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
“No matter what we decide, a very sizable number of
people in our district will be unhappy."
Taxpayers in Senate Majority
Caucus Secretary Ryan Aument’s school districts paid over $10.5 million in
2018-2019 cyber charter tuition. Statewide, PA
taxpayers paid over $600 million for cyber charter tuition in 2018-2019.
|
Cocalico SD
|
$745,025.81
|
|
Columbia Borough SD
|
$1,071,571.66
|
|
Conestoga Valley SD
|
$685,501.37
|
|
Conrad Weiser Area SD
|
$606,367.70
|
|
Donegal SD
|
$1,259,870.86
|
|
Eastern Lancaster County SD
|
$890,750.67
|
|
Elizabethtown Area SD
|
$1,155,751.38
|
|
Ephrata Area SD
|
$1,137,873.07
|
|
Hempfield SD
|
$1,657,030.71
|
|
Manheim Central SD
|
$650,217.47
|
|
Warwick SD
|
$666,985.57
|
|
|
$10,526,946.27
|
Data Source: PDE via PSBA
Why are cyber charter tuition rates the same as brick and mortar
tuition?
Why are PA taxpayers paying twice what it costs to provide a
cyber education?
‘Trapped between some really hard choices’: Gov. Wolf on
the challenge of reopening schools amid Pennsylvania’s rising coronavirus cases
By LAURA OLSON THE MORNING
CALL | JUL 24, 2020 AT 4:46 PM
As Pennsylvania districts finalize plans for
how to reopen schools amid rising coronavirus case counts, Gov. Tom Wolf said
Friday that officials have few good options for how to safely return students
to the classroom. Speaking to reporters outside a health center in Lancaster,
Wolf said school administrators and other public officials are dealing with two
challenges: how to tamp down on a virus that thrives on close conditions, and
how to make parents and teachers confident that it’s safe to be inside schools.
Wolf said an increasing number of parents have opted for a cybercharter option
for the upcoming school year, and that students won’t be returning to schools
unless “people feel confident in going back.” “What I do know, is we need our
kids to get an education. We cannot interrupt it. That’s going to be bad for
all of us,” he said. “On the other hand, we’re all grappling with the challenge
of this pandemic, and we need to do everything we can to keep people safe. “We
are trapped between some really hard choices,” Wolf added.
“Zupancic said there's a contingent of parents in his district
following the president's lead, others who don't believe the coronavirus is
even real, and some who want to follow the safety guidelines set forth by
Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine. "There's probably 20
to 30 percent of our parents who think the virus is a hoax, or that we should
open and let them get sick and get over it," he said. "We have other
people who don't want to chance it. No matter what we decide, a very
sizable number of people in our district will be unhappy."
COVID-19: PA schools fight pandemic concerns, politics in
reopening
Candy Woodall York Daily
Record July 26, 2020
Joseph Zupancic is a lawyer and father of
three daughters, but he said his toughest job right now is being a school board
member in the Canon-McMillan School District. He's been on the board for
11 years and never had to decide whether to send kids back to school in the
fall. It was always a given. That
changed last month when the board voted 7-2 to reopen schools in August.
Zupancic was one of two board members who opted against the move. His decision
wasn't supported by his three daughters, who will be in 12th, 10th and 8th
grades this year. "My girls are chomping at the bit to get back,
especially the senior," Zupancic said. But as a parent and school
director, he said he voted for what he believed was safest for students —
even if they didn't like the decision. What he's seeing is the
same battle going on throughout Pennsylvania and the country. A month
later, Zupancic says there's more evidence he made the right decision, as
Pennsylvania is seeing a new surge in positive COVID-19 cases. And the
Canon-McMillan School District is in Canonsburg, Washington County, where cases
are higher now than they were in the spring when Gov. Tom Wolf ordered schools
to close indefinitely.
