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Guest column: Address racial injustice in Pa. by fixing
unfair public school funding system
A Virtual Charter School Company Says Covid-19 Is the
‘Tailwind’ It’s Been Waiting For
Critics say online learning is failing
low-income students. But some for-profit companies are pushing to make it the
new normal.
In These Times BY INDIGO OLIVIER June 18, 2020
Long before the Covid-19 crisis, online
learning was also a favored reform of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
When schools nationwide began closing their
doors this spring as the result of Covid-19, many students, parents and
teachers felt stress and uncertainty. Online education companies saw an
opportunity. On its most recent quarterly earnings call, Timothy
Medina, chief financial executive for virtual charter school operator K12 Inc.,
said, “We believe the effects of Covid-19 will be a lasting tailwind to online
education.” The company was founded in 2000 by former Wall Street investment
banker and McKinsey & Co. consultant Ron Packard, and Education Secretary
Betsy DeVos was among the early investors. Since then, K12 has grown into one
of the largest for-profit education companies in the world, with revenue
topping $1 billion last year. Now, amid uncertainty about the future of
in-person education, the company sees an opportunity to extend its reach even
further. K12 has been involved in targeted lobbying campaigns through the
American Legislative Exchange Council for nearly two decades, and company
executives suggested during the earnings call that they have been working with
state legislators and school districts to expand the market for online learning
this fall. They’ve also worked with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
think tank, to draft policy recommendations on Covid-19 recovery efforts.
Guest column: Address racial injustice in Pa. by fixing
unfair public school funding system
Pottstown Mercury By Rep. Matt Bradford, Rep.
Jordan Harris, and Rep. Frank Dermody Guest columnists June 18, 2020
Rep. Matt Bradford
(Democratic Appropriations Chairman), Rep. Jordan Harris (Democratic
Whip), and Rep. Frank Dermody (Minority Leader) are part of
the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Democratic Caucus leadership
team.
For the last few weeks, many in our country
have had their consciousness awakened to long-standing fundamental inequities
disproportionately impacting communities and people of color. In the wake of the tragic murders of George
Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, and in the midst of a
global pandemic, we have all been called to acknowledge and confront systemic
racism. In Pennsylvania, the Legislative Black Caucus courageously advanced the
policy conversation by demanding votes on languished police reforms, but the
conversation cannot end there. We must have an open and honest conversation to
address the racial and socioeconomic inequities and injustices in our public
school system. It has been over 66 years since the United States Supreme Court
unanimously ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in
public schools is unconstitutional, based upon the belief that separate schools
provided for unequal access to education and opportunity. Despite this ruling,
racial and economic segregation persist in public education throughout the
nation. Pennsylvania is no exception. The commonwealth ranks 44th in the nation
in terms of its investment in education, paying only 38 percent of the cost of
education on average. The responsibility to fund education is left to local
communities that have vastly different abilities to raise necessary dollars.
Consider these examples of local taxing
capacity per weighted student — an element of the Fair Funding
Formula — of neighboring school districts.
We have work to do | Pedro Rivera
Penn Live Opinion By Pedro A. Rivera Posted
Jun 18, 2020
Pedro A. Rivera is Secretary of Education for
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Over the past several weeks, as communities
across the country have erupted in deep-seated anger and frustration over
George Floyd’s murder, I’ve been listening and reflecting on what I can do to
help spur the change our society has needed for generations. Don’t get me
wrong, I’m outraged. Outraged that George Floyd’s murder is just the latest
incident in a multi-generational history of ignored brutality. Outraged that
unarmed black men and women continue to die at the hands of law enforcement.
Outraged that black and brown communities continue to live in fear of
individuals who have pledged to serve and protect. Outraged that systemic
racism continues to exist in our nation. This must stop. Our education system
is not without fault in perpetuating the systemic inequities and institutional
bias that many of our communities have accepted as normal. Education is an
institution rife with historic inequities in resourcing, inequities in discipline,
and inequities in opportunity.
From Juneteenth to the Tulsa massacre: What isn't taught
in classrooms has a profound impact
On the eve of Juneteenth, educators said the
history of systemic racism in this country and the contributions of Black
people have been erased.
