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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principals, charter school leaders, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher
leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations,
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PA Ed Policy Roundup for May 28, 2020
Casino shutdown cuts by $300 million the statewide amount
for homestead exemptions to provide relief from school taxes.
The U.S. death toll has reached 100,000.
Washington Post By Marc Fisher May
27, 2020
One hundred thousand Americans dead in less
than four months.
It’s as if every person in Edison, N.J., or
Kenosha, Wis., died. It’s half the population of Salt Lake City or Grand
Rapids, Mich. It’s about 20 times the number of people killed in homicides in
that length of time, about twice the number who die of strokes. The death
toll from the coronavirus passed that hard-to-fathom marker on Wednesday, which
slipped by like so many other days in this dark spring, one more spin of the
Earth, one more headline in a numbing cascade of grim news. Nearly three months
into the brunt of the epidemic, 14 percent of Americans say
they know someone who has succumbed to the virus. These 100,000 are not
nameless numbers, nor are they mostly famous people. They are, overwhelmingly,
elderly — in some states, nearly two-thirds of the dead were 80 or older. They
are disproportionately poor and black and Latino. Among the younger victims,
many did work that allowed others to stay at home, out of the virus’s reach.
Blogger note: this budget tracking spreadsheet provides more
detail than the one we published yesterday.
2020-21 Interim Budget State General Fund Appropriations
House Democratic Appropriations Committee May
26, 2020
This spreadsheet provides detail regarding
General Fund Appropriations in House Bill 2387, Amendment A05886, State and
Federal Appropriations.
Education Budget Lines on Pages 5 and 6
“In the Erie School District, the increase could be as much as
$172 for each of the 17,294 property owners approved for homestead exemptions,
according to the Erie School District and state records. Polito said an
increase of $172 would be the equivalent of the district raising taxes by 11%
for the owner of a home assessed at $100,000.”
Loss of gaming revenue threatens Erie taxpayers
GoErie By Ed
Palattella @etnpalattella Posted
at 12:03 AM
Erie School District Superintendent Brian
Polito is asking the Erie School Board not to increase property taxes for
2020-21, but a tax hike of as much as $172 per household might be coming no
matter what the board decides. The reason is a precipitous drop in statewide
gaming revenue due to the pandemic. The casino shutdown has cut in half the
proceeds that the state uses every year to fund the homestead exemption
program, enacted in 2006 to provide relief from school
taxes statewide. The loss in revenue means a lower
amount for homestead and farmstead exemptions. Without intervention from
Harrisburg, the drop would translate into larger school tax bills. The
unanticipated hike would come as school districts are getting ready to pass
their 2020-21 budgets by the June 30 deadline while they struggle with the loss
of revenue from earned income taxes, property taxes and other sources as a
result of the COVID-19 outbreak. “It is very unfortunate,” Polito said in the
potential drop in funding for homestead exemptions. “And bad timing.”
Schools relieved as Pa. budget poised to avoid education
cuts, for now
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent May 27, 2020
It appears Pennsylvania’s public schools will
get at least a one-year reprieve from any large-scale, state budget cuts. In
a budget bill that squeaked through the
State House on Tuesday, lawmakers decided to hold all major education spending
even for the next twelve months. If that bill is ultimately signed, money for
Pre-K, K-12, and state universities will be identical to what it was this year.
That’s notable because most of the state budget will be revisited five months
from now — after the election and after state officials have a better sense of
the fiscal damage wrought by the coronavirus. But school boards, child care
operators, and university presidents won’t have to worry about substantial
state cuts until at least 2021. Mike Straub, spokesman for the House Republican
Caucus, said schools needed to know where they stood financially before the
academic year began. The prospect of a cut in five months — during the middle
of the school year — is something parents, teachers, and students “shouldn’t be
faced with right now,” he said. Republicans who control the State Senate expect
the proposal to clear their chamber, as well. “We wanted to be sure to send the
message that education was important,” said Jennifer Kocher, spokesperson for
Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R-Centre). “We wanted to provide a little
bit of stability.”
