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,
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These daily emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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If any of your colleagues would
like to be added to the email list please have them send their name, title and
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Gov. Wolf says he won’t close Pa. schools
Taxpayers in Senate Minority
Whip Anthony Williams’s school districts paid over $109.4 million in 2018-2019
cyber charter tuition. Statewide, PA taxpayers paid over $600
million for cyber charter tuition in 2018-2019.
|
Interboro SD
|
$482,758.75
|
|
Southeast Delco SD
|
NA
|
|
Philadelphia City SD
|
$106,152,521.20
|
|
William Penn SD
|
$2,834,748.00
|
|
|
$109,470,027.95
|
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?
“If the GOP decision stands, it will be the first party
nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters.”
GOP: Renomination of Trump to be held in private
AP News By KEVIN
FREKING August 2, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — The vote to renominate
President Donald Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month,
without members of the press present, a spokeswoman for the Republican National
Convention said, citing the coronavirus. While Trump called off the public
components of the convention in Florida last month, citing spiking cases of the
virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte,
North Carolina, on Aug. 24 to formally vote to make Trump the GOP
standard-bearer once more. Nominating conventions are traditionally meant to be
media bonanzas, as political parties seek to leverage the attention the events
draw to spread their message to as many voters as possible
‘I’m sorry, but it’s a fantasy’
Jeff Gregorich, superintendent, on trying to
reopen his schools safely
Washington Post By Eli Saslow AUGUST 1, 2020
This is my choice, but I’m starting to wish
that it wasn’t. I don’t feel qualified. I’ve been a superintendent for 20
years, so I guess I should be used to making decisions, but I keep getting lost
in my head. I’ll be in my office looking at a blank computer screen, and then
all of the sudden I realize a whole hour’s gone by. I’m worried. I’m worried
about everything. Each possibility I come up with is a bad one. The governor
has told us we have to open our schools to students on August 17th, or else we
miss out on five percent of our funding. I run a high-needs district in
middle-of-nowhere Arizona. We’re 90 percent Hispanic and more than 90 percent
free-and-reduced lunch. These kids need every dollar we can get. But covid is
spreading all over this area and hitting my staff, and now it feels like
there’s a gun to my head. I already lost one teacher to this virus. Do I risk
opening back up even if it’s going to cost us more lives? Or do we run school
remotely and end up depriving these kids?
We must raise voices for fair school funding
Opinion by DAVID
MOSENKIS | Special to LNP | LancasterOnline Jul 31,
2020
Op-ed columnist David Mosenkis is chair of
POWER Interfaith’s statewide education team. POWER Interfaith represents more
than 65 congregations in Philadelphia, its suburban counties and central
Pennsylvania.
The nation’s conscience has awakened in
recent weeks to realize that centuries of systemic racism built into criminal
justice systems cannot be addressed by simply eliminating a few bad cops,
leading many to call for defunding police. We need a similar awakening to the
systemic racism built into our system of public education. Is it possible that
our public school system is steeped in systemic racism? What if you saw clear
evidence that Black and Hispanic students overwhelmingly face inferior
educational opportunities compared to their white counterparts? What if you
found that these educational opportunity gaps reflect how the state funds its
public schools? That most school funding in Pennsylvania comes from local
property tax revenues that raise far more money for schools in wealthy towns
than poorer ones? And that even the money that the state itself kicks in, supposedly
intended to bring all districts up to adequate funding levels, is distributed
in a way that systematically favors whiter districts over those with more
students of color? Would you remain silent and acquiesce to a system of
education apartheid that denies equal educational access? Or would you stand up
against a system that is cheating Black and Hispanic students out of the
education they deserve? This is the choice facing Pennsylvania residents today.
Quite apart from any individual acts of racial bias that may occur within our
school buildings, our public education system is steeped in gaps in educational
opportunities and funding that break down starkly along racial lines.
