Tuesday, July 7, 2020

PA Ed Policy Roundup for July 7, 2020: ‘A lose-lose situation’: Schools try to plan their reopening amid conflicting coronavirus guidelines


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PA Ed Policy Roundup for July 7, 2020
‘A lose-lose situation’: Schools try to plan their reopening amid conflicting coronavirus guidelines



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.
Date: Thursday July 9 2020 Time: 10 a.m. - 11:30 am
For more information: sharon@learnpa.org



Blogger comment: What the world needs now: another PA cyber charter school….
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Cyber Charter School Application; Virtual Hearing, August 3rd, 9 a.m.
Pennsylvania Bulletin [50 Pa.B. 3311] [Saturday, July 4, 2020]
The Department of Education (Department) will conduct a virtual public hearing regarding a revised and resubmitted cyber charter school application previously received on or before October 1, 2019. The hearing will be held on Monday, August 3, 2020. This hearing will take place virtually, beginning at 9 a.m.
 Login information to access the hearing will be posted to the Division of Charter School's Applications webpage at https://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-Applications.aspx.
 The hearing pertains to applicants seeking to operate a cyber charter school beginning in the 2020-2021 school year. The purpose of the hearing is to gather information from the applicants about the revised proposed cyber charter schools as well as receive comments from interested individuals regarding the revised applications. The names of the applicants, copies of the revised applications and a listing of the dates and times scheduled for the hearing on each revised applications can be viewed on the Department's web site after July 13, 2020, at www.education.pa.gov.
 Individuals who wish to provide comments on a revised application during the hearing must provide a copy of their written comments to the Department and the applicant on or before July 27, 2020. Comments provided by this deadline and presented at the hearing will become part of the certified record. Failure to comply with this deadline will preclude the individual from providing comments at the hearing. Verbal comments may be limited based on the number of individuals requesting time to provide comments and may be limited if the comments are duplicative or repetitive of another individual's comments. Persons who are unable to attend the hearing may provide the Department and the applicant with written comments on or before July 27, 2020. Any written comments provided to the Department by this deadline will also become part of the certified record.
 The hearing will be conducted by a panel of individuals who have completed an initial review of the revised application. The panel members may question the applicant on issues identified during their review, as well as issues raised in the written comments filed by the deadline. Panel members may also question individuals who offer verbal comments. Commentators will not be permitted to question either the applicant or the panel members.
 Comments sent to the Department should be addressed to the Division of Charter Schools, 333 Market Street, 3rd Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17126-0333, ra-charterschools@pa.gov. Hearing agendas will be prepared no later than July 31, 2020, when the Department is aware of the number of individuals who wish to provide verbal comments at the hearing. The hearing agenda will provide the order of presentation, as well as specify the amount of time allotted to each commentator.
 Hearing agendas will be posted under Charter School Applications on the Department's web site at http://www.education.pa.gov/K-12/Charter%20Schools/Pages/Charter-Applications.aspx.
 For questions regarding this hearing, contact Division of Charter Schools at ra-charterschools@pa.gov.

“Dozens of Pennsylvania charter schools received PPP loans, including: Pa. Leadership and Pa. Virtual cyber charter schools; an organization linked to Chester Community Charter School; I-Lead; Mastery; KIPP; Esperanza; and Franklin Towne. Some have criticized charters for accepting small-business relief aid while at the same time enjoying tax-free status and continued revenue from state and local taxes passed to them via school districts.”
Dozens of Pa. charter schools among recipients of federal small business aid
WHYY By Miles Bryan July 6, 2020
Hershey Creamery Co. The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Auto dealerships owned by Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly. The C.F. Martin Guitar Factory. Several prominent charter schools. Those are some of the 206 organizations in Pennsylvania that have received loans of upwards of $5 million from the Paycheck Protection Program, according to data released Monday by the federal Small Business Administration. About 165,000 organizations in the state have received PPP funding so far, totalling $20.7 billion — making Pennsylvania one of the top users of the loan program. All together, Pennsylvania loan recipients reported 1.8 million “jobs retained” due to the money, though the data was self-reported and many organizations didn’t list any number at all.

