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
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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If any of your colleagues would
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Teens across the Philly region speak out on racism in
virtual town hall
Cyber charters cripple public schools
Altoona Mirror Commentary by GEORGE F. PYO JUN
15, 2020
George Pyo is president of the Penn Cambria
School District Board.
Due to the economic implications of the
COVID-19 pandemic, Pennsylvania’s public school districts face declining local
revenue collection that is projected to range from $850 million to more than $1
billion for 2020-21. At the same time, Pennsylvania cyber charter schools are
entitled to over $70 million in federal education stimulus funds this fiscal
year to help them weather the financial crisis when they have not experienced
any revenue cuts. Pennsylvania’s flawed charter school funding formula already
results in overpayments to charter schools and in a time when school districts
are facing significant financial issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic,
this concerning use of taxpayer money should not be allowed to continue. These
valuable resources should be utilized to keep public school districts running
rather than overfunding cyber charter schools that are receiving additional
financial gains by other means. Even as Pennsylvania’s public school districts
work tirelessly to bring the 2019-20 school year to completion, districts are
looking to the weeks and months ahead.
Political Cartoon: Studying equality in school funding
Inquirer by Signe Wilkinson Updated: June 14, 2020 - 5:00 AM
The argument against equal funding for school
children in the state of Pennsylvania often goes something like, “Money doesn’t
guarantee a good education.” Maybe, but when rich people put their kids in the
“best” private schools, they now pay around $40,000 a year for high school:
$39,250 for Agnes Irwin; $40,350
for Germantown Friends School; $37,600
for Episcopal Academy, a bargain.
All of those tuitions are well over twice what is spent on a kid in Philadelphia
public schools ($15,562 per student, according to the PA Dept. of Education’s
annual financial report). I guess rich kids are just harder to educate.
Teens across the Philadelphia region speak out on racism
in virtual town hall
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Updated: June 12, 2020- 4:11 PM
Kayla Cocci, a 17-year-old biracial student
at Ridley High School, said many of the white people in her life “don’t see
color” — and don’t understand the challenges she and her brother face. Seif
Ghazi, 17, of Radnor High School, said he felt self-conscious and isolated when
a math teacher seated him next to another student of color and repeatedly made
jokes that the two would “look good together as a couple.” Kramoh Mansalay, who
just graduated from Academy Park High School, said that as a black male, he
“could be George Floyd,” and that he was participating in community cleanups,
joining protests, and signing petitions — so that “when the history books are
written, I’m on the right side of that.” They were some of the teenagers from
across the region who participated in a virtual town hall event Friday, voicing
their experiences with race and racism — and pressing leaders, as well as their
peers, to do more to address problems.
Local students call for change in virtual town hall on
race
Delco Times By Rachel Ravina
rravina@thereporteronline.com @rachelravina on Twitter Jun 12, 2020
PHILADELPHIA -- Students across the greater
Philadelphia area participated in a virtual forum Friday morning to take a
stand against racism and discuss a path forward to accomplishing change. “I
just want to make sure that when the history books are written, I’m on the
right side of that, and the right side of that is making sure ... people can
have justice in the world,” said Kramoh Mansalay, a student at Academy Park
High School in Sharon Hill. PCCY’s Teen Town Hall: Race and Racism, was
broadcast on Zoom and streamed live on Facebook. It was sponsored by the Public
Citizens for Children and Youth. The event opened with a Youtube video
showcasing the Chester Children’s Chorus’ powerful rendition
of “I Still Can’t Breathe.” The panel discussion included
teens, moderators as well as state and federal lawmakers. “We have a moment
here in American history that we’re living through that is unlike any moment of
its kind at least in the last 50 years,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA). “It’s
a moral moment, and each of you is part of this, and each of you can contribute
to it.”