Remote learning gains steam in Pennsylvania’s largest
school districts
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison July 26,
2020
The White House increased pressure this month
on schools to hold in-person classes in the fall, threatening to cut off
federal funding to districts that failed to open their doors five days a week. But
in Pennsylvania, where officials warn that a modest summertime surge in
COVID-19 cases could turn into a serious outbreak, the leaders of some of the
state’s largest school districts started to issue a simple message: “no can
do.” In Philadelphia, administrators tapped the brakes late Thursday on a plan
to open school for two days a week this fall, after more than 100 members of
the public said it would put teachers and students in danger and fail to
provide a strong education. They urged administrators to draft plans to educate
all Philadelphia students virtually at the start of the year. The
Pittsburgh school board, meanwhile, announced this week that they may start the
school year online, with hopes of transitioning to in-person instruction.
That’s the same strategy the Allentown School District will follow, according
to a reopening plan its board adopted Thursday night. The string of
announcements confirmed what education advocates have said since March, when
Gov. Tom Wolf shuttered schools statewide: that districts serving the most
vulnerable students are also the least able to muster the manpower and cash
necessary to keep their communities safe from COVID-19. But advocates also
admit that limiting face-to-face instruction – at least to start the year – may
be the safest decision for students, staff and their families as the virus
continues to burn through parts of the United States.
Latest CDC guidance pushes for reopening schools as
Lancaster County officials juggle 'two bad choices'
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Jul 25,
2020
The latest guidance from
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention appears to double down on what
many Lancaster County school officials already knew: Students need to be back
in school. But that doesn’t make reopening any easier. “The importance of
in-person instruction has been one of our guiding principles throughout our
back to school planning,” School District of Lancaster Superintendent Damaris
Rau said in an email. “The CDC statement underscores the essential work our
teachers and staff do every day.” In additional guidance released online
Thursday evening, the CDC emphasized the importance of resuming in-person
instruction with health measures such as face coverings, social distancing and
enhanced cleaning in place. It updates — and, at times, contradicts — initial
guidance published in May and aligns with a push by the Trump administration to
reopen schools despite COVID-19 cases surging in many parts of the country. “Death
rates among school-aged children are much lower than among adults,” the
guidance states. “At the same time, the harms attributed to closed schools on
the social, emotional, and behavioral health, economic well-being, and academic
achievement of children … are well-known and significant.” That’s something
Lancaster County school districts have wrestled with for months as they debate
the merits of reopening.
Philly teachers, supporters take to the street for an
all-virtual school opening, police-free schools
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham, Updated: July
25, 2020- 10:13 PM
Continuing a public drumbeat against any
school reopening plan that brings children back to classrooms, several dozen
teachers gathered Saturday to put pressure on the Philadelphia School District
as it prepares to revise its back-to-school blueprint. Under a blue sky and in
hot, muggy conditions on the steps of the School District’s North Broad Street
headquarters, teachers reiterated demands made at a dramatic school board
meeting Thursday night into Friday
morning: Don’t force one teacher or student into classrooms until you can
guarantee our safety. The district’s plan now seems to be “let’s cross our
fingers that there are no deaths,” teacher Nick Bernardini said. “It’s
preposterous.” After an eight-hour school board meeting, Superintendent William
R. Hite Jr. pulled his plan, which would have sent most children back to school
in person two days a week and contained a 100% virtual option for families who
wanted it. Parents, students, and teachers told Hite and the board that given
the district’s track record with keeping buildings clean and safe, that plan
was not OK.
Even as Lehigh Valley schools prepare to reopen, ‘we have
a lot of teachers who are nervous’
By JACQUELINE PALOCHKO THE MORNING
CALL | JUL 26, 2020 AT 6:00 AM
Kevin Deely knows there is no easy solution
to bringing students safety back to school this year. As president of the
Easton Area School District’s teachers union, he’s been working with
administrators to prepare for the start of school, while also fielding concerns
from teachers, some of whom are older or have conditions that put them at high
risk for coronavirus. “We really do want to be back in the classroom with
students. It’s what we live for,” Deely said. “But we need to make sure we’re
protected.” It’s the same worry that educators around the country have as the
start of the school year approaches with no end in sight for the coronavirus
pandemic. In the spring, schools abruptly switched to online learning as the
coronavirus spread. But educators and advocates acknowledge that online
learning has limitations, and can hurt students who live in poverty and don’t
have technology resources. The Trump administration is urging schools to fully reopen
this year, but a national poll says 1 in 5
teachers might not return to the classroom if their schools reopen for
in-person classes. The poll, conducted by USA
Today/Ipsos, also found that nearly 9 in 10 teachers believe it would be hard
to enforce social distancing guidelines at school.