‘A lose-lose situation’: Schools try to plan their reopening amid conflicting coronavirus guidelines
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna and Kristen A. Graham, Posted: July 5, 2020
A month into planning what fall might look like for the 2,700 students in his Gloucester County school district, Jim Lavender tore through 104 pages of guidance from the New Jersey Department of Education. By Wednesday, Lavender had spent days, nights, and a weekend scouring every page three times, trying to figure out how he could safely meet social distancing, masking, and health requirements — to say nothing of teaching and learning. “It’s almost an untenable task,” said Lavender, superintendent of the Kingsway Regional School District. After an abrupt transition this spring to virtual learning that left many students and families struggling, schools are trying to craft plans to reopen while navigating a series of questions that don’t have clear answers. Will kids keep masks on? Should temperatures be checked? And how much distance should schools maintain between students, from classrooms to bus seats, if those requirements mean some students will have to stay home? Agencies, researchers, and advocacy groups have weighed in on returning to school during the coronavirus outbreak, but the guidance sometimes conflicts. Experts say children are less likely to be severely impacted by the virus, and also less likely to spread it. Yet the evidence isn’t uniform, and schools are staffed by adults — many of whom are older, more at risk of illness, and not all comfortable with returning. Reopening schools involves evaluating those risks and balancing them against the pitfalls and child-care complications that emerged during months of remote instruction that widened achievement gaps and challenged families.

CDC preparing to release new guidance on safe return to school
Covid19data.com By  Chino Contreras July 6, 2020
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to release new guidance on how K-12 students can physically return to the classroom this year, according to a senior CDC official with knowledge of the discussions. The recommendation was presented internally to leaders at the CDC early last week and is “a priority this week,” according to the senior official. Over the weekend, senior officials at the agency presented CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield with details on the science behind why schools should reopen, the source said. The specifics of the guidance were not available. “Schools should be the first to open and the last to close,” the official said. “Kids need to physically be in school.” The officials comments’ echo that of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which put out new guidance last week that “…strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school.” CNN has reached out to the CDC and the White House coronavirus task force for comment. The exact timetable for the proposed new guidance is unclear.

Students and school employees must wear masks under Secretary Levine's order: Education Department
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Jul 3, 2020
Students and school employees must abide by Secretary of Health Rachel Levine's order requiring all Pennsylvanians to wear a mask while in the public, the state Department of Education confirmed in an email to educators Thursday. Levine signed the order Wednesday amid a resurgence of the coronavirus in parts of the state, particularly Allegheny County, and the country.   The email sent from the office of Education Secretary Pedro Rivera Friday states the rule goes into effect immediately and applies to "all individuals while in school entities." "For the safety of students, staff and families, and to avoid community spread of COVID-19, students and staff are considered to be members of the public who are congregating in indoor location," the email states. "As such, they are required to adhere to this Order." The order applies to all children ages 2 and older. Under the Education Department's preliminary reopening guidance, schools planning to reopen in the fall must first adopt a school-board approved health and safety plan. As of Friday, only Lampeter-Strasburg has approved a plan, which "strongly encourages" mask-wearing. 

Pa.'s mandatory mask order complicates school reopening plans
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer July 7, 2020
The state Department of Health’s order requiring all Pennsylvanians to wear masks adds another twist to the already convoluted plot of reopening schools this fall. The order, which also applies to students and school employees, was announced last week, as Lancaster County schools were in the thick of planning for the 2020-21 school year, with many opting to encourage, not require, mask-wearing. Now, school leaders must consider how and when to enforce the new rule. "While I understand the order, it threw yet another complication into the plans that have been developed," Penn Manor Superintendent Mike Leichliter said. Penn Manor, which plans to unveil a draft health and safety plan later this month and approve it in early August, initially was going to stop short of requiring universal masks, but the state’s latest update supersedes that, Leichliter said.  School boards must approve reopening plans before their districts return to in-person instruction.

