Tuesday, February 25, 2020

PA Ed Policy Roundup for Feb 25, 2020 We need to change the law on cyber charter schools | 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


PA Ed Policy Roundup for Feb 25, 2020
  
Congratulations to Bethlehem Area SD School Board President, Mike Faccinetto, on being recognized by The Allwein Society, which honors school directors who are outstanding leaders and advocates on behalf of public schools and students.

Special education funding for charter schools a sticking point for School District of Philadelphia
KYW NEWSRADIO AUDIO ON-DEMAND  MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24TH
 The School District says it's overpaying charter schools for educating special-needs students.  At the heart of the issue is the state formula governing how charters get special-education funding, as KYW Newsradio's Mike DeNardo reports...

“Pennsylvania’s 14 cyber charter schools have historically and consistently failed to make the grade. When the Department of Education used the Student Performance Profile to compare public school performance across the state, no cyber charter school earned a passing score. In fact, they have never earned a passing score. Ever. Other states’ charter laws mandate closure for such schools – not ours.”
Penn Live Opinion By Tomea Sippio-Smith February 24, 2020
Tomea Sippio-Smith is education policy director, Public Citizens for Children and Youth.
Pennsylvania’s students belong to the the most digitally savvy generation ever. They use Chrome books and iPads to research, connect with teachers, and complete assignments. It is not surprising then, that many students choose to attend virtual or cyber schools. However, like a destructive virus on a hard drive, Pennsylvania’s cyber charter school law is causing students to crash. Harrisburg has an easy fix – they can change the law. Pennsylvania’s students and taxpayers are calling on them to de-bug the system now. Nearly 80 percent of Pennsylvania school districts offer online learning programs. When Pennsylvania first passed the cyber charter law in 2002, it was in anticipation of a growing demand. The law hasn’t been updated since and is missing several key measures that support high quality options for students, particularly meaningful academic and fiscal accountability. Oddly, unlike in other states, our charter school law does not set academic benchmarks that schools must meet to retain their charters. Charters can be renewed even if they are chronically poor performers.

Bethlehem Area School Board rejects $80M charter school project
WFMZ by Jeff Ward Feb 24, 2020 Updated 50 min ago
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Bethlehem Area School District board voted unanimously Monday to reject a new $80 million charter school, citing what board President Michael Faccinetto said are shortcomings in planning and financial details. The 8-0 vote does not affect the Lehigh Valley Academy Regional Charter School's ability to continue operating in rented space on Valley Center Parkway in Hanover Township, Northampton County. "The (school) provided incomplete and conflicting information regarding the proposed facility, financing for its facility plans and budgetary implications," Faccinetto said on behalf of the board. The charter's management expected the vote after the district raised concerns at previous hearings. Superintendent Joseph Roy has said repeatedly that Pennsylvania's charter school law needs to be improved.

Pennsylvania needs a better charter rule, plus school choice support from Governor Wolf | Opinion
Ana Meyers, For the Inquirer Updated: February 24, 2020 - 10:00 AM
Ana Meyers is the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools (PCPCS), the state’s largest and most active organization advocating for brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools.
Earlier this month, Governor Tom Wolf delivered his annual budget address, which included a slash-and-burn “reform” plan to cut $280 million from charter school students. This cut is a direct hit to Pennsylvania’s public schools, urban and rural, that are desperate for increased funding. Governor Wolf’s budget calls for an additional $100 million in funding for K-12, $25 million for special education, full day kindergarten, a pledge to increase minimum teacher salary and suggests a $200 million investment in scholarships for Pennsylvanians attending state system universities. But it also includes a devastating hit to the nearly 143,000 charter school students across the state. Governor Wolf included a hat-tip to charter schools during his address. He noted the importance of their role in providing all parents a choice and boosting competition and innovation within public education. But his proposed changes imply he is more focused on punishing public charter schools rather than ensuring the state’s neediest students and their families have high-quality, well-funded public school options to choose from.

“The district would be sending millions less to charters if legislation backed by Gov. Tom Wolf passes changing the charter funding formula — including how the schools are compensated for special-education students. The governor’s office says next year the district would be able to retain $90 million that would otherwise be sent to charter schools under the current formula.”
Philly schools overpaying charters millions of dollars for special-education students, district says
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna and Kristen A. Graham, Updated: February 20, 2020
The Philadelphia School District overpays charter schools by millions of dollars because of a state formula that forces artificially high rates for special-education services, according to a new analysis by the district. The rate is inflated, according to the analysis, because the city’s charters are serving a smaller share of students with severe disabilities but are compensated based on the district’s average costs to educate its larger population of needier, more expensive special-education students. Because of the formula, "the really painful part of this is the inaccuracy grows exponentially over time,” Uri Monson, the district’s chief financial officer, told the school board’s finance and facilities committee Thursday. Monson said special-education costs have been driving the growth in district payments to charters: Of the nearly $700 million in new revenue the district has netted since 2015, it has paid more than half to charters, even though charters enroll only 37% of Philadelphia public school students.

