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, 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
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
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
Webinar: Keeping Your Students: How to Communicate About
and Market Your Own Cyber Academy This Summer
Just a heads-up that the Ed Policy Roundup
will be offline Friday through Monday. Have a safe and happy Fourth of July
weekend.
Join LEARN and PASA for a webinar: Keeping
Your Students: How to Communicate About and Market Your Own Cyber Academy
This Summer
Open to superintendents, deputy
superintendents, communications staff and board members who regularly interface
with the public.
Who: LEARN - PA school superintendents working for
charter school reform, and PASA - PA Association of School Administrators
Date: Thursday July 9 2020 Time: 10 a.m. - 11:30 am
As schools face an uncertain 2020-21 school
year, many parents are eyeing cyber charter schools as an option for their
children. Some say they won’t return until there’s a vaccine, and cyber
charters have launched an unprecedented advertising campaign to capture those
parents.
This webinar will provide you with a basic
framework (including samples) that you can use to communicate about and market
your own, in-house cyber program, to help you retain as many of your own
students as possible. The session will address critical messaging, talking
points, and materials that you can easily develop. The session is designed
to be practical and useful – not a time waster!
Speakers:
Frank Gallagher, Superintendent of the
Souderton Area School District
Mark DiRocco, Executive Director, PASA
Beth Trapani, Communications Consultant who
will share insights and tools to turn around skeptical parents who may be
considering a cyber charter school.
For more information: sharon@learnpa.org
Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_A9K-MY9MSf2FtWfbS7dKFA
Pennsylvania finishes year $3B behind because of pandemic
Trib Live by ASSOCIATED PRESS | Wednesday,
July 1, 2020 3:39 p.m.
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania state government
finished its fiscal year about 9% short of its initial revenue estimate, a
result of the state’s coronavirus-related shutdowns and delayed tax-filing
deadlines, the Department of Revenue said Wednesday. The state collected $32.3
billion for the 12 months through Tuesday. That was about $3.2 billion less
than projected at the beginning of the fiscal year. June’s shortfall alone was
$577 million, with most of it, or $444 million, due to reduced economic
activity during the COVID-19 pandemic, the department said. It estimated that
the rest of the shortfall is because due dates for various taxes were moved to
July or later.
EDITORIAL: City schools trapped in spiral
The York Dispatch Editorial Board July 2,
2020
York City School District is trapped in a
death spiral.
It's stuck under years-long state
management that limits how money can be spent. Charter schools are
annually sucking more than $25
million from its budget. Miserly state
lawmakers foist the responsibility for funding public education on local
officials, thereby fostering a system that rewards students in rich communities
and punishes those in poor ones. And York City taxpayers are fed up with paying
taxes that are up to double what's paid in richer districts with more valuable
property. It's no wonder that, under
these conditions, York City Superintendent Andrea Berry presented a
slash-and-burn budget for the 2020-21 school year containing $6.2 million in
cuts. And, sadly, it's no surprise the district's school board went even
further, last week approving a budget that
axed 44 positions, including 32 teachers. And, even so,
York City's 2020-21 budget still boosted taxes. That's how bad things
really are. Really, what choice did district officials have? York City school
officials are trapped in a budgetary spiral that's plagued poor, largely
minority communities throughout the U.S. for decades. Under-represented at the
statehouse, their calls for funding reform fall flat.
Our declaration of independence: Pa. wants redistricting
reform. Lawmakers have failed to listen | Opinion
By Carol Kuniholm Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor July 2,
2020
The Fourth of July commemorates the abiding
right of the governed to alter or abolish any form of government that ignores
the people’s voice. The Declaration of Independence lists repeated injuries and
usurpations that deprived the colonists of a voice in the establishment of
laws, concluding: “In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for
Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered
only by repeated injuries.” Supporters of redistricting reform consider those
words this year with sadness. Some of us have spent 30 years asking for redress
of an unfair redistricting process and an increasingly intransigent
Legislature. More recently, we have attempted every lawful avenue of request,
petitioning our legislators in every way we know, with meetings, calls, emails,
letters, postcards, op-Eds, billboards, radio ads, petitions, resolutions of
support. All have been met with silence, or with empty statements of support by
those who could schedule a vote or easily move this reform forward.
Will SCOTUS ruling force Pa. to fund religious schools?
Not quite, officials say
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer July 2,
2020
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that’s expected
to pave the way for public funding of religious institutions may have little to
no impact on Pennsylvania. On Tuesday, the nation’s highest court ruled in
favor of parents in Montana seeking to use a state-funded tax credit program to
send their children to religious schools, an action previously banned by the
state’s constitution. But because no such program exists in Pennsylvania, the
court’s decision likely won’t have the same effect here. Next to no impact
on Pa. The Pennsylvania constitution, like Montana’s, bars public funds for
religious education, but the state does not have a tax
credit program that directly sends taxpayer money to private schools like
Montana does. It does, however, give tax credits to businesses that donate to
religious education organizations or fund scholarships for students attending
religious schools through the Educational Improvement
Tax Credit and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit programs. While the
state doesn’t directly fund religious schools, critics say these programs
indirectly support religious institutions at the expense of public schools. A
spokesperson with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic
Development, which coordinates the programs, said since it’s private, not
public, money going to these schools, the Supreme Court decision may not
"have an impact at all."