Order Requiring Universal Face Coverings
PDE Website July 1, 2020
On July 1, 2020, the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health announced an Order Requiring Universal Face Coverings. The order, signed under Secretary Levine's authority under the Disease Prevention and Control Act, outlines the situations when a mask must be worn and includes limited exceptions to the face-covering requirement. Answers to questions school leaders may have regarding the application of this order in school settings is included below. Please reference this guidance as you plan to keep your students, staff, and school communities safe. The content below was added on July 6, 2020.
https://www.education.pa.gov/Schools/safeschools/emergencyplanning/COVID-19/Waivers/MaskWearing/Pages/default.aspx

Updated PDE Guidance on Instructional Days/Hours During the 2020-2021 School Year
Implications Related to COVID-19
PDE Website July 6, 2020
The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) recognizes that school leaders face many difficult decisions and challenges in planning for the start of the 2020-2021 school year and determining how to provide students with a minimum of 180 days of instruction and 900 hours of instruction at the elementary level and 990 hours of instruction at the secondary level. See 24 P.S. §§ 13-1327, 15-1501; see also, 22 Pa. Code § 11.3. This correspondence addresses the minimum instructional time requirements and other issues that must be considered when making decisions related to the provision of instruction during a global pandemic.  
Section 520.1 of the Pennsylvania Public School Code (School Code) provides the following:
(a) Whenever an emergency shall arise which the board of school directors of any school district in the performance of its duties could not during the prescribed length of school days, number of days per week, anticipate or foresee, and which emergency shall result in any such school district being unable to provide for the attendance of all pupils or usual hours of classes, it shall be found as a fact by the school directors of any school district and so recorded on the minutes of a regular or special meeting of such board and certified to the Superintendent of Public Instruction1, and such board of school directors, subject to the approval of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall have power to put into operation in such school district any one or more of the temporary provisions hereinafter provided for, but in no event shall such temporary provisions remain in effect for a period of more than four years after they are first put into effect.
(b) Subject to the foregoing provisions, any board of school directors may:
(1) Keep the schools of the district in session such days and number of days per week as they shall deem necessary or desirable, but the provisions of this act requiring a minimum of one hundred eighty (180) session days as a school year shall not be affected thereby.
(2) Reduce the length of time of daily instruction for various courses and classes.
(c) Any school district, by invoking the powers herein granted, shall not thereby forfeit its right to reimbursement by the Commonwealth or other State-aid as otherwise provided for by this act.

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

“The Pennsylvania legislature could fix the problem pretty simply; just apply the same funding system to both public and charter schools. The report shows that this would save taxpayers roughly $100 million. We’ll see if charter schools are willing to let that kind of income go quietly.”
Report: PA Charters Game The Special Education System.
Forbes by Peter Greene Senior Contributor July 2, 2020
In a new report, Education Voters of Pennsylvania looks at “how an outdated law wastes public money, encourages gaming the system, and limits school choice.” Fixing the Flaws looks at how Pennsylvania’s two separate funding systems have made students with special needs a tool for charter gaming of the system, even as some of them are shut out of the system entirely. The two-headed system looks like this. Public schools receive special education funding based on the actual costs of services, while charter schools are funded with a one-size-fits-all system that pays the same amount for all students with special needs, no matter what those special needs might be. Pennsylvania’s Special Education Funding Formula recognizes three levels of cost. Tier 1 is minimal interventions (eg a student who needs one speech therapy session per week). Tier 2 students need larger interventions, such as a separate classroom or physical therapy. Tier 3 students may require interventions such as a full-time nurse or even out-placement at a special school (for which the sending district is still financially liable). Public schools receive state funding based on student tiers; charters get the same funding whether the student needs an hour of speech therapy a week or a separate classroom, teacher and aide. This creates an obvious financial incentive for charter schools to cherry pick students who are considered special needs, but who need no costly adaptations or staffing to meet those needs, while at the same time incentivizing charters to avoid the more costly high needs students.

