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. 28, 2020
Same As It Ever Was: PA
School Funding 1996/2016
Blogger note: these two poignant cartoons
highlight Pennsylvania’s chronic school funding inequity
Same As It Ever Was: PA School Funding
1996/2016
Inquirer by
Signe Wilkinson
SIGNE: THEN & NOW
- 35 YEARS OF CARTOONING PHILADELPHIA
Inquirer BY SIGNE WILKINSON | DEC. 26, 2020
After 35
years drawing cartoons on Philadelphia’s politicians and life, it’s clear. I’ve
been an utter failure. Sadly, gunslingers don’t stop to think, “Golly, that
cartoon made me decide not to pull the trigger.” Cartoons have yet to make a
state legislator exclaim, “Gee, all kids deserve a good education.” They
haven’t cured poverty and they certainly haven’t balanced a budget. My only
hope is that my drawings have occasionally given a boost to those intrepid
citizens who work for a safer, fairer, and more equitable city, state, and
region. In the meantime, let me thank the many politicians in and out of prison
who have given me so much material. The new crop coming up deserve new
cartoonists to keep them honest. And, thanks to you readers who’ve cheered me
and to you who’ve so earnestly tried to correct my many idiotic ideas. We’re
all in this together. Onward!
Editor’s
Note: Signe Wilkinson, the first woman to win a Pulitzer
Prize for editorial cartooning, and the cartoonist for The Inquirer and
Daily News since 1985, is putting down her pencil at the end of 2020 for daily
cartoons (though she'll make occasional guest appearances on our pages through
her syndicate). Here, she reflects on the city, and her work.
Pa. education groups
say stimulus deal just one step for schools
ANDREW
GOLDSTEIN Pittsburgh Post-Gazette agoldstein@post-gazette.com DEC 28, 2020 5:30 AM
Pennsylvania
education groups say the stimulus bill passed by Congress last week is a
promising start, but that more must be done to help schools recover from the
COVID-19 pandemic. The $900 billion federal package, which was signed by
President Donald Trump on Sunday night, includes $82 billion for educational
purposes across the country. Of that, about $54 billion is earmarked for
elementary and secondary education and about $23 billion is set aside for
higher education. The Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials —
which predicted in the spring that schools across the state could face
shortfalls of as much as $1 billion — said the additional funding provided in
the stimulus bill is welcome but only represents a temporary reprieve. “[T]his
is one-time revenue, and these additional funds — while absolutely critical now
— will present new challenges in the future as they disappear,” PASBO said in a
statement.
The state
Department of Education will distribute the money to schools similarly to how
the federal CARES Act was handled, but it is not yet known what share of
the funding Pennsylvania will receive, according to a department spokeswoman.
“Though it may sound counterintuitive,
an important first step the new administration can take to improve educational
equity is to abandon the regimen of annual standardized tests that has dominated
federal educational policy-making, especially under Presidents George W. Bush
and Barack Obama. Under the best circumstances, standardized tests do little to
measure actual achievement, let alone improve it; indeed, the relentless focus
on English and math in every grade from third through eighth has shortchanged
the teaching of science at the elementary level as well as civics. Given the
difficulty of administering tests during a pandemic, any results obtained next
spring are likely to be more flawed than ever.”
Andrea Gabor:
Education secretary’s first task: Curb standardized tests
Post Gazette
Opinion by ANDREA GABOR Bloomberg Opinion DEC 28, 2020 12:00 AM
President-elect
Joe Biden’s nominee for education secretary, Miguel Cardona, will face a host
of pandemic-related challenges that have disproportionately affected the
nation’s neediest students. In addition to learning setbacks, the prolonged
isolation has caused social and emotional trauma. The challenges will continue
to mount once the COVID-19 crisis is over. Government resources will be
strained at all levels, and continued Republican control of the Senate would likely
limit extra funding available for K-12 education. In the absence of significant
support for state and local governments, beyond the money included in any
year-end stimulus package, Mr. Cardona, who has been Connecticut’s education
commissioner, will need to concentrate on closing funding inequities between
poor and affluent school districts in order to avoid the kind of educational
setbacks that followed the 2008 recession.
A Cheerleader’s
Vulgar Message Prompts a First Amendment Showdown
A
Pennsylvania school district has asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether
students may be disciplined for what they say on social media.
