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,
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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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It’s time to fix charter funding | Opinion
Tweets from yesterday:
@HH_Schools Hatboro-Horsham
board of school directors becomes the 270th locally elected Pennsylvania school
board submitting a resolution calling for charter school funding reform. Has
your district? @SenatorCollett . @RepTomMurt @RepToddStephens
#WesternBeaver board of
school directors becomes the 269th locally elected Pennsylvania school board
submitting a resolution calling for charter school funding reform. Has your district?
@SenElderVogelJr #RepJimMarshall
#MuncySD board of
school directors becomes the 268th locally elected Pennsylvania school board
submitting a resolution calling for charter school funding reform. Has your
district? @SenatorGeneYaw #RepGarthEverett
PSBA: Adopted charter reform resolutions
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.
Updated Reopening Guidance from PDE/Mathmatica June 24,
2020
On June 3, the Department of Education (PDE)
issued Preliminary Guidance for Phased Reopening of
Schools to summarize safe operations
recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Pennsylvania
Department of Health (DoH), and to provide a starting point for school leaders
to consider in preparations for the upcoming year.
Today, we build on this guidance with a comprehensive
reportOpens In A New Window prepared in partnership with
the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)
Mid-Atlantic at MathematicaOpens In A New Window, one of the
nation's foremost social policy research firms. This report summarizes
existing research on COVID-19 and generates a Pennsylvania-specific body of
research—both qualitative and quantitative—that can inform decision making
around completion of local health and safety plans, preparations for resumption
of in-person teaching and learning, and development of supports for student and
staff wellness—with attention to equity throughout. Components include:
Pa.’s public schools are bleeding money because of the
pandemic. It’s time to fix charter funding | Opinion
By Richard Robinson Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor June 26,
2020
Richard Robinson is an elected school
director for the York Suburban School District, and its legislative liaison. He
writes from Springettsbury Township, Pa.
Who ever said “every cloud has a silver
lining” sure knew what he/she was saying. Take the COVID-19 pandemic. What an
opportunity to keep driving public schools in Pennsylvania up to the edge of a
cliff and over it. We all know the pandemic is causing a drop in tax revenue
for the state. According to the Pennsylvania Association of School Business
Officials, for public schools this could mean a decrease of anywhere from $850
million to $1 billion, but who’s counting? At the same time, Pennsylvania
charter schools are entitled to more than $70 million in federal education
stimulus funds this fiscal year to help them get through the financial crisis
without experiencing any loss in revenue. What? Thanks to Pennsylvania’s
current charter school funding formula overpayments to charter schools continue
while school districts face critical funding challenges that have been
accelerated by COVID-19. How is this possible you may ask? When calculating
tuition rates for the upcoming school year, school districts are not permitted
to deduct payments made to cyber/charter schools from the total expenditure.
Gov. Wolf Leads Bipartisan Effort in Calling on
President, Congressional Leaders to Invest in Broadband Internet Access
Governor Wolf’s Website June 25, 2020
Eleven governors send letter calling for
significant investments to bridge digital divide
As states continue to address the COVID-19
pandemic, including economic recovery efforts, Governor Tom Wolf and a
bipartisan coalition of 11 governors today sent a letter urging
the president and Congressional leaders to make critical investments to ensure
that all Americans have access to broadband internet connectivity, which they
say is critical infrastructure that’s vitally important to our economic future
and national security. “An investment in broadband internet connectivity is an
investment in our commonwealth’s future and prosperity. The critical need for
high-speed internet has become clear in light of our efforts to mitigate the
spread of COVID-19, as more families work and learn from home, businesses
operate online services and patients access medical care through telehealth,”
Gov. Wolf said. “Now, as Pennsylvania focuses on our economic recovery, it’s
critical that broadband internet access becomes a reality for every community,
and especially our rural areas. “It’s clear that this is more than a
Pennsylvania issue – the digital divide exists in communities across the
country,” Gov. Wolf said. “It’s in everyone’s best interest, especially as
technology continues to evolve and advance, that we make a significant
infrastructural investment.”
Confronted by protests, pandemic Philly schools mull
delaying start of 2020-21 school year
By Chanel Hill Special to the Capital-Star June 25,
2020
PHILADELPHIA — School District of
Philadelphia administrators are considering pushing back the start of the
2020-21 school year. The first day of school is currently scheduled for Aug.
31, but Superintendent William Hite said Thursday during his weekly press
briefing that the date could change “so staff are trained on new protocols.” Schools
have been closed since the coronavirus outbreak began in Philadelphia in the
middle of March. Over the last few months, “teachers and families have
experienced loss,” Hite said. Massive protests against racial injustice also
have overtaken the city for weeks. “We have to look at what training will be
done to address the social and emotional aspects of all the things that
individuals have been dealing with,” Hite said. Administrators are talking
about anti-racism efforts, equity, cleaning between classes and overall
sanitation as they make a decision about when to start the new school year.
