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
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If any of your colleagues would
like to be added to the email list please have them send their name, title and
affiliation to KeystoneStateEdCoalition@gmail.com
Coronavirus has shed more light on cyber charter failures
| Opinion
After 20 years it’s past time for the legislature to act
on cyber-charter school funding reform | Opinion
By Lawrence A. Feinberg Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor June 16,
2020
With the anticipated loss of revenue facing
school districts due to COVID-19, now, more than ever, the Pennsylvania
Legislature must grab the bull by the horns and reform the way that
cyber-charter schools are funded. Cyber-charters may be a great fit for some
highly motivated, self-disciplined students or those with very involved parents
or guardians. But overall, by any measure, after 20 years the state’s
cyber-charters have consistently underperformed. Generally speaking, cyber-students are not
learning, and taxpayers are paying twice what they reasonably should, with the
excess funds being taken away from all the other students remaining in a school
district when a parent chooses to send their child to a cyber-charter. Responding to parents’ concerns about
returning to school buildings in September, cyber-charters will be spending
your tax dollars on advertising, trying to convince parents that the education
they offer is better than what your student might receive if they stay in their
own district. Despite the impression those ads may give,
your child will not be sitting in front of a screen facing a live teacher all
day, and many cyber-charters require that a parent be involved as a coach. Our school districts have pivoted quickly to
offer remote learning, are planning to expand and strengthen programs for the
fall and can offer everything cybers offer, plus closer personal attention,
rigorous learning, a full range of extracurricular activities and no break if
the students choose to return to in-person instruction.
And as far as quality goes, cyber-charters
certainly have a proven track record. A dismal one.
Coronavirus has shed more light on cyber charter failures
| Opinion
Lawrence A. Feinberg, For the Inquirer Updated: June
15, 2020 - 1:13 PM
With the anticipated loss of revenue facing
school districts due to COVID-19, now, more than ever, the Pennsylvania
legislature must grab the bull by the horns and reform the way cyber charter
schools are funded. Cyber charters may be a great fit for some highly
motivated, self-disciplined students, or those with very involved parents or
guardians. But generally speaking, cyber students are not learning, and
taxpayers are paying twice what they reasonably should, with the excess funds
taken away from all of the other students remaining in a school district when a
parent chooses to send their child to a cyber charter. Our school districts
have pivoted quickly to offer remote learning, are planning to expand and
strengthen programs for the fall, and can offer everything cybers offer, plus
closer personal attention, rigorous learning, and no break if students choose to
return to in-person instruction. And as far as quality goes, cyber charters
certainly have a proven track record: a dismal one. A June 2 paper from
the highly respected Brookings Institution stated, “We find the impact of
attending a virtual charter on student achievement is uniformly and profoundly
negative,” and then went on to say that “there is no evidence that virtual
charter students improve in subsequent years.”
“Despite having more co-sponsors than any other bills in both
this session and the last, bills to create an independent redistricting
commission have never been given a vote. We cannot wait another 10 years for
fair maps in Pennsylvania.”
Pennsylvania needs fair district maps
Post Gazette Letter by ELIZABETH F.
PERKINS Squirrel Hill JUN 15, 2020
I am calling on our legislators to pass bills
H.B. 22 and 23, and S.B. 1022 and 1023, four well-researched and supported
bills that will create an independent commission to draw fair district lines in
Pennsylvania, favoring neither party. These bills represent years of
discussion, research, advocacy and civic engagement. Despite
having more co-sponsors than any other bills in both this session and the last,
bills to create an independent redistricting commission have never been given a
vote. We cannot wait another 10 years for fair maps in Pennsylvania. These
bills must be voted on before our legislators break for the summer.