Protesters continue fight for ‘police-free schools’ in
Philly
WHYY By Ximena
Conde July 25, 2020
The public fight to redirect $31 million
spent on policing Philadelphia School District students continued Saturday.
More than 200 supporters of “police-free schools” met at LOVE Park to demand
those millions go to hire additional support staff instead. “We want to have
school nurses and counselors who are trained and gone through college to help
children,” said Sanai Browning, an incoming 11th grader at Science Leadership
Academy Beeber and a member of the Philadelphia Student Union. “Police have not
been trained to do that.” Browning said like many of her peers, she had a
traumatizing encounter with police outside of school at a young age. She was
getting pizza with a white friend and an officer stopped them. “[He] said I
shouldn’t be hanging around with my white friend because I would be mind
tricking her into being a drug addict,” recalled Browning, who was 12 at the
time, saying the incident has stayed with her.
Board turns its back on students, parents, and educators
"Elections have consequences. So do
non-elections."
The notebook Commentary by Lisa
Haver July 26 — 7:10 pm, 2020
At last week’s Action Meeting, the appointed
Board of Education turned its back on the people of Philadelphia, both
literally and figuratively, when it voted to delay action on the Hite
administration’s flawed reopening plan. The move represented a display of
contempt for the public not seen since the SRC voted to close 22 neighborhood
schools. For seven hours, the board hid behind a countdown clock screen while
over 100 parents, educators, students and community members urged the Board to
reject the plan. They expressed fear for the safety of their children and
themselves. They pointed to the many holes in the plan. They asked how parents
could make decisions based on incomplete and contradictory information. Not one
speaker advocated passage of the agenda item on reopening, which was in the
form of a “health and safety plan” submitted to the state. The board’s response
was to misrepresent what parents had just told them, to waffle, to rationalize,
and ultimately, to decide that saving face for the administration took
precedence over taking immediate action to protect the health and safety of the
city’s children.
Back-to-school: In person, virtual or a hybrid? Here's
what local districts plan to do
Teresa Boeckel Mariana Veloso York Daily
Record July 24, 2020
School isn't going to be the same
this year whether classes are all in-person, virtual or a combination of
the two, because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some school districts intend to
resume in-person classes but will offer virtual instruction as well. In some
cases, students will go to school two days a week and learn remotely on the
other days. Each district has developed lengthy health and safety plans for
starting the school year, and administrators have noted that these will
likely change. Some also have revised their calendars, pushing the start dates
until after Labor Day. The different plans offer consistency when it comes to
social distancing in the classrooms, buses, hallways and lunchtime:
How will schools maintain high quality of education
during pandemic?
Kim Strong York Daily Record July 26, 2020
Summer is typically no vacation for Leonard
Rich. The superintendent of Laurel School District near New Castle,
Pennsylvania, normally watches his students leave for summer break then
dives into test scores and curriculum plans with his staff to improve
education for the following school year. But that's not happening this summer.
Rich is worrying about PPE, hand-sanitizing stations, mitigation efforts, and
what to do about students who are autoimmune compromised, when his schools open
their doors in the fall. That's the burden for Pennsylvania educators
this year: balancing health and safety during the pandemic with the
promise of a good, solid education. How will they do it? For each school in
this state, there's a slightly different plan. In a Philadelphia charter
school, students will work from home on laptops, watching and
interacting with their teachers, who will work in the
school's classrooms. At Laurel, the school district surveyed its families,
and the vast majority want their kids back in a physical classroom. For PA
Cyber Schools, it's virtual learning, as usual, as they field many more
inquiries from prospective parents this year. For most schools, there's a
mountain to move before classes start. When they closed their doors officially
on March 16, the state canceled state
assessment tests. That isn't likely to happen again
this school year.