Math error in Harrisburg may raise school tax bills
Pottstown Mercury Evan Brandt ebrandt@21st-centurymedia.com
@PottstownNews on Twitter May 28, 2020
LOWER POTTSGROVE — Despite the fact that
the Pottsgrove School Board has adopted a budget that doesn't raise taxes,
property taxes may go up anyway due to a screw up in Harrisburg. If the error
turns out to be confirmed, it will affect all school property tax bills in
Pennsylvania, not just in Pottsgrove. Business Manager David Nester informed
the board that he is hearing there is an error made by the Pennsylvania budget
secretary in calculating casino revenues. That funding provides tax relief by
cutting the tax bill of every registered homestead and farmstead in the
district by about $299, Nester said. Since the homestead exemption was first
created as part of the Act 1 tax reform in 2006, the district has received a
constant amount of $1.5 million. As happens every year, Nester said his office
was notified May 1 that the revenues from casino gambling had been certified at
$621 million. "Last week we were notified that the Pennsylvania budget
secretary was going to re-certify the amount," Nester told the Pottsgrove
School Board Tuesday night. "Now I'm hearing that it may be reduced by
$300 million, which would mean we would lose about $770,000 and that works out
to about $150 per house," Nester said. None of this has been confirmed
yet, said Nester, observing, "I'm having a hard time believing they made a
$300 million calculation error." "This information is moving fast and
I think I'll be getting a day-by-day or even hour-by-hour update, he said. Unlike
property taxes, the homestead exemption doles out tax relief equally among
homesteads and farmsteads, no matter what the property assessment is.
Blogger note: as of yesterday, 246 of Pennsylvania’s 500 school
boards have passed resolutions calling for charter school funding reform. Now
more than ever, there is a growing momentum from school officials across the
state to call for charter school funding reform. Legislators are hearing loud
and clear that school districts need relief from the unfair funding system that
results in school districts overpaying millions of dollars to charter schools. The
locally elected, volunteer school boards from the following districts have
adopted resolutions calling for charter funding reform.
Lehighton calls for charter school reform
Lehighton Times News BY JARRAD HEDES JMHEDES@TNONLINE.COM Published
May 27. 2020 02:45PM
In one of many split votes during last week’s
school board meeting, Lehighton Area School District joined hundreds of others
across the state in adopting a resolution calling for charter school funding
reform. The resolution, drafted by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association,
calls for state lawmakers to “meaningfully revise” charter school law, which
has not been altered in 23 years. “The average Pennsylvania school district
spends millions of dollars in taxpayer money annually in mandatory payments to
brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools,” the resolution states. “These
payments are calculated in a manner which requires districts to send more money
to charter schools than is needed to operate their programs and places a
significant financial burden on districts’ resources and taxpayers.” Lehighton
board member Joy Beers urged her colleagues to vote against the resolution,
calling it “anti-education reform.” “Charter schools do a lot of good,
especially in urban areas for poor children and non-white children,” Beers
said. “This would hurt that and take this away from children who don’t have
other options.” Beers joined Dave Bradley and Gail Maholick in voting against
the resolution, while Larry Stern, Rita Spinelli, Wayne Wentz, Stephen Holland
and Nathan Foeller voted in favor of it. “This is not an attack on charter
schools, it is attacking the funding model that is completely inadequate,”
Stern said. “They are allowed to advertise and use public funds inappropriately
instead of on their students.”
Reopening schools in the fall is ‘a puzzle to be put
together’
Beaver County Times By J.D.
Prose @jdprose Posted
at 12:05 AM May 28, 2020
Local school district superintendents and
administrators have an endless list of questions to address as they prepare for
schools to reopen in the fall. With the Pennsylvania Department of Education
planning on schools reopening to students in the fall, local districts are
trying to figure out exactly how classes in the age of COVID-19 will work. “It’s
certainly going to be a puzzle to be put together,” said Robert Postupac, the
superintendent of both Western Beaver and Blackhawk school districts. Postupac said
superintendents in the region will be meeting online with state Secretary of
Education Pedro Rivera within the next few weeks to discuss the myriad issues
facing districts when it comes to welcoming back students. “We will be very
interested in what the expectations will be and how we can work with the state
to continue to provide our high-quality educational programs,” Postupac said. On
May 12, Rivera told the Senate Education Committee, “We fully expect to come
back to school in the fall,” according to the
Philadelphia Inquirer, which also reported that Rivera told
lawmakers that his department would be providing more guidance to local
officials in coming weeks to prepare for classes. The Education Department,
Rivera said, would not require districts to reopen in any particular way, but,
instead, would “allow school districts to choose from multiple strategies,” the
Inquirer’s Maddie Hanna reported. Central Valley Superintendent Nick Perry said
his Beaver County colleagues have been working collaboratively on the impact of
COVID-19 on schools and now meet weekly.