A look at the 2020-2021 stopgap budget: How Pa. is paying for k-12 schools and higher ed. | The Numbers Racket
PA Capital Star By  Cassie Miller July 6, 2020
Last week, we took a first glance at the 2020-2021 stopgap budget, looking at how appropriations had changed for state agencies such as the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, as well as the Departments of State, Military and Veteran Affairs, and Community and Economic Development.  This week, in part two of our look at the five-month budget plan, we’ll go deep on the changes being made to funding for K-12 schools, higher education and pension funds, according to an analysis by Democratic staff on the House Appropriations Committee.
Education: The stopgap budget suspends the fair funding formula for basic and special education.  However HB 1210, which is included with the budget specifies that each school district will receive the same amount of funding in 2020-2021 as they did in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.  House Bill 1210, sponsored by Rep. Mike Jones, R-York, repurposed the School Safety and Security Fund to provide COVID-19 Disaster Emergency School Health and Safety Grants for 2020-2021.
According to the House Appropriations Committee, $215 million is available from the following sources:
  • $150 million from the Coronavirus Relief Fund
  • $49.8 million from the State Education Agency portion of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
  • $15 million from the existing transfer from the Judicial Computer System Augmentation Account
The COVID-19 Disaster Emergency School Health and Safety Grants will be distributed as follows:
  • Each school district will receive $120,000 plus an estimated $67 per student
  • Each charter school, intermediate unit, and area career and technical school will receive $90,000
  • $7.5 million is available for nonpublic schools to apply for $10,000 maximum grants
  • $7.5 million is available for the existing Community Violence grant program
Two education appropriations will receive an increase in funding from their 2019-2020 budget:
  • PSERS – a $74 million, or 2.8 percent, increase to cover the actuarially required contribution.
  •  Pupil Transportation – a $157 million, or 28.6 percent, supplemental increase for 2019/20 to backfill underpayments from prior years, and for 2020-2021, a $62.9, or 11.5 percent, increase compared to the 2019-2020 level to right the appropriation.

Blogger comment: its not about forcing cyber students back into district schools. The issue is the funding. Why should cybers get the same funding as brick and mortar charters? That excess funding, roughly twice what it costs the cybers to provide a student’s education, is resources taken away from all the other students who remain in the sending school districts. Oftentimes these are our most underfunded school districts.
Letter: A need for comprehensive virtual learning for students
BRIAN HAYDEN, CEO, Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, Midland  JUL 5, 2020
The writer is a board member of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools
The COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in Gov. Tom Wolf closing schools, proved the need for comprehensive virtual learning and the value of Pennsylvania’s public cyber charter schools. Cyber charter schools, which have been educating children online for years, continued to teach more than 35,000 students without missing a step. Yet that didn’t stop those in the traditional education system from deriding families for choosing public cyber charters and claiming district schools can do it better. That has proved false. The pandemic showed that district schools were not prepared to instruct a large number of students online. They also struggled with ensuring equity in education for students who did not have resources to learn virtually. In contrast, the Charter School Law requires public cyber charter schools to provide the technology, curriculum materials and support students need. Cyber schools must provide a computer, printer, scanner and internet service to all families. As CEO of a statewide public cyber charter school, I travel the state visiting our students and their families. I have gotten to know them on a personal level, and I know what educational opportunity means to them. I believe one of the biggest responsibilities parents face in life is to find the best education for their children so they can go on to lead meaningful lives. Therefore, I firmly believe parents — not school administrators — know what is best for their children. Unfortunately, there are school officials who want to take that power away from families and force them to return to a district school they chose to leave. For the sake of thousands of Pennsylvania families, we cannot let that happen.

Meet Pa. House Speaker Bryan Cutler: A farmer, a triathlete, a leader who never forgets his mistakes
PA Post by Jan Murphy/PennLive  JULY 6, 2020 | 1:06 PM
(Harrisburg) — It’s not often when the top leadership position in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives opens up in the middle of legislative session. But when it did this year, there was broad agreement it was Lancaster County native Bryan Cutler’s job for the taking. The 45-year-old father of three ascended to that post in near-record time after first being elected in 2006 to represent the 100th House District and rising up to serving as majority leader last year. His GOP colleagues offered high praise for the job Cutler did as leader, helping to steer more than 560 pieces of legislation through the chamber in the first 18 months of the 23-month session. Even more impressive, some of those bills touched on substantial issues that had been sitting on the back burner for years, if not decades, including election reform, police reform, criminal justice reform and even a historic reform bill opening the door to a reshaping of the 37-year-old system of state-owned universities.