NBC News By Daniella Silva June 18,
2020, 5:04 PM EDT
A Connecticut fourth grade social
studies textbook falsely
claimed that slaves were treated just like “family.” A Texas geography textbook referred
to enslaved Africans as “workers.” In Alabama, up until the 1970s, fourth
graders learned in a textbook called
"Know Alabama" that slave life on a plantation
was "one of the happiest ways of life." In contrast, historians and
educators point out, many children in the U.S. education system are not taught
about major Black historical events, such as the Tulsa Race Massacre or Juneteenth, the June 19
commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States. As the
country grapples with a racial reckoning following the killing of George Floyd
in police custody, educators said that what has and what has not been taught in
school have been part of erasing the history of systemic racism in America and
the contributions of Black people and other minority groups. “There’s a long
legacy of institutional racism that is barely covered in the mainstream
corporate curriculum,” said Jesse Hagopian, an ethnic studies teacher in
Seattle and co-editor of the book “Teaching for Black Lives.”
Philly Board hearing report: speakers seek fewer police,
more support services
Students and community members call for
counselors, programs and classroom staff, not security
The notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa and Bill
Hangley Jr. June 18 — 10:22 pm, 2020
Teachers, counselors, parents and national
activists added their voices to students’ call for “police-free schools” at a
general public hearing held by the Board of Education on Thursday. At the
hearing and at a virtual “rally” held during the hour before, members of the
Philadelphia Student Union and their allies repeatedly said that reform of the
District’s 350-plus school security staff was not enough. Speakers called for
the “radical step” of removing school police and redirecting funds to
counseling and social services personnel. “It’s time to reimagine safety in
schools without policing,” said Saudia Durrant, an organizer with PSU. She and
others urged the District to “stand up against institutional racism,” pointing
to statistics showing that school police are more likely to be in schools with
more Black and brown students, who are disproportionately disciplined across
the country. “Please, please, please, look at the research, look at
the statistics, and you’ll find that they align perfectly with the experiences
of your students, and that police do not belong in our schools,” said Masterman
senior and PSU member Aden Gonzales. “With the current amount of money spent on
police, we could hire over 500 guidance counselors.”
‘They don’t look at us like students’: At board hearing,
Philly students, advocates call for police-free schools
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Posted: June 18, 2020-
8:20 PM
Amid the national debate over race and
policing sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Philadelphia
students and advocates pressed the school board on Thursday to remove police
from district schools. “They don’t look at us like students, they look at us
like criminals,” Alison Fortenberry said during a virtual board hearing.
Fortenberry, who said she was one of the few black seniors at Masterman, one of
the city’s top magnet schools, said she had been humiliated and “criminalized
in front of my peers” when an officer searched her backpack without explanation
in the security line last year. She was one of several students who were joined
by advocates, district staff, and parents in telling the board it was time to
pull police from schools, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement that has
spurred calls for defunding police and greater investment in black communities.
“We can’t chant ‘Black Lives Matter’ ... and not ensure that black schools
matter,” said Tamir Harper, a 2018
graduate of Science Leadership Academy
who leads a nonprofit called UrbEd. He urged the board to reallocate funding
from school police “to neighborhood schools and support systems.” The district
plans to spend $28.8 million next year on school police, out of a $3.5 billion budget.
Teens from Across Southeast PA Speak Out Against Racism
In PCCY’s Teen Town Hall
MEETING RECORDING: https://youtu.be/WJyx9QlqIK4 Video Runtime 1:38
Philadelphia (June 12,
2020) – As nationwide Civil Rights protests continue well into their second
week, teens in Philadelphia’s 5-county region joined PCCY today for a frank
conversation on how race and racism affects them, the #BlackLivesMatter
movement, and an open discussion on what it will take to end racism in their
lifetime. “Today, we are talking with young people about race and racism – a
conversation that is often so painful that adults can’t talk about it,” said
Tomea Sippio-Smith, K-12 Policy Director, PCCY, in her opening remarks. “Our
children have been watching, processing and leading. And today, they are
weighing in.” Students were joined by Senator Bob
Casey, Congressman Dwight Evans, Congresswoman Madeleine
Dean, Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon. PA State Representative and Chair of
the Legislative Black Caucus Jordan Harris, Montgomery County
Commissioner Val Arkoosh, School Psychologist and contributor to Ms.