POST-PANDEMIC POSSIBILITIES
Information may be a mouse-click away, but
the ability to learn doesn’t always come with it. Educators will need to
rethink how to teach future generations in a post-pandemic world. Earlier this
month, the CDC issued guidelines for reopening schools this fall. They aren’t
mandates, but recommendations for districts. The Pennsylvania Department of
Education will ultimately have the final say.
• Face masks for all. The CDC recommends that
students wear masks at school, though it’s understood that will be a challenge
for younger students. Older students and staff are “most essential” in times
where physical distancing is difficult.
• Brown bag lunches are strongly encouraged.
The cafeteria line — and eating in a cafeteria — is likely to be banished, as
schools are encouraged to serve a prepackaged lunch that can be eaten in a
classroom.
• Desks are suggested to be 6 feet apart and
facing the same way.
• One student per row on school buses, with
an empty seat between students.
• Plastic barriers between sinks in school
bathrooms, or between desks if they can’t be placed 6 feet apart.
• Small groups of students and teachers stay
together all day, rather than moving from classroom to classroom.
Also, a statewide task force of
eight education associations will
be studying how districts can reopen safely in the fall. “We’re going to
prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Perry said.
Is CDC guidance for schools feasible? Lancaster County
educators say it raises more questions than answers
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer May 28,
2020
To reopen schools in the fall, Lancaster
County school officials say they’ll need more than just a list of
recommendations. Closed since mid-March because of the novel coronavirus
pandemic, schools are expected to reopen in August. But with limited guidance,
including a list of suggestions released last week by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention on COVID-19, school officials here say they need more
information to make the important decisions that lie ahead this summer. While
it’s only June, time is running out for both the state and federal governments
to issue more concrete reopening guidance, they say. “School districts need
more than recommendations and need ample time to plan, prepare and communicate
next steps to our community,” Hempfield School District Superintendent Mike
Bromirski said. Last week, the CDC issued interim guidance including
three steps: first, schools remain closed but offer online learning
opportunities; second, schools reopen only to students who live in the local
geographic areas and with enhanced social-distancing measures; and third,
reopen with social-distancing measures but restrict attendance to those from
"limited transmission areas." Those recommended measures include
students, particularly older students, and staff wearing face masks when
feasible, situating desks in the same direction and spacing them 6 feet apart,
closing cafeterias and letting students eat in their classrooms, providing
virtual learning and work options for students and staff who are more at risk
of infection, and closing schools when someone tests positive for COVID-19.
Special needs children become the unintended victims of
COVID-19
CBS21 by Talia Kirkland Wednesday, May
27th 2020
The state’s COVID-19 shutdown has hit
families of special needs children hard: first schools were canceled, and then
at-home therapy services discontinued. While telehealth services were provided,
many parents stressed they are not effective for children with learning
disabilities. For Wendy Hammaker’s daughter, Alexa, virtual school is nearly
impossible, and daily therapy is essential, but since the onset of the pandemic
she's received neither and now she pledging for help. “We just want the best
for our kids and when you feel helpless, and when you feel like you can't give
that it is the worse feeling for a parent," explained Hammaker. Hammaker
wasn’t alone today as she delivered her letter to Governor Tom Wolf, detailing
the challenges her non-verbal 10-year-old daughter is facing.
Pandemic creates funding crisis for Scranton schools, as
leaders look at scenarios for fall
Scranton Times Tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL,
STAFF WRITER / PUBLISHED: MAY 28, 2020
Faced with a potential revenue loss of $6.4
million through the end of 2020, the Scranton School District must make drastic
cuts as officials determine what education may look like this fall. During
Wednesday’s Financial Recovery Advisory Committee meeting, leaders revealed a
dire situation — one that could lead to job losses and major changes in how
teachers deliver instruction. District leaders will continue to develop plans
for students’ returns this fall, whether in a physical classroom or at home on
a computer. As the coronavirus pandemic continues and guidelines evolve,
scenarios include making Scranton High School an elementary center where
younger students could have more space to safely spread out, while moving
instruction for older students fully online. Or special education students may
be the only students with in-person instruction. “The priority right now is to
make sure our kids are safe,” Superintendent Melissa McTiernan said. “I don’t
know if we’ll ever go back to that ‘normal’ everyone talks about.”