With classes heading online, Pa.’s public schools, online
charters find themselves in stiff competition
PA Capital Star By Elizabeth Hardison August
2, 2020
This summer, Leigh Ann Chow did something she
hadn’t seriously considered until she found herself living through a pandemic. She
enrolled her children in cyber school. “[Our family] decided pretty much from
the get-go that this is what we were going to do,” said Chow, who teaches
english at a public high school in suburban Harrisburg. “Not just to protect
public health, but for the continuity of [my kids’] education. It’s very
disruptive to start the year in one environment and then pivot to an online
environment.” Chow could have chosen to enroll her two children in one of
Pennsylvania’s 14 cyber-charter schools, which educate 38,000 students
statewide and have seen an influx of new students since Pennsylvania schools
closed in March. She opted instead to keep her kids in their district,
where they’ll take online classes through a local intermediate unit. Thousands
of Pennsylvania families may be faced with a similar choice this fall. Across
the state, districts are rolling out full-time, online programs as they
scramble to safely educate children and appease families and staff during the
COVID-19 pandemic. Some districts, such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, are
going virtual out of necessity, faced with mounting COVID-19 case counts and
growing pressure from teachers unions and parents.
Future legislation could freeze cyber charter school
enrollment
One lawmaker says, cyber charter school
enrollments during the pandemic could financially burden school districts
FOX43 Author: Chelsea
Koerbler (FOX43) Published: 3:42
PM EDT July 31, 2020 Updated: 5:12
PM EDT July 31, 2020
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A state lawmakers plans to
introduce a bill that would freeze enrollment at cyber charter schools. As the
school year remains uncertain, more and more parents are switching their kids
over to cyber charter schools or charter schools with better online learning
options during the pandemic than their current school districts. This memo
was sent to all state representatives, asking them to support legislation to
put a freeze on cyber charter school enrollment. "I don't think it's
necessary," said Patricia Rosetti, PA Distance Learning CEO. Because districts must pay charter school's
money for each student enrolled, State Rep. Stephen McCarter, who's planning to
introduce the bill said in his memo, "As our public school’s plan to
reopen schools in the fall in a safe and orderly manner we need to ensure that
cost for cyber charter school tuition does not become overwhelming in the
process."
Cyber charter schools fill up as parents seek virtual
options
ANYA SOSTEK Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asostek@post-gazette.com AUG 3, 2020
4:54 AM
In a normal year, the Pennsylvania Cyber
Charter School, based in Midland, Beaver County, doesn’t even start receiving
most of its enrollments for the fall until August. This year, the school,
better known as PA Cyber, was already full by the end of July. The COVID-19
pandemic has parents across Pennsylvania beating down the virtual doors of
established cyber charter schools, either because they do not want to send
their children to school in-person or because they were dissatisfied by the
virtual experience in their home school districts in the spring. “We’ve been
getting over 1,000 inquiries a week,” said Brian Hayden, chief executive
officer of PA Cyber. “We’ve had to re-deploy 40 employees from other positions
just to respond to inquiries.” On Wednesday, PA Cyber — the largest of the
state’s 14 cyber charters — announced that enrollment had filled up and that
those who still wanted to attend would be placed on a waitlist. The
Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School, a cyber charter based in West Chester,
Pa., cut off enrollment on July 27, saying that all applications received after
that date would be placed on the waitlist. And the Career Connections Academy,
based in Seven Fields, began placing all applicants on a rolling admissions
waitlist as of Friday. The Agora Cyber Charter School, based in King of
Prussia, Pa., near Philadelphia, is still taking applications for now. But the
school is closely monitoring when it might reach capacity.
“The charter management company listed a staggering fund balance
of nearly $82 million in the 2018-18 fiscal year, which was tens of millions of
dollars more than the reserve funds of other charter management companies
similarly reviewed.”
PPG Editorial: We must hold charter schools accountable
Legislature should review the charter school
law and address the serious shortcomings.
THE EDITORIAL BOARD Pittsburgh Post-Gazette AUG
2, 2020 6:00 AM
There’s long been debate over the funding
formula for Pennsylvania’s charter schools, but a recent report from the state
auditor general points out an equally troubling issue — a lack of
accountability on how public education funds are spent. The state Legislature
should review the charter school law and address the serious shortcomings in
tracking where the money goes. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale recently
reviewed the tax filings of Lincoln Learning Solutions, which manages two
Midland-based schools — the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, one of the
largest cyber schools in the state, and Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter
School. The charter management company listed a staggering fund balance of
nearly $82 million in the 2018-18 fiscal year, which was tens of millions of
dollars more than the reserve funds of other charter management companies
similarly reviewed. Although LLS, a registered nonprofit organization, is
almost entirely funded by public sources, Mr. DePasquale said it is nearly
impossible to track how the management company spends the tax dollars allocated
to the charter schools and then passed on to LLS in management and other fees. “Pennsylvania’s
charter school law prevents both the state’s auditor general and Department of
Education from performing full reviews of charter management companies,” Mr.