New York
Times By Adam Liptak Dec. 28, 2020, 5:00 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON —
It was a Saturday in the spring of 2017, and a ninth-grade student in
Pennsylvania was having a bad day. She had just learned that she had failed to
make the varsity cheerleading squad and would remain on junior varsity. The
student expressed her frustration on social media, sending a message on
Snapchat to about 250 friends. The message included an image of the student and
a friend with their middle fingers raised, along with text expressing a similar
sentiment. Using a curse word four times, the student expressed her
dissatisfaction with “school,” “softball,” “cheer” and “everything.” Though
Snapchat messages are ephemeral by design, another student took a screenshot of
this one and showed it to her mother, a coach. The school suspended the student
from cheerleading for a year, saying the punishment was needed to “avoid chaos”
and maintain a “teamlike environment.” The student sued the school district,
winning a sweeping victory in the
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in Philadelphia. The
court said the First Amendment did not allow public schools to punish students
for speech outside school grounds. Next month, at its first private conference
after the holiday break, the Supreme Court will consider whether to hear the
case, Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., No. 20-255. The Third Circuit’s
ruling is in tension with decisions from several other courts, and such splits
often invite Supreme Court review.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/us/supreme-court-schools-free-speech.html
‘Our kids deserve
nothing less’: A few wishes for Philadelphia education in 2021
COVID-19
vaccine, ventilation, and a safe return to school top concerns
Chalkbeat
Philly By Johann Calhoun and Dale
Mezzacappa Dec 23, 2020, 5:03pm EST
Like those
everywhere, students in Philadelphia have been hit hard this year. The coronavirus
pandemic has changed the nature of their education. Deprived of attending
school in person, they missed the closeness of their friends and peers, not to
mention comforting chats with teachers and mentors. Keeping them safe from the
virus has endangered their safety in other ways, challenging their mental
health and their academic growth. The pandemic has laid bare long troubling and
intractable inequities – and deepened resolve to tackle them. Educators and
political leaders embraced the talk of social justice and racial equity. The
killings of George Floyd and then Walter Wallace in Philadelphia at the hands
of police roiled the city and deepened the resolve to take action. The school district tried twice to open
schools on a hybrid schedule, only to abandon the effort. It is spending
millions in an effort to upgrade the ventilation and rid aging school buildings
of toxins. Leaders are determined to open them to some students in some way
before the end of this school year. How and when this will happen is still
uncertain, and building public trust in the buildings’ safety will be a tall
order. In this holiday season, it is a lot to wish for. Chalkbeat reached out
to education, community and government leaders to get their views on what’s
needed in 2021. Here’s what they had to say:
Despite non-renewal,
one Philadelphia charter school remains hopeful
Chalkbeat
Philly By Johann Calhoun Dec 23, 2020, 6:53pm EST
Administrators
at Universal Daroff Charter School in West Philadelphia are appealing the
decision by the city’s Board of Education to not renew its charter status. Though
it’s unclear when the Charter Appeals Board in Harrisburg will rule, the school
is optimistic about the outcome. Penny Nixon, superintendent and CEO of schools
at Universal, said their students are learning. “This notion that we cannot
educate our children is false and must be addressed.” Daroff prides itself in
educating students who come from some of the city’s most impoverished
neighborhoods. Located at 56th and Vine in West Philadelphia, it’s one of two
charter schools under the Universal umbrella slated for closure. The other is
Universal Bluford, at 57th and Media in the Carroll Park section of West
Philadelphia. Universal has joined a coalition of Black-run charters in
Philadelphia claiming systemic bias has led the school district to recommend
their closure or non-renewal, at a much higher rate than other schools. They
say that Black and Latino charter leaders operate 19% of the charter schools in
the city, yet account for 87% of those recommended for closure or non-renewal
in recent years.
The travesty of
America’s failed coronavirus response as seen from the steps of a school |
Maria Panaritis
Inquirer by Maria Panaritis | @panaritism | mpanaritis@inquirer.com Posted: December 24, 2020
I pulled up
to Darby Township School for a reality check.
After months
of hearing and seeing parents elsewhere shame-scold one another on Facebook
over pandemic learning protocols and pressures all day long from their far more
white-collar bubbles, I had been longing for a glimpse into true need. I got a
sliver of it Wednesday morning at the grades 1-through-8 school in Delaware
County. Darby Township is in a school district, Southeast Delco, where COVID-19
positivity rates the week earlier had been logged at about 30%, according to
the assistant principal. It’s in a zip code full of Northeast
Philadelphia-style rowhouses. A place where many parents seem to work
service-sector jobs, are frontline workers, or are poor. For many of us,
tallying the costs of this terrible pandemic year begins and ends by gazing
inward. This once-in-a-century crisis has been extraordinary and heartbreaking
in ways large and small. But it is time to look beyond our own navels and see
the travesty in our nation’s failure to manage the coronavirus impact on
schools a full nine months after it exploded in America.
They lived in rental
cars for a year. Now, these students have the Christmas present they wanted
most.
