Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1875
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent
advocates, teacher leaders, 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 and Twitter.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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WHYY Newsworks By Mary Wilson, @Marywilson March 21, 2013
A plan to privatize the way liquor is sold in Pennsylvania
House Democrats had offered more than 100 amendments making tweaks large
and small to a plan to phase out most state wine and spirit stores, allow wine
sales in grocery stores and OK beer sales in gas stations. But they withdrew most of them after one of
their largest amendments failed.
PA 1 of only 2 states in booze biz; 1 of
only 3 states without an education funding formula
Help spread the message of the Pennsylvania School
Increase state funding for basic education for academic programs and
services to students in 2013-2014 by $270 million (first installment of
three-year plan to restore nearly $900 million of 2011-2012 cuts).
Distribute
funds to districts with a formula that accounts for the number of students,
includes “weights” for the additional costs for educating students with special
needs (including students in poverty, gifted students, and English language
learners), and provides sustainable and predictable funding for districts.
http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.blogspot.com/2013/03/help-spread-message-of-pennsylvania.html
“SB 335: If a public school
district offers a cyber-based program equal in scope and content to an existing
publicly chartered cyber charter school and a student in that district attends
a cyber charter school instead of the district's cyber-based program, the
school district shall not be required to provide funding to pay for a student's
attendance at a cyber charter school.”
As I See It: A solution to
cyber-charter school funding
By Patriot-News
Op-Ed By Don Bell on March 13, 2013 at 12:00 AM
Don Bell is the superintendent of schools for
the Northern Lebanon School District
Next year, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania
Let’s drop that soundbite pretext of helping poor kids in failing
schools. There’s money to be made, and locally
elected school boards are just an inconvenience.
“Georgia
The Atlanta March 18, 2013
Seven states have so-called “parent-trigger” laws on their books, though
only one of them, California California , Connecticut ,
Indiana , Louisiana ,
Mississippi , Ohio
and Texas
“Protesters were set to meet outside Houston
Hall — where the session was planned to take place — claiming “that
since BCG decided to shut down our schools it’s only fair to shut
down their meeting,” according to the protest’s Facebook event.”
Boston Consulting Group presentation
canceled in face of protest at Penn
Activists claim victory after objecting to
firm's involvement with school closings
The Daily Pennsylvanian By WILL MARBLE · March 20, 2013, 12:40 pm
An on-campus information session for the Boston Consulting Group was
canceled at the last minute today against the backdrop of planned student
protests.
The Student Labor Action Project, a student group for workers’ rights,
planned to protest the presentation because of BCG’s involvement with
school closings in Philadelphia School
District of Philadelphia Philadelphia
With parent demand surging, 20
charters seeking to expand in Philadelphia
by thenotebook on Mar 20 2013 Posted in Latest news
by Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news
partner
Chrissy Poper has been trying to get her 8-year old daughter into the
popular MaST Community
Charter School
in Northeast Philadelphia for the last three
years. But with parent demand far
outpacing the number of available seats at the school, Poper has been left to
play some very long odds. "I put
applications in for her in kindergarten, first, and second grade," Poper
said.
"She just hasn't hit the lottery yet."
By BRIAN WALLACE Staff Writer
Originally Published Mar
19, 2013 19:52
Citing "serious and pervasive deficiencies" in its application,
the School District
of Lancaster Lancaster
Budget woes could force Bethlehem
Officials say they may have no choice in light of $8.2 million budget
gap.
By Margie Peterson, Special to The Morning Call 9:25 p.m. EDT, March
19, 2013
A Bethlehem Area School Board discussion over funding pre-kindergarten
classes grew heated Monday evening in what might be a taste of things to come
as school directors face tough choices for next year's budget. When it approved its preliminary 2013-14
budget in February, the district was facing a nearly $8.2 million deficit.
The sharp exchanges Monday came after the board voted to apply for a
$786,000 state Pre-K Counts grant to run its SPARK pre-school program for
at-risk 3- and 4-year-olds.
Hey, Teach !!! — Dear Students
Jason
Finn, Ed.D., is a former U.S.
Attention! Students!
I am
sorry to inform you that your public school is closing. After an intensive
study done by an outside consulting firm at great cost involving money we don’t
have, we have found that public education’s benefits simply no longer outweigh
the costs.
Can They Fly Our Kids
to School?
What on earth is going on with our state legislators? Yesterday the House
Finance Committee voted, 18 to 6, to give away $14 million in our taxpayer
money to exempt the super-wealthy from paying sales tax on the purchase of
their private jets. House Bill 1100 will also keep corporate aircraft, jet
parts, maintenance, and repair all tax free. Of course, you and I will still
have to pay sales tax on our cars. [Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy
Center
Seriously? Eighteen Pennsylvania
State Board of Education adopts new revision to Chapter 4
regulations:
Common Core Standards, Keystone Exams, PSSA Alignment
PSBA’s
website March 14,
2013
On March
14, the State Board of Education approved extensive changes to its draft
revisions of the Chapter 4 regulations for academic standards and assessment
that received the board's initial approval last May. The regulations apply to
school districts, charter and cyber charter schools, and area vocational
technical schools. The final form version of Chapter 4 changes will now move
the second stage of the formal approval process and be transmitted to the
Independent Regulatory Review Commission and the Senate and House Education
Committees for consideration. The changes approved by the State Board in March
will not be final and effective until the review is complete and the new
Chapter 4 is published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin.