Less than half of Lancaster County school districts raised taxes in 2020-21; here's who did [chart]
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Jul 4, 2020
More than half of Lancaster County school districts decided not to raise property taxes this year despite unpredictability surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. With projected revenue losses in the tens of millions of dollars, according to one statewide agency, local school boards appear to have prioritized homeowners, many of whom are also reeling financially, in their 2020-21 budgets. “We have a lot of people who have lost their jobs, a lot of people who can’t open their businesses, and they’re struggling, plain and simple,” Penn Manor school board President Carlton Rintz said. Penn Manor is one of 10 county school boards that voted against a tax increase this year. Like many districts, Penn Manor utilized a portion of its fund balance, a so-called rainy day fund, to help balance its budget instead of raising taxes.

Bucks County schools push to address systemic racism
Bucks County Courier Times By Anthony DiMattia @dailydimattia By Chris English @CourierEnglish Posted Jul 5, 2020
School districts in Bucks County are trying to become more proactive to battle systemic racism in response to last month’s death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. T.R. Kannan is no stranger to racism. The Pennsbury school board president has seen it firsthand before immigrating to the U.S. from India, where discrimination on religion, caste and gender is widespread. More than 20 years later, Kannan has now grown accustomed to experiencing microaggressions, or unconscious biases that others may not be aware of. “Sometimes there’s a feeling of unease that’s always there,” he said. “I’ve seen it myself, I’ve heard it from family, friends and everyone.” To create an environment in schools where students hopefully will not feel these pressures, the administration has asked the school board to come up with a plan to make equity a key focus by creating a dedicated position to provide “leadership and oversight in equity and excellence,” officials said.  “You need to look at policies, you need to look at curriculum, you need to look at disciplinary practices, you need to look at simply educating everyone on what’s going on,” Kannan said. “You need to look at hiring. So I would say almost every aspect of what we need. “We want to find the best person available.” It’s one of the many practices school districts in Bucks County are implementing to be more proactive in battling systemic racism. Some say that not enough is being done.

Readers' Views: Spring-Ford School District curriculum should reflect more diversity
Pottstown Mercury Letter by Siena Johnson and Maeve Brennan, 10th-grade students  Jul 4, 2020
Dear Members of the Spring-Ford Area School Board,
Recent events involving the tragedy of George Floyd and the many others who have lost their lives due to police brutality prompted us to take the time to educate ourselves on race and the history of racism in our country. Through our independent research we have noticed that our history classes are lacking content about minority discrimination and many of the stories we hear come from a patriotic point of view. Education is one of the most important factors to shifting the mindset of our society. We are two 10th grade students at Spring-Ford High School, this topic is very important to us and many other students and parents of the district. We have compiled a list of topics we would like to see incorporated into our curriculum. We find it crucial to reconstruct the curriculum as the majority of Spring-Ford students and staff are white. History is taught so that we, whether white or People of Color, do not repeat the mistakes of our ancestors, but how can adults expect the new generation to successfully achieve this goal when their education is non-inclusive and patriotically biased? Understanding our past creates a connection to issues, especially racial ones, today and supplies students with the tools to actively dismantle them.
Our hope is that Spring-Ford will no longer be complicit in letting hate and prejudice shape the minds of students. Regardless of whether or not students and staff actively hold racist beliefs, everyone has had implicit biases about People of Color (POC) ingrained into their minds as a result of societal beliefs stemming back to slavery and colonization. Therefore, change that includes a more diverse and accurate curriculum will help create productive, anti-racist members of society, as well as people who treat women and lgbtq+ people with equality and respect. That being said, we propose the history curriculum includes:

