and to PSBA.
Cosponsor: A 120-page charter
reform proposal is being introduced as House Bill 2261 by Rep. Joseph
Ciresi (D-Montgomery), and Senate Bill 1024, introduced by Senators
Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) and James Brewster (D-Allegheny). Ask your
legislator to sign on as a cosponsor to House Bill 2261 or Senate Bill
1024.
Register: 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
For more information: https://www.psba.org/event/advocacy-day-2020/
Advocates want Gov. Tom Wolf to declare Philadelphia
schools ‘disaster’ area because of asbestos
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham and Wendy Ruderman, Updated: February 13, 2020- 2:05
PM
A group of federal and local officials are
preparing to ask Gov. Tom Wolf to issue a formal disaster declaration for the
Philadelphia School District, citing the growing number of school closures because
of potentially toxic asbestos exposure. Their push, expected to be detailed
Thursday at a 4 p.m. news conference, came as district officials closed two more
city schools — Barton Elementary in Feltonville and
Sullivan Elementary in Frankford — because of damaged asbestos. So far this
school year, nine schools and an early-childhood program have been shut because
of the potentially toxic danger to children and staff. A declaration by Wolf
would allow authorities to apply for federal disaster funding to expedite the
cleanup and reopening of the schools. There is precedent: In 2018, Wolf
formally declared a state of emergency over
the opioid epidemic, a move that allowed the state broader
latitude to fight what officials consider a public health emergency. Jerry
Jordan, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president, said that a
Philadelphia declaration was necessary “because we need something to happen
now. Children attend this school system, and our members are working in these
buildings every day."
In a damning audit, Indiana calls on two virtual schools
to repay $85 million in misspent state funds
Chalkbeat By Stephanie
Wang February 12, 2020
A special investigation by
state auditors found that officials from two Indiana virtual charter schools
misspent more than $85 million in state funding by inflating enrollment and
funneling millions to a tangled web of related companies. In what has become
one of the nation’s largest virtual charter school scandals, Indiana Virtual
School and Indiana Virtual Pathways Academy officials showed “substantial
disregard” for following the rules and may have “focused on maximizing profits
and revenues by exploiting perceived vulnerabilities” in local oversight and
state funding processes, the report said. The state auditors’ scathing report,
released Wednesday, follows a series of Chalkbeat investigations revealing
financial conflicts of interest at Indiana Virtual School and Indiana Virtual
Pathways Academy and their dismally low academic results. The two virtual
charter schools shut down last summer after allegations of enrollment fraud first
emerged. The state report seeks repayment for more than $85 million in public
dollars inappropriately spent on companies connected to school officials. In
the past three years, the two schools sent 83% of their total funding to
related companies, the report found. According to the report, the misspent
funds include more than $68 million that the schools improperly collected from
the state — far more than initially reported — by
recording inactive students more than 14,000 times over eight years.
‘Anytime Joe would speak, members listened.’ After two
decades in Harrisburg, Scarnati leaves a complicated legacy
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison February
13, 2020
Back in 2018, the top Republican in the
Pennsylvania state Legislature offered some simple advice for anyone nearing
the end of their career in public office. “Don’t wait to be pushed out the
door,” Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, told State Legislatures Magazine at the
time. “Don’t wait for the ballot box to push you out or a subpoena or a coffin.
Go out on top.” After almost two decades in the Republican-controlled Senate,
Scarnati is apparently putting those words into practice. Scarnati, whose
Jefferson County-based district covers wide swaths of northern Pennsylvania,
announced Wednesday night that he would retire at the end of the year to spend
more time with his family. The announcement came just weeks after
House Speaker Mike Turzai, the top-ranking Republican in the lower chamber,
announced that he, too, was retiring at year’s end. Their twin departures
opened a yawning — and rare — power gap in the 253-member General Assembly.
Guest column: Gov. Wolf on right path to reform Pa.
charter schools
West Chester Daily Local Opinion By Susan
Spicka Guest columnist Feb 12, 2020
Susan Spicka is executive director of Education Voters of PA, an
advocacy group that works to ensure elected officials adopt and implement
a pro-public education agenda.