Budget turmoil at Philly’s second-largest charter school — but officials keep quiet about why
First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School in Bridesburg as a large deficit, a CEO on leave, and an issue related to the identification of special education students.
WHYY NEWS by Avi Wolfman-Arent February 24 — 7:15 am, 2020
Philadelphia’s second-largest charter school has a large budget deficit, a CEO on leave, and some sort of problem related to the identification of special education students. It’s the kind of financial and administrative turmoil that would draw major headlines at a large, traditional school district. But the K-12 school at the center of the tumult refuses to say much of anything — and only recently published a six-sentence letter on its website explaining that it had made a personnel change. Despite repeated requests for comment, First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School in Bridesburg has declined to explain why or how it found itself in, what one official called, a “difficult time of transition.” Here’s what we know.

“Fair and competitive elections are vital to our system of government,” said Carol Kuniholm, chair and co-founder of Fair Districts PA and a former board member responsible for election reform issues for the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania. “When the outcomes of elections are pre-determined because districts are drawn to favor one political party, whether Republican or Democratic, you wind up with legislators more aligned with that party’s base rather than the interests of average voters.”
SB1023: Killion introduces redistricting reform legislation
Pottstown Mercury MediaNews Group Feb 24, 2020
CHADDS FORD — State Sen. Tom Killion, R-9th, of Middletown, introduced legislation designed to end congressional gerrymandering in Pennsylvania. Senate Bill 1023 would establish an 11-member Independent Redistricting Commission to redraw congressional district lines. “Citizens should pick their legislators, not vice-versa,” said Killion. “The current congressional redistricting process in which legislative leaders propose a congressional redistricting plan that is then presented to the General Assembly for approval is irreparably broken.” The Independent Redistricting Commission would consist of a randomly-selected group of voters from both major political parties, independents and third-party members. Commission members and their spouses cannot not have been lobbyists, political staff or federal or state employees within five years prior to their appointment to the Commission. Senate Bill 1023 is supported by Fair Districts PA, a nonpartisan, statewide coalition of organizations and individuals working to create a process for redistricting that is transparent, impartial, and fair.

House Majority Leader Bryan Cutler isn’t running for Speaker — yet
PA Capital Star By John L. Micek February 24, 2020
(*This story has been updated to include comment from Wolf administration spokesman J.J. Abbott)
Bryan Cutler didn’t have a lot of time for palace intrigue on Monday. The Lancaster County Republican, now into his 14th month as the state House GOP’s floor boss, instead used most of a lunchtime speech to race through a list of legislative accomplishments in the Republican-controlled chamber; to stress what he says is a little-noticed strain of bipartisanship in the House; and to lightning-round his way through a battery of issue-oriented questions submitted by an audience of business leaders, lobbyists, policy wonks and journalists. But, inevitably, there was that question: Does he plan to run to replace House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, who announced his retirement earlier this year? And had Turzai, who’s said he might leave office before his term expires at year’s end, given any indication that he might be stepping down early? “The speaker is still in office,” Cutler told the Monday crowd at this month’s Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon, “and our roles and responsibilities remain exactly the same. The speaker has earned his right to transition as he sees fit. I don’t focus on it.”

Ephrata just approved later school start times in 2020-21; here's what that means for students and families
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer February 25, 2020
plan nearly a year in the making to delay school start times at Ephrata Area School District was approved Monday night. The decision – approved unanimously by the school board, although one board member, Glenn R. Martin, was absent – makes Ephrata the first Lancaster County school district to significantly move up its start times, joining a national trend aligning school schedules with adolescent sleep patterns. “I feel good about the outcome,” Ephrata Superintendent Brian Troop said, adding that he’s anxious to see how students benefit. Many leading health organizations advise starting school no earlier than 8:30 a.m. to match adolescents’ sleep onset and wake times. Waking teenagers up too early, research says, could increase anxiety, irritability and other mental and physical health issues. Ephrata joins at least 25 school districts across Pennsylvania which, since 2011, have implemented later start times, according to a state report released in October 2019. Linden Hall, a private, all-girls school in Lititz, bumped its start time from 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. in 2016. Ephrata’s plan, to be implemented in the 2020-21 school year, shifts school start times by five minutes at elementary schools, 30 at the intermediate school, 45 at the middle school and 40 at the high school.