Magazine Dr. Tawanna Jones, PCCY K-12 Policy Director Tomea
Sippio Smith, and town hall moderator, Loraine Ballard Morrill, Director
of News and Community Affairs, iHeartMedia.
Black Fox Chapel students have spoken up about racism in
our school district. Now students like me are no longer afraid to share our
experiences.
PublicSource First-person essay by J. Oliver
Choo | June 18, 2020
J. Oliver Choo is a graduating senior from
Fox Chapel Area High School. (Courtesy photo)
Until a month ago, I was proud of graduating
from Fox Chapel Area High School. I was grateful for the enthusiastic faculty
as well as the friendships I had made. However, the recent controversy
surrounding racism at Fox Chapel has
compelled me to revisit my own experience with prejudice at the school – one
that I have tried hard to forget. My ethnicity is half-Taiwanese and
half-Korean. My heritage is known for its legendary empires, scientific
innovation and excellent cuisine. Yet the repeated denigration of my race has
revealed to me that at Fox Chapel, I am a second-class citizen at best, and a
strange, ugly foreigner at worst. After learning about Genghis Khan’s conquest
of Asia in my sophomore history class, a student asserted that because I am
Asian, my mother must have been raped by Genghis Khan. He repeated this several
times in my ear and then promptly informed me of his relation to a small line
of European kings. At that moment, I felt like screaming, crying and punching
him in the face. Most of all, I felt betrayed – we had spent weeks getting to
know each other in our classes, and I thought we had become friends. His
prejudiced remark reminded me that, despite our apparent camaraderie, he had
never viewed me as an equal; my race designated that I was genetically and
inherently inferior.
School safety grants to cover laptops, hand sanitizer in
2020
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison June 16,
2020
A grant program that has helped Pennsylvania
schools finance security equipment and personnel for the last two years has
officially been rebranded for the COVID-19 era, flush with an infusion of
federal relief funds and new guidelines for how schools can spend them. Gov.
Tom Wolf announced Tuesday that
schools across the commonwealth can begin to apply for a combined $150 million
in School Health and Safety Grants, which can be used to purchase cleaning
supplies and personal protective equipment; to provide mental health services
and professional development to students and staff; and to retrofit school
buildings to promote social distancing. Schools can also use the money to buy
new technology that will help students with remote learning, according to guidelines that
came out Tuesday. The money, which comes from Pennsylvania’s federal
CARES Act allocation, will be funneled through a grant program that was created
in the aftermath of the 2018 Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in
Parkland, Fla. Over the past two years, the fund has awarded more than $100
million in competitive grants to schools that want to make security
enhancements. Unlike past years, this year’s safety funds will not be
distributed as competitive grants. Instead, all public schools in the
commonwealth are eligible for a predetermined award amount that they can claim
by submitting an application by June 30.
Comcast extends offer of two months free internet to new
customers
Superintendent Hite says that this will not
fix the access problem for all students while describing the company as a
"partner" in working on further solutions.
The notebook by Dale
Mezzacappa June 18 — 2:27 pm, 2020
This story has been updated.
Comcast said Thursday it would extend the
offer of 60 days of free online access to new Internet Essentials customers
until the end of the year, an offer that was originally set to expire on June
30. The company also said it would continue until the end of the year to waive
the requirement that customers not have a past due balance in order to qualify.
In his weekly press call Thursday morning, Superintendent William Hite said
that 5% of District students have consistently reported having no internet
access, and he wondered if that number would increase if households who took
advantage of the two months free offer decided, for whatever reason, not to
maintain the service and pay the $9.95 monthly charge. “We’re trying to come up
with a solution for that 5 percent, and that 5 percent could grow once…the
two-month free service expires,” he said. “That 5 percent could go to a higher
number.” Hite said while the District is still working out what school will
actually look like in the fall, it will be crucial to “solve for the 5 percent
problem” because more than likely virtual instruction will continue in some
form. This will include so-called “synchronous” instruction in which teachers
give live-streamed lessons. With a plan to take attendance and resume normal
grading in the fall, to do this fairly, students will need the means to attend.