Inquirer by
Kristen A. Graham, Posted: December 25, 2020
Elijah
Johnson spent his entire childhood in foster care and then most of the last
year homeless, sleeping in a series of rental cars. But he finds himself in an
unfamiliar place these days: feeling optimistic, looking forward to a Christmas
he couldn’t have imagined a few months ago. Johnson, 19, reenrolled in high
school recently, then wrote an essay about his plight that attracted the
attention of city officials, who helped Johnson and his “godbrother” Mark Holly
find something that feels miraculous: a home of their own. “It’s so good,”
Johnson said. “So good to be able to take showers, and change — to be a person
again, to sleep better.” Johnson was small when the Philadelphia Department of
Human Services deemed his mother unfit to care for him. He cycled through
different houses, struggling. “I got tired of going from placement to
placement, making friendships with people, then having to leave after so many
months,” he said. Johnson eventually aged out of the foster-care system. With
no safety net, he found himself living in rental cars with Holly, who also grew
up in foster care and met Johnson through family and friends. The pandemic has
squeezed millions, but for the most vulnerable, it’s been excruciating. Things
got more expensive for Johnson and Holly, and the pressure felt relentless,
Holly said.
School District of
Lancaster may consider closing schools if coronavirus-fueled enrollment decline
continues [Lancaster Watchdog]
Lancaster
Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer December 27, 2020
First, the
coronavirus pandemic attacked education through instruction, upending the ways
teachers, especially those who serve students with the most needs, facilitate
learning. Now, the virus is targeting school finances. Across the country,
school districts are beginning to feel the financial impact many predicted the
coronavirus pandemic would bring, and Lancaster County’s largest — and poorest
— school district is no exception. School District of Lancaster, a 10,880-student
school district serving mostly low-income and Hispanic students surrounded by
suburbs in central Lancaster County, projects a $13.7 million budget deficit
for the 2021-22 fiscal year starting next July. The deficit, which doesn’t
factor in a potential tax increase or additional funding the upcoming state
budget might offer, comes as the school district faces an unprecedented student
exodus to charter schools and new costs related to virtual education due to
COVID-19. “We’re going to have a bumpy road,” Matt Przywara, chief financial
and operations officer at School District of Lancaster, said at a Dec.
8 school board meeting.
Environmental task
force provides guidance to Scranton School District
Times
Tribune BY
SARAH HOFIUS HALL STAFF WRITER Dec 28, 2020 Updated 57 min ago
In the midst
of widespread environmental problems in the Scranton School District 10 months
ago, parents and other community members demanded transparency and greater
communication. The district’s environmental task force has helped with those
goals. As the district abated asbestos and turned off any fixture with
lead-tainted water, a group of parent volunteers received input and offered
recommendations. Now, nearly a year since the district revealed the
environmental issues, the parents will continue to meet quarterly to discuss
long-range plans for making buildings safer for students and staff. “The task
force gave us an enormous opportunity to take in a wide variety of viewpoints
and work toward a plan that we can see moving forward,” said Scranton school
Director Ro Hume, chairwoman of the board’s operations committee and a member
of the task force. “We think it’s a model for other community task forces
moving forward … so we as a district can be responsive to stakeholders.”
Long ignored, private
online schools see golden opportunity in pandemic
WHYY By Avi Wolfman-Arent December 25, 2020
As she
entered her senior year this fall, Kayla Shenk felt ready for a change. She
adored the small Quaker school she’d attended since 6th grade. But because of
its size, the school didn’t offer all of the advanced science courses she
wanted to take as she prepared for college. And with the coronavirus pandemic still smoldering, she and her mom,
Patti, figured she’d be better off at an online school that could offer a big
course catalog and grant Kayla some of the independence she craved. “School’s
gonna be kind of messed up this year,” said Patti Shenk, who lives with her
family just outside Reading. “Why don’t we consider it? Why not? We have
nothing to lose.” A Google search led them to a place called Laurel Springs
School, a virtual private school that charges about $13,000 annually for a full
high school course load. Laurel Springs is widely regarded as the nation’s
first virtual school, with roots dating back to the early 1990s, when the
internet was in its infancy. One of its two physical headquarters is in West
Chester, Pennsylvania. If you haven’t heard of Laurel Springs, you’re probably
not alone. Historically, it hasn’t served the average student. “Many of our
students come to us for flexibility,” said head of school Megan O’Reilly
Palevich. “They’re athletes. They’re actors.” Only a sliver of kids needs a
school that fits around intense training, working, or travel schedules.
https://whyy.org/articles/long-ignored-private-online-schools-see-golden-opportunity-in-pandemic/
PIAA files suit in
Commonwealth Court, saying Pa. Right-to-Know Law should not apply to it
Tom
Reisenweber Erie Times-News December 23, 2020
The
Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association is suing to no longer have to
provide information to the public under a 12-year-old law that it has been
following. he PIAA has a filed petition asking the state Commonwealth
Court to declare that it is exempt from the Right-to-Know Law. The suit is
against the state and the state Office of Open Records, which handles
appeals of the Right-to-Know Law requests. The PIAA also wants Commonwealth
Court to find that the Office of Open Records has no jurisdiction over the
PIAA. The PIAA, which sued on Friday, will have to overcome what will likely be
a number of challenges to win its case. Among them is that the state's
Right-to-Know Law unequivocably includes the PIAA, and that the PIAA for years
has been providing information via Right-to-Know Law requests. The PIAA's
executive director, Bob Lombardi, said the organization has been fulfilling
Right-to-Know requests, but a few recent requests have caused the PIAA to take
action against its standing under that law. Lombardi indicated that the
PIAA believed that at least two requests were frivolous or overly burdensome to
fulfill.