No more ‘police’ in Philly schools; ‘safety officers’ in
new uniforms coming this fall
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Posted: June
25, 2020- 9:06 PM
School police will no longer patrol city
public school halls come September. Instead, “school safety officers” in less
severe uniforms and with different job descriptions will be stationed
throughout the Philadelphia School District. The move comes amid local and
national pushes to remove police from schools. A handful of big-city districts,
including those in Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, and Oakland, have severed or
backed away from relationships with police departments in the wake of the death
of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of police. The shift, which
will not mean the replacement of the 300-plus men and women who have worked as
school police, is not expressly linked to Floyd’s death and the resulting
national activism. A change in the Pennsylvania state code stipulates that only
sworn officers can be called “school police.” Philadelphia school security
personnel, who do not carry guns, do not fit that description.
'We can't do this alone': Lancaster NAACP panelists want
to transform education, but they need help
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer June 26,
2020
The nation’s education system has long set
Black and Hispanic students up to fail, but it’s not too late to change that. That
was the main theme to the Lancaster NAACP’s virtual
forum on education, held Thursday evening as the final part of the
organization’s #WeAreDoneDying webinar series. From reversing the
school-to-prison pipeline and creating an equitable funding system to adopting
a curriculum and classroom that celebrates diversity, panelists said schools
can begin patching up the damage the education system has inflicted on students
of color. But it won’t be easy. “We can’t do this alone, and our children can’t
do it alone,” School District of Lancaster Superintendent Damaris Rau said.
“They need the adults in the community to fight for them.” Rau was a panelist
alongside Leroy Hopkins, a retired German professor at Millersville University
and president of the local African American Historical Society; Steve Sharp, a
Hempfield School District counselor and president of the Pennsylvania School
Counselor Association; and Susan Knoll, care coordinator at Franklin &
Marshall College and School District of Lancaster parent. They discussed the
road ahead, and how the coronavirus pandemic and escalating racial strife
present opportunities to transform education for all students.
Black Lives Matter movement inspires students’ writing
Students and teachers participate in a
15-year-old program called Writers Matter that encourages teens to use their
voice.
the
Notebook June 25 — 11:36 am, 2020
Writers Matter is a program started
in 2005 by Robert Vogel, then a La Salle education professor, in which teachers
are trained to help their middle and high school students write their own
stories. “It’s a motivational program to get kids to want to write,” said
Vogel, who retired four years ago after more than four decades at La Salle. “It
was developed to be integrated into the school day, taught by certified
teachers, and sustained over the course of the whole year. Basically, we’re
looking at ways of empowering these kids to use writing as a tool.” Today in
Philadelphia, the program involves more than 3,000 students and 70 teachers in
14 schools. Anywhere from three to eight teachers might use the curriculum in a
given school. “We begin to have them write about their lives and what they’re
going through,” Vogel said. This year, as you can imagine, “there has been a
drastic paradigm shift.” First, students
wrote about what it has been like learning in the COVID environment, with many
sharing their fear and loneliness while schools were closed. Then came the
killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the protests against police
violence. One of the schools where the Writers Matter program thrives is
the Feltonville School of Arts & Sciences, which
serves grades 6-8. Aubrey Stewart is an 8th-grade English Language Arts teacher
there. “One thing I try to instill in all of them is that their voices are
powerful,” said Stewart.
Leechburg Area passes $15.3M budget with 3.8% tax
increase in West Leechburg
Trib Live by MADASYN
LEE | Thursday,
June 25, 2020 3:00 p.m.
Leechburg Area School Board adopted a $15.3
million budget for the coming school year that increases taxes for West
Leechburg property owners by 3.8%, but decreases taxes for ones in Leechburg
and Gilpin. Board members voted 7-1 to adopt the budget during a virtual
meeting Wednesday. Because Leechburg Area School District spans two counties, a
complex formula intended to equalize taxes is used. Property owners in
Westmoreland County’s West Leechburg will see their tax rate go up by 4.94
mills to 136.59 mills. The owner of a home assessed at $18,355 will owe about
$2,507, an extra $89 a year.
Taxes Going Up With 2020-2021 Radnor School District
Budget
Residents in Radnor Township will be paying
more taxes, as the district's board recently adopted a budget with a tax hike.
Patch By Max
Bennett, Patch Staff Jun 25, 2020 10:33 am ET
Taxes are going up in Radnor
Township. (Shutterstock)
RADNOR TOWNSHIP, PA — Taxes are going up in
Radnor with the newly approved 2020-2021 Radnor Township School District
budget. The district's board on Tuesday voted to adopt the budget, which
contains a 2.6 percent tax increase. According to district documents, the
increase — which is .6478 mills, bringing the total millage to 25.5659 — was
implemented to address a funding shortfall of $837,899. The district accounted
for $101.4 in revenues and $102.7 in expenditures.