DePasquale said. The auditor general referred to the state’s
charter school law as “the worst in the nation” and said the Legislature needs
to make changes to make sure “education funding is not being diverted to
benefit private companies.”
Pennsylvania’s charter school law get poor marks. So why
do reform efforts repeatedly fail? [The Caucus archives]
Lancaster Online by PAULA
K. KNUDSEN | Investigative Editor August 2,
2020
Editor's note: This article was originally
published in the February 20, 2018 edition of The Caucus, a publication of LNP
Media Group, Inc.
Pennsylvania’s decades-old charter school law
ranks among the worst in the United States because it provides “insufficient
accountability and inadequate funding” to those educational facilities, a
national advocacy group found. Research conducted of all 50 states by the
Washington, D.C.-based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools found
Pennsylvania’s 1997 law deficient because it places restrictions on charter-
school growth and fails to ensure “equitable operational funding and equitable
access to capital funding and facilities.” The findings lend weight to the
argument made by charter-school advocates in Pennsylvania that the state isn’t
doing enough to help the alternatives to kindergarten through 12th-grade
schools thrive and that the law, signed by Gov. Tom Ridge, should be fixed. But
they do not address how, specifically, Pennsylvania should solve one of the
biggest issues separating charter-school advocates and opponents: The level of
funding public school districts, and taxpayers, spend to send children to
charter schools. “We think the tuition rate calculation is flawed,” said Jay
Himes, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Business
Officials, which supports charter-school reform.
“Lancaster County schools, which have launched an unprecedented
campaign advertising their own online options, face an imposing threat: cyber
charter schools, which have decades of experience educating kids online, that
are ready to gobble up families who seek an online program outside their home
districts. With every student who enrolls in a privately run but publicly
funded cyber charter school is a chunk — anywhere from $10,000 to $32,000 —
taken out of the home school district’s budget.”
'Nothing about this is easy': Lancaster County parents,
faced with more options than ever, wrestle with whether to send kids back to
school
Lancaster Online by ALEX
GELI | Staff Writer August 2, 2020
For Vanessa Huacani’s two youngest children,
the common cold could be deadly. They suffer from a rare genetic disease called
primary ciliary dyskinesia. Their cilia — tiny, hairlike structures that carry
mucus toward the mouth to be coughed or sneezed out of the body — don’t work
properly, causing bacteria and mucus to build inside their lungs and sinuses,
increasing the risk of pneumonia and other serious complications. So when
Huacani and her husband, Matthew, who live in the Hempfield School District,
had the choice of either sending their kids back to school for in-person
instruction this fall or enrolling them in an online program, they decided it’s
better to be safe than sorry. “We chose to go cyber” — a cyber charter school —
“to protect them,” Vanessa Huacani, 39, said. It’s a decision with which
thousands of Lancaster County parents are wrestling as new coronavirus cases
surge in Pennsylvania and across the country. And no solution is perfect,
Huacani and other parents told LNP | LancasterOnline. Among the options:
Potentially put children — and their families — at risk by sending them back to
school or enroll them in a potentially watered down, but likely safer, online
option. Those decisions, of great importance in the household, also have ripple
effects throughout the community.
Beaver County Local Cyber Options
Thinking about Cyber School for your child?
Beaver County Intermediate Unit Website
First, check with your local school
district!
There are local options designed to support
your child's educational needs.
Beaver County Public School Districts offer
cyber programs for their students.
If you're considering cyber school this year
for your child, think local and
contact your school district to learn more about their programs.
The local cyber programs (through the Beaver
County Public School Districts) offer online learning filled with
collaboration, quality course offerings, and a team of great educators
committed to supporting all learners. Plus, unlike other online options,
our programs operate with the same supports and opportunities provided to other
students, such as:
- High-quality
instruction and consistent curriculum from home
- PA
Certified Teachers connected to Beaver County
- Stay
connected and social with school friends
- Counseling
and support services
- Your
current school district extracurricular activities
- Transition
in and out of cyber learning without cumbersome enrollment or withdrawel
processes
- Ease
of transferring students between school and cyber program (within same
district)
- …
and a DIPLOMA FROM YOUR LOCAL SCHOOL (for graduates)!
