Started in November 2010, daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, superintendents, school solicitors, principals, charter school leaders, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations, education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for Dec. 21, 2020
$82 billion for schools in Second
Stimulus Package
Most of the spending for schools is
divvied up between the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund
($54.3 billion) and the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund ($22.7 billion),
programs that provide funding to states to distribute to schools according to
local demands. Money from the CARES Act allotted to ESSER mostly helped state education departments build out technological
capacity for remote learning or support nutritional services. Money for HEERF
covered pandemic-related costs and provided colleges with funding to give
directly to students through emergency financial aid grants.
What Is in the $900
Billion Second Stimulus Package?
NY Magazine By Matt Stieb December 21, 2020
On Sunday,
almost nine months after the CARES
Act was signed into law, Congress agreed
upon a second
stimulus after weeks of post-election
negotiation — a $908 billion bill that is less than
half the size of the original coronavirus relief package. The bill, part of a
$1.4 trillion spending package, comes just days before millions
of Americans are slated to lose federal unemployment aid
at the end of the year, and as the pandemic continues to set records for new
cases, hospitalizations, and daily death counts. To help alleviate the first
crisis, the bill will provide a $600 check for every Americans making up to
$75,000, as well as $300 per week in federal unemployment benefits for an
additional 11 weeks. To help slow down the second crisis, the bill includes $69
billion to expand vaccine distribution, test-and-trace measures, and other
public-health efforts. With the House and Senate reportedly approving the measure, the agreement on
the second stimulus package comes in tandem with a one-day stopgap spending
bill, the third one-day extension in the past 10 days, as Democrats fought for
state and local assistance and Republicans pushed for a liability shield to
protect corporations from employees reporting unsafe pandemic conditions. (Both
efforts appear to have been cut on the Senate floor.) Below are the most
prominent measures in the second stimulus package before it heads to a final
vote and presidential approval.
The state has never audited King of
Prussia-based Agora Cyber Charter School, which took in more than $96 million
in revenue two years ago and will far surpass that due to the enrollment spike
this year. The school was established in 2005, at the start of former Auditor
General Jack Wagner’s first term in office. Four terms have gone by without a
state review. Along with Agora, the state has never audited Achievement House,
Esperanza, Insight, Pennsylvania Distance Learning, Pennsylvania Leadership and
Reach cyber charter schools, according to state records. Commonwealth Charter
Academy, which now has about 18,000 students and a budget that could reach $270
million — $100 million more than the Scranton School District — has not been
audited by the state since 2012.
As cyber charter school
costs soar, state fails to conduct required audits
Times
Tribune BY
SARAH HOFIUS HALL STAFF WRITER Dec 20, 2020 Updated 18 min ago
Pennsylvania
cyber charter schools could receive more than $1 billion in taxpayer money this
year with little oversight as the state fails to conduct required financial
audits, a Sunday Times investigation found. Meanwhile, the 14 cyber schools
spent at least $12.7 million on advertising and marketing last year — with some
schools spending nearly $1,000 per student to convince others to enroll. And
it’s working. As cyber charter school rosters grow faster than ever expected
prior to the coronavirus pandemic, local educators and some state leaders have
strengthened their calls for reform and transparency. More than $20 million in
school taxes in Lackawanna County will go to cyber charter schools this year,
but the state does little to track how those schools spend the money. Seven of the state’s 14 cyber charter schools
have never had their finances reviewed by the auditor general, the newspaper
found. The office has audited just two schools in the last five years. It last
audited the largest cyber school in the state, Harrisburg-based Commonwealth
Charter Academy — with a budget that could top $270 million in 2021 — nearly
nine years ago.
Blogger note: this was one of two new
cyber charter applications submitted to PDE this year; the second application
is still awaiting a decision from PDE.
REJECTED!
Doomed-to-fail cyber charter application denied by PDE
Education
Voters PA Commentary Published by EDVOPA on December 19, 2020
The
Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) delivered an early holiday gift to Pennsylvanians.
On Monday, November 30th, PDE denied the revised application of the Virtual Preparatory Academy of
Pennsylvania (VPAP) Cyber Charter School.