“The district is hoping to retain parents who are considering a
cyber charter school. If a student decides to attend cyber charter school,
their tuition comes from their home school district’s state funding. A single
high school student enrolling in cyber school costs the district $9,200; an
elementary student $14,000; and a special education student, more than $20,000,
Rushefski said. “We can’t afford to lose that amount of money per student per
year. I’m glad to hear we’ll have something in place for the start of school,”
said school board member Paul Montemuro.”
Jim Thorpe prepares cyber, physical classes
Times News Online BY CHRIS REBER CREBER@TNONLINE.COM July 24.
2020 02:45PM
Jim Thorpe School District continues to
prepare to resume in-person classes and online learning. To date, the district has spent $200,000 of
the $600,000 it has been allotted through the CARES funding. During the school
board’s policy and personnel meeting Wednesday night, the board discussed its
in-house cyber school program, Olympian Learning Connection, and possibly
relaxing the dress code for returning students. The cyber school is set up for
parents who are not ready for their child to resume in-person classes. Students
would use the iPad or MacBook Air provided as part of the district’s 1-to-1
learning initiative. The district has ordered cameras which would stream the
classroom lessons to students at home taking part in the online learning
program. Because the online lessons are on the same schedule as in-person
classes, students could move from online to in-school instruction as needed. In
a recent survey, 20 percent of district parents said they favored returning to
full online instruction. And the survey indicated that parents preferred that
classes take place on the normal school day schedule, rather than having online
students complete courses at their own pace.
Pa.’s high school bands find alternate ways to practice,
perform
GoErie By Valerie
Myers @etnmyers Posted
Jul 25, 2020 at 12:03 AM Updated
Jul 25, 2020 at 1:07 PM
Competitions have been canceled and its not
certain that there will be halftime shows. The drill for high school marching
bands will be very different this season. Competitions are mostly canceled. Football
games are expected to kick off at the end of August, but marching bands would
account for a big chunk of the 250-person limit on stadium crowds and may or
may not perform. And some bands won’t be in full strength when they do perform.
When Pennsylvania schools were closed to help slow the spread of the
coronavirus March 13, the state order also closed down spring band recruitment.
On top of that, some musicians have decided not to participate this year. “We
have had a few students who, because of COVID, don’t want to do band this year.
And I respect that 110%” said Brian Knouse, first-year director of the
Northwestern High School Marching Band. Knouse previously was the band’s
assistant director.
Teachers seize the moment as parent demand fuels market
for private tutors
WHYY By Miles
Bryan July 24, 2020 Listen 4:02
Leigh Ann McCormack and Kim Cipolla have
always had a close working relationship. They have both been special education
teachers at Gladwyne Elementary School for more than a dozen years, with
classrooms right next to each other. They are both also adjunct processors at
St. Joseph’s University and have dabbled as private tutors. “From the very
beginning we just gelled,” said Cipolla, 54. “We were like frick and frack.” This
week the duo decided to launch their next professional venture together: a
private business called “Beyond the Tutors.” The teachers, who will keep their
day jobs with the Lower Merion School District, have been batting around the
idea for years, but decided to launch now because of unprecedented demand from
parents facing the prospect of a largely virtual school year. “A lot of parents
that I have been speaking to are just really concerned that, no matter what the
format looks like in the fall, they are able to supplement that,” Cipolla said.
“We thought: if they are concerned, then that need is spread out. It’s not just
in our school — it’s everywhere.”
Editorial: Back to school planning has no easy answers
Delco Times Editorial July 25, 2020
Among the pressing issues of the coronavirus
pandemic which has disrupted for the past five months life as we knew it, the
return to school this fall is foremost for area families, school staffs and
decision-makers. Every public and private school in the region is grappling
with the details of plans to balance health risk and learning. Guidance has
been issued by the state Department of Health as well as county health
departments, all of which emphasize planning and communication so that parents,
children and teachers feel safe and are able to resume learning, a tall task
when all factors are considered. In March when schools closed by order of Gov.