Back to school task force report coming soon
PSBA Website POSTED ON JUNE 15,
2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
The Pennsylvania School Boards Assocation
(PSBA), Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), the Pennsylvania
Association of School Administrators (PASA), the Pennsylvania Association of
School Business Officials (PASBO), the Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate
Units (PAIU), PA Principals Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Career
and Technical Administrators (PACTA), and the Pennsylvania Association of Rural
and Small Schools (PARSS) formed a task force aimed at getting
Pennsylvania’s students back into their schools and classrooms as safely as
possible. Working groups have spent the past month addressing areas of
facility/logistics, staffing, instruction, transportation, special education,
extracurricular activities, health and safety, communication, resources and
community. Issues for consideration include the potential staggering of
school schedules to reduce the size of classrooms and open space gatherings,
enhanced cleaning procedures and equipment for buildings and buses,
implementation of additional policies related to PPE and masks, air quality
measurements and enhanced filtration, meal preparation and serving procedures,
after-school activity precautions to mitigate the potential spread of germs,
redesigning of facilities to enhance social distancing, and procedures for
student assemblies. The final report is slated to be published later this week.
Blogger note: With veteran Jim Roebuck’s primary loss and Andy Dinniman’s
retirement, both the House and Senate Ed Committees will see new minority chairpersons
next session
Progressives notched some big wins in the Pennsylvania
primary election
Inquirer by Julia Terruso, Updated: 17 minutes ago
The Bernie Sanders revolution continues to
reshape Democratic politics in Philadelphia and across Pennsylvania. With the votes finally almost
counted from Pennsylvania’s primary
election earlier this month, wins by at
least seven progressive candidates in primaries for the state legislature
showed that the political energy of Sanders’ supporters will outlast his
presidential campaign. Nikil Saval, who
defeated an incumbent in a state Senate race in South Philadelphia, and Rick
Krajewski, who ousted an incumbent in a state House primary in West
Philadelphia, celebrated their victories Monday in a Zoom call attended by
about 200 members of the state’s growing
progressive army. “I think what this means is,
honestly, that the city is ready for and needs ideas and a political vision
that goes beyond the status quo,” said Krajewski, who beat 35-year State Rep.
James Roebuck. “We did the work... and we had a message that was resonating
with the needs and desires in the district and beyond.”
Philly eyes school reopening plan that would stagger when
students and staff come to schools
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, June 15, 2020
With the impact of the coronavirus still
lingering and no vaccine in sight, the Philadelphia School District is leaning
toward opening schools this fall with a hybrid model that would limit the
number of people in a building at any given time and allow some students and
staff with health concerns to work and learn remotely. That tentative
framework, announced Monday by Superintendent William R. Hite Jr., could mean
students cycle into schools during morning and afternoon shifts, or on
alternating days or weeks — with students learning remotely during the times
they are not in school buildings. Hite’s statement said the district is
continuing to evaluate its options, and is surveying parents, students and
staff about the safest and most effective way to reopen and teach the more than
125,000 students it serves in traditional schools. The surveys will “help inform a final plan
that keeps the safety and shared interests of our whole community in mind,”
Hite said. The district intends to share a final plan in July, he said. The
update from the state’s largest district is the latest development in the
still-unanswered question of what school may look like this fall, as districts
try to balance concerns about safety with the need to educate students — many
of whom have struggled or
disengaged as school has moved online.
Coalition calls for removal of police from Pittsburgh
Public Schools
ANDREW GOLDSTEIN Pittsburgh Post-Gazette agoldstein@post-gazette.com JUN 13,
2020
A coalition of more than 10 local, state and
national social justice groups on Friday demanded that the Pittsburgh Public
Schools board remove police from all district buildings. The move comes amid a
wave in which school districts across the country have cut ties with police
following George Floyd’s death in the custody of Minneapolis officers. “It
is time to take back our schools from the hands of the police and to place our
students in the loving palms of community driven and culturally informed
processes,” Paulette Foster, a district guardian and co-founder of the
Education Rights Network, said in a statement. Education equity advocates
have criticized the presence of police in schools for years, saying that black
youths are disproportionately criminalized. Advocates believe schools
should end the school-to-prison pipeline by investing in restorative justice
practices and hiring more counselors and mental health professionals instead of
officers. The coalition calling upon the school board to remove police
said the district should immediately remove Pittsburgh Public Schools officers
and probation officers from inside and outside of schools. It also said the
district should stop the “open-door” policy that often utilizes Pittsburgh
police. The groups said the district should adopt policies that
exclude the involvement of law enforcement except when it is required by the
state or there is an imminent physical threat. Organizations in the
coalition include One PA, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Education Law
Center, the Center for Popular Democracy and the Youth Advocacy Clinic at the
Duquesne University School of Law.