VPAP is a
new project of Ron Packard, former mergers and acquisitions specialist at
Goldman Sachs and founder of K12, Inc., the nation’s largest for-profit online
charter school operator. Packard left K12, Inc. after a shareholder
lawsuit alleged that it violated securities law by making false statements to
investors about cyber charter school students’ poor performance on standardized
tests. He is now the CEO of Accel Schools, a for-profit management company
that is buying up low-performing charter schools in Ohio. Packard hopes to expand
his portfolio—and his profits—by opening a new cyber charter school in
Pennsylvania as well. We provided testimony at a public hearing on November 5th urging
PDE to deny VPAP’s application. In our testimony, we documented Accel
Schools’ proven track record of running failing charter schools in
Ohio. The online school in Ohio that is run by Accel received an “F”
grade for every measure of student achievement included in the Ohio Department
of Education’s school report card for 2018-2019. Of the 35 Accel
charter schools in Ohio with state report card data from the Ohio Department of
Education for 2018-2019, 26 received either a “D” or “F” grade.
http://educationvoterspa.org/blog/rejected-doomed-to-fail-cyber-charter-application-denied-by-pde/
Reprise Nov. 19th:
Here’s 4 good reasons for Pa. to reject any new cyber-charter school
applications | Opinion
By Lawrence
A. Feinberg Capital-Star
Op-Ed Contributor November 19, 2020
The
Pennsylvania Department of Education held public hearings this month regarding
the proposed authorization of two new cyber charter schools. I had the
opportunity to present comments at both hearings. I am a school director
serving in my 21st year as a member of the Haverford Township
school board. For the past dozen years or so, I have also served as chair of
the Delaware County School Boards Legislative Council with school board
representatives from each of the fifteen districts in Delaware County. In 2007,
I presented “Testimony on Cyber-Charter School Funding, Oversight and
Accountability’ to the Pennsylvania House Education Committee. And I have been
following cyber charter issues closely ever since. Cyber-charters may be a
great fit for some highly motivated, self-disciplined students or those with
very involved parents or guardians. But generally speaking, cyber students are not
learning, and taxpayers are paying twice what they reasonably should, with the
excess funds being taken away from all the other students remaining in a school
district when a parent chooses to send their child to a cyber charter. With the
COVID pandemic, the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials
(PASBO) recently estimated that cyber charter enrollment has
increased by 24,000 students over last year, with taxpayers on the hook for an
additional $350 million in tuition.
School District of
Philadelphia New Charter Application Public Hearing
When: Tue, December 22, 2pm – 6pm
Where: Remote Meeting (more information to be added)
(map)
Description:
Notice is hereby given that the Board of Education of The School
District of Philadelphia (“School District”) shall hold initial public hearings
pursuant to the Charter School Law on applications for new charter schools in
Philadelphia. The hearings will be held on December 22, 2020 via remote
platform. The remote platform link will be posted on the Board of
Education’s website at https://www.philasd.org/schoolboard/.
Rejected charter
school proposal in Lancaster might have new life thanks to controversial
federal grant program
Lancaster
Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer December 21, 2020
When
professional soccer club founder Brian Ombiji proposed a charter school infusing
both sports and education in the city, one member of the Lancaster school board
called the application “extremely negligent” and a waste of time. Another
called the proposed school a soccer program with a “side hustle in education.” The
school district solicitor said the proposal sounded like “a soccer club in
search of a charter school as opposed to a charter school itself.” And in
October, in unsurprising fashion, the school board unanimously denied the
charter school application. So why did the U.S. Department of Education award
the club a $1.2 million grant to support its proposal? In late September, the
federal government awarded the All Football Club Lancaster Lions soccer
organization the grant, to be spent within five years on allowable expenses by
law, such as building curriculum and community outreach. U.S. Department of
Education reviewers who graded Ombiji’s grant proposal scored it a 70 of 115
possible points, or a 61%. Yet, they still awarded the grant.
Collegium Charter
school sues Coatesville schools over $18M
DEBBIE
WYGENT for LNP | LancasterOnline December 20, 2020
Collegium
Charter School in Exton, Chester County, has filed a preliminary injunction
against both the Coatesville Area School District and the Pennsylvania
Department of Education over $18 million in allegedly delinquent payments
Collegium says it is owed for educating about 2,300 of its students who reside
in the Coatesville district. Coatesville school board members and Collegium
parents traded points of view about the funding dispute during the school
board’s Dec. 15 remote meeting. Some parents have taken the delay very
personally. In a statement from Kenneth Kilpatrick, spokesman for Collegium,
CEO Marita Barber states Coatesville has no legal basis for withholding money
from Collegium and education funds must follow the child. “This issue is about
protecting families’ rights to choose a public school they believe is best for
their children,” Barber said. Coatesville board President Robert Fisher said
the board “does not have any dislike of charter schools” and the real issue is
the state’s “flawed funding formula” surrounding how charter school tuition is
paid. Coatesville pointed to a very tight budget and says it must pay charter
school tuition while also providing transportation and a full educational
program for its own public school students. Currently 33.82% of Coatesville’s budget
goes to support area charter schools, including Collegium.