Keep scrolling to access your local
school district's cyber program!
Wolf says state has no plans to tell schools how, when to
reopen
KYW by JIM MELWERT JULY 30,
2020 - 5:05 PM
PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Pennsylvania
plans to leave the decision of how and when schools reopen to local school
boards, according to Gov. Tom Wolf. Wolf said while the state has offered
guidance on how to safely reopen schools, there is no plan to issue a statewide
mandate on how schools will open. “Those are local school board decisions as to
how they open, when they open. It’s up to them to decide how they’re going to
do all kinds of things,” he said. But some school administrators say the
open-ended guidance is either too vague or sometimes conflicting. Montgomery
County Commissioner Val Arkoosh noted those school administrators are in a
tough spot, not only trying to figure out how to provide education, but also
making sure students have access to a nurse, or screening for possible abuse,
or making sure vulnerable staff have options to stay safe. “All of this is
coming together in a very, very complicated situation,” she said. Arkoosh
said she and the county’s Office of Public Health have met with many districts
and continue to offer their help.
Gov. Wolf says he won’t close Pa. schools, responds to
COVID-19 closure rumors
Lancaster Online by GILLIAN McGOLDRICK | Staff Writer July 31,
2020
Gov. Tom Wolf said Friday he will not close
schools or cancel classes this fall, as pressure mounts for his administration
to offer more guidance on whether and how schools should reopen in the fall. Wolf
issued two tweets Friday in response to widespread rumors that he would soon be
announcing a closure of school buildings. “I want to be clear: I am not closing
school buildings or cancelling classes,” Wolf tweeted Friday. Each school
district in Pennsylvania has been preparing safe reopening plans individualized
to their school, incorporating state guidance for social distancing and masks. “School
governing boards and administrators will determine if school buildings reopen
and if classes resume in person, remotely, or a combination of the two,” Wolf
added. “The best way to find out about these local decisions is to contact your
school’s governing board or administration.” Wolf’s announcement comes after a
state superintendents group said the state’s reopening guidance is too vague
and requested more concrete recommendations to help district leaders decide
whether students should return to the classroom in the fall, the Associated Press
reported earlier this week. The
superintendents group asked for more clarity on many possible scenarios,
including what to do if a student or teacher tests positive for COVID-19.
“In late March, about two months after his departure from the
financial administrator’s post, Zogby was hired as a special assistant on budget
issues for the Republican majority in the state Senate. He still holds that
$110,000-a-year post, in which he deals with funding issues related to the
pandemic, including allocations the state received in the federal Coronavirus
Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act.”
State reveals few clues on Zogby’s Erie dismissal
Charles Zogby was the Erie School District’s
state-appointed financial administrator for nearly two years, leaving in
February.
GoErie By Ed
Palattella @etnpalattella Posted
Aug 2, 2020 at 12:01 AM
Department of Education cites Right-to-Know
exemptions, releases little on Erie School District’s ex- financial monitor.
The mystery continues six months after
Charles Zogby’s abrupt departure as the Erie School District’s state-appointed
financial administrator in early February. The state Department of Education is
disclosing little about what led Zogby to leave the job he had held since March
2018, according to a blacked-out document the department sent to the Erie
Times-News late last week under the state’s Right-to-Know Law. An unredacted
document that the department also provided states that Gov. Tom Wolf’s office
opened an “unspecified investigation” of Zogby around the time of his
dismissal. The Governor’s Office and the Department of Education disclosed no
other details. And the Erie School District has heard nothing from the state
about when someone might be appointed to fill the $148,000-a-year state-paid
financial administrator’s job. “I have not heard anything at all,” Erie schools
Superintendent Brian Polito said on Friday. On Thursday, the state Department
of Education responded to a request for information on Zogby’s departure that
the Erie Times-News filed under the Right-to-Know Law on Feb. 11, six
days after Zogby left as financial
administrator. The COVID-19 pandemic and the
closing of state offices in Harrisburg delayed the department’s response. The
department provided a document, titled “Separation,” that has several lines and
paragraphs blacked out except for a few areas, such as those that list Zogby’s
name, job title and effective date of separation: Feb. 5. Among the redacted
sections is one that lists the reason for the separation.