In the upcoming months, school districts will
prepare budgets for the next fiscal year and make the hard decision about
whether to increase property taxes to deal with rising costs. One of the
fastest growing costs for all school districts is charter schools — publicly
funded, privately operated schools that offer education wholly online or at a
site within a community. School districts pay 100% of charter school tuition
bills, and rapidly increasing tuition payments are a top reason that property
taxes continue to rise. Although charter school students represent only 8% of
all public school students, in 2017-18, 37 cents of every new property tax
dollar raised was sent to a charter or cyber charter school. Pennsylvania
taxpayers are spending more than $1.8 billion on tuition bills for students to
attend charter and online cyber charter schools. Tuition rates are set by the
state, but flawed calculations in Pennsylvania’s 22-year-old charter school law
mandate payments well beyond the cost to educate a child. After more than 20
years, the time has come to retool charter funding to bring payments in line
with the costs, eliminate questionable and wasteful spending by charters, and
bring property tax increases under control. Gov. Tom Wolf has proposed a
funding plan that will do just that: eliminate overpayments and provide $280
million in savings to school districts while providing sufficient funding to
allow charter schools to appropriately serve students. Wolf’s proposal should
receive the enthusiastic support of Pennsylvania taxpayers and state lawmakers
alike.
30 power-players, rising stars and influencers with the
most punch in Pennsylvania politics
Lancaster Online by BRAD BUMSTED + SAM
JANESCH + MIKE WERESCHAGIN + PAULA KNUDSEN | The Caucus Feb 12, 2020
They live and work in the top tier of the
pecking order in Pennsylvania politics. They raise lots of campaign money. They
amass clout on their way to leadership roles. They get things done. They
are the elite. The Caucus set out to identify the most powerful and influential
figures at the Capitol and across the state. We looked at who makes things
happen — who gets stuff on the Legislature’s agenda or before a state agency,
plays a big role in helping lawmakers or governors win elections, or gets a
matter considered that conventional wisdom dictates had little chance. We
looked at whose power is ascending. Who’s already got clout but is on a path to
perhaps becoming among the top leaders in the General Assembly, Congress, U.S.
Senate or statewide office? Who’s distinguished themselves from colleagues by
being forceful, taking chances and succeeding sometimes by sheer will? We
looked at who has a knack for raising campaign money, who can get just about
anyone in the state to take their phone call. Here’s a list of who we came up
with.
Trump’s words, bullied kids, scarred schools
The president’s rhetoric has changed the way
hundreds of children are harassed in American classrooms, The Post found
Washington Post By Hannah Natanson, John Woodrow Cox and Perry Stein Feb.
13, 2020
Two kindergartners in Utah told a Latino
boy that President Trump would send him back to Mexico, and teenagers in
Maine sneered "Ban
Muslims" at a classmate wearing a hijab. In Tennessee, a group of middle-schoolers linked
arms, imitating the president's proposed border wall as they refused to let
nonwhite students pass. In Ohio, another group of middle-schoolers surrounded a
mixed-race sixth-grader and, as she confided to her mother, told the
girl: "This is Trump country." Since Trump’s rise to the nation’s
highest office, his inflammatory language — often condemned as racist and
xenophobic — has seeped into schools across America. Many bullies now target
other children differently than they used to, with kids as young as 6 mimicking
the president’s insults and the cruel way he delivers them. Trump’s words,
those chanted by his followers at campaign rallies and even his last name have
been wielded by students and school staff members to harass children more than
300 times since the start of 2016, a Washington Post review of 28,000 news
stories found. At least three-quarters of the attacks were directed at kids who
are Hispanic, black or Muslim, according to the analysis. Students have also
been victimized because they support the president — more than
45 times during the same period.