Students, school districts confront racism, call for
change
Bucks County Courier Times By Marion
Callahan Posted
Jun 14, 2020 at 6:01 AM
Following the death of George Floyd,
Doylestown’s Selma Ahmed, who is a black Muslim woman, shared troubling
excerpts from her Tohickon Middle School yearbook. With a friend Madeline
Steuber, they launched an Instagram Live event “Hey, We got to talk,” and a
Central Bucks fundraiser. Selma Ahmed was in middle school when she flipped
through the pages of her yearbook, seeking a record of cherished memories. Instead,
she saw racial slurs, including mentions of “the “n” word, drawings of the
confederate flag and even a death threat masked in a rap lyric. Only 15, she
kept silent. Cleaning out her closet a few weeks ago while home from college,
Ahmed stumbled upon the Tohickon Middle School yearbook. In the emotional
aftermath of George Floyd’s death, “something snapped,” she said. “On a whim, I
made this public,” said Ahmed, who shared snapshots of the slurs as a reminder
of just how rooted racism is in her home community, and who hosted, along with
a friend, a live chat on social media on the topic. “It’s not just me; it’s
systemic. Racism and its effect can be overt and covert, but still impacts me
tremendously.” The nationwide outrage following the death of Floyd at the hands
of a white police officer in Minneapolis has led students, educators and others
to confront racism in their own communities. NAACP leaders and peace advocates
across the county are pushing for concrete action — and some school leaders are
listening. Across the region, many school districts issued statements
expressing sorrow and calling for racial justice. Some also were forced to
directly address racist videos and comments from students and staff members
that have surfaced on social media in recent weeks.
“When the marches are over, the speeches are given, and all the
pictures are taken, we will still be here educating our children. We can
continue to do so with a lack of resources that directly correlate to
achievement gaps, school-to-prison pipelines and predictable outcomes for
communities of color.”
Your View by Allentown school superintendent: ‘Education
is a civil rights matter for all’
By THOMAS PARKER THE MORNING CALL |
JUN 14, 2020 | 8:00 AM
Black lives matter and we must ensure they
matter in every classroom. In the past few weeks, we have witnessed the next
step in a movement to push our nation towards a more equitable experience for
all Americans. As I reflect on the myriad of citizens, politicians,
organizations and corporations that have pledged support to a movement that
promotes civil rights, the need to focus on education is resounding. The list
of topics that impacts our communities is vast, and each topic deserves time
and attention. Mass incarceration, policing, school-to-prison pipeline, housing
— the list goes on. However, a solidarity thread strings these together:
education. Education is a civil rights matter for all. We must focus on the
funding disparity for school districts that serve the very populations that we
are pledging to support. The disparity in funding for schools in Allentown has
an outsized impact on access to the America we want for all our students.
The other Turzai succession question: Can the GOP hold
his seat? | Friday Morning Coffee
PA Capitol Star By John L. Micek June 12,
2020
Good Friday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
You’re going to hear a great deal of
discussion over the next few days over who might be next in line to succeed
state House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, who’s retiring on
June 15. In the near term, at least, House Majority Leader Bryan
Cutler, R-Lancaster, will hold the post while the House GOP caucus holds
leadership elections later this month. But there’s another succession question
that’s of equal or greater importance: With his retirement, did Turzai just
hand his 28th District seat, which sits securely in Pittsburgh’s
suburban North Hills, over to the Democrats? Based on some compelling
conversations with folks on the ground out there, early signs point to “Quite
possibly.” Or … perhaps …“Absolutely,” one veteran GOP operative said
when they were asked whether Democrats had a chance of flipping
a district that, like the rest of Allegheny County’s suburbs, has been trending
steadily blue over the last few years. In 2018, Democrat Emily Skopov,
a nonprofit executive from suburban Wexford and a political unknown, came
within 9 percentage points of beating Turzai in that year’s Blue Wave election.
Unencumbered hopes of an angry educator
Here are 10 ways to challenge the racial
injustices in public schools.
The notebook Commentary by Julio C.
Nuñez June 12 — 2:14 pm, 2020
Julio C. Nuñez has taught and led schools in
Philadelphia for 11 years. He was the founding principal and CEO of
Independence Charter School West and now serves as an angry, yet hopeful,
school principal in North Philadelphia.
“I love America more than any other country
in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize
her perpetually.”
― James Baldwin
― James Baldwin
When educators across this country started
this school year, no one imagined it would go like this. End like this. In
Philadelphia, as in most major U.S. cities, teachers and administrators
commenced in the fall of 2019 with the same worries they’ve had for years: how
to contend with the chronic underfunding of their schools; how to make up for
the gap; and how to mitigate once again the negative impact of narrow metrics
of student ability. No one anticipated that by late winter in 2020, they would
suddenly stop teaching students in person, hugging them, and instead be
prompted to master online teaching within days while juggling a worldwide
pandemic and personal lives. The root of my anger has to do with my awareness
of racial injustice in schools and how it harms children. Adding to this is my
struggle to comprehend why, in the United States of America, such profound
disparities still persist. It is time for every school district across this
country to institutionalize antiracist policies to counter centuries-old
willful neglect. The collateral benefit of policing reforms in the aftermath of
George Floyd’s killing and nationwide Black Lives Matter protests may not be
enough to make headway in this area. Instead, it will need to be a deliberate,
focused effort to champion difficult conversations with business and policy
leaders and taxpayers to develop predictable and equitable revenue sources for
public education.