PA House Education Committee to Host Two-Day Public
Hearing on Reopening Schools in Fall
GANT News by Jessica
Shirey Friday, July 31, 2020
HARRISBURG – The House Education Committee,
chaired by Rep. Curt Sonney (R-Erie), will host a two-day public hearing next
week to discuss safely reopening schools this fall. The hearings will take place
on Tuesday, Aug. 4, and Wednesday, Aug. 5. Tuesday’s hearing will be a
continuation of a previous hearing the committee held in June
where teachers, administrators and directors from public and non-public
schools discussed their plans and concerns for getting students back to the
classroom in the fall. Wednesday’s hearing will focus on stakeholders
recommended legislation to the committee designed to ensure better flexibility
as school administrations navigate and adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic. “As the American
Academy of Pediatrics has said, our school policies must be guided by what is
best for the children, their health and well-being. So, getting our students
back in the classroom this fall is a top priority,” Sonney said. “Across the
board there has been a lack of communication, direction and transparency from
the Wolf administration on how our schools should reopen. “These hearings will
help the public, and us as legislators, gain better insight on the concerns and
struggles our schools are currently facing and help create better policy to
ensure our students’ educational needs are met,” continued Sonney.
Time to panic as Pa. teachers defect, and safety concerns
threaten reopenings | Maria Panaritis
Inquirer Opinion by Maria
Panaritis | @panaritism | mpanaritis@inquirer.com Posted: August
2, 2020 - 5:00 AM
It’s not every day that journalists are
invited to listen in on internal school district meetings. Usually, the
meatiest material we get served up are school board meetings with policy-speak
and occasional food fights. Seldom are reporters allowed to see the sausage as
it’s being made inside administration offices. One public education official in
Delaware County declined to even get on the phone with me to discuss the
challenges of reopening schools amid the coronavirus pandemic. To quote the
text message I received from a handler: “Due to the political nature of the
situation, she prefers not to comment.” So when a Bucks County superintendent
not only replied to my request for a conversation Thursday but then pulled me
into an in-progress video meeting with district insiders, I nearly had a
stroke. Moments after accepting a Google Hangout invite from Superintendent
Bill Harner, my face landed in a box on a computer screen. About a dozen
Quakertown Community School District officials were talking through a
head-spinning litany of proposals and contingencies. I caught the second half
of the two-hour meeting.
Some see cyber charter schools as alternative during
pandemic
Delco Times by Catherine
Odom catodom24@gmail.com Aug 1, 2020
While the coronavirus pandemic has forced
millions of students to learn online, for over 30,000 students in Pennsylvania,
this was already the norm. These students have swapped out traditional brick
and mortar schools for cyber charter schools. According to James Hanak, CEO and
founder of Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School and executive director of the
Public Cyber Charter School Association, a cyber charter school “delivers a
substantial portion of its curriculum and instruction via the internet or some
other electronic means.” These schools are alternatives for students like
Garrett Dunn who are not best served by an in-person learning environment.
Garrett is a rising senior who started cyber school in 7th grade. “He needed to
get more review on certain things, move at a slower pace, and ask questions,”
said his mother Susan Dunn, “He doesn’t fit in a cookie cutter mold.” In
addition to the instructional benefits Garrett has experienced, Dunn said one
of the best parts of cyber school for her son is the “subtraction of the drama”
of a traditional classroom environment, which allows Garrett to “get back to
some quality learning.” She also said she appreciates the flexibility of
cyberlearning. Dunn said if Garrett struggles one day, he can take a break and
make the work up the next day. Hanak added that cyber schools “give students
flexibility by giving them two weeks to do an assignment.” The pandemic has
caused a dramatic spike in interest in cyber charter schools. “We have received
more enrollment applications as of today [July 27] than we did the entire
previous year,” Hanak said.