A love letter to our Black Philly students
From Philly Black women educators and
counselors
the
Notebook Commentary June 15 —
10:40 am, 2020
We are your Black women educators and
counselors, your go-to people when life feels hard. We are here to remind you
that we are the children of survivors, that Philadelphia has always been a city
of resistance – from the native Lenni-Lenape resisting
European colonizers to modern-day political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal
resisting racist police. We are the children of Black revolutionaries who
believed that freedom could be won through collective organizing and principled
struggle. We lift up the local demands from
the Black Philly Radical Collective and the national demands of the Movement
for Black Lives. The demands are not new, but since more people have taken to
the streets, we are finally seeing them turn into wins. For
example, Los Angeles just
voted to move $100 million from police departments into social services in
Black and Brown communities. Look at that. Here in Philly, Mayor Kenney has rescinded the
$14 million increase to the 2021 police budget. And after decades of petitions,
marches, and rallies, the statue of the racist former mayor Frank Rizzo
was removed in
early June. Like other freedom movements across the globe, youth are helping to
lead and reimagine the future.
To fight systemic racism, social studies must be a
central part of school curriculum
Students need to learn about oppression and
about how to overcome it.
The notebook Commentary by Adina
Goldstein June 15 — 4:41 pm, 2020
Adina Goldstein is a 7th-grade English
Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Vare-Washington Elementary School.
She is a proud product of the Philadelphia School District with a master’s
degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is in
her third year of teaching.
Throughout the past couple of weeks, many
Americans have taken a good, hard look at their own roles (or lack thereof) as
allies in the fight against systemic racism. Principals, superintendents, and
government officials have spoken out, calling for wider curricular offerings
that address systems of oppression and power and the teaching of narratives
that have been neglected in favor of those dripping with white male privilege. But
some of these same leaders are maintaining significant barriers to the kind of
teaching and learning that they say they’re fighting for. That’s because they
are complicit in a system that neglects teaching social studies, a subject
where students can learn about the oppression that they seek to
dismantle. In Philadelphia, Superintendent William Hite allowed his
passion for justice to overtake him at the CASA-organized protest on June
4. “Stand up against racism, any time we see it in our schools,” he cried.
He mentioned the future possibility of bias training and new “culturally
competent” curriculum for schools as ways to stand up against that racism that
is embedded in the country’s public education system. I could not help
but feel frustrated as I listened to Hite, many other education leaders, and
government officials as they called for similar “culturally competent”
curriculum as a way to fight systems of oppression. None of them made any
mention of what I, as a teacher of color, believe to be the most egregious
microaggression that results from many of these leaders’ policies: the complete
neglect of a well-rounded social studies and civics education. As
of 2012, only 21 states mandated testing in social studies.
Born right after 9/11, school-bound during Great
Recession, graduating in midst of pandemic: Meet Lancaster county's class of
2020
Lancaster Online by MIKE
ANDRELCZYK | Staff Writer Jun 14, 2020
The Class of 2020 went from studying history
books to enduring enough to warrant a chapter in one. Class members were
born just after 9/11. They began their academic careers during the Great
Recession. Now high school seniors are graduating in the midst of a global
pandemic and modern civil rights struggle. Graduation ceremonies, proms and
other milestones have been moved online, severely altered or canceled. Baseball
and softball fields are empty. Songs have gone unsung. Prom dresses remain on
hangers in closets. These seniors have had to reckon with more than the
teens who came before them. In a sense, they’ve lost their last moments of
innocence, fully aware that the future they face is masked in
uncertainty. But with such uncertainty comes an opportunity to develop
resilience. And members of the Class of 2020 in Lancaster County are vocal
about being up for the challenge.
State sees decline in ChildLine reports, notes racial
disparities in child welfare
Beaver County Times By Chrissy
Suttles @ChrissySuttles Posted
Jun 14, 2020 at 12:01 PM
In March, the state reported a 50 percent
decline in average daily calls to ChildLine compared to the same period in 2019
— a troubling trend that indicates fewer children received protection from
abuse during state-mandated school and business closures. Strict lockdown
orders are lifted in most Pennsylvania counties, but experts say vulnerable
populations, especially children, could experience COVID-19 fallout for years
to come. In March, the state Department of Human Services reported a 50 percent
decline in average daily calls to ChildLine compared to the same period in 2019
— a troubling trend that indicates fewer children received protection from
abuse during state-mandated school and business closures. ChildLine is a child
protective services hotline designed to accept child abuse calls and well-being
concerns. The reports allow trained child welfare professionals and, if
necessary, law enforcement to follow up, collect information and determine if
intervention is necessary. DHS Secretary Teresa Miller on Thursday said fewer
reports during the shutdown do not indicate fewer instances of child abuse.