East Penn teachers, administrators take pay freeze to
help district through coronavirus financial strain
By MICHELLE MERLIN THE MORNING
CALL | MAY 27, 2020 | 8:54 PM
The teachers and administrators in East Penn
School District opted to take a pay freeze next year to help the district cope
with the financial strain of the coronavirus. District officials for weeks have
been trying to shave about $6 million from next year’s budget. They
anticipate less revenue than
originally expected because of COVID-19-related job losses reducing the amount
of taxes the district will receive. The pay freezes will save the district
about $1.6 million, according to a presentation at a board meeting Tuesday. “We
are incredibly fortunate to be part of an educational community in which our
professional staff as well as our administrators truly have joined us as
partners in education,” Superintendent Kristen Campbell said. “They care about
the quality of the services they offer our students, and equally as important,
they’re committed to preserving those high-quality programs through all means
that are available.”
New Kensington-Arnold School Board proposes tax increase,
warns of bleak financial future
Trib Live by BRIAN C. RITTMEYER | Wednesday,
May 27, 2020 1:35 p.m.
New Kensington-Arnold School Board approved a
$37.9 million proposed final budget on Tuesday that includes a 3 mill increase
in property taxes. The board went back and forth before the vote on whether to
propose an increase of 2 or 3 mills, but opted for the higher increase to
provide the cash-strapped district with more of a financial cushion. “We’re
doing everything we possibly can to do what’s right for this (district) and get
it right without taxing people out of their homes,” board member Bob Pallone
said. “We’re in a tough spot here.” The proposed increase would raise the
district’s tax rate to 88.27 mills. At that rate, the owner of a property
assessed at $20,000 would owe $1,765 in taxes, or $60 more than this year. Superintendent
John Pallone said administrators will meet with the teachers’ union leaders to
discuss offering an early retirement incentive as a way to cut costs. He
anticipates two or three positions could be eliminated through incentives.
Proposed Greensburg Salem budget cuts staff instead of
raising taxes
Trib Live by JACOB TIERNEY | Wednesday,
May 27, 2020 9:24 p.m.
Greensburg Salem’s School District’s proposed
budget would furlough two teachers and eliminate several positions through
attrition to keep taxes flat while making up for the projected loss of revenue
caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The school board held a special meeting via
videoconferencing service Zoom Wednesday after failing to agree on a
budget proposal last week. The new proposal includes more cuts, and members
approved it with a 6-3 vote. The proposed budget is not final — the board will
vote one more time next month, and can make changes in the meantime. The
proposal keeps all the cuts suggested last week, saving more than $500,000.
These include eliminating the middle
school and elementary school library positions, the elementary school band
teacher, tech ed teacher and community liaison.
Philly teachers wary of opening schools without contact
tracing and a vaccine
More than 6,000 teachers participated in the
PFT survey. They expressed worries that it would be nearly impossible to
enforce social distancing or teach with masks on.
The notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa May 27 — 9:42 am, 2020
Most Philadelphia teachers don’t think school
buildings should open in September until the infrastructure exists to test,
trace, and isolate new cases of COVID-19, according to a survey by the
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and four out of five respondents are
strongly in favor of limiting enrollment based on physical space in classrooms.
More than half said they are “extremely concerned” about opening schools before
there is a vaccine. Nearly all are at least “very concerned” about the School
District’s ability to properly prepare its buildings for reopening and to
maintain safe and sanitary conditions. More than 90% say it is crucial for the
union to be heavily involved in developing and carrying out any reopening plan.
The PFT survey was
conducted between May 12 and May 18, with more than 6,300 members responding. “It
is clear from reading the results that our membership is, rightfully, deeply
concerned about the health and safety of their students, themselves, and their
families,” said PFT president Jerry Jordan in a statement. He said the results
provide “important starting points” for any safety protocols that will be
necessary before schools can reopen.
School districts use a variety of tactics to keep
learning on track
Educators say districts should seize the
opportunity to create a new, better system for students and families.