While other school districts going with hybrid plan,
Chester Upland is first in Delaware County to go virtual this fall
Delco Times by Pete Bannan Pbannan@21st-Centurymedia.com August 3,
2020
The Chester Upland School District has become
the first in Delaware County to decide all instruction will be online through
the end of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. As school districts across
the county - and the nation - grapple with how to teach their students in the
fall, many are adopting plans that combine in-class and at-home lessons. That
is the case of most Delco districts - but not Chester Upland. At a special
meeting of Chester Upland's receiver, Dr. Juan Baughn, the district approved
the Health and Safety Plan created with new Superintendent Dr. Carol D. Birks,
and a Pandemic School Reopening Task Force who worked with experts,
faculty, families and the community to determine the best course of action for
their community. Birks said the decision to move to the on-line model was for a
number of reasons including the growing number of infection rates across the
region and state, the susceptibility to COVID-19 for the population served by
the district, and buildings which would not meet the requirements of separation
of 6 feet without modifications, which the district does not have funding to
do. Having an on-line option is no more costly than in-person classes, she
said. It may have the potential for savings from reduced busing and staffing
costs. Over 56 percent of the 300 families surveyed in Chester expressed desire
for the virtual learning model.
North Penn School Board Recommends All-Virtual Classes To
Begin 2020-2021 School Year
NorthPenn Now by Melissa Treacy July 31, 2020
Citing concerns about rapid testing results,
complex transportation concerns and a largely populated school district,
the North Penn School
District Board of Directors has decided to revoke a
previously presented plan offering three options and instead will begin its
school year completely virtual for all students in grades K through 12. The
board unanimously voted to approve the current health and safety plan, which
will be sent to the state, but will do so by starting the year fully virtual
with a possible return to hybrid learning at the end of the first marking
period — on or about Nov. 6. As the number of COVID-19 cases has climbed in Montgomery
County to 9,673 overall reported cases,
school districts across the country have faced making critical decisions on
whether or not to open in-person. A meeting previously
slated for Aug. 11 was moved by the school board
and transformed into an online work session on July 30 to discuss options on
the table. The week featured national comments from
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stating
there was “no plan” regarding school’s reopening, while other local districts,
such as Philadelphia and Norristown, declared they’d host only online options
for the first semester of the 2020-21 school year. With little state nor county recommendations,
outside of guidelines on how to open should phases allow it, school districts
in Montgomery County were left to make the choice on their own.
Pennsbury to start remotely with October hybrid option
Bucks County Courier Times By Anthony
DiMattia @dailydimattia Posted
Jul 31, 2020 at 2:27 PM
The Pennsbury school board voted to delay a
hybrid back-to-school opening by approving a virtual-only option for most
students beginning Sept. 8 amid the coronavirus pandemic. Pennsbury has changed
course on its reopening plan. During a five-hour meeting Thursday, the school
board voted 8-1 to go all virtual to begin the school year in September. Members
T.R. Kannan, Howard Goldberg, Michael Pallotta, Gary Sanderson, Christian
Schwartz, Chip Taylor, Joshua Waldorf and Debra Wachspress voted yes, while
Christine Toy-Dragoni voted no. Most students will attend classes virtually
starting Sept. 8 except for roughly 3,300 students with IEPs or disabilities
who have the option to attend class in school at the start of the school year,
officials said. This option was approved by a separate 6-3 vote, with Goldberg,
Waldorf and Wachspress voting no. On Thursday, Superintendent William Gretzula
recommended students start virtually before beginning a hybrid model Oct. 5.
During a presentation Tuesday, a hybrid
continuity of education plan originally called for all students to rotate two
days per week in-person and three days at home for remote learning beginning
Sept. 8.
Education disparities in Pennsylvania are some of the
widest in the nation
“To do equitable practices right, you have to
be intentional,” an educational consultant in Pennsylvania said.
WITF by Julia Agos JULY 30, 2020 | 2:48
PM
Pennsylvania has one of the widest gaps in
the country between educational opportunities for white students and students
of color, according to an analysis by the Philadelphia-based Research for
Action think tank. “There’s a strong narrative in our K-12 educational
upbringing that segregation was a thing in the south,” said Stephen Sharp,
President of the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association and counselor for
the Hempfield School District in Lancaster County. “But the reality is
segregation was a thing in the south, and it was a thing in the north. But the
way it manifested itself particularly in education looks dramatically
different.” He blamed the disparities on what he called a poorly structured
funding formula. School districts in the commonwealth rely heavily on local
property taxes, which means areas with lower property values generate less
money for schools than higher wealth areas. Sharp said the effects of
segregation are still seen in funding for school districts that lead to a high
student to teacher ratios, limited access to advance placement classes, and
lower teacher experience.