Rather, school closures and reduced interaction between children, teachers and
other mandated reporters likely led to children being abused without intervention.
Of the 39,040 reports made by mandated reporters to ChildLine in 2018, more
than a third were reported by school employees.
Franklin Regional passes $61M budget with 2.54-mill tax
hike
Trib Live by PATRICK VARINE | Monday, June
15, 2020 10:58 p.m.
Franklin Regional school directors voted 6-3
Monday night to adopt a 2020-21 budget with a 2.54-mill tax increase. Despite
expenditure reductions related to special education funding, fewer commissions
on tax collections and no change in insurance premiums, which were expected to
rise, the $61.6 million budget stands with a 2.54-mill tax hike. The district’s
millage rate will now be 100.6 mills. One mill is estimated to bring in $348,525
for the coming school year. Directors Bill Yant, Ed Mittereder and Gary English
voted against the budget. “We’re living in extraordinary times,” English said,
referencing economic figures related to the coronavirus pandemic. “This
administration has not contained costs, and the citizens cannot afford the 15th
tax hike in 16 years.” The 2.54-mill tax hike means an additional $87 for a
district home with the median assessed value of $34,400. “The reason that it’s
15 out of 16 years is because we’ve done small, incremental increases,” board
member Gregg Neavin. The revenue shortfall in 2020-21 is being plugged with
$1.2 million from the district’s unassigned fund balance.
https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/franklin-regional-passes-61m-budget-with-2-54-mill-tax-hike/
Two midstate school superintendents condemn racist videos
filmed by students
WHYY By John Beague/PennLive June 15, 2020
Two midstate school district superintendents
have voiced strong displeasure over student-filmed videos that contain racist
views. One posted late last week recorded at a pool party is captioned “George
Floyd challenge” after the man who died after a Minneapolis police officer had
his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. In the video, one student is held
underwater as another says “stop resisting.” When he comes up for air he says,
“I can’t breathe.” “Please be assured that the attitudes presented in this
video do not reflect the values and teachings of the Selinsgrove Area School
District,” superintendent Chad L. Corhs wrote. “As a public school district, we
are obligated to respect the freedom of speech, even if that speech is not
respectful.
“We will be exploring what, if any,
disciplinary action for off-campus behaviors we can take. “We are examining
ways of making improvements in the areas of citizenship and non-discrimination.
It is only by working together that we can eradicate racism and discrimination
in our communities.” A week earlier, Mifflinburg Area superintendent Dan
Lichtel used that district’s website to share his reaction to a video by two
students.
Northeastern superintendent recommends firing principal
over Black Lives Matter post
Lindsay C VanAsdalan, York
Dispatch Published 10:35 p.m. ET June 15, 2020 | Updated 10:44 p.m. ET
June 15, 2020
The Northeastern superintendent is
recommending the school board fire an intermediate school
principal accused of sharing a social media post calling Black Lives
Matter a "lie." At Monday's virtual meeting, the school board
unanimously authorized the administration to summon Shallow Brook Intermediate
School Principal Scott D'Orazio for a hearing before the board. The
district's solicitor opened a probe earlier this month after
D'Orazio allegedly posted a meme on his personal Facebook page calling the
Black Lives Matter movement a “leftist lie.” The Twitter account We See What
You're Doing screen grabbed and flagged the post on June 4 amid nationwide
protests over the May 25 death of George Floyd under the knee of a white
Minneapolis police officer.