After seeking to cut charter program, education
department calls backers ‘desperate’
Chalkbeat By Matt
Barnum February 13, 2020
When President Trump’s budget plan was released earlier this week, one cut
stood out: a program that funnels federal dollars to charter schools. Education
Secretary Betsy DeVos has long been a charter-school advocate, with charters
fitting under the umbrella of her favored policy, school choice. But that was
apparently outweighed by an interest in a longtime conservative goal: a smaller
education department that hands more control over to states. The plan has
frustrated charter advocates. On Thursday, though, the education department
made clear that it isn’t backing down. “The federal lobbyists for charter
schools sound a lot like the lobbyists for all of the other competitive grant
programs,” Assistant Secretary Jim Blew told Chalkbeat in a statement. “In
their desperate communications, they have exaggerated the importance of CSP —
just like other lobbyists,” he added, referring to the Charter Schools Program.
It’s not clear that the program is in real jeopardy, since Congress has
previously disregarded the Trump administration’s proposed budgets. But the
budget proposal and combative rhetoric suggest that charter advocates do not
have as staunch an ally in the administration as they previously believed. “We
are saddened and puzzled by the Department of Education’s comments,” said Nina
Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, which
has received federal
charter dollars. “We advocate for the federal Charter Schools Program because
we believe it is a lifeline for students.”
Volunteer your time and talents.
Register Today to Help transform education in
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Education Fund
Learn More at PEF's Information Session
Tuesday, February 25, 2020 4:30 - 5:30 pm
Philadelphia Education Fund, 718 Arch Street,
Suite 700N Philadelphia, PA 19106
Do you have a willingness to engage with the
students we serve through our college access and college persistence
programming? The Philadelphia Education Fund supports nearly 6,000 students and
serves 16 schools. As a result, we produce and host hundreds of sessions for
students on a range of topics that are intended to help our young people
navigate a successful journey through high school and college.
This Information Session will explain how you
can help!
Hear relevant content from statewide experts, district practitioners and
PSBA government affairs staff at PSBA’s annual membership gathering. PSBA
Sectional Advisors and Advocacy Ambassadors are on-site to connect with
district leaders in their region and share important information for you to
take back to your district.
Locations and dates
- Wednesday,
March 18, 2020 — Section 7, PSBA Headquarters,
400 Bent Creek Blvd, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
- Tuesday,
March 24, 2020 — Section 1, General McLane
High School, 11761 Edinboro Rd, Edinboro, PA 16412
- Tuesday,
March 24, 2020 — Section 4, Abington
Heights School District, 200 East Grove Street, Clark Summit, PA 18411
- Wednesday,
March 25, 2020 — Section 3, Columbia-Montour
AVTS, 5050 Sweppenheiser Dr., Bloomsburg, PA 17815
- Wednesday,
March 25, 2020 — Section 6, Bedford County
Technical Center, 195 Pennknoll Road, Everett, PA 15537
- Thursday,
March 26, 2020 — Section 2, State College
Area High School, 650 Westerly Pkwy, State College, PA 16801
- Monday,
March 30, 2020 — Section 5, Forbes Road
Career & Technology Center, 607 Beatty Road, Monroeville, PA 15146
- Monday, March 30, 2020 — Section 8, East Penn School District, 800 Pine St, Emmaus,
PA 18049
- Tuesday, April 7, 2020 — Section 5, Washington School District, 311 Allison
Avenue, Washington, PA 15301
- Tuesday, April 7, 2020 — Section 8, School District of Haverford Twp, 50 East Eagle
Road, Havertown, PA 19083
Sectional Meetings are 6:00 p.m. -8:00 p.m. (across all locations). Light
refreshments will be offered.
Cost: Complimentary for
PSBA member entities.
Registration: Registration is
now open. To register, please sign into myPSBA and look for
Store/Registration on the left.
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.
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:
PSBA Board Presidents Panel April 27, 28 and 29; Multiple
Locations
Offered at 10 locations across the state,
this annual event supports current and aspiring school board leaders through
roundtable conversations with colleagues as well as a facilitated panel of
experienced regional and statewide board presidents and superintendents. Board
Presidents Panel is designed to equip new and veteran board presidents and vice
presidents as well as superintendents and other school directors who may pursue
a leadership position in the future.
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.
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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