Started in November 2010, daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, superintendents, school solicitors, principals, charter school leaders, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations, education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 regulatory agencies, professional associations and education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
These daily
emails are archived and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Visit us on Facebook at KeystoneStateEducationCoalition
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg
If any of your colleagues would like to be added to the
email list please have them send their name, title and affiliation to KeystoneStateEdCoalition@gmail.com
Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for Feb. 16, 2021
Know Your Facts on
Funding and Charter Performance. Then Call for Charter Change!
Curwensville
directors approve resolution calling for charter school funding reform
Clearfield Progress
News By
Dianne Byers dbyers@theprogressnews.com February 15, 2021
CURWENSVILLE
— Curwensville Area School Board called for charter school legislation reform
at Thursday’s combined work session and business meeting. Along with boards from Centre and Clinton
counties, Curwensville’s directors joined other Clearfield County public
schools in adopting a resolution calling for equitable funding for charter
schools. Superintendent Ron Matchock said when introducing the resolution to
the board, “We in education have been kicking this around for years. We are not
saying cyber education isn’t good, we’re saying the way it is funded is unfair.
Public schools have expenses for their buildings and student transportation.
Cyber schools don’t have this,” he explained. Matchock said public schools were
prepared in 2019-20 school years to protest cyber school funding, but then
schools shut down to help stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The push
has started again…Clearfield, Centre and Clinton counties plan to take the
resolution to Capitol Days in March and meet with legislators. This is so
important. We are not saying cyber education is bad, we are just asking it be
funded in a fair way,” Matchock said.
358 adopted charter
reform resolutions
PSBA Website
February 15, 2021
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.
The school
boards from the following districts have adopted resolutions calling for
charter funding reform. This list will be updated regularly.
https://www.psba.org/2020/03/adopted-charter-reform-resolutions/
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
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then Call for
Charter Change!
PSBA Charter
Change Website:
https://www.pacharterchange.org/
PA Schools Work: Lunch
& Learn Webinar: A Deep Dive on the Budget Tuesday, February 16 at
noon.
Don't forget
that our next Lunch & Learn webinar, where we will explain the
details of the education components of Governor Wolf's budget
proposal, will be held Tuesday, February 16
at noon. You can register for the webinar here.
You
can view archived videos of all our webinars here.
Budget Resources: You can access a few documents that might be
helpful in understanding Governor Wolf's budget proposal here:
https://mailchi.mp/paschoolswork/join-us-wednesday-802538?e=119d26f960
Pa. schools would get
hike of more than $1B with Gov. Wolf’s budget, but officials aren’t banking on
cash yet
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Updated 5:30 AM; Today 5:30 AM
Gov. Tom
Wolf’s bold and aggressive effort to help Pennsylvania’s school districts has
wound up making life more complicated for the administrators who run them. An
injection of this kind of money has superintendents dreaming big dreams, much
like those lottery players have when the Powerball jackpot grows to 10 figures.
The governor’s 2021-22 budget proposal calls for a $1.35 billion increase – the
largest proposed increase in state history – for basic education. That would
bump the total to $8.1 billion. In addition, he is proposing $200 million for
special education, which would push the state funding for this budget line to
nearly $1.4 billion. But Wolf isn’t just proposing an influx of new cash. He
also proposes a different funding formula to more equitably distribute the
money among the 500 school districts.
Readers' Views: Gov.
Wolf's school funding plan is a step forward
Pottstown
Mercury Opinion by Marlene Armato, February 15, 2021
As a member
of POWER Interfaith, I applaud Gov. Tom Wolf’s bold proposal to substantially
increase Basic Education Funding and to distribute most of the money through
Pennsylvania’s fair funding formula. This proposal is a huge step in reducing
the systemic racial bias in school funding. Since 2014, POWER Interfaith has
demanded an end to the racial disparities in school funding, which this year
shortchanged school districts educating the highest proportion of Black and
Hispanic students by an average of $2,240 per student compared to their fair
share according to Pennsylvania’s own funding formula (Act 35 of 2016). A
substantial racial disparity will still exist because Gov. Wolf’s proposal also
calls for a special adjustment amount, outside of the fair funding formula, to
ensure that no district gets a decrease in funding. There will still be more
work in future years to eliminate the remaining racial bias.
Should Pa. increase
education funding by raising taxes? | Pro/Con
Inquirer Commentary
by Laura Boyce and Jennifer Stefano Posted: February 15, 2021 - 9:32 AM
Laura Boyce
of Teach Plus debates Jennifer Stefano of the Commonwealth Foundation.
Laura Boyce
is the Pennsylvania Executive Director of Teach Plus. lboyce@teachplus.org
Jennifer
Stefano is the vice president and chief strategy officer of the Commonwealth
Foundation. She is the vice chair of Broad and Liberty.
