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
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leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations,
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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
A 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
For more information: https://www.psba.org/event/advocacy-day-2020/
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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