Atmosphere improved at Woodland Hills H.S. as police presence phased out, superintendent says
ANDREW GOLDSTEIN Pittsburgh Post-Gazette agoldstein@post-gazette.com JUL 6, 2020
Woodland Hills High School made news for the wrong reasons a couple of years ago.  Among them was this: Former students filed a lawsuit that detailed incidents of alleged assault and intimidation by police officers in the school while administrators ignored the abuse. The lawsuit was settled in 2018, and new leadership in the high school and in the district has worked to change the atmosphere. One of the ways district leaders have done that was by phasing out the police presence in the school. “We changed the supports and the expectations of the folks in that building until it became irrelevant to have the police and those other supports there,” Superintendent James Harris said Wednesday in a phone interview. “The police are really looking at situations as compliance, where the school staff looks at things as teachable moments and how they can develop young men and women into good citizens.”Mr. Harris said the plan to eliminate officers from the district was already underway before a nationwide movement to remove police from schools started gaining momentum after a Minneapolis officer killed George Floyd in May.

Schools still need protection
How police work in schools should be reformed, but they should not be removed altogether.
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Pittsburgh Post-Gazette JUL 7, 2020
A nationwide movement to ban police from schools has divided communities, with advocates claiming that Black students are disproportionately arrested compared to white students, while opponents cite the need for officers to provide school safety. Banning officers from schools isn’t the answer; reforming the school safety system is what’s needed instead. A resolution offered by two Pittsburgh Public School board members offers a commonsense approach to “reimagine school safety” that the board should adopt. It would involve gathering data, analyzing the findings and forming a community task force to provide recommendations for change. Board members Devon Taliaferro and Pam Harbin propose making public the data on student arrests starting with the 2015-16 school year and going through 2019-20 and beyond. The data, already collected by the district for the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, includes the number of students arrested, referred to police or issued a summary citation. It is broken down by race, age, sex, disability and language proficiency. With data in hand, a community task force would lead sessions with stakeholders — school administrators, parents, teachers, students and officers — to identify and prioritize needs and recommend strategies. This is an approach that offers proactive measures to reforming how officers do their jobs in schools.

A message to our public servants: You represent all of us. Think twice about your social media posts | Opinion
By Shira Goodman  Capital-Star Op-Ed Contributor July 7, 2020
Shira Goodman is the regional director of the Philadelphia Region of the Anti-Defamation League. Follow them on the web at www.philadelphia.adl.org.
Public service comes in many forms. There are the high profile elected positions that come with prestige and fame, and there are the more local elective positions that bring lots of work and meaningful actions, but few perks. And then there are the first responders, whose names are usually unknown, even as we honor them as front line heroes. All of these positions come with their own rewards. And they each come with a special responsibility.  When one becomes a public servant, he or she speaks with a different power and authority, and their words carry special weight. It seems that many public servants have forgotten this recently and need a refresher. Every week, it seems, there’s a new story of a school board member, township official, police officer, or other public servant who has publicly said or posted something hateful, biased or discriminatory. I don’t mean statements about controversial political topics. I mean a display that lays bare feelings and attitudes that undermine the speaker’s ability to maintain trust and therefore continue to serve in their position. The root problem may be bigotry, ignorance, indifference or hatred; all of those are unacceptable in those who seek to lead, to represent, to serve.

Blogger note: keeping readers up to date on school privatization megadonor Jeff Yass (of PA Students First PAC)
Here’s How Philly’s Rich and Famous Are Spending Their Political Dollars
From Stephen Starr to Jennifer Weiner to the brothers responsible for ruining suburban landscapes with all those fugly McMansions.
PhillyMag by VICTOR FIORILLO· 7/2/2020, 8:32 a.m.
We combed through campaign finance records published by the Federal Election Commission to find out which presidential candidates, PACs and Super PACs have been getting money from some notable Philly-area residents. Note that the towns listed are those provided on the forms filed with the FEC and may represent office locations as opposed to towns of residence, in some cases. …. Jeff Yass - Bala Cynwyd You probably don’t know much about Jeff Yass. And he’s perfectly happy with that. Yass is the secretive co-founder of the also secretive Bala Cynwyd-based trading firm Susquehanna International Group, which uses strategies from games like poker and chess to make a ton of money for its clients. And for Yass, of course. Not so secret is how Yass spends his cash in politics. And he spends a lot of it. Yass has historically backed Libertarian candidates or other non-big government candidates, like Rand Paul and Gary Johnson. But the biggest recent donation we found in FEC records was the $5 million (yes, you read that right: $5 million) he gave in March to Club for Growth Action. According to the Super PAC’s website, Club for Growth Action is “dedicated to a single mission: defeating big-government politicians and replacing them with pro-growth, limited government conservatives.” Just before that, Yass gave $1 million to the “pro-freedom and liberty-minded” Protect Freedom PAC and $500,000 to the Term Limits Super PAC.