With schools closed, environmental work continues in
Scranton schools
Scranton Times Tribune By SARAH HOFIUS HALL STAFF WRITER Jun 16, 2020
With school buildings closed, crews continue
to address environmental issues in the Scranton School District. The district
had originally hoped Northeast Intermediate School students would return to the
building this spring after asbestos was removed, but the statewide shutdown for
the coronavirus gave the district extra time. In the meantime, the district’s
new environmental task force has met virtually to discuss both short-term and
long-range plans for the district, including ongoing building maintenance. “As
much as this is a challenge none of us wish we were facing, it’s an opportunity
to take on some projects and take on some things that were back-burnered in a
different time,” school board President Katie Gilmartin said. In January, the
district revealed extensive environmental problems, including lead and
asbestos, in schools across the city. The district closed Northeast, moving its
students to West Scranton and South Scranton intermediate schools. Students
spent about a month at their temporary schools before districts statewide
closed their buildings. The lack of action in dealing with the environmental
problems by prior administrations remains the subject of the ongoing criminal
investigation of the district.
Title I: Rich School Districts Get Millions Meant for
Poor Kids
How Title I, the federal government's largest
K-12 program, increases the inequality it was created to stop.
US News By Lauren Camera and Lindsey Cook June 1,
2016, at 12:01 a.m.
The central office oversees the school
district's 2,200 students, more than 30 percent of whom live in poverty. For a
community with such an astounding concentration of poor children, it's done a
good job preparing students academically – especially considering one in four
adults here don't have a high school diploma, and only 12 percent have a
bachelor's degree or higher. In fact, the wood-paneled walls outside
Superintendent Daniel Grounard's office are decorated with awards from the
Virginia Board of Education and others touting its ability to overcome those
challenging circumstances. Such accolades, however, have been hard to come by
for Nottoway since the Great Recession, the economic collapse from which it's
barely recovered despite the resurgence in many parts of the state and across
the country as a whole. The district has been hemorrhaging teachers it hasn't
been able to replace, in part because of poor health benefits. Nearly all those
who have stayed haven't seen a pay raise in the last six years, even if their
contracts stipulated one. It can only afford to employ one math and one reading
coach, as well as one school nurse, all of whom float among the district's
seven schools throughout the week. "We need help," Grounard says. But
with property taxes at an all-time low, and many young families fleeing the
district if they can afford to do so, that help is not coming from local
revenue. Indeed, Nottoway gets less local funding than nearly all other school
districts in Virginia.
Supreme Court Rules Job Discrimination Law Shields LGBTQ
Workers
Education Week By Mark Walsh June 15,
2020
The U.S. Supreme Court declared on Monday
that an employer who fires a worker based on sexual orientation or transgender
status violates the main federal job-discrimination law, in a decision
with implications for
school districts as employers and in ongoing legal battles over the rights of
transgender students. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote the opinion for a 6-3
majority in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga. (Case
No. 17-1618) and two consolidated cases involving workers who alleged they were
fired on the basis of being gay or transgender. "In Title VII [of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964], Congress adopted broad language making it illegal
for an employer to rely on an employee's sex when deciding to fire that
employee," he wrote. "We do not hesitate to recognize today a
necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an
individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law." Gorsuch
was joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Ruth Bader
Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. Justice Samuel
A. Alito Jr., in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, said the majority
was trying to "convince readers that it is merely enforcing the terms of
the statute, but that is preposterous."
What the Supreme Court discrimination ruling means — and
doesn’t mean — for schools
Washington Post By Valerie Strauss June
15, 2020 at 3:27 p.m. EDT
The Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday that
was both major and surprising, saying that U.S. anti-discrimination laws
protect gay and transgender employees. So what does it mean for schools? The
opinion was written by one of the most conservative justices on the bench, Neil
M. Gorsuch, who with a fellow conservative, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.,
joined liberal members in a 6-to-3 ruling saying that any employer who fires an
individual “merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII” of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits discrimination in the workplace
that is based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and the
justices said that discrimination on the basis of sex includes LGBTQ employees.
My Washington Post colleague Robert Barnes, in his report about
the ruling, quoted James Esseks of the American Civil Liberties Union as
saying: “This is a huge victory for LGBTQ equality. … The Supreme Court’s
clarification that it’s unlawful to fire people because they’re LGBTQ is the
result of decades of advocates fighting for our rights. The court has caught up
to the majority of our country, which already knows that discriminating against
LGBTQ people is both unfair and against the law.” So what does this mean and
not mean for schools?
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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