Prospect of staggered schedules this fall creates
transportation challenge for Philly schools
KYW by MIKE DENARDO JUNE 17,
2020 - 3:12 PM
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania
schools are devising their plans for reopening this fall. And Philadelphia
administrators say keeping students socially distant to and from school will be
complex and expensive. The school district transports not only its own
students, but state law requires the district to transport students to 123
charter and 440 nonpublic schools within 10 miles of the city. The COVID
reopening plans of many of those schools may include staggered schedules and
fewer students on buses for social distancing. And that creates a
logistical and financial mountain for Philadelphia, said the district's chief
of schools, Evelyn Nunez. She told the state House Education Committee
that to maintain the status quo, the district would have to triple its
capacity. "It will be challenging, if not impossible, to comply with
state-mandated transportation requirements,” Nunez said. She said the
district is proposing a tiered transportation schedule, but that would require
the cooperation of the other schools. She called on the legislature to
either provide more transportation aid, or to relax the requirement that
districts transport students up to 10 miles outside of their boundaries.
Philly schools are still seeking input on improving
digital learning
By Chanel Hill Special to the Capital-Star June 18,
2020
PHILADELPHIA — Approximately
80,000 families have replied to a School District of Philadelphia survey
seeking input about digital learning and what to do for the fall. “We hope that
number will continue to rise,” Superintendent William Hite said during his
weekly news conference on Thursday. The school district also plans to hold
virtual town hall meetings in July; specific dates and times will be released
at a later date. School district administrators will use the feedback provided
from the survey and virtual town halls and health guidelines from local, state
and federal officials to make a decision about how to resume school in the
fall. Hite said administrators will release their final plan in July “in order
to allow our staff and families to prepare for successful and safe schools.” “We’re
considering the many complexities of how daily school operations, academics,
school safety protocols, student transportation, athletics, and meal services
will work,” Hite said. District officials are still planning for three
scenarios in case officials order schools to remain closed or there is a second
coronavirus outbreak.
Centennial teacher salary concessions to save district
$2.4M over four years
Bucks County Courier Times By Chris
English @CourierEnglish Posted Jun 18,
2020
Centennial teachers and other professionals
in their union have agreed to changes in their contract to help relieve
financial stress caused by coronavirus restrictions. Centennial School District
teachers and other professionals in their 424-member union have stepped up to
relieve some of the district’s financial stress caused by coronavirus
restrictions. Members of the Centennial Education Association have agreed to
changes in their contract that
will reduce their pay and save the district an estimated $2.4 million over the
next four years. In making the move, Centennial educators join teachers and
administrators in neighboring Council Rock who
have agreed to salary concessions in their current contracts that will save the
district an estimated total of $4.6 million over the next 18 months. Council
Rock’s support staff also agreed to salary concessions for 2020-21 as part of
their contract agreed to before the pandemic. Centennial’s professional staff
made the concessions in “recognition of the financial impact that the COVID-19
crisis has created for the Centennial community, and in an attempt to support
the school district through this difficult period,” a school district news
release said.
Schuylkill Haven Area School District 2020-21 budget
approved with no tax increase
Reading Eagle By Shea Singley ssingley@readingeagle.com
@SheaSingley on Twitter June 18, 2020
Schuylkill Haven Area School District
residents will not see a tax increase for the 2020-21 school year. School
directors approved the budget during the June 10 meeting. The budget
includes expenditures of $21,345,558 and revenues of $20,053,338. The
district's millage rate will remain at 42.46 mills. "Increased costs
associated with COVID-19 and estimated state revenues are projected to leave us
with a shortfall, but we simply cannot expect our constituents to face tax
increases every single year," said Dr. Shawn Fitzpatrick, superintendent.