“In Philadelphia, 57.1% of the students
district-wide have attended 95% of the instructional days through November,
said spokesperson Christina Clark. The pandemic has had the biggest impact on
students in poor-performing and economically disadvantaged districts like
Camden, but school officials across the region are struggling to keep students
engaged in remote instruction. They worry about students falling behind
academically.”
Students aren’t
showing up for virtual learning. ‘Are they well cared for? Are they safe?’
Inquirer by Melanie Burney, Posted: 37 minutes ago December
21, 2020
In virtual
school, on any given day, one in four Camden public school students is absent. Nearly
1,700 students, or about 25% of the student enrollment in the state-run
district, are not showing up for class, said Superintendent Katrina McCombs.
Average daily attendance has fallen during the pandemic from about 92% last
year to about 75%. McCombs and state educators who oversee Camden
schools want to know why so many kids are missing
school. The district has been fully remote since schools were shut down by the
coronavirus last spring. “It is something we’re taking very seriously,” McCombs
said. Surprisingly, kindergarten, first and second-grade students have the
lowest attendance rate overall, while ninth graders have the lowest attendance
rate among high school students, she said. Camden enrolls about 6,800 students
in its traditional public schools.
Pennsylvania’s
children could lose a year of education due to COVID-19 | Opinion
Penn Live By
Edward Albert, PhD Updated Dec 18, 2020; Posted Dec 18, 2020
Dr. Edward
Albert is Executive Director of Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small
Schools.
As the long,
dark COVID-filled months stretch before us, and as schools scramble to respond
to the latest curveballs thrown by the pandemic, the government must fully
address the threats our school districts face moving forward. For an
unprecedented educational catastrophe is looming and will jeopardize our
children’s future success, and thus the success of our country, if no
countermeasures are taken. I think I speak for all Pennsylvanians when I say
the health and safety of students, teachers, and staff is paramount. And our
schools have been working hard to innovate new ways to protect their children
and staff while still providing the best education possible. Of course, with
positive COVID cases continuing to mount and people being encouraged to stay
home as much as they can, many schools are beginning to rely more and more on
remote learning – which has been riddled with challenges, especially for rural
schools in cash-strapped counties. Many teachers and administrators in these
counties have found it particularly difficult to meet the needs of all of their
students via technology alone without the resources they so desperately need.
Nine months in,
impact of COVID-19 on education starting to show
ANDREW
GOLDSTEIN Pittsburgh Post-Gazette agoldstein@post-gazette.com DEC 20, 2020 7:15 AM
Colleen
Brasacchio says she already sees the ripple effects of remote instruction in
her kids’ educations. As the mother of a third and first grader as well as a
preschooler in the Mt. Lebanon School District, she said she can tell the impact
it has had on their reading, their writing and even in their will to learn. “They
don’t want to go to school right now,” Ms. Brasacchio said last week in a phone
interview. “They don’t feel like they’re learning, they don’t want to
participate. They want to be in school with their friends, with their teachers,
where professionals are engaging them.” During the past nine months, the
COVID-19 pandemic has forced K-12 schools nationwide to dramatically shift how
they deliver education to students. While some have returned to full-time
in-person instruction, many more have instituted hybrid or remote learning
models, where students are in their classrooms for part of the week or not at
all. Experts believe the rapid changes in instruction will be felt well into
the future; just how much of an effect the pandemic will have on education may
not be known for years. But researchers have started looking into how COVID-19
has disrupted student learning so far.
“Another large donor is Jeff Yass, an
options trader and founder of Philadelphia-based Susquehanna International
Group. Yass sits on the board of the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute,
and is a powerful advocate for school choice and the expansion of charter
schools.”
Georgia’s Senate
runoffs: Special interest PACs flood the zone
By Chris Joyner, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution December
18, 2020
‘A battle
between billionaires and millionaires,’ says one analyst.
