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 January 14, 2021
PASBO Report: Pa.
school districts project $475M increase in charter school costs ($350M of that for
cybers) during pandemic
Do you know someone who is interested in learning more about the role of
a school board director? PSBA will host free sessions covering the core
considerations for candidates who are contemplating running for school board:
Pa. school districts
project $475M increase in charter school costs during pandemic | Thursday
Morning Coffee
PA Capital
Star Commentary By John
L. Micek January 14, 2021
Good
Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
Pennsylvania’s
500 school districts are projecting a $475 million increase charter school
tuition costs this year as parents sought new ways to educate their kids in the
middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report has found. Tuition payments to
cyber-charter schools make up a staggering $350 million of that tally, the survey by the Pennsylvania
Association of School Business Officials found, and that spending increase “was
noted by many survey respondents as a top financial concern for next year,
followed by assessment appeals and state funding.” The survey, conducted with
the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and
the Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools, runs
down the fiscal and instructional challenges during an historic public health
crisis that saw schools repeatedly between in-person and remote instruction,
challenging administrators, teachers and students alike. The pandemic “required
an unprecedented change in K-12 schools to overcome new operational and fiscal
challenges and continue to educate Pennsylvania’s students in the wake of the
most critical public health crisis in our nation’s history,” PASBO said
in a statement.
Federal aid is
keeping Pa. schools afloat, but state will need to step up with funding, report
says
While
federal aid is subsidizing new costs brought on by the pandemic, Pennsylvania's
school districts could be facing a budget hole once the aid expires in 2023,
the report warns.
Inquirer by Maddie Hanna January 13, 2021
While
federal aid has helped keep Pennsylvania’s school districts afloat during the
pandemic, the state will have to intervene as those dollars dry up and local
revenues falter amid the economic downturn, according to a new report.. The
report, released Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Association of School Business
Officials, Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, and Pennsylvania
Association of Rural and Small Schools, credited the influx of federal funding
for the state’s 500 school districts — $575 million this year, followed by $1.6
billion expected in the next — with subsidizing costs brought on by the
pandemic. But, it warned, school districts could be facing a budget hole once
the aid expires in 2023 — particularly if the money is used to backfill
traditional funding streams, as during the Great Recession more than a decade
ago. Many schools used that federal stimulus money to cover positions as state
funding plunged; when it expired, districts were forced to make deep cuts, the
effects of which endured for years.
The CARES Act passed last summer
provided Pennsylvania schools with about $575 million, funding which schools
have to spend by Sept. 30, 2022. The COVID relief legislation signed into law
in late December provides more than twice as much to local schools. Barrick
said schools districts in the state stand to get about $1.6 billion, which must
be used by Sept. 30, 2023. Schools used federal funding to balance their
budgets during and after the Great Recession of 2007 and 2008 but ended up
financially devastated when the state, under former Gov. Tom Corbett, refused
to replace $1 billion in federal dollars when they ran out.
Schools brace for
long-term strain from COVID economic shutdown
The Daily
Item By John Finnerty/CNHI State Reporter January 13, 2021
The
financial devastation of the pandemic and its economic shutdowns may strain
school finances long after the vaccinations allow schools to return to normal
operations, school officials said Wednesday. In the short-term, federal COVID
relief funding may help schools avoid drastic property tax increases this year.
But there are concerns about whether state funding will keep pace to help
schools manage when the federal COVID relief dollars run out, said Hannah
Barrick, assistant executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of
Business Officials. More than half of Pennsylvania’s school districts passed
budgets that didn’t raise property taxes, according. to a new report from the
Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials. How difficult the coming
year will be for local school districts isn’t entirely clear. School districts
don’t know the scope of any reduced earned income tax revenue and many appeals
of tax assessment have not been resolved, according to the report. The federal
stimulus funding may help school districts balance their books without tax
increases this coming year, as well, Barrick said.
COVID impact on
school districts varies across Pennsylvania, new report shows
West Chester
Daily Local By David Mekeel dmekeel@readingeagle.com @dmekeel on Twitter January
13, 2021
Each year,
the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials puts out a report on
the financial picture for school districts across the state. In the
newest version
released Wednesday, one thing was crystal clear. "The fact
that we clearly know is that all school districts are negatively impacted by
COVID," said Hannah Barrick, PASBO assistant executive director. What's
not as obvious, Barrick said, is what, exactly, that impact looks like. Each of
the 500 school districts in the state has its own unique situation, she said,
which means each district has experienced the pandemic slightly differently. "While
everyone is impacted, that scope is tremendously different," she said. The
PASBO report tried to get a bit of a handle on the issue, painting a picture of
some of the biggest statewide trends resulting from COVID-19. It is based on
surveys of school leaders and business officials, as well as publicly available
data. Because the pandemic is an ongoing challenge, the report broke down its
impact into three sections: the impact on last school year, the impact on the
current year and the potential impact in future school years.