Gov. Tom
Wolf’s 2021 budget proposal put education at its center, featuring an extra
$1.5 billion for public schools paid for by raising personal income taxes.
While officials say the plan includes tax credits that would exempt two-thirds
of Pennsylvanians from the tax bump, Republican state legislators immediately
pushed back against what they declared a middle-class tax increase. The
Inquirer turned to the head of a teacher development nonprofit and a
Commonwealth Foundation leader to debate: Should the legislature approve Gov.
Wolf’s plan for education funding?
Philly should use the
schools reopening debate to fix longer-term problems | Opinion
Tajma
Cameron, For the Inquirer Posted: February 15, 2021 - 11:43 AM
As
author Adrienne
Maree Brown wrote, “Things are not getting worse, they are
getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the
veil.” For communities of color, COVID-19 has compounded the inequities
prevalent in K-12 schools as virtual instruction has replaced face-to-face
instruction for the foreseeable future. School closures and the transition to
remote learning have resulted in millions of students losing access to
education and crucial health resources. While efforts have been focused on
reopening Philadelphia schools, the district must be as focused on addressing
the issues that were present before the pandemic and its long-term consequences.
COVID-19 has entrenched educational inequities for communities of color. In
November, citing a surge in COVID-19 cases, Philadelphia schools reversed their
decision to reopen school buildings, continuing virtual instruction until a
later date. Ensuring the physical safety of students is paramount, making the
decision to remain virtual during an uncontrolled pandemic prudent and
necessary. But because of the preexisting lack of access to the internet and
other services important for learning environments, students in communities of
color have been disproportionately affected by school closures. Furthermore,
students in need of services such as special education, including one-to-one
care, are at an even greater disadvantage due to distance education. New
evidence shows that the loss of learning caused
by the pandemic may extend beyond the pandemic.
Wilkes-Barre Area
expecting schools to reopen in two weeks
Citizens
Voice BY
MICHAEL P. BUFFER STAFF WRITER Feb 15, 2021 Updated 7 hrs ago
Wilkes-Barre
Area School District Superintendent Brian Costello said Monday he is optimistic
in-person classes will resume March 1, as tentatively planned. During a virtual
school board meeting, Costello noted Luzerne County COVID-19 metrics are
“trending in the right direction, which is definitely good news for our
district.” Test positivity in Luzerne County from Feb. 5 through Thursday was
8.5%, down from 10.4% over the previous seven days, and the county incidence
rate was 174.2 cases per 100,000 residents, down from 215.8. The state
recommends all-virtual learning or a blended model with in-person learning only
for elementary school students for schools in counties with substantial
transmission. The guidance is not a mandate. Substantial transmission is
defined as having a test positivity rate of at least 10% or an incidence rate
of at least 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over seven days. Wilkes-Barre
Area will remain in the fully remote learning mode in February and suspended
in-person classes when Luzerne County moved from moderate to substantial
transmission in late October. The county incidence rate was 138.8 from Oct. 30
to Nov. 5 and surged to 663 from Dec. 11-17.
Carbondale Area
students head back to the classroom on March 8
Times
Tribune BY
KATHLEEN BOLUS STAFF WRITER Feb 15,
2021
Students in
the Carbondale Area School District will begin a phased return to hybrid,
in-person learning on Monday, March 8. The first to return to their classrooms
the second Monday in March will be prekindergarten to second grade students,
high-incident special education students in kindergarten to 12th grade and
Carbondale Area Achievement Program students. They will be followed by third to
ninth graders on March 15, and finally sophomores, juniors and seniors on March
22, Superintendent Holly Sayre said during Wednesday’s virtual school board
meeting. The students have been learning completely remote since the beginning
of the school year. “Our goal is going to be to maintain the strict protocols
outlined in our health and safety plan, and we believe this is accomplished by
using a measured approach beginning with a small group of students,” Sayre
said.
Some high schools
change mask policy to avoid WPIAL playoff forfeits
MIKE WHITE Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette mwhite@post-gazette.com FEB 15, 2021
Some WPIAL
schools still have a policy on masks, not allowing their basketball teams to
play an opponent that doesn’t wear masks in the regular season. But if the mask
issue means forfeiting a WPIAL playoff game, then hold on. Some of those same
schools have reversed field and decided opponents in masks isn’t a must after
all — at least not in the playoffs. The WPIAL will have “open” basketball
tournaments for boys and girls this season, meaning all teams are invited to
participate, regardless of record or number of games played. This is only the
second time in league history that the playoffs have been “open” tournaments.
The other was 1984.