Apart from
the candidates themselves, political action committees have spent at least $150
million since the November general election to rally voters back to the polls
for the Senate runoff, records show. While nearly two-thirds of that spending
has come from super PACs connected to either Senate Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell or Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the rest has come from
special interest groups with business before the new Congress. Brendan Fischer,
director of federal reform for the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center in
Washington, D.C., said spending by PACs in the Georgia runoffs is akin to an
arms race financed by “a small handful of extremely wealthy interests.”
Finalists Named For
AASA’s 2021 National Superintendent Of The Year®
Honorees
include superintendents from Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and
Washington
Alexandria,
Va. – December 18, 2020 – AASA, The School
Superintendents Association, is pleased
to announce the finalists for the 2021 National Superintendent of the Year®.
This distinction honors school system leaders throughout the country who are
making a positive difference in the lives of the students they serve, in
addition to ensuring the safety and wellness of their school communities. Co-sponsored
by AASA, AIG Retirement Services and First
Student, the 2021 National Superintendent of the
Year® will be announced during AASA’s virtual National
Conference on Education, Feb.
18-19, 2021.
The four
finalists for the 2021 National Superintendent of the Year® are:
- Bryan Johnson, Hamilton
County Schools,
Chattanooga, Tenn.
- Khalid Mumin, Reading
School District,
Reading, Pa.
- Christy Perry, Salem-Keizer
Public Schools,
Salem, Ore.
- Michelle Reid, Northshore
School District,
Bothell, Wash.
https://aasa.org/content.aspx?id=45225
Erik Kincade: Support
Erie County's public schools
Opinion by
Erik Kincade Erie Times-News December 20, 2020
Erik
Kincade, Ph.D., is the superintendent of the Fairview School District.
COVID-19 has
wreaked havoc on schools and school communities for the past nine months.
Difficult and often unpopular, decisions have been made in every district,
regardless of whether they elected to go with remote, hybrid or
traditional modes of instruction. School leaders have had to balance what they
know is best — face-to-face instruction for all students — with an
unknown virus that could potentially spread like wildfire through a community.
It is widely accepted that adolescents who become infected with COVID-19 often
have mild symptoms or even no symptoms at all. However, students, even young
children, are capable of spreading the virus to others. And the long-term
implications of having been infected with the virus are still being studied. While
we want nothing more than to have our students back in the classrooms, we have
had to wrestle with our primary obligation of providing a safe environment for
all stakeholders, including the students and the adults in our buildings. As
much as the Fairview School District aims to please, this is truly a
case of not being able to please all of the people all of the time.
“Goodin's departure will mark the fourth
pending or current superintendent vacancy in the region.”
Goodin resigns as
superintendent of Spring-Ford schools
Potstown
Mercury by Evan
Brandt ebrandt@21st-centurymedia.com @PottstownNews on Twitter December 18, 2020
ROYERSFORD —
Spring-Ford Area Schools Superintendent David Goodin announced his resignation
on Thursday. He has accepted a job as the superintendent of schools in Sampson
County, North Carolina. Goodin's departure will mark the fourth pending or
current superintendent vacancy in the region. The Boyertown Area School Board
is currently seeking a replacement for Dana Bedden, who left in September and Owen J. Roberts Schools Superintendent Susan Lloyd announced her June
retirement last month. Additionally,
not only has Pottsgrove Schools Superintendent William Shirk also announced his
retirement, but the district's assistant superintendent
and business manager are also stepping down in June as well.
Ears on the Philly Board
of Education: December 10, 2020
Alliance for
Philadelphia Public Schools By Diane Payne December 16, 2020
The Board of
Education held its final Action Meeting at the end of a year that upended the
lives of every person in the world, including Philadelphia students and their
families. The suffering, isolation, and fear felt by our most
vulnerable citizens has been staggering–especially because so much of it was
avoidable. One thing that stood out in this last public meeting was the
apparent absence of District administrations’ awareness of this fact. At the
November Action Meeting, Superintendent Hite, in answer to concerns raised
about students’ mental health, promised to present this month the
supports implemented by his administration. Students heading into the
holiday season with prolonged time off from school, families whose
breadwinners lost jobs and may not be able to afford to celebrate the holidays,
some facing eviction–this would have been a perfect time to assure Board
Members that our students have a safety net. But there was no presentation nor
any question about it from any Board members.
https://appsphilly.net/2020/12/16/ears-on-the-board-of-education-december-10-2020/
Defenders of Public
Education Speak Before the Philly BOE, December 10, 2020
Alliance for
Philadelphia Public Schools December
16, 2020 Philadelphia
School Board Testimony,
Click on the
title to read the transcript of the speaker’s testimony.