"There remains a potential budgetary shortfall of approximately $1.3
million which may be taken from the fund balance, but we will do everything in
our power to live within our means and spend what we do have carefully." Fitzpatrick
described the budget as being responsibly aggressive. The district decided to
not replace some positions and has repurposed staff members to maximize their
skill sets, leading to very few programmatic cuts. Overall the budget
estimates increases in expenditures and revenues. The increase in expenditures
is due to a number of factors including salary and benefit increases,
retirement contributions, charter school costs and an daily expense increases.
CARES Act funds help North Hills district maintain low
class sizes, budget holds line
Post-Gazette by SANDY TROZZO JUN 18, 2020 2:45
PM
Federal money under the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act allowed the North Hills School
District to adjust its proposed final budget to keep class sizes low while not
raising taxes. The previous budget included overriding the class size policy in
some elementary grades to not hire more teachers. The district subsequently
received $314,217 in additional federal money, as well as additional funds from
the state. “CARES Act money will ensure that can keep all of the classrooms in
the class size policy,” said Annette Giovengo Nolish, chair of the board’s
finance committee. The board unanimously approved the final budget on June 11. The
$84.04 million budget keeps the tax rate at 18.65 mills. “In what was
anticipated to be a difficult budget year even before COVID-19, I am thrilled
we were able to produce a balanced budget without a tax increase. It is the
right thing to do for our community members during this extremely difficult
time for us all,” said Superintendent Patrick J. Mannarino. “We are fortunate
to have received federal and state funding that will provide relief to areas in
the budget where we would have been otherwise forced to take a pause in
growth.”
Crestwood OKs budget with tax hike
Citizens Voice BY KENT JACKSON / PUBLISHED:
JUNE 19, 2020
By one vote Crestwood School Board approved a
budget for next year that raises taxes by 2.5% but provides a cushion for
dealing with COVID-19. After debating more than 90 minutes, the board settled
5-4 in favor of the $41.15 million plan. Barry Boone, James Brogna, Stacy
Haddix, Lauren McCurdy and Kimberly Spath voted for it. Before voting to raise
taxes, the board defeated a plan to keep taxes the same — a budget that
President James Costello, Anna Bibla, Maureen McGovern and Randy Swank favored
— and then retreated into an hour-long caucus. They discussed options to raise
taxes by 2.5%, 3.2% or keep rates the same, before taking final votes. McGovern,
speaking of senior citizens on fixed incomes and people out of work, said the
board opposed a tax increase during a budget meeting last month. “We should
stand by our word,” she said. Costello said the switch from May when six
members opposed raising taxes muddied the transparency that he has tried to
create as president. Costello, who voted to raise taxes the previous two years,
said he favored no increase this year because of the pandemic. “People in our
community are suffering. This is a very different time in our community,”
Costello said. He believes Crestwood could keep taxes the same but still not
have to cut programs or workers. Boone and Brogna, however, favored increasing
taxes because Crestwood has no fund balance but might need money to meet safety
standards when reopening during the pandemic.
Pennridge school board VP under fire
Bucks County Courier Times by Chris
English @CourierEnglish Posted
Jun 18, 2020 at 1:57 PM
An online petition asks that Joan Cullen
resign from the board for making comments on social media about race and other
subjects deemed by many to be insensitive and out of touch. An online petition calls
for the resignation of Pennridge school board Vice President Joan Cullen for
making social media posts about race and other subjects deemed by many to be
insensitive and out of touch. The petition, which had garnered close to 900
signatures as of early Thursday afternoon, urges Cullen to step down for, among
other things, recently posting on Facebook that “there’s also no systematic
sexism, homophobia, etc...” Her comment was in response to another online
posting saying there is no systemic racism. Reached on Thursday, Cullen would
only say that she agreed with an emailed comment from board President William
Krause which stated “Every board member, teacher and employee has the right
guaranteed to every citizen to express their opinion. The district respects
those rights. “Where people disagree with any other citizen’s opinion, it is
the hope of the board that they will work to educate and promote positive
change.” Cullen, who is also a Bucks County Planning Commission board member,
wrote in a text message “I agree with Bill Krause’s statement. I think Bill’s
statement captures everything perfectly.” She declined to say whether she
intends to resign, either from her vice-president position or from the board
entirely, but her brief comments would indicate she has no plan to resign.