Philly Survey: Most students, staff say they will return
to school if safety measures are in place
They also favor a mix of online and in-person
learning, with the most support given to an alternate-day staggered schedule
for students.
The notebook Neena Hagen July 1 — 5:26 pm,
2020
Most students, parents, and school-based
staff who responded to a Philadelphia School District reopening survey indicated
that they would feel comfortable returning to school in person if a number of
safety measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control were put in
place. As far as schedules, staff, and parents favored a mix of online and
in-person learning, with the most support being for a system in which different
students would attend on different days. The survey, which was open on
the District website from June 15 to June 22, was filled out by about 35,000
respondents, who were asked to rank reopening scenarios from most desirable to
least desirable. Released Wednesday, the survey results will inform
Superintendent William Hite’s plans to reopen schools amid a recent surge in
coronavirus cases across the country.
Pa. charters deny ‘cherry-picking’ students, but data
show special ed disparities
WHYY By Bill
Hangley July 1, 2020
This article originally appeared on The Notebook.
Pennsylvania’s charter schools are “gaming
the system” to maximize special education payments, and then using the money to
subsidize their regular operations, costing Pennsylvania taxpayers millions,
according to a new study by the advocate group, Education Voters of PA. “This report presents
evidence of systemic cherry picking by charter schools of students with
low-cost disabilities,” said Susan Spicka, executive director of Education
Voters of PA. “It exposes fundamental flaws in the state’s funding formula that
drive enrollment practices at charter schools and limit options for many
students with disabilities.” By forcing districts to pay charters a flat fee
for all special ed students regardless of their needs, the report finds,
Pennsylvania policy creates incentives for charters to over-enroll students
needing low-cost services, and drive the harder-to-serve students back into
district-run schools. Fixing the enrollment imbalance could save Pennsylvania
taxpayers as much as $100 million a year, the report found.
Bellefonte’s return to school plan: Parental
responsibility, masks for all, online options
Centre Daily Times BY
MARLEY PARISH JULY 01, 2020 09:57
AM , UPDATED JULY 01, 2020 10:19 AM
Bellefonte Area School District plans to
reopen schools this fall, but families will be responsible for ensuring
children are healthy enough to attend and can opt for virtual learning. Marion-Walker
Elementary School Principal and pandemic coordinator Karen Krisch presented the
district’s return to school plan during Tuesday night’s board meeting. Assuming
Centre County maintains its “green” status of Gov. Tom Wolf’s reopening plan —
the least restrictive phase — students and staff will be invited back for
in-person instruction this fall. In a letter sent to district
parents and guardians, Interim Superintendent Tammie
Burnaford said Bellefonte’s learning plan is being developed by a task force
with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state
Department of Health, World Health Organization and American Academy of
Pediatrics. If Centre County stays in the least restrictive reopening phase,
all students and staff can return to school full time.
Wyoming Area planning to reopen schools with desk shields
and clear masks for teachers
Citizens Voice By MICHAEL P. BUFFER STAFF WRITER Jun 30,
2020
Wyoming Area School District administrators
are working on three separate school-reopening plans, and the district will
have movable desk shields for students and special clear masks that allow
students to see their teachers’ mouths. “We will be presenting those to you as
soon as all of the plans are completed with all of the details,” Superintendent
Janet Serino said at Tuesday’s school board meeting. Gov. Tom Wolf closed all
schools in the state March 16 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and schools
after that began providing online and remote education. Elementary and
secondary schools in the state’s yellow and green reopening phases may resume
in-person instruction and activities beginning July 1 under a phased reopening
approach, the state Department of Education announced June 3. Wyoming Area will
have a plan for a complete return, a plan for the green phase with current
social restrictions and a plan in case Luzerne County goes back to the yellow
phase, Serino said. The green phase plans will be a hybrid involving in-person
and remote instruction, and the yellow phase plan involves all students getting
Chromebooks to take home for remote instruction, Serino said. The board also
voted 5-4 to adopt a budget for 2020-21 that would spend $38.6 million and
increase the tax rate by 3.5%,
Focus on Opening Schools, Not Bars
Resuming classroom instruction is crucial.
Infection control inside and outside classrooms can let it happen.
New York Times Opinion By Jennifer B.
Nuzzo and Joshua M. Sharfstein July 1, 2020
Dr. Nuzzo is an epidemiologist and Dr.
Sharfstein is a pediatrician.