Eli
Broad Rules at 440 N. Broad Street by Barbara McDowdall Dowdall
Closing
Sheppard Elementary Will Hurt the Community by Keely Gray
Vote No on Relay G.S.E. by Deborah Grill
Board
Turns Its Back on Students, Parents, Educators, Community by Lisa Haver
Goals
& Guardrails: BOE Needs to Listen to Students, Parents and Teachers by Stephanie King
Quashing
Public Engagement by Karel Kliminik
Against New Spending by Maddie Luebbert
Despite state’s
certification, GOP could oppose swearing-in of Jim Brewster in Pa. Senate
JULIAN ROUTH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette jrouth@post-gazette.com DEC 20, 2020 3:57 PM
Jim
Brewster’s fate in the state Senate — at least at the start of the new year —
could come down to a federal court decision that won’t be adjudicated until
after the incumbent McKeesport Democrat is supposed to take the oath of office.
Pennsylvania’s secretary of state certified Mr. Brewster’s win in the 45th
Senatorial District this past week in his race against Republican Nicole
Ziccarelli. Senators are sworn in on Jan. 5. A majority of the
Republican-controlled Senate could oppose his swearing-in. Though GOP leaders
haven’t floated the idea publicly, they have cast doubt on their social media
feeds regarding the state’s certification. They cite the pending legal
challenge in federal court over 2,349 ballots in Allegheny County that would be
enough to swing the race in Ms. Ziccarelli’s favor if removed from the count
somehow.
2020 was an ugly year
in Harrisburg. Don’t expect 2021 to be much better.
Inquirer by Andrew Seidman and Julia Terruso, Posted: 48 minutes ago December
21, 2020
Katie Muth’s
assigned seat in the Pennsylvania Senate is near several Republicans who don’t
wear face masks on the chamber floor. “I call it COVID alley,” said Muth, a
Montgomery County Democrat. So in October, she brought a new desk into the
chamber and set it up in the corner instead. She felt safer. Muth’s forced
social distancing was emblematic of a vitriolic year in Harrisburg — an
environment unlikely to mellow in 2021. While most Pennsylvanians can shelter
in their political bubbles while they disagree about the severity of the
pandemic and the reality of Joe Biden’s election win, in Harrisburg, elected officials have
clashed over those same things while sitting right next to one another or on
tense Zoom calls.
Our country requires
better civics education
Opinion by JACK
ELBAUM Post Gazette DEC 20, 2020 12:00 AM
Thomas
Jefferson famously said that “an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for
our survival as a free people.” In other words, in order for the United States
to survive as a democracy, its people must be informed. Jefferson would be
rolling in his grave if he saw the state of our country today. The people are
far from informed, and that is putting our country in grave danger of collapse.
We live in a country where less than one-third of people can name all three
branches of the federal government, where 70% do not know the Constitution is
the supreme law of the land — and where 10% of college graduates believe Judge
Judy is a justice of the Supreme Court. If that is not scary enough, the
picture is far more concerning among young Americans. Among millennials, 70%
say they would be “likely” to vote for a socialist candidate, 36% approve of
communism, only 8% can identify slavery as the central cause of the Civil War
and a quarter say that “choosing leaders through free elections is
unimportant.”
School administrators
say they were forced to resign over conservative Facebook posts
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna, Posted: December 18, 2020
Two former
administrators at Montgomery County public schools are suing their school
districts, alleging that they were illegally forced out of their jobs over
Facebook posts criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement and Democratic
politicians. Ashley Bennett — a former special education supervisor at the
North Penn School District who appeared Thursday on Tucker Carlson
Tonight — and Amy Sacks, a former elementary school principal in the
Perkiomen Valley School District, said the districts violated their First
Amendment rights, retaliating against them for comments made on their personal
Facebook pages. In Bennett’s case, she said she was forced to resign after a
June 24 post that criticized Black Lives Matter, in the wake of national
protests over the police killing of George Floyd. “I’m just trying to figure
out WHICH black lives matter,” said the post, which someone else wrote but Bennett
shared. “It can’t be the unborn black babies — they are destroyed without a
second thought.” The post accused the movement of harming Black police
officers, and media outlets of ignoring “black on black violence.”