After 18 years, Pa. science education standards could get
rewrite
Lindsay C VanAsdalan, York
Dispatch Published 4:43 p.m. ET June 11, 2020
A group of educators from throughout the
state aim to overhaul some of the country's oldest standards for science
education, all while avoiding a protracted political dispute over climate
change and evolution. Pennsylvania's science standards haven't been changed since
2002, and repeated efforts in the past to overhaul them stalled during the
review process — which involves an independent commission with input
from the state Legislature. The state has different hurdles than some others
— as its standards are not approved directly by the Legislature —
though that body can veto them if it disapproves. "We want to make sure
we’re pushing the students," said Eric Wilson, director of curriculum,
instruction and assessment at Red Lion Area School District. Wilson is one of two
educators from Red Lion on a 60-member committee tasked with
the rewrite.
Erie schools use virus aid to hold off custodian cuts
GoErie By Ed Palattella @etnpalattella Posted
Jun 14, 2020 at 12:02 AM
District needs all its current maintenance
staff for another year for cleaning due to COVID-19, superintendents says.
Pandemic-related federal funding is giving
custodians at the Erie School District a one-year reprieve from job cuts. The
district will use nearly $1 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds to
continue to pay all of its approximately 85 maintenance employees for another
year. As part of its state-mandated financial improvement plan, the district
had planned to cut 13 jobs from its maintenance staff to save $1 million in
2020-21. The district is keeping those 13 positions — three building engineers,
who supervise maintenance, and 10 custodians — for the new academic year. The
district needs all the custodians to ensure its 16 school buildings and other
facilities are cleaned and sanitized in accordance with federal and state
guidelines for curbing the spread of COVID-19, Erie schools Superintendent
Brian Polito said. The schools are reopening for students Aug. 31 following the
statewide shutdown that started in March, though distance learning will
continue as well in a hybrid instruction plan. The district will use $994,000
in federal coronavirus aid to pay the 13 maintenance employees for a year,
covering the $1 million expense that the district had planned to eliminate by
cutting the 13 jobs, Polito said.
In 5-4 vote, North Pocono School Board raises taxes
Scranton Times Tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL,
STAFF WRITER JUNE 12, 2020
North Pocono school taxes will increase 2%
next year — a decision made by a split board that disagrees whether the
hike is necessary. The district had originally planned to use $2 million in
reserve funding to prevent a tax increase in 2020-21. But with concerns
over diminishing reserves and the coronavirus pandemic, the school board
approved a tax increase 5-4 during a virtual meeting Thursday night. “We
felt that the fiscally responsible thing to do was to ask for a small tax
increase this year,” said Howard McIntosh, the board’s vice president. “Three
thousand kids are counting on us to keep the school district among the very
best in Northeast Pennsylvania.” The 2% tax increase will generate an
additional $550,000 for the district, which means the district will keep
more funding reserved for emergencies. With a tax increase, the fund balance is
projected to be $3.75 million at the end of 2020-21, instead of $3.2 million,
board President Bill Burke said. The district’s total budget is $57 million.
Ridley schools OK budget with no tax increase
Delco Times By Barbara Ormsby Times
Correspondent June 15, 2020
RIDLEY TOWNSHIP — It will be a
no-tax-increase 2020-2021 final budget for taxpayers in the Ridley School
District in spite of a $3,231,892 increase in expenses over the current budget.
"We needed to pass a no-tax-increase budget,"said Ridley School Board
President Michael Capozzoli. "These are tough times for people. The board
directed Superintendent (Lee Ann) Wentzel to come up with a no-tax-increase
budget and she did it." The final budget for 2020-2021 calls for general
fund expenditures of $114,322,740 with the real estate millage rate remaining
at 41.30 mills, or $4.13 for each $100 of assessed value. The proposed budget
approved at the May school board meeting called for a tax increase of 1.400 mills
that translated into a $139 tax increase for a house assessed at the average of
$100,000. "Every year we try to work to avoid a tax increase,"
Wentzel said. "We knew in constructing a proposed final budget early in
May that there were more unknowns than usual. In order to complete a budget in
a timely fashion given the various constraints placed upon the district we
opted to present an initial round of expense cuts in the proposed final budget
with a tax increase that was under the maximum allowed by law."
