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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA
Ed Policy Roundup May 3, 2016:
200 Ed Advocates at Capitol: Make Funding Formula
Permanent; Increase BEF by $400M
See
guest PA Sec of Education Pedro Rivera next Sunday May 8 at 3:00 pm on EPLC's
"Focus on Education" on PCN
“Ultimately, ensuring that every student has a high-quality
education is not just a federal responsibility, it’s a state and local one,
too,” King said. “Pennsylvania, I think, has not invested adequately in public
schools for some time.”
Pennsylvania has
underfunded schools, U.S. education official says
Ellwood City Ledger By Daveen Rae Kurutz Calkins Media Tuesday, May 3, 2016 4:00 am
BOSTON --
Pennsylvania isn’t pulling its weight when it comes to funding education, U.S.
Secretary of Education John King said Monday.
When asked about special education being an “unfunded federal mandate”
by a Philadelphia-based reporter during the 2016 Education Writers Association
national seminar, King said the financial burden of educating all students
doesn’t fall solely on the federal government.
“Ultimately, ensuring that every student has a high-quality education is
not just a federal responsibility, it’s a state and local one, too,” King said.
“Pennsylvania, I think, has not invested adequately in public schools for some
time.”
He pointed to the
nine-month budget impasse that caused most Beaver County schools to take out
loans to pay bills and make payroll. Last year, the Pennsylvania Basic
Education Funding Commission recommended the state change how it funds its 500
districts based on wealth, local tax rates, enrollment and geographic
placement, among other factors. State
officials agree that Pennsylvania's funding formula needs revamping. State
Department of Education spokeswoman Nicole Reigleman said it's a problem that
has been haunting the state since the previous administration.
“The $150 million in additional funding for basic education
that was included in this year's recently finalized state budget barely put
dent in the need districts have to educate all students to meet the state
standards. If the state continues
to limit funding increases to the level approved in this year's budget, infants
in their cribs today will be out of high school by the time we achieve a fully
funded and fair public school funding system," said campaign member Joan
Benso, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children.”
Public school advocates
call for bigger investment in education
Advocates who are part of the
Campaign for Fair Education Funding gathered at the Capitol on Monday to call
on state lawmakers to invest $400 million more in basic education in the
2016-17 budget and to distribute the money using the state's new school funding
formula
By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on May 02, 2016 at 5:14 PM, updated May 02, 2016 at 8:34 PM
With the 2016-17
state budget-making season now upon us, a coalition of advocates from across
Pennsylvania came to the state Capitol to call on lawmakers to increase the
state's investment in public education by $400 million. Rallying for more education funding in
2016-17 Parents, grandparents, school board members and administrators, and
public officials gathered in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday to call for $400
million more in public school funding to be driven out through the state's new
funding formula. And the Campaign for
Fair Education Funding advocates want that money distributed using what they
hope will become a permanent education funding formula that
was used for the first time this year. It distributes
dollars based on factors that include student enrollment and need. Among those participating in the rally were
school board members and administrators, parents, grandparents, a mayor and
others who said dramatic increases in education are needed to close the gap
between the wealthiest and poorest school districts, which is widest of any
state in the country.
“The two big things we’re pushing for are to obtain $400
million in additional funding in the upcoming year and to disburse it according
to the fair-funding formula that has bipartisan support,” said the 40-year-old
Yeadon resident after the rally.”
Delco school board members
rally for more state funding
By Patti Mengers,
Delaware County Daily Times POSTED: 05/02/16,
10:12 PM EDT
Barely a month has
gone by since the long-overdue 2015-2016 state budget passed without Gov. Tom
Wolf’s blessing, but representatives of the education community are wasting no
time in lobbying legislators for what they feel is fair funding in the
2016-2017 budget due July 1. More than 200 school
board members, administrators and municipal officials assembled in the rotunda
of the state Capitol in Harrisburg Monday afternoon for a rally organized by
the Campaign for Fair Education Funding, a coalition that includes more than 50
advocacy organizations. Among the
speakers at the rally that began at 12:30 p.m. and lasted for half an hour was
Rafi Cave, vice president of the William Penn School District School Board who
attended the event with school board President Jennifer Hoff.
“CFEF calls for $400 million more in school funding to be
pushed through the state’s new
fair education funding formula which was approved last month.”