Superintendent: 125
Shikellamy students quarantined after positive COVID-19 tests
Sunbury
Daily Item By
Francis Scarcella fscarcella@dailyitem.com Dec 18, 2020
SUNBURY — A
total of 125 students at the Shikellamy Middle School are quarantined after
three staff members and three students tested positive for COVID-19. Superintendent
Jason Bendle said the middle school will learn remotely until Jan. 4. No
other district building is closed and will be open for in-person instruction on
Monday. "We are going remote at the middle school to manage the
cases," Bendle said. Chief Shikellamy Elementary also had a report
of a staff member testing positive Friday, but it is the only case at the
building, Bendle said.
Which Centre County
schools are operating remotely due to COVID-19? Here’s a running list
Centre Daily
Times BY
MARLEY PARISH DECEMBER 18, 2020 10:32 AM
Since
reopening in August, Centre County school districts have been forced to make
adjustments to instructional plans as community COVID-19 cases continue to rise
and statewide mitigation efforts aim to slow virus transmission. The
Centre Daily Times is keeping a running list of school closures and planned
reopenings. Because area schools are not required to publicly announce
confirmed cases or building closures, this list may not be comprehensive but
will be updated weekly with any changes or updates to instructional plans. If a
school closure is not listed, or to provide more information, please email
cdtnewstips@centredaily.com.
https://www.centredaily.com/news/rebuild/article247509800.html#storylink=mainstage_card
More than 1,000
COVID-19 cases have been reported at Lancaster County schools. Here's where
they are [update]
Lancaster
Online bby ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Dec 18, 2020
More than
1,000 cases of COVID-19 have been reported at Lancaster County schools so far
into the 2020-21 school year. The cases come from 16 school districts, plus a
brick-and-mortar charter school in Lancaster city and the county's career and
technology center. And that might not be all. With the Pennsylvania Department
of Health not tracking COVID-19 cases in schools, it's up to each district to
notify the community of a positive test from someone inside its schools.
Editorial page
mission: Less shouting. Less polarization. More civil, thoughtful discussion.
Opinion by Shane
Fitzgerald Bucks County Courier Times December 20, 2020
Shane
Fitzgerald is Executive Editor of the Bucks County Courier Times and The
Intelligencer and is the state editor for the 14 Pennsylvania publications in
the USA Today Network.
Pennsylvania
is a big, diverse
state that has many common issues that affect its
residents. Environmental issues. Education issues. Political issues. And
the list goes on. Our 14 news organizations in the state’s USA Today
Network are committed to rethinking how to utilize our resources to cover our
communities – and particularly our diverse communities – in more purposeful
ways. Beyond the hiring and coverage recalibrations, we also want to
engage in more meaningful dialogue with our readers. We
want less polarization. We want less shouting. We want more thought-provoking
discussion on important topics. So we are
initiating a reset of our editorial/opinion pages, which will launch in
our print and digital products beginning Sunday, Jan. 3. Here is our
mission statement:
Christmas star: Saturn
and Jupiter have rare encounter Monday as 'Great Conjunction' takes place in
the cosmos
Scott
Tady Beaver County Times December 17, 2020
You've never
seen Jupiter and Saturn this close together. No one has for the last
794 years. So, the Great Conjunction on Monday, Dec. 21 is worth braving
the cold for an outside peek at the cosmos. People are using the term
"Christmas star," and are making Star of Bethlehem comparisons to
this late-December winter solstice pairing of Jupiter and Saturn. "How
close they get to each other is usually far enough apart to easily distinguish
each planet with the naked eye," said Frank Marzano of the Beaver County
Amateur Astronomers. "That will not be the case this year. The two
will appear as one planet for almost everyone. "A very
rare occurrence, which has not occurred since the year 1623," he
added. "But when that occurred, both were very close to the sun so no one
could notice. So go back to the year 1226 for as close a conjunction that is
also able to be seen in some dark sky."
What you need to know
about this year’s winter solstice and the great conjunction | Opinion
By William
Teets Capital-Star
Op-Ed Contributor December 21, 2020
(Editor’s
note: Dr. William Teets is the director of Vanderbilt University’s Dyer
Observatory. In this interview, he explains what does and doesn’t happen during
the winter solstice on Dec. 21. Another cosmic phenomenon is also going to
occur on the same day called “the
great conjunction,” where
Saturn and Jupiter, both of which can be seen with the naked eye, will appear
extremely close to one another.)
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.
Resolution for charter funding reform (pdf)
Link
to submit your adopted resolution to PSBA
336 PA school boards have
adopted charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 330 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.
https://www.psba.org/2020/03/adopted-charter-reform-resolutions/
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
https://www.pacharterchange.org/
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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