$172M Spring-Ford school budget raises taxes 2.58%
Pottstown Mercury by MediaNews Group Jun 12,
2020
ROYERSFORD — The Spring-Ford Area School
Board voted 6-3 to adopt a final budget of $172,070,735 for the 2020-2021
school year, according to a press release issued by the district.
The proposed budget includes a 2.58 percent
tax increase, which equates to an increase of .7092 mills, resulting in a
millage rate of 28.1869. This equates to a $70.92 increase per $100,000
assessment. Voting no were Board President Coleen Zasowski, Vice President
Thomas DiBello, who heads the board's finance committee, and Clinton Jackson. "We
are going to have the same conversations next year, but it is going to be more
painful," said Jackson. "We are in for a whirlwind next year,"
said DiBello. "We'll be looking at a 5 percent to 6 percent tax increase
right out of the chute," he said, adding that the cost of state
COVID-19 guidelines for re-opening "are going to be astronomical."
Taxes to rise 3.5% under Upper Perk school budget
PENNSBURG — School property tax bills
will go up 3.48 percent under the $66.7 million budget adopted by an 8-1 vote
of the school board Thursday night. School board member Raeann Hofkin cast the
only vote against the budget adoption Thursday. The bills will go up despite
the fact that the budget does not increase the tax rate — or
millage — from its current rate of 25.2278 mills. And the bills will go up
despite the fact that the school board agreed to pull $2.2 million from the
budget reserves, called "fund balance," to balance the budget and
keep from raising the millage. The reason, according to Business Administrator
Sandra Kassel, is because of the method the district uses to equalize millage
among the seven municipalities in two counties which comprise the district.
Upper Perk board removes president due to Facebook post
Pottstown Mercury By Evan Brandt ebrandt@21st-centurymedia.com
@PottstownNews on Twitter June 12, 2020
PENNSBURG — Responding to a social media
post by the Upper Perkiomen School Board president many considered to be
derogatory to transsexuals, the board removed Raeann Hofkin as board president
Thursday night and voted unanimously to censure her. Although Hofkin voted in
favor of the censure, and for a motion to issue a board statement indicating
her post did not represent board views, she voted against her removal as
president. The uproar focused on a Facebook post, since removed, that showed a
photo of Pennsylvania State Health Secretary Rachel Levine, who is transsexual,
and was linked to a news article about Gov. Tom Wolf's reaction to calls for
early openings of businesses closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Charter Schools, Some With Billionaire Benefactors, Tap
Coronavirus Relief
Charter schools, which are publicly funded
but privately run, are securing coronavirus relief meant for businesses even as
they also benefit from public school aid.
New York Times By Erica
L. Green June 15, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON — Charter schools, including some
with healthy cash balances and billionaire backers like Michael Bloomberg and
Bill Gates, have quietly accepted millions of dollars in emergency coronavirus
relief from a fund created to help struggling small businesses stay afloat. Since
their inception, charter schools have straddled the line between public schools
and private entities. The coronavirus has forced them to choose. And dozens of
them — potentially more because the Treasury Department has not disclosed a
list — have decided for the purpose of coronavirus relief that they are businesses,
applying for aid even as they continue to enjoy funding from school budgets,
tax-free status and, in some cases, healthy cash balances and the support of
billionaire backers. That has let them tap the Paycheck Protection Program,
which Congress intended to keep businesses and nonprofits from shedding jobs
and closing their doors. Parents, activists and researchers have identified at
least $50 million in forgivable loans flowing to the schools, which, like all
schools, are facing steep budget cuts next year as tax revenue, tuition
payments and donations dry up. “To me, either you’re a fish or a fowl — you
can’t say you’re a public school one day, but now because it’s advantageous,
say you’re a business,” said Carol Burris, the executive director of the
Network for Public Education, a group that scrutinizes charter school
management, and whose early donors included a teachers’ union.
Teachers Face A Summer Of Soul Searching. What Do They Do
In The Fall?