‘Now is the time.’ Bellefonte school board members voice
support for replacing Red Raiders mascot
Centre Daily Times BY
BRET PALLOTTO JUNE 17, 2020 03:28 PM
Three Bellefonte Area School District board
members voiced support Tuesday for replacing the district’s “Red Raider”
mascot. The push to replace the image
of a Native American wearing a headdress and
its accompanying moniker is a “major concern,” board member Rodney Musser said
during a meeting. “There is never a good time for this, but now is the time,”
Musser said. “... The mascot should be inclusive, demonstrate camaraderie,
community spirit and be welcoming.” Debates about the mascot and logo have
happened sporadically for at least two decades, but Musser said each of those
efforts were brought up in an “insignificant manner.” The online petition organized
earlier this month by six alumni and signed by more than more than 2,300 others
is more influential, Musser said.
Supreme Court Blocks Trump's Move to Scrap DACA Program
Education Week By Mark Walsh June 18,
2020
In a high-stakes case with multiple
implications for education, the U.S. Supreme Court has blocked the Trump
administration’s decision to unwind deportation relief for nearly 700,000
undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. The court
ruled 5-4 that the 2017 rescission of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a
program started in 2012 under President Barack Obama, was carried out in an
"arbitrary and capricious" manner in violation of the Administrative
Procedure Act. “We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies,”
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said in the June 18 majority opinion in Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of
California (Case No. 18-587). “The wisdom
of those decisions is none of our concern. We address only whether the agency
[DHS] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned
explanation for its action.” The decision does not prevent the Trump
administration from starting over in trying to properly end the program, but
political considerations and the crises on President Donald Trump’s plate during
this election year may make that difficult.
Kept Out of the Library, a School District Tries Summer
Reading by Drone
A Virginia school district, determined not to
let a pandemic keep students from their summer reading, is delivering books to
students via the drone company run by Alphabet.
New York Times By Marie Fazio June 17,
2020
Last week, Deanna Robertson and her two sons
stood on their front lawn in western Virginia scanning the sky for a drone they
could hear humming from almost a mile away. When it finally arrived, hovering
above their heads, the boys rushed forward to take what it offered: a copy of
“All Quiet on the Western Front,” required summer reading and possibly the
first library book delivered by drone in history. With students unable to make it to the
library because of the coronavirus, the Montgomery County Public School
district has partnered with Wing, the drone-delivery unit of Google’s parent
company, Alphabet, to deliver books to their homes. One week into the project,
there have been more than 35 successful deliveries, said Kelly Passek, a
middle-school librarian and the mastermind of the project. “I thought that this
would be a great way to get our resources to our students,” Ms. Passek said.
“Now that we’ve entered this time of social distancing and remote learning,
it’s become even more necessary.”
Apply Now for EPLC's 2020-2021 PA Education Policy
Fellowship Program!
Applications are available now for the 2020-2021 Education
Policy Fellowship Program.
The Education Policy Fellowship Program is
sponsored in Pennsylvania by The Education Policy and Leadership Center
(EPLC). The 2020-2021 Program will be conducted in briefer, more
frequent, and mostly online sessions, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The content
will be substantially the same as the traditional Fellowship Program, with some
changes necessitated by the new format and a desire to reduce costs to sponsors
in these uncertain fiscal times.
The commitment of EPLC remains the same. The
Fellowship Program will continue to be Pennsylvania's premier education policy
leadership program for education, community, policy and advocacy leaders! The
Fellowship Program begins with two 3-hour virtual sessions on September 17-18,
and the Program ends with a graduation event in June 2021.
The application may be
copied from the EPLC web site, but it must be submitted by mail or scanned and
e-mailed, with the necessary signatures of applicant and sponsor.
If you would like to discuss any aspect of
the Fellowship Program and its requirements, please contact EPLC Executive
Director Ron Cowell at 412-298-4796 or COWELL@EPLC.ORG
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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