Tom Wolf, districts pivoted to online learning, a transition that came easier
in some places than others. Wealthier districts where technology is more
widespread were able to provide Chromebooks or laptops to all students, many of
whom already had their own. In poorer districts, neither the schools nor the
families could afford devices for everyone. Poor and rural districts were also
more likely to be areas of inadequate internet access, giving new meaning to
“education by zip code.” Those issues
persist as schools weigh in-person classes versus online learning this fall.
For students in low-income families and among many who struggle to achieve,
online learning puts them further behind in the already widening education gap.
Letter to the Editor: It's too soon to send kids back to
school
Delco Times Letter By Rev. Michael Robinson
July 24, 2020
The internet and social media are a
repository of inane memes, commentaries, trending videos, and goofy shenanigans
that sometimes goes viral. But the internet and social media are also a
repository for vital information, serious political discourse, and a source for
legitimate breaking news. Recently, while reviewing posts across my social
media platforms, I came across commentaries about Trump and Betsy DeVos,
Secretary - U.S. Department of Education decision to return our kids back to
school in the Fall -with no sound comprehensive plans to insure the safety of
our kids, teachers and administrators amidst a surging lethal pandemic, with
has no vaccine or cure developed. ran across one particular anonymous
meme that was so spot-on in addressing the endangerment of returning our kids
to school, it asked the question…“How is it that your kid CAN’T enroll in
school if they aren’t vaccinated for illnesses that aren’t an immediate threat,
but A DEADLY VIRUS WITH NO VACCINE or KNOWN CURE at its height is safe for your
child to go back to school?” I get it. The country and the economy needs
to slowly get back to some semblance of normalcy. But at what cost? To
give you a chilling insight as to how DeVos values your kids, here’s a recent
excerpt from a July 12, 2020, Washington Post article quoting DeVos:
Will Pat Toomey run for governor? A third U.S. Senate
term? Pa. Republicans are wondering
Penn Live By Charles Thompson | cthompson@pennlive.com Posted Jul
24, 2020
Listen. We’ve all got a lot of serious
election questions on our plate this summer, But there’s one Pennsylvanian who
can be forgiven for starting to think about 2022. Allow us to reintroduce
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, who’s been representing you in
Washington since 2011. Because if you talk to many Republican Party leaders,
campaign consultants or even neutral observers of the political scene, it is
becoming clear that Toomey’s decision about whether to seek a third term in the
United States Senate, change lanes and run for governor, or bow out from
electoral politics altogether is the first big GOP domino to fall in the
state’s 2022 campaign cycle. Why Toomey? There are a couple of ways to answer
that. First, who else you got? Toomey is now the only Republican holding a
non-judicial statewide elective office in Pennsylvania.
Unstoppable Resistance to Charter Schools
Dissident Voice by Shawgi Tell / July 25th,
2020
In 2015 the Washington Post shared
this observation of privately-operated charter schools by a veteran public
school official: David Hornbeck was the Maryland State Superintendent of
Schools from 1976 to 1988 and the superintendent of the Philadelphia school
district from 1994 to 2000. For years he was a supporter of charter schools,
seeing them as an important tool in the school reform arsenal, and as
Philadelphia’s superintendent, he recommended that more than 30 charter schools
be allowed to open. Now, in a reversal that is rare in education, he said
this: “The last 20 years make it clear I was wrong.”1 Hornbeck is one of many who have traveled
this increasingly non-rare road of awakening. Many others have also experienced
rude awakenings due to the large chasm between charter school hype and charter
school realities.
Charter schools and their management companies won at
least $925 million in federal coronavirus funding, data shows
Washington Post By Valerie Strauss Reporter July
27, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, is a
$660-billion business loan program established as part of the $2 trillion
coronavirus economic stimulus legislation that Congress passed in the spring.