Read the PASBO 2021
School District Budget Report
PASBO January
13, 2021
School
districts across Pennsylvania are experiencing a transformational moment for
education. A global pandemic disrupted the 2019-20 school year and has upended
the status quo in terms of instruction, budgets, staffing and everything
in-between. The status quo is gone, and school districts have spent the past
ten months adapting, pivoting and evolving in an unprecedented and
ever-changing environment that is likely to continue for the duration of the
2020-21 school year—at least. To better understand the challenges school
districts are experiencing and the extent of the impact of the COVID-19
pandemic, the PA Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), the PA
Association of School Administrators (PASA) and the PA Association of Rural and
Small Schools (PARSS) conducted a survey of school district business managers
and superintendents.
https://pasbo.org/2021-budget-report
Senator Martin
Appointed to Lead Senate Education Committee
Senator
Martin’s Website Posted on Jan 13, 2021
HARRISBURG –
Senator Scott Martin (R-13) was appointed today to serve as Chair of the Senate
Education Committee for the 2021-22 Legislative Session. The committee is
responsible for considering issues and legislation related to Pennsylvania’s
education system, including school safety, funding issues and post-secondary
opportunities for students. “It is an honor and a privilege to be given the
opportunity to chair a committee that will play such an important role in
shaping Pennsylvania’s future leaders in business, industry and government,”
Martin said. “With students spending less time in the classroom and more time
learning at home over the past year, there has never been a more important time
to consider the future of education and how we can ensure our schools can
continue to prepare students for the challenges they will face in the future.”
A former Secretary of Education for
Governors Ridge and Schweiker, Zogby also served as Budget Director for Gov.
Tom Corbett. Between his government gigs with Schweiker and Corbett, Zogby
was senior vice president of education and policy for K12 Inc., the nation’s
largest for-profit operator of online public schools.
Pennsylvania
Treasurer-elect Stacy Garrity names former Erie SD financial administrator
Charles Zogby as Deputy Treasurer for Fiscal Operations
YourErie Posted: Jan
12, 2021 / 03:24 PM EST / Updated: Jan 12, 2021 / 03:24 PM EST
Pennsylvania
Treasurer-elect Stacy Garrity has named the former financial administrator for
Erie’s Public Schools as Deputy Treasurer for Fiscal Operations. The
Pennsylvania Treasurer-elect announced today two key appointments to her
incoming administration, naming deputy treasurers for both communications and
policy. Charles Zogby joins the Garrity Administration as Deputy
Treasurer for Fiscal Operations and Policy. A former Secretary of Education for
Governors Ridge and Schweiker, Zogby also served as Budget Director for Gov.
Tom Corbett. In the latter role, Zogby oversaw the creation of a budget that
closed a $4.2 billion structural deficit as the state was emerging from the
worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Zogby also served as
financial administrator for Erie’s Public Schools. He left that post in
Feb. 2020 to serve as a special assistant on budget issues for the state Senate
Republican leadership. He resides in York County.
Pa. coronavirus
update: Montco rolls out weekly testing for teachers, at-risk students
WHYY By Ximena Conde January 13, 2021
On
Wednesday, the commonwealth reported 7,960 new coronavirus
cases with an additional 349 deaths as of Tuesday. To date,
Pennsylvania officials report 741,389 total cases of the
virus. A total of 18,429 people have died. Pennsylvania
reports 5,204 people are in the hospital because of the virus,
near the peak in the spring, with 1,060 in the intensive care unit.
The number
of people tested with positive results for the first week of January is 14.4%.
Montco rolls
out weekly testing of teachers and at-risk students
The
Montgomery County Office of Public Health and the Montgomery County School
District have started to roll out the antigen testing program in area schools. The
regional effort offers in-school rapid testing for children and staff who
become sick during the school day as well as weekly testing for staff and
high-risk students. Val Arkoosh, chair of the Montgomery County Board of
Commissioners, said the program is voluntary, free and will run through April
2021.
Philadelphia board
wants to confront equity issues and old assumptions, its president says
Chalkbeat
Philly By Dale
Mezzacappa Jan 13, 2021, 10:14am EST
In the
Philadelphia school district, teachers typically are allocated based on student
enrollment and assigned based on seniority. Class size limits are the same
everywhere, with 30 students in kindergarten through third grade, and 33
students in other grades, regardless of a school’s needs or demographics. These
are among the assumptions that have governed how the school district has operated
for decades. It may be time to throw those assumptions and some others out the
window, according to the board of education. Rethinking everything about how
the board does business, including long-held practices, is the impetus for the
board’s new “goals and guardrails” initiative that was announced
last month, with all the board members expressing
support. They said it is meant to focus their efforts on what really matters —
student achievement — and hold themselves and Superintendent William Hite more
accountable. To do that, Joyce Wilkerson, board president, said members of the
board are ready to upend accepted norms and practices if they have to, such as
the formula for allocating teachers to schools and the method for determining
where individual teachers are assigned. “What we’re doing now isn’t working for
too many children,” Wilkerson said. ”We’ve got to start thinking differently.”