What do Pittsburgh-area students think about the proposed
back-to-school plans amid coronavirus?
Public Source by Meg
St-Esprit | July 31, 2020
If you’re a parent of school-aged kids during
the pandemic summer, all you may be thinking about is school. I know it’s on my
mind constantly. The topic is inescapable as districts across the region roll
out their reopening plans, and parents dissect these plans on social media.
Parents are trying to wrap their heads around how they will work while helping
their kids complete distance learning, or processing just what schools will
look like if our kids do go in person. School is much more
than a place to learn; for many families, it is child care; it is a place for
steady meals; and it is the access point through which their children receive
mental health services. I, like my parents, am worried about so many yet-unanswered
questions. Can kids wear masks all day? Can they do without recess? Can they
effectively practice social distancing in their classrooms? Amid all the
chatter and worry, my three school-aged children reminded me recently that no
one has actually asked them what they think about all the presented
scenarios. I will have two first-graders and a third-grader this fall, as well
as a toddler at home with me. My third-grader desperately wants to attend
school but what he longs for is the version of school he left March 12. That
version of school will not exist this fall.
Overwhelmed, stressed, scared: School nurses brace for
the fall semester
WHYY/NPR By Clare Lombardo July 31,
2020
In any ordinary school year, school nurses
are busy. This year, that’s an understatement. “Our role has expanded tenfold,”
says Eileen Gavin, who co-leads a team of nurses for Middletown Township Public
Schools in New Jersey. She and school nurses across the country face an
unenviable and unprecedented task: caring for students and staff during a
global pandemic. “We were at the front line of COVID-19 before the stay at home
orders were put into place,” says Gloria Barrera, the president-elect of the
Illinois Association of School Nurses. They’ll be at the front line again, she
says, as the school year begins. Many nurses, including Gavin and Barrera, have
been working with their school districts over the summer to prepare plans for
every scenario imaginable. But they say that’s not the case for everyone.
Faculty, alumni pressure Penn to make payments to support
Philly schools in push for ‘racial and economic justice’
Inquirer by Oona Goodin-Smith, Posted: August
1, 2020
As a product of both Philadelphia public
schools and the University of Pennsylvania, Anea Moore knows the disparity
between the education systems in the city. The 22-year-old, who grew up in
Southwest Philadelphia, still shudders at the conditions of the bathrooms at
Penrose School, and remembers the cockroaches at Masterman. One
time, she said, her classroom ran out of paper on the third day of school. At
Penn, as a first-generation low-income student, Moore said, she saw how the
school’s wealth and resources opened doors around her, but questioned why the
money largely remained on the Ivy League campus while families like hers
struggled in the surrounding city, where a quarter of residents live in
poverty. “Every summer, Philadelphia students go home to experiences that
directly counter their experiences at Penn,” said Moore, a 2019 Rhodes scholar
now pursuing social policy studies at the University of Oxford. “It’s
contradictory if the university is investing in them only, but doesn’t invest
in their homes, in their families, in their public schools.”
How suburban school districts like Lower Merion can show
that Black lives matter | Opinion
Rebecca Zimmerman, For the Inquirer Posted: July
31, 2020 - 12:00 PM
Rebecca Zimmerman, a 2014 graduate of Lower
Merion High School, is a history teacher at the Riverdale Country School in New
York City and a graduate student in education at the University of
Pennsylvania.
Philly’s suburbs heard the call to action
from protesters this summer: Defund the police. Invest in communities. Ardmore
was among the myriad Philly suburbs staging
local protests. But this rally wasn’t about a lack of community investment or
police brutality. Instead, Ardmore residents described the long history of
racism within Lower Merion schools. As a 2014 alumna of Lower Merion High
School, I was regrettably unsurprised. A new Instagram page, @blackmainlinespeaks,
corroborated protesters’ accounts. One Black LMHS student reported that:
“A boy said that all black people were lazy and poor while looking right at me,
the only black person in the class. The teacher applauded him for being smart
right after he said that.” In due fashion, Lower Merion responded to these
complaints and the national moment by announcing the formation of a committee
on anti-racism.