Area schools finalizing return to play safety plans
Beaver County Times By Andrew
Chiappazzi @BCT_AChiappazzi Posted
Jun 25, 2020
Area schools are required to formulate and
publish a health and safety plan in order to resume practices and offseason
workouts. Ten of the 18 public school districts in the area have completed that
process. What do the plans look like? In order for high school sports programs
to start practicing and conduct off-season workouts again, Gov. Tom Wolf
required school districts to adopt a health and safety plan that would outline
the precautions athletics programs would take to safeguard against the spread
of COVID-19. The plan must adhere to the current state guidelines for the
phased reopening of schools, be approved by respective school boards, and be
publicly published on the school’s website. The Pennsylvania Department of
Education offered a template schools could use to formulate their plans, but
the districts largely have been left on their own to develop the procedures.
The PIAA said it was crucial to allow for districts to develop their own plans
because of the varying needs and resources of each district throughout the
state. “Allowing voluntary activities to commence at PIAA member schools as
early as the approval by the local board is a significant move to allow
students to be students,” PIAA executive director Dr. Robert Lombardi said in a
release earlier this month. “We are very appreciative and supportive of the
Governor’s staff and PDE for allowing our input and having discussion of
opening schools for voluntary workouts and activities.”
DeVos issues rule steering more virus aid to private
schools
Lancaster Online By COLLIN BINKLEY AP
Education Writer June 25, 2020
The Trump administration on Thursday moved
forward with a policy ordering public schools across the U.S. to share
coronavirus relief funding with private schools at a higher rate than federal
law typically requires. Under a new rule issued by Education Secretary Betsy
DeVos, school districts are ordered to set aside a portion of their aid for
private schools using a formula based on the total number of private school
students in the district. The policy has been contested by public school
officials who say the funding should be shared based on the number of
low-income students at local private schools rather than their total
enrollments. That's how funding is shared with private schools under other
federal rules that Congress referenced in the legislation creating the relief
aid. But DeVos on Thursday said the funding is separate from other federal aid
and was meant to support all students. “There is nothing in the law Congress
passed that would allow districts to discriminate against children and teachers
based on private school attendance and employment," DeVos said in a call
with reporters. The difference between the two formulas amounts to tens of
millions of dollars. In Louisiana, for example, private schools are estimated
to get at least 267% more under DeVos' formula. In the state’s Orleans Parish,
at least 77% of its relief allotment would end up going to private schools. The
Education Department issued the rule through a process that's typically used in
emergencies and immediately gives the policy the force of law. DeVos said
urgent action was needed after dozens of private schools permanently closed as
a result of the pandemic. She called it a “looming crisis” for the nation. DeVos
is a longtime backer of private schools and has championed school choice
through her career. Since last year, she's been pushing a plan to provide tax
credits for scholarships sending students to private schools or other education
options. She and Vice President Mike Pence promoted the plan Tuesday at a
school choice event in Wisconsin, but the measure has yet to gain traction in
Congress.
DeVos Partially Retreats in Fight Over COVID Aid and
Private School Students
Education Week By Andrew Ujifusa on June
25, 2020 11:32 AM
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is
backing off somewhat from her controversial push for school
districts to make coronavirus relief available to all local private
school students, following a salvo of criticism from education officials and
groups. The new interim final rule, released
Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education, gives school
districts choices for how they distribute K-12 aid money from
Congress. And ultimately, the rule would give districts the option to set aside
the aid for a subset of private school students like they typically do, instead
of the broader population of those students, as DeVos had previously sought. This
interim final rule will go into effect immediately and has the full force of
law, although there's still a process for the public to provide comment for 30
days. However, there could be legal action in response to it. The Education
Department estimated that the interim rule could affect between 6 and 8 percent
of the roughly $13 billion in aid for school districts under
the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. The shift
by DeVos represents a qualified victory for public school officials and
advocates and a corresponding setback for private school advocates. But it
could also force some school districts into difficult decisions about how to
allocate money among schools. And it could complicate district-based responses
to the coronavirus that aren't necessarily tailored to individual
schools.
PSBA Fall Virtual Advocacy Day: OCT 8, 2020 • 8:00
AM - 5:00 PM
Sign up now for PSBA’s Virtual Advocacy Day
this fall!
All public school leaders are invited to join
us for our fall Virtual Advocacy Day on Thursday, October 8, 2020, via Zoom. We
need all of you to help strengthen our advocacy impact. The day will center
around contacting legislators to discuss critical issues affecting public
education. Registrants will receive the meeting invitation with a link to our
fall Virtual Advocacy Day website that contains talking points, a link to
locate contact information for your legislator and additional information to
help you have a successful day.
Cost: As a membership benefit, there is no
cost to register.
Registration: School directors can register
online now by logging in to myPSBA. If you
have questions about Virtual Advocacy Day, or need additional information,
contact Jamie.Zuvich@psba.org.
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 260 PA school boards adopt charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 260 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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