Hempfield, Penn
Manor, other schools temporarily switching instructional models after holiday
break
Lancaster
Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer December 28, 2020
Several
Lancaster County school districts are reducing or delaying in-person
instruction at the start of the New Year to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in
schools following the holiday break. Among the school districts making a move
are Cocalico, Hempfield, Lancaster, Manheim Township, Octorara Area and Penn
Manor. The decisions mirror those made at numerous school districts before
Thanksgiving break as students and employees take the risk of contracting and
spreading COVID-19 by traveling or gathering with family over the holidays. At
Cocalico, the entire district is moving to remote instruction from Jan. 4 to 6,
with students expected to return in-person Jan. 7. As LNP | LancasterOnline
previously reported, elementary students will resume full-time, in-person
learning while secondary students will follow a hybrid schedule with both
online and in-person instruction for the remainder of the first semester.
Bucks cyber charter
students, teachers offer keys to sound virtual learning
Chris
English Bucks County Courier Times December 28, 2020
With 54% of
students in Pennsylvania still engaged in all-remote instruction because of the
coronavirus pandemic, it's clear virtual learning will remain a big part of
education for many more months, if not longer. And there are ways to make it better,
say those involved in at-home education by choice, not just because of the
virus. Creating a comfortable workspace and removing distractions are two of
the biggest keys to getting the most out of virtual instruction, local cyber
charter school students, teachers and administrators advise. "While cyber
education won't be the right fit for everyone, hopefully this experience has
proven that it must be available for everyone," said Perkasie native Rich
Jensen, CEO of Agora Cyber Charter School and a member of the Public Cyber
Charter School Association. "Parent/guardian involvement is crucial to
ensure students stay on task. When possible, keep schooling isolated to one
room to try and take away any potential distractions."
New Bucks-based group
calls for all-virtual instruction amid COVID spike
Chris
English Bucks County Courier Times December 24, 2020
Like many
other parents across Pennsylvania and the nation, Lynn Rutecki feels that
providing a full or close to full-time in-person instructional choice amid
spiraling COVID-19 case numbers is very misguided. So when the Neshaminy School
District replaced its hybrid option at the elementary schools with a
four-days-a-week classroom choice on Nov. 30, forcing her to enroll her
third-grade son Jake in the four-days option if he wanted any in-person
learning time, Rutecki felt compelled to take action. The Middletown resident
formed a Facebook group called Bucks County Parents Advocating Safety that has
since attracted more than 1,000 members from all 13 school districts in the
county, she said. "This is about me reaching out to find like-minded
concerned parents and community members who do not agree with what is happening
in their respective school districts," said Rutecki, a teacher in another
Bucks County district who isn't able to work from home.
Rebuilding America’s
schools: The new secretary of education will need to prioritize both access and
breadth of skills
Brookings by
Elias Blinkoff and Kathy
Hirsh-Pasek Wednesday, December 23, 2020
We
congratulate Miguel Cardona, Connecticut’s current education commissioner, on his nomination to serve as secretary
of education under President-elect Biden. Following
Senate confirmation, it will benefit children, teachers, and families alike to
have an experienced public school
educator at the helm of the U.S. Department of Education.
Reactions to Cardona’s nomination are laudatory, with support from public
education advocates, policymakers, and the nation’s major teachers’ unions, respectively stating that they were
“delighted” by the decision, “applauded” Cardona as “an experienced educator
and visionary leader,” and appreciated his “deep respect for educators.” Cardona’s
nomination reflects a vital federal investment in educational equity. Drawing
on his own
experiences growing up in a Meriden, Connecticut housing
project with parents who arrived from Puerto Rico and as an English language
learner, Cardona aims to narrow the opportunity gap through a comprehensive
approach that supports schools and communities.
His top priorities “inside the schoolhouse” include ensuring that all students
read by third grade and providing all students with access to a high-quality
curriculum. Beyond the school walls, Cardona is eager to collaborate with other
federal agencies to assist students struggling with housing and food
insecurity. He offers a strengths-based approach, recognizing resources that students bring from
their communities.
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
337 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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