Key provisions under
the Chapter 4 proposal as adopted March 14, 2013 :
PDE PRESS
RELEASE March 20,
2013
PA Secretary of
Education Tells Committee Governor Corbett’s Digital Learning Proposal Expands
Educational Opportunities for Students
Harrisburg – Governor Tom Corbett’s proposal to
expand digital learning to all students across Pennsylvania is an important
component to the future of education in Pennsylvania, said Secretary of
Education Ron Tomalis today during testimony before the House Education
Committee. “Digital learning is not just
a short-term trend, it is quickly becoming the new model for education across
the state and throughout the country,” Tomalis said. “The higher
education and business communities as well as our day-to-day lives have adapted
to the digital environment and our public education system must follow the same
path to make sure that students are provided with additional high-quality
learning opportunities.”
The
committee’s focus was Rep. Ryan Aument’s (R-Lancaster) proposal, House Bill
983, which would require the Department of Education to create a clearinghouse
for online courses to be made accessible to school entities, including school
districts, charter and cyber charter schools, intermediate units, and career
and technical centers.
Read
more
Gay-Straight Alliance
Chambersburg
Public Opinion Online By BRIAN HALL @bkhallpo March 20,2013
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania was
notified Wednesday that the Chambersburg
Area School
District
The school board meets at 7 p.m. March 27 in the CAMS North
auditorium.
Elvis has left the building; maybe not….
Where’s Voyager 1? That Depends.
The two Voyager spacecrafts are now
approaching the edge of the solar system.
New York Times By KENNETH CHANG Published: March 20, 2013
For about three hours on Wednesday, Voyager 1 had left the solar system —
before a rewritten news release headline pulled it back in.Voyager 1,
one of two spacecraft NASA launched
in 1977 on a grand tour of the outer planets, is now nearly 11.5 billion miles
from the Sun, speeding away at 38,000 miles per hour. In a paper accepted by
the journal Geophysical Review Letters, William R. Webber of New Mexico State
University and Frank B. McDonald of
the University of
Maryland
PSBA opens nominations for the
Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award
PSBA website 3/15/2013
The nomination process is now open and applications will be accepted
until June 21,
2013 .
In 2011, PSBA created a new award to honor the memory of its long-term
chief lobbyist, who died unexpectedly. The Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award
may be presented annually to the individual school director or entire school
board to recognize outstanding leadership in legislative advocacy efforts on
behalf of public education and students that are consistent with the positions
in PSBA’s Legislative Platform. The nomination process is
now open and applications will be accepted until June 21, 2013 . The award will be
presented during the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in October.
PSBA officer applications due April
30
PSBA’s website 2/15/2013
Candidates seeking election to PSBA officer posts in 2014 must file an
expression of interest for the office desired to be interviewed by the PSBA
Leadership Development Committee.
This new committee replaces the former Nominations Committee. Deadline
for filing is April 30. The application shall be marked received at
PSBA headquarters or mailed first class and postmarked by the deadline to be considered
timely filed. Expression of interest forms can be found online at www.psba.org/about/psba/board-of-directors/officers/electing-officers.asp.
Edcamp Philly 2013 at UPENN
May 18th, 2013
For those of you who have never gone to an
Edcamp before, please make a note of the unusual part of the morning where we
will build the schedule. Edcamp doesn’t believe in paying fancy people to come
and talk at you about teaching! At an Edcamp, the people attending – the participants
- facilitate sessions on teaching and learning! So Edcamp won’t
succeed without a whole bunch of you wanting to run a session of some kind!
What kinds of sessions might you run?
What: Edcamp Philly is an"unconference" devoted
to K-12 Education issues and ideas.
Where:University
of Pennsylvania
Where:
2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on
Advocacy and Issues
April 6, 2013 The Penn Stater Convention Center Hotel; State College, PA
Strategic leadership, school budgeting and advocacy are key issues facing today's school district leaders. For your school district to truly thrive, leaders must maintain a solid understanding of these three functions. Attend the 2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on Advocacy and Issues to ensure you have the skills you need to take your district to the next level.
April 6, 2013 The Penn Stater Convention Center Hotel; State College, PA
Strategic leadership, school budgeting and advocacy are key issues facing today's school district leaders. For your school district to truly thrive, leaders must maintain a solid understanding of these three functions. Attend the 2013 PSBA Leadership Symposium on Advocacy and Issues to ensure you have the skills you need to take your district to the next level.