New Jersey is the first state to add climate change to its K-12 education standards
By David Williams, CNN Updated 2:48 PM ET, Thu June 4, 2020
(CNN)New Jersey students will start learning about climate change in kindergarten and keep studying the crisis through graduation under the state's new education standards. The State Board of Education adopted the new guidelines on Wednesday --which outline what will be taught to New Jersey's 1.4 million students. It's the first state to include climate change education in it's K-12 learning standards, officials said in a statement. New Jersey's first lady Tammy Murphy pushed for the new standards and met with 130 educators statewide. She said New Jersey is already dealing with problems caused by climate change, including disappearing shorelines, algae blooms, super storms and hot summers. "This generation of students will feel the effects of climate change more than any other, and it is critical that every student is provided an opportunity to study and understand the climate crisis through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary lens," she said in a statement. Young people, including teen activist Greta Thunberg, have been at the forefront of recent climate change protests and students in more than 100 countries staged walkouts last year.   The new standards, which will go into effect in 2021 and 2022, cover seven subject areas -- 21st Century Life and Careers, Comprehensive Health and Physical Education, Science, Social Studies, Technology, Visual and Performing Arts, and World Languages. The Mathematics and Language Arts guidelines aren't up for review until 2022, but the board added climate change standards as an appendix to those subjects.

What to Watch for in Any New Coronavirus Bailout for Schools
Education Week By Andrew Ujifusa on July 6, 2020 4:51 PM
Schools are now firmly at the epicenter of America's anxiety. 
Students missing classmates, teachers, and extracurricular activities. Parents frantic about a fresh round of mandatory remote learning in the fall. Educators worried about health and safety in schools. A crippled economy. And a presidential election on Nov. 3 featuring an incumbent who demanded on Monday that schools reopen in the fall. All those factors are increasing the likelihood that Congress will approve a new virus bailout with help for schools. "Every single education system had to shut down their every day work and figure out how to reopen, possibly with a lot less funding," said Sarah Abernathy, the deputy executive director of the Committee for Education Funding, an umbrella group that lobbies for federal education spending. "I'm assuming that Congress is going to provide a lot more than the $30 billion in funding." (That was the aid for K-12 and higher education in the most recent federal virus bailout, the CARES Act.)  To help you keep track of the competing priorities in Washington, we put together a list of 10 items to pay attention to in the next relief package if and when the lawmakers finally pass one. Here's some context for that list: 
  • The Senate is not scheduled to be back in session until July 20. So even if a bailout bill moves quickly, remember that schools are due to reopen in mid-August. 
  • A federal watchdog report found that by the end of May, less than 1 percent of CARES Act aid available to K-12 had actually been spent. That tells you how long it can take for federal money to have an impact in schools. 
Now, here's the list:

Trump’s newest assault on America’s public schools: They teach kids to ‘hate their own country’
In Fourth of July remarks, Trump goes after 'radical left' and media
Washington Post By Valerie Strauss July 5, 2020 at 10:39 a.m. EDT
President Trump started his administration with a dystopian inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2017, in which he talked about “American carnage” and said the country has “an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”This year, in his Fourth of July speech at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota on Friday, he changed that narrative: Now, in his view, schools are teaching kids to “hate our country” with a “far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance." “If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,” he said. Trump blamed public schools for the popular uprisings across the country that have led to the removal of statues honoring leaders of the Confederacy and other historical figures who owned slaves, such as George Washington.
eanwhile, Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has made clear her disdain for public schools, once calling them “a dead end” and making her No. 1 priority the expansion of alternatives to traditional public schools.


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 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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