‘Stubborn inequity’:
6 in 10 Philly kids still attend low-performing schools, report says
The patterns
are not new, but the persistent inequities are notable as the Philadelphia
School District prepares to face significant upheaval. Most Philadelphia
children attend schools that rank in the "low-performing" category, a
new analysis found, but largely, those schools are improving.
Inquirer by Kristen
A. Graham Published Jan 13, 2021
Though most
Philadelphia schools have made academic strides in recent years, six in 10 city
children still attend a low-performing school, and the picture is much starker
for Black and Latino children and kids living in economically disadvantaged
neighborhoods. The patterns are not new, but the persistent inequities are
notable as the Philadelphia School District prepares to face significant budget challenges and a planning process that could result in school closings and other upheavals. The data come from a report,
released Wednesday by the Philadelphia School Partnership,
which analyzed three years of enrollment, student achievement, and growth at
schools serving about 140,000 children in kindergarten through eighth grade in
traditional public schools and city charters. The children account for 70% of
the 200,000 students enrolled in traditional public and charter schools
combined. (The report did not include high schools in its research, or compare
district to charter school performance.) The analysis comes while school
buildings are still closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with leaders stating
unequivocally that systemwide changes will be necessary going forward, for
reasons financial and educational.
Racial, economic
inequities persist in Philadelphia schools, new report says
Chalkbeat
Philly By Neena Hagen Jan 13, 2021, 8:46pm EST
The city’s
high-achieving schools enroll drastically higher numbers of white and wealthy
students than the district as a whole, according to a new report released Wednesday by the Philadelphia
School Partnership. Overall, 60% of Philadelphia kids attend low-achieving
schools, with Black and Latino kids overrepresented at the lowest-performing
schools, according to the PSP report. And low-income areas, like North and West
Philadelphia, are home to fewer high-ranking schools than wealthier
neighborhoods. The data “affirms the landscape that many people probably would
have expected,” said David Saenz, PSP’s spokesman. The report, based primarily
on state standardized test scores, uses the last three years of publicly
available data to measure achievement, academic growth rates, and enrollment
patterns in schools with kindergarten to eighth grade. High schools were
excluded from the analysis because they administer different standardized tests.
Elementary and middle schools use the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment
or PSSA.
Vaccines for
Philadelphia teachers could be ready in two weeks
Mayor,
health commissioner are hopeful that in-person learning will resume this school
year.
Chalkbeat
Philly By Johann Calhoun Jan 13, 2021, 10:29am EST
Philadelphia
teachers could begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine the last week of January,
the city’s health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley confirmed Tuesday to
Chalkbeat. The city had originally anticipated vaccinating teachers beginning
the first week of February, but the process of distributing the vaccine to
health care workers in Phase 1A is ahead of schedule. “We’ve always said that
we are not going to wait until Phase 1A is complete” to begin the next phase,
said Farley, who noted that there are still many health care workers who have
yet to receive their shots. “We are looking to start vaccinating people in
Phase 1B the last week of January, perhaps Jan. 25, which is a couple of weeks
away.” Teachers aides and school food service and facilities workers will also
be eligible.
What’s next after
House impeachment vote: AP explainer
Penn Live By The Associated Press Updated Jan 13, 2021; Posted Jan 13,
2021
WASHINGTON —
President Donald Trump has been impeached by the House days before leaving office,
becoming the first American president to be impeached twice. The previous three
impeachments — those of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Trump —
took months before a final vote, including investigations in the House and
hearings. This time it only took a week after Trump encouraged a crowd of his
supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol. Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to
impeach Trump on one charge: incitement of insurrection. Outgoing Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will not begin a trial
until next Tuesday, at the very earliest, which is the day before Democrat Joe
Biden is sworn in as president. It’s unclear, for now, exactly how that trial
will proceed and if any Senate Republicans will vote to convict Trump. Even
though the trial won’t happen until Trump is already out of office, it could
still have the effect of preventing him from running for president again.
A look at
the next steps:
https://www.pennlive.com/politics/2021/01/whats-next-after-house-impeachment-vote-ap-explainer.html
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/
PSBA Webinar: New
Congress, New Dynamics
JAN 14, 2021
• 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
The 2020
election brings significant changes to the 117th U.S. Congress. How will the
newly sworn-in senators and representatives impact public education? What
issues will need to be addressed this session? To become an effective
legislative advocate you’ll need to understand the new players and dynamics.
Our experts will profile key new members, discuss what big trends you can
expect and highlight the issues that will be debated over the next two years.
Presenters: Jared Solomon, senior public advisor,
BOSE Public Affairs Group
John Callahan, chief advocacy officer, PSBA
Cost: Complimentary for members.
Registration: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CQkk1Sd0QmOhdJ3VmlSzGg
https://www.psba.org/event/new-congress-new-dynamics/
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.