The notebook by Connie
Langland May 27 — 8:35 am, 2020
In Los Angeles, the plan is to offer summer
courses to any student who wants to sign up. In Austin, more than 100 school
buses with WiFi capabilities were deployed to apartment complexes and
neighborhoods with clusters of families lacking internet access. Charlotte-Mecklesburg
and San Francisco, among other districts, opted to keep learning nondigital for
children in the early grades, instead sending home printed materials. And
multiple districts began partnering with local television stations to offer
educational programming. In recent weeks, urban districts responding to the
COVID-19 crisis scrambled to salvage the school year and at the same time began
imagining how to serve students across typically dormant summer months and into
the fall. Adaptability seemed to be the mantra as the spring semester limped to
a close, and school leaders began mulling options for delivering instruction in
– or out – of school come fall. “We have to have a recovery plan for
education,” Eric Gordon, chief executive for the Cleveland Metropolitan School
District, told the Washington Post. “I’m really worried that people think
schools and colleges just flipped to digital and everything’s fine and we can
just return to normal. That’s simply not the case.” All districts were focused
on keeping students engaged with their teachers, schools, and academics. But
educators debated what should be expected of students and how to track their
participation and evaluate the work they produced. Multiple districts,
including Philadelphia, adopted a “do no harm” approach to grading.
PSBA seeks to fill PIAA District representative vacancies
POSTED ON MAY 27, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
PSBA seeks members who are interested in
serving on Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Districts 4
and 7 (see map) for the current term that began on July 1, 2019. The
appointment will be effective upon the PSBA Board of Directors' approval and
run through June 30, 2021. The PIAA Board of Directors established procedures
for appointing or reappointing local school directors to serve on the 12
district committees of the PIAA who, in turn, provide for the governance of
scholastic athletics in their various geographic regions. PIAA Bylaws require
that a school board representative for each PIAA committee be appointed by the
PSBA Board of Directors. The representatives are full voting members of their
respective district committees. School directors can click here to submit a
Statement of Interest form. The form
must be submitted/received at PSBA no later than 4:00 p.m. on Friday, June 5.
Please contact Sherri Houck at (717) 590-5624 with any questions.
A Looming Financial Meltdown For America's Schools
NPR by CORY TURNER Heard on Morning Edition May 26,
20205:00 AM ET
Austin Beutner looked haggard, his face a
curtain of worry lines. The superintendent of the second-largest school
district in the nation sat at a desk last week delivering a video address to
Los Angeles families. But he began with a stark message clearly meant for
another audience: Lawmakers in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. "Cuts to
funding at schools will forever impact the lives of children," Beutner
said less than a week after California's governor called for emergency cuts in
education spending. The harm children face from these cuts, Beutner warned,
"is just as real a threat to them as is the coronavirus." Similar
alarms are sounding in districts across the country. With the nation's
attention still fixed on the COVID-19 health crisis, school leaders are warning
of a financial meltdown that could devastate many districts and set back an
entire generation of students. "I think we're about to see a school
funding crisis unlike anything we have ever seen in modern history," warns
Rebecca Sibilia, the CEO of EdBuild, a school finance advocacy organization.
"We are looking at devastation that we could not have imagined ... a year
ago."
How The Science Of Vaccination Is Taught (Or Not) In U.S.
Schools
As scientists race to find a vaccine for
COVID-19, teachers say teaching about the issue has become increasingly tricky
Huffington Post By Rebecca Klein and Caroline
Preston 05/23/2020 08:00 am
This story about climate change and education
was produced as part of the nine-part series “Are We Ready? How Schools Are
Preparing — and Not Preparing — Children for Climate Change,” reported by
HuffPost and The Hechinger Report, a
nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation
in education.
When Rebecca Brewer started teaching high
school biology 20 years ago, it seemed like everyone trusted science. Teaching
topics like the science of vaccinations elicited little controversy. But in the
past few years, she’s seen a shift. Now, every year, she reliably has a few
students who push back against the topic. “Their parents’ opinions make
their way into the classroom,” said Brewer, who teaches in Troy, Michigan. “Of
course, some students will bring up the idea they’ve heard that there’s a
connection between vaccinations and autism.” The issue, teachers said, feels
not only especially urgent now but also comes with increasingly high stakes: In
a recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll, nearly
20%t of respondents said they wouldn’t get a coronavirus vaccine if and when it
becomes available. It’s an attitude that some teachers said is reflected in
their classrooms, passed down to students from their parents at early ages.