“If you’re going to require a public entity to do something,
you’ve kind of got to give them the resources to do it. Every opportunity she’s
had, she’s taken public money away from public schools,” Jimenez said. She
pointed to DeVos' mandate on equitable services for private school students as a
way DeVos had improperly shortchanged public schools”
Betsy DeVos Pushes Schools to Clear COVID Hurdles Without
Special Favors
Education Week By Andrew Ujifusa August 1,
2020
As educators prepare for an unprecedented
school year, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ message to them is clear:
You have obligations to fulfill, my expectations are high, and don’t assume
I’ll lift major federal requirements. DeVos has seized the spotlight with a
persistent push for schools to offer full-time, in-person instruction for
2020-21, mirroring President Donald Trump’s demands for schools to physically
reopen. In the process, she’s directly challenged educators to show they’re
working toward making that happen. Whether that comes across as tough love or
hard-hearted during the pandemic depends on how education leaders, advocates,
and the general public view the various challenges local schools face. But it’s
far from the only time she’s pushed educators in the last few months to put
their shoulder to the wheel without expecting new short-cuts or constant pats
on the back.
A School Reopens, and the Coronavirus Creeps In
As more schools abandon plans for in-person
classes, one that opened in Indiana this week had to quarantine students within
hours.
New York Times By Eliza
Shapiro, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio and Shawn
Hubler Aug. 1, 2020
One of the first school districts in the
country to reopen its doors during the coronavirus pandemic did not even make
it a day before being forced to grapple with the issue facing every system
actively trying to get students into classrooms: What happens when someone
comes to school infected? Just hours into the first day of classes on Thursday,
a call from the county health department notified Greenfield Central Junior
High School in Indiana that a student who had walked the halls and sat in
various classrooms had tested positive for the coronavirus. Administrators
began an emergency protocol, isolating the student and ordering everyone who
had come into close contact with the person, including other students, to
quarantine for 14 days. It is unclear whether the student infected anyone else.
“We knew it was a when, not if,” said Harold E. Olin, superintendent of the
Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation, but were “very shocked it was
on Day 1.” To avoid the same scenario, hundreds of districts across the country
that were once planning to reopen their classrooms, many on a part-time basis,
have reversed course in
recent weeks as infections have spiked in many states.
Did America Set Public Schools Up to Fail?
New York Magazine By Sarah
Jones JULY 27,
2020
Andrew Worthington’s public school was in
trouble even before the coronavirus struck. “We have lead in the pipes,” the
Manhattan-based English teacher said. “We have all sorts of rodents. There’s
soot in the ventilation system. The bathrooms are constantly out of service.”
When school is in session, Worthington said, most classes have over 30
students. About 80 percent of the student body qualifies for free and reduced
lunch, and many lack the tech they now need to keep up with classes. After the
pandemic turned classrooms dangerous, Worthington’s students faced widening
gaps. The iPads the school handed out could only do so much. “It’s hard for
them to write essays on a tablet,” Worthington observed. Like any natural
disaster, the pandemic is a stress test for our systems and
institutions. It locates their weak spots, and presses until something
snaps. Public education could be its next casualty, advocates and experts told
Intelligencer; a victim not just of the virus, but of something older and more
deliberate, too. America’s public schools haven’t been properly funded for
years. Twenty-nine states spent less on public education in 2015 than they did
in 2009, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has reported. Local
governments in 19 states cut per-pupil spending over the same time period;
elsewhere, small increases couldn’t make up for drastic, state-level
reductions. If schools buckle now under the weight of the pandemic, lawmakers
bear much of the blame.
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.
TRAUMA INFORMED EDUCATION COALITION (TIEC) AUGUST SUMMIT
August 5th, 12th, 19th
ACT 48 credits available PA NASW CEU’s
This TIEC Summit is designed to provide
in-depth, trauma-informed training for educators and other practitioners whose
agencies or organizations service children and their families. Those who participate
in the Summit sessions will be exposed to information and practices that enable
them to approach their work through a trauma-informed lens.
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.
283 PA school boards have adopted charter reform
resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 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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