The way states lifted social distancing
restrictions imposed to fight the coronavirus sadly demonstrates our
priorities. Officials let bars, restaurants and gyms open, despite warnings
from public health experts that these environments pose the greatest risk for
spreading the disease. Yet political leaders seem to have paid scant attention
to safely reopening schools. The consequences of those backward priorities —
Covid-19 rampaging through states that reopened quickly — makes it even more
vital that we extensively prepare to reopen classrooms as safely as possible
this fall. Research suggests
that the sudden switch to online instruction has cost some students a full year
of academic progress. These harms disproportionately affect
children in homes without computers and stable internet connections, deepening
educational inequality and widening racial and economic divides. The disruption
of learning can have lifetime effects on students’ income and health. The
school shutdowns left millions of children without access to meal programs and
school-based health services. Reports of
child abuse slowed since school employees couldn’t identify and notify the
authorities about children they thought were being harmed. And the need for
parents to supervise their children on school days or arrange child care has
disrupted the economy and made it even harder for many families to get by.
What the Supreme Court's Ruling on Religious Schools
Means in Practice
Education Week By Evie Blad on June
30, 2020 3:46 PM
Education groups and activists on all sides
of the debate over private school choice agree that a Tuesday ruling by the
U.S. Supreme Court will be tremendously consequential. But it may take some
time for the ripple effects to spread. In a 5-4 decision in Espinoza v. Montana
Department of Revenue, the court held that a Montana prohibition on
families from using state tax-credit scholarships at religious schools was an
unconstitutional violation of religious freedom.
Here's a rundown of what that means, and what
comes next.
Private and Religious School Backers See Broad Victory in
Supreme Court Decision
The court drew its decision narrowly when
ruling against a Montana tax break that excluded religious schools. But
denominational school advocates will push a broad application.
New York Times By Erica
L. Green July 1, 2020
WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday
against Montana’s exclusion of religious schools from a state scholarship
program may have been drafted narrowly, but the victory for denominational
education has breathed new life into far broader efforts to use public funding
for private and parochial schools. In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that
the state of Montana could not use a provision in its Constitution to exclude
religious schools from its private school scholarship program. While the
court’s ruling did not go beyond addressing Montana’s constitutional provision,
which prohibits the use of public funding for denominational institutions and
purposes, voucher opponents and proponents agreed that the decision effectively
rendered such amendments toothless. The provisions, known as Blaine amendments,
exist in 37 states and generally restrict government aid to religious
institutions. The amendments were named for James G. Blaine, who in the 1800s
sought legal mechanisms to deny religious schools public funding, a popular
stance at a time rife with discrimination against Catholics.
Trump Is in Trouble in Pennsylvania, but ‘He’s Been Way
Behind Before’
The president’s campaign and allies have
sketched out a comeback path in the battleground state, which he narrowly won
in 2016, hoping to capitalize on factors like energy policy.
New York Times By Trip
Gabriel July 2, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
In political speeches for 40 years, Joseph R. Biden Jr. has
evoked his scrappy childhood in Scranton, Pa. He kicked off his presidential
run last year in Pittsburgh, and as he takes tentative steps out of home
confinement in Wilmington, Del., the campaign trail has often led to the state
next door. Yet surprisingly, Mr. Biden is enjoying no special boost in his
native Pennsylvania. A New York Times/Siena College poll of six battleground states released
last week showed that the former vice president’s net approval in Pennsylvania
was largely the same as elsewhere: Fifty percent of registered voters viewed
him positively and 48 percent saw him negatively. President Trump, mired in
the lowest point of his presidency, was viewed favorably by just 43 percent of
voters in the six battlegrounds. It helped explain why he trailed Mr. Biden in
all six states and by 10 percentage points in Pennsylvania, a dire picture of
the president’s chances of re-election. Still, with four months to go until
Election Day, Mr. Trump could well become competitive again. Leaders of his
campaign in Pennsylvania, seizing on Mr. Biden’s failure to shine as a favorite
son, have sketched out a comeback path for Mr. Trump. Its steps include the
Republican Party’s advantage in new voter registrations; a return to in-person
organizing while Mr. Biden’s ground game remains virtual; and a range of issues
— including energy policy, reopening the economy and defunding the police —
that Republicans believe will peel away swing voters in a state Mr. Trump
narrowly won in 2016.
PSBA Advocacy Ambassador program brings legislators to
you
POSTED ON JULY 1, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
PSBA’s Advocacy Ambassador program is a
key resource helping public school leaders connect with their state legislators
on important education issues. Our six ambassadors build strong
relationships with the school leaders and legislators in their areas to support
advocacy efforts at the local level. They also encourage legislators to visit
school districts and create opportunities for you to have positive
conversations and tell your stories about your schools and students. PSBA
thanks those school districts that have worked with their advocacy ambassador
and invites those who have not to reach out to their ambassador to talk about
the ways they can support your advocacy efforts. Interested in becoming an
Advocacy Ambassador? PSBA is seeking ambassadors to fill anticipated vacancies
for Sections 1, 2 and 6. For more information contact jamie.zuvich@psba.org.
PSBA seeking Allwein Society nominations
POSTED ON JUNE 29, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
PSBA is accepting nominations for The Allwein
Society, the association’s award program recognizing school directors who are
outstanding leaders and advocates on behalf of public schools and students.
This prestigious honor was created in 2011 in memory of Timothy M. Allwein, a
former PSBA staff member who exemplified the integrity and commitment to
advance political action for the benefit of public education. Learn more and submit your
nomination online.
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 270 PA school boards have adopted charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 270 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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