PPP was aimed at helping certain small businesses, nonprofit organizations,
sole proprietors and others stay in business during the economic downturn
caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Small Business Administration
administered the program, and recently the SBA and the Treasury Department
released some data on what organizations won loans from the program and how
much they received. (Some loans can be forgiven if the PPP money is spent on
keeping employees on the payroll.) The release of funding details sparked some
controversy about whether some of the organizations that received funds should
have gotten them, including public charter schools — which are publicly funded
but privately operated — and some elite private schools. (A Washington Post database shows
the data.) Charter schools received emergency stimulus money from Congress from
the same fund that traditional public schools did — but some charter schools
decided to apply for PPP loans as well, saying that they are underfunded
through regular funding formulas and had a right to seek more aid. Other
charter schools chose not to apply for loans, saying it would be double-dipping
in federal aid funds.
Donald Trump's suburban horror show
If current numbers hold, the Republican Party
will suffer its worst defeat in the suburbs in decades — with implications
reaching far beyond November.
Politico By DAVID SIDERS 07/24/2020
06:58 PM EDT
Donald Trump says Joe Biden wants to abolish
the suburbs. But polls show a different truth: The suburbs want to abolish
Donald Trump. If current numbers hold, the Republican Party will suffer its
worst defeat in the suburbs in decades — with implications reaching far beyond
November. It was in the suburbs two years ago that Democrats built their House
majority, ripping through Republican-held territory across the country, from
Minnesota and Texas to Georgia, Virginia and Illinois. It would be bad enough
for the GOP if that had been a temporary setback. But with the prospect of a
second straight collapse in the suburbs this year, it is beginning to look like
a wholesale retreat. “We can’t give up more ground in the suburbs nationally
without having a real problem for our party,” said Charles Hellwig, a former
chair of the Republican Party in Wake County, N.C., describing a landscape in
which “every year, every month, every day, we get a little bluer.” It is the
same story in suburbs everywhere. In a Fox News poll last
weekend, Trump was trailing Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, by
11 percentage points in the suburbs. An ABC News/Washington Post
poll had Trump down 9 percentage
points there — larger margins in the suburbs than exit polls have recorded since
the 1980s, when Republicans were winning there by double digits. That polling
reflects a dramatic swing from 2016, when Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the
suburbs by 4 percentage points. Trump’s erosion in the suburbs is a major
reason the electoral map this year has expanded for Democrats in recent weeks —
with Trump in danger not only of losing, but of taking the Senate down with
him.
Blogger commentary:
Parents considering cyber charters due to COVID might not be
aware of their consistent track record of academic underperformance. As those
parents face an expected blitz of advertising by cybers, in order for them to
make a more informed decision, you might consider providing them with some of
the info listed below:
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.”
In 2016, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers,
National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the national charter lobbying
group 50CAN released a report on cyber charters that found that overall, cyber
students make no significant gains in math and less than half the gains in
reading compared with their peers in traditional public schools.
A Stanford University CREDO
Study in 2015 found that cyber students on average lost 72 days a year
in reading and 180 days a year in math compared with students in traditional
public schools.
From 2005 through 2012 under the federal No Child Left
Behind Act, most Pennsylvania cybers never made “adequate yearly progress.”
Following NCLB, for all five years (2013-2017) that Pennsylvania’s School
Performance Profile system was in place, not one cyber charter ever achieved a
passing score of 70.
Under Pennsylvania’s current accountability system, the Future Ready PA Index, all 15 cyber charters that operated
2018-2019 have been identified for some level of support and improvement.
Cybers charters are paid at the same tuition rates as brick
& mortar charter schools, even though they have none of the expenses
associated with operating school buildings. It has been estimated that cyber
charters are paid approximately twice what it costs them to provide an online
education. Those excess funds are then not available to serve all of the
students who remain in the sending school districts.
PSBA: Adopt the resolution against racial inequity.
School boards are asked to adopt this
resolution supporting the development of an anti-racist climate. Once adopted,
share your resolution with your local community and submit a copy to PSBA.
Learn more:
The 2021 PA Superintendent of the Year nominations are
now open.
Those
seeking to nominate must first register on the American Association of School
Administrators (AASA) Superintendent of the Year website. For more information,
visit: https://t.co/2omWRnyHSv
Interested in becoming an Advocacy Ambassador? PSBA is seeking
ambassadors to fill anticipated vacancies for Sections 1, 2 and 6.
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 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.
280 PA school boards have adopted charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as 280 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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