DeVos Demands Public Schools Share Pandemic Aid With
Private Institutions
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she will
force public school superintendents to share coronavirus rescue funds with
private schools, some of which are facing ruin.
New York Times By Erica
L. Green May 27, 2020Updated 4:29 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy
DeVos, defiant amid criticism that she is using the
coronavirus to pursue a long-sought agenda, said she
would force public school districts to spend a large portion of federal rescue
funding on private school students, regardless of income. Ms. DeVos announced
the measure in a letter to the Council of Chief State School Officers, which
represents state education chiefs, defending her position on how education
funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES
Act, should be spent. “The CARES Act is a special, pandemic-related
appropriation to benefit all American students, teachers and families,” she
wrote in the letter on Friday. “There is nothing in the act suggesting Congress
intended to discriminate between children based on public or nonpublic school
attendance, as you seem to do. The virus affects everyone.” A range of
education officials say Ms. DeVos’s guidance would divert millions of dollars
from disadvantaged students and force districts starved of tax revenues during
an economic crisis to support even the wealthiest private schools. The
association representing the nation’s schools superintendents told districts to
ignore the guidance, and at least two states — Indiana and Maine — said they
would.
Pa. House Democrats say keeping GOP colleague’s exposure
to COVID-19 private is ‘unacceptable’
Penn Live By Jan
Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Posted May
27, 2020
House Democratic Leader Frank Dermody said he
and other House members were shocked to learn that Republican Rep. Andrew
Lewis found out he tested positive for COVID-19 on May 20
and they only learned about it on Wednesday. Lewis, 33, said he has completed
his 14-day self-isolation dating to the time when the Dauphin County Republican
believes he may have been exposed. He said he is now fully recovered from the
mild flu-like symptoms he experienced from the coronavirus. “While we are
pleased to learn that this House member seems to have recovered, it is simply
unacceptable that some House Republicans knew about this for more than a week
and sat on that knowledge,” said Dermody of Allegheny County. He said more than
a week ago, with several other colleagues self-quarantining this week, no
notice was provided to the people working closely with them at the Capitol. “Knowing
how House members and staff work closely together at the Capitol, we should
have been made aware of this much sooner. We should not have learned of it from
a media report,” Dermody said. Two of those self-quarantining are Reps. Russ
Diamond and Frank Ryan, both Lebanon County Republicans who regularly have
attended House sessions in person rather than voting by proxy as temporary
House rules permit.
Pa. House Democrats say they were in the dark for a week
about Republican’s positive coronavirus test
by Angela Couloumbis of
Spotlight PA and Julia Terruso of The
Philadelphia Inquirer, Updated: May 27, 2020- 6:23 PM
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan
newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and PennLive/Patriot-News. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter.
HARRISBURG — A Republican state lawmaker from
Central Pennsylvania confirmed Wednesday that he tested positive for the
coronavirus earlier this month, leading at least one of his House colleagues to
self-quarantine. The admission immediately ignited outrage among Democrats in
the chamber, who said they were recklessly left in the dark for nearly a week
about the lawmaker’s condition. State Rep. Andrew Lewis (R., Dauphin) said in a
statement that he received a positive COVID-19 result on May 20 and immediately
began self-isolation. He said he informed House officials after he received the
result, and that they have worked to identify anyone with whom he may have come
into contact. Lewis said he was last in the Capitol on May 14.
One of Lewis’ House colleagues, Rep. Russ
Diamond (R., Lebanon), confirmed he was contacted and asked to self-quarantine
— although several Democrats said two other Republican lawmakers were also told
to stay home for 14 days.
Adopt the 2020 PSBA resolution for charter school funding
reform
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.
Over 245 PA school boards adopt charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 245 school boards across the state have adopted a resolution
calling for legislators to enact significant reforms to the Charter School Law
to provide funding relief and ensure all schools are held to the same quality
and ethics standards. Now more than ever, there is a growing momentum from
school officials across the state to call for charter school funding reform.
Legislators are hearing loud and clear that school districts need relief from the
unfair funding system that results in school districts overpaying millions of
dollars to charter schools.
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
The Network for Public Education Action Conference has
been rescheduled to April 24-25, 2021 at the Philadelphia Doubletree Hotel
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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