Michael Masch, former
budget secretary of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia budget director, and CFO of city
schools, dies at 70
Inquirer by Gary Miles, Posted: February 15, 2021- 6:23
PM
Michael
Masch, 70, of Philadelphia, a longtime financial and operations manager for
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and several academic institutions, died Sunday,
Feb. 7, at his home in Washington. The cause of death is pending the results of
laboratory tests. He had been living with diabetes. Well known in political and
academic circles, Mr. Masch served as the secretary of budget and
administration for the state under former Gov. Ed Rendell from 2003-08. He had
been the Philadelphia budget director from 1992-96 when Rendell was mayor, and
later served as the chief financial officer of the School District of
Philadelphia from 2008-12. He also had worked as vice president for budget and
management at the University of Pennsylvania, senior policy analyst and researcher
for the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, and vice president for finance
and chief financial officer at Manhattan College.
Keith Jarrett - Over
the Rainbow (Tokyo 1984)
YouTube
Runtime 5:27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyLQGDIrGcI
All School Directors:
PSBA Monthly Zoom Exchange Feb 18 12:30 - 1:30 PM
Join other
PSBA-member school directors for cross-district networking and discussion on
education hot topics, legislative updates and advocacy strategies. All School
Directors: Monthly Exchange will be held via Zoom at 12:30 p.m. every third
Thursday of the month, January through June. Geographic-based breakout rooms
will be utilized to allow for discussion among school directors in the same
regions of the state. Learn more or register: http://ow.ly/rW4F50DrrCq
Join Education Voters
for "PA School Funding and Advocacy 101" for an overview of school
funding issues, an update on the school funding lawsuit and more.
Education Voters
PA February 2021
Click HERE to register for one of our webinars.
Fri, Feb 19, 12:00pm–1:00pm EST
Tue, Feb 23, 7:00pm–8:00pm EST
Questions we
will answer include:
- How are schools funded in PA?
- Who decides how much funding my local
schools get?
- What is the Basic Education Funding
Formula (fair funding formula)?
- Why does Pennsylvania have the widest
funding gap between wealthy and poor school districts of any state in the
country?
- How are charter schools funded and how
can the current system be reformed?
- How can I most effectively advocate for
the school funding students in my district and throughout Pennsylvania's
need and deserve?
We will also
provide a brief update on Pennsylvania's school funding lawsuit, which is
scheduled to go to trial this year. (Visit www.FundOurSchoolsPa.org to learn more!) And we'll have plenty
of time for Q&A. I hope that you'll join us and/or share this invitation with people in your network who are
interested in learning more and getting involved.
Virtual Town Hall on
education fair funding co- sponsored by Avon Grove Charter School and
Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools set Feb. 24
West Chester
Daily Local by MediaNews Group February 6, 2021
WEST GROVE—There
will be a virtual Town Hall Meeting on Fair Funding in Education on Wednesday,
Feb. 24 at 7 pm. The public is invited. The Town Hall is being co- sponsored by Avon Grove Charter School and Pennsylvania
Coalition of Public Charter Schools. Topics include: problem solve fair
funding solutions; learn how public schools are funded in PA.; learn
about the differences between charter & district schools funding.
All are
welcome. RSVP Link - https://forms.gle/8of8ARxr7Zfdfmp97.
PSBA Spring Virtual Advocacy Day - MAR 22, 2021
PSBA Website January 2021
All public school leaders are invited to join
us for our spring Virtual Advocacy Day on Monday, March 22, 2021, 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
spring 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: Complimentary
for members
Registration: Registration
is available under Event Registration on myPSBA.org.
https://www.psba.org/event/psba-spring-virtual-advocacy-day/
Attend the NSBA 2021
Online Experience April 8-10
NSBA is
pleased to announce the transformation of its in-person NSBA 2021 Annual
Conference & Exposition to the NSBA 2021 Online Experience. This experience
will bring world-class programming, inspirational keynotes, top education
solution providers, and plentiful networking opportunities. Join us on April
8-10, 2021, for a fully transformed and memorable event!
https://www.nsba.org/Events/NSBA-2021-Online-Experience
The 2021 PA
Educational Leadership Summit, hosted by the PA Principals
Association and the PA Association of School Administrators
(PASA), is being held from August 1-3 at the Kalahari Resorts and
Convention Center, Poconos.
PA
Principals Association Thursday, February 11, 2021 8:54 AM
PIL Hours
Available! See links below to register and for further information.
Click here for the informational flyer and details.
NPE/NPE Action
Conference In Philly was rescheduled to October 23/24 due to concerns w/
COVID19.
Network for
Public Education
NPE will be
sending information to registrants very soon!
https://npeaction.org/2021-conference/
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
358 PA school boards have
adopted charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 350 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/
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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