OJR School Board wants more study of delayed school start times
West Chester Daily Local By Laura Catalano For MediaNews Group February 24, 2020
SOUTH COVENTRY — The Owen J. Roberts School Board has approved the creation of a new steering committee that will reignite the discussion over school start times in the district's middle and high schools. The board voted unanimously at a recent meeting to form the steering committee “with appropriate task forces to study and provide recommendations for a feasible implementation plan to potentially change the school start time for secondary students to 8:30 a.m.” The board has not yet released a timeline for establishing a committee or details on how committee members will be selected. The formation of the steering committee will be based on guidelines set forth in a Pennsylvania’s Joint State Government Commission Report, released in October of last year. That report, titled "Sleep Deprivation in Adolescents: The Case for Delaying Secondary School Start Times," recommended that secondary schools start no earlier than 8:30 a.m. It contains an appendix that lays out strategies for districts seeking to change to later start times.

North Hills gets good grades from parents on work-at-home snow days
Trib Live by  Tony LaRussa Monday, February 24, 2020 | 4:02 PM
The North Hills School District’s first use of a state program that lets kids work at home when school is cancelled because of weather or for other reasons was a success, according to a survey of district parents. The state Department of Education gave the district permission in November to participate in the Flexible Instruction Day program for three years, which means as many as five flex days can be scheduled each year through the 2021-22 school year. The first flex day was used on Feb. 7 when snow falling in the region prompted the National Weather Service to issue a Winter Weather Advisory. Of the nearly 6,200 surveys sent to contacts in the district’s student information system, 1,470 people responded, said Beth Williams, the district’s assistant superintendent. Of those responses, 330 were from parents of high school students and 197 from middle school parents. The remaining responses were split among the elementary schools — Highcliff, 246 responses; McKnight, 237; Ross, 281; and West View, 179. The survey found that 95.9% of district students were present for the Feb. 7 Flexible Instruction Day compared to an average of 96% attendance for regular classes during the first semester of the 2019-20 school year.

PDE seeks your input on updating the state’s science standards
POSTED ON FEBRUARY 24, 2020 IN PSBA NEWS
In September 2019, the State Board of Education directed PDE to begin the process of updating Pennsylvania’s science standards that have been in effect since 2002 to align them with current research and best practices, including a review of Next Generation Science Standards. PDE is seeking public input and is conducting a series of stakeholder meetings from February 19 – March 12 at locations across the state and two virtual meetings. Click here for more information and to register to attend one of the in-person sessions.

School District Borders Can Worsen Inequality. These Students Are Fighting for a Better Education
TIME BY KEVIN CAREY / BENTON HARBOR, MICH. FEBRUARY 20, 2020
Traci Burton is 25 years old, but could easily pass for one of the seniors at Benton Harbor High School. Standing by the trophy case in the lobby, she’s small and youthful, dressed casually, like many of the students walking through the metal detector toward lockers painted with black and orange tiger paws, symbols of the school mascot. People here say they have Tiger Pride. Generations of Burton’s family have lived in Benton Harbor, a city of 10,000 on the shores of Lake Michigan. She went to a performing-arts-focused elementary school there and got a great education. But when the time came for middle and high school, she left for a neighboring district because everyone told her that would be better. Then she went to college, graduated and came home, taking a job teaching at a local elementary school. She was shocked by the change. The kind of education she received at the performing-arts school, which has since closed, was gone. The teaching staff at her new school was a revolving door of substitutes, and her third-grade students couldn’t read. “I took the decline very personally,” she says. “I knew I had to do something bigger to help.”

Protecting Students In The Screen Age: An Action Tool For Parents And Teachers
Forbes by Peter Greene Senior Contributor Feb 22, 2020, 11:57am
It has been a decade since I was introduced to the idea of a 1:1 classroom—a school in which every single student carried a computing device—and I never regretted it for a moment. Having those tools always at my students’ fingertips was extraordinarily useful for my classroom practice, and I would never have willingly given it up. But. The constant presence of computers in classrooms has created education, security and privacy issues far faster than many schools or parents can cope, and trying to teach students about “digital citizenship” felt at times like trying to empty Lake Erie with a paper cup. If data is the new oil, then schools are an untapped ocean-sized reservoir. And students, parents, and schools have been slow to guard that ocean—far slower than the companies want to tap it.


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

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

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.


No comments:

Post a Comment

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