Forbes by Peter Greene Senior Contributor Jun 12, 2020,03:49pm
EDT
We know a handful of things. We know that
virtually nobody wants to continue the pandemic shut-down crisis school model
in the fall (with the possible exception of ed tech companies that hope to keep
cashing in on it). Elected officials across the country are calling for schools
to open again, a position that’s easy for them to take because A) everybody is
suffering from full-on pandemic fatigue and B) none of those officials will
have to deal with the actual issues of opening schools. We know that nobody
really knows how dangerous re-opening schools will be. Will
students become super-spreaders, sharing it at school and bringing it home to
vulnerable family members? How great a risk will teachers be running? We know
that “official” guidance on how to open schools is in short supply, and that
what is out there is, for teachers, mind-boggling. The average teacher’s reaction to CDC
guidelines is an eye roll powerful enough
to shift the earth’s axis. Teachers have conjectured repeatedly that the
members of the CDC must have never set foot inside a school, but that’s not the
CDC’s job. Their job is to figure out what safety would require. Somebody else
will have to figure out how, or if, that can be done.
How 132 Epidemiologists Are Deciding When to Send Their
Children to School
“This is the dreaded question,” say experts
struggling to weigh virus risks and uncertainty against family well-being.
New York Times By Claire Cain Miller and Margot Sanger-Katz Published June 12,
2020Updated June 14, 2020, 12:48 p.m. ET
For many parents, the most pressing question
as the nation emerges from pandemic lockdown is when they can send their
children to school, camp or child care.We asked more than 500 epidemiologists and
infectious disease specialists when they expect to restart 20 activities of
daily life, assuming that the coronavirus pandemic and the public health
response to it unfold as they expect. On sending children to school, camp or
child care, 70 percent said they would do so either right now, later this
summer or in the fall — much sooner than most said they would resume other
activities that involved big groups of people gathering indoors. Others,
though, said they would wait for a vaccine, which could take a year or more.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/12/upshot/epidemiologists-decisions-children-school-coronavirus.html
Colleges are backing off SAT, ACT scores — but the exams
will be hard to shake
WHYY/NPR By Elissa Nadworny June 12,
2020
Like many high school counselors, Crys Latham
has been paying close attention to the colleges that are announcing that
they’ll no longer require admissions exams for applicants. She’s a big fan of
giving students the opportunity not to submit their test
scores. “We put test-optional schools on every single one of our student’s list
to consider,” says Latham, who directs college counseling at Washington Latin Public
Charter School, in the nation’s capital. “Because we know that not every
student is going to like their scores, and a student’s test scores are not
indicative of their potential or ability to be successful.” In the last few
months, Latham has had a lot of new schools to add to those lists. Nearly every
day, more and more colleges announce plans to de-emphasize the role test scores
play in admissions, even if only for next year’s applicants. It started almost
as soon as the coronavirus closed down schools in the U.S. A wave of colleges announced that, due to the
pandemic, they would put less weight on
standardized tests. If students didn’t have access to spring testing, how could
colleges require them?
“No one knows how public schools will be able to
reopen for a new school year, and the economic recession caused by the pandemic
will likely crush school budgets, but the
Trump-DeVos agenda remains public education’s most existential threat, and
Republicans either cheerlead these efforts or shrug them off while Democrats muster
a haphazard defense. Some may find it hard to believe what DeVos proposes can
be carried out successfully, but Republican obsequiousness to radicalism and
the amazing knack Democrats have to undermine their own opposition to extremism
may ensure she gets her way.”
How Betsy DeVos is using the pandemic to get what she
wants
AlterNet Written by Jeff Bryant / Independent
Media Institute June 11, 2020
As American deaths from COVID-19 crested
100,000, the New York Times reported U.S.
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared her intention to “force” public
school districts to spend a large portion of federal funds they’re receiving
through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on
private schools. Going beyond the traditional practice of education secretaries
to issue guidance on how states should interpret federal law, she now wants to
write the laws herself. Her actions are akin to the executive orders President
Trump routinely issues to
bypass Congress in order to implement his extremist agenda. Trump has been
mostly able to get away with this. Can DeVos? Since her bumbling appearances
at congressional committees and
in media interviews, DeVos has
often been caricatured as “incompetent” and “ignorant,” and
she may indeed be all of that and more, but it’s dangerous not to see how her
agenda is advancing during the current crisis.
Diane Ravitch in Conversation with Julian Vasquez Heilig
Wednesday, June 17, 2020 • 7:30
PM – 9:00 PM• Eastern Daylight Time
The Network for Public Education invites you
to join us for a video conference with NPE President Diane Ravitch. Diane's
guest this week will be NPE Board Member and University of Kentucky College of
Education Dean, Julian Vasquez Heilig. Join Diane and Julian as they discuss a new
vision for a community based reform agenda.
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 250 PA school boards adopt charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 250 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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