State educators, parents and advocates call for
equitable funding
A group of over 200
people from across the state traveled to Harrisburg to push for more funding
for public schools in Pennsylvania. The
Campaign for Fair Education Funding (CFEF), an education public interest group
in Pennsylvania gathered local school officials, parents and advocates at the
state’s capital to demand from lawmakers a focus on the education funding as
they begin to look at the next budget. "An
equitable basic education funding system is good for students and the state's
economy, but if the state continues to limit funding increases to the level
approved in this year's budget, infants in their cribs today will be out of high
school by the time we achieve a fully-funded and fair public school funding
system in Pennsylvania," said Joan Benso, president and CEO of
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children in a statement. It was not until March that Harrisburg
finally agreed to pass the budget that was supposed to fund the state through
June. A nine-month impasse between legislators
and Gov. Tom Wolf led to a severe delay in funding for the state’s public
schools amongst other things. Wolf broke the stalemate saying it was time to
“move on.”
“The Campaign for Fair Education Funding called on the
Legislature and Wolf to spend an additional $400 million on education and
distribute the new money via a formula built on annual weighted measures that
rely on U.S. Census records and data from the state revenue and education
departments, among others.”
Budget season starts in the Pennsylvania state Capitol
Steve EsackContact Reporter Call Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — The
voices of schoolchildren on tour echoed through the Capitol. The cadence of
lawmakers passing budget and education bills rose in committee rooms. The calls
of advocates seeking more classroom money played in the Rotunda. Those noises could mean only one thing:
Monday was the public start of spring budget season in Harrisburg. As tours wove
through the ornate rooms of the Capitol in the morning, the House Education
Committee passed two bills Republicans say would lessen the
chances that a protracted budget fight would hurt schools, but Democrats say would make the
budgeting process worse. At midday, a
coalition of school advocates urged the Republican-controlled Legislature and
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to spend more money on
schools and to distribute the funds fairly. By afternoon, the
House took another step toward setting up a final vote on the first budget bill
for the 2016-17 fiscal year that begins July 1. That final House vote could
come Tuesday or Wednesday and if a bill is approved, it would move on to the
Senate, which does not return to session until next week. The House budget bill is a carbon copy of the
current budget, and serves as a legislative place holder for the final budget
that will be negotiated behind closed doors later this spring and summer — if
the players stick to the traditional timeline.
Advocates want a permanent education funding formula
WITF Written by Ben Allen, General Assignment Reporter | May 2, 2016
3:17 PM
The state's been
distributing some money for public schools a bit differently for almost a year
now. Advocates say more funding should
be allocated this way going forward, as they see it as a way to bring more
equality to basic education. $150
million was pushed through the newer funding formula this fiscal year. Advocates say an additional $400 million
should follow the same route next year, and the formula should become
permanent. It's meant to send more money
to rural and poorer districts, using factors like the poverty level, the
percentage of students who aren't fluent in English, and the amount of taxable
land in a district. Joan Benso with the
Campaign for Fair Education Funding says they want to create an even playing
field. "Every school
district, every school district, regardless of their local community wealth,
should have adequate resources to ensure that their children can achieve to our
standards," says Benso.
With two months left in year, districts finally get
state budget figure
By Mark Guydish - mguydish@timesleader.com POSTED ON MAY 2, 2016 BY TIMESLEADER
With two months left
in the fiscal year, the state education budget is finally final(ish),
and area districts know how much money they can expect from Harrisburg. The
good news: Luzerne County school districts ended up with bigger increases in
state money under the funding formula used by the Legislature than they were
going to get under the formula Gov. Tom Wolf intended to use. The bad news, of course, is that districts
had to spend 10 months not knowing what they were going to get as Democrat Wolf
and the Republican-controlled Legislature battled over the numbers. That battle seemed to end March 28 when Wolf
allowed the Legislature’s final proposal to pass without his signature, but the
money hit a roadblock on the way from Harrisburg to local coffers. Wolf planned
to dole out the money using a formula create by his administration, and the Legislature
balked, contending he had to use a new formula drawn up by a bipartisan
commission. The Legislature sent Wolf a
new “Fiscal Code” that spelled out how money would be spent, and it used the
bipartisan formula for any education spending increase over last year’s budget.
Wolf again let the proposal pass without signing it, but districts still had no
clear idea what they would get. That
changed Monday when the Department of Education released spreadsheets showing
how much districts would get from three primary sources: Basic Education
Funding, the much smaller Right To Learn grants, and Special Education Funding.
Final school budget favors
York County
York Daily Record by Angie Mason,
amason@ydr.com5:25 p.m. EDT May 2, 2016
After disagreement over the distribution of
funds, new numbers have been released.
York County school
districts will fare better in state funding for 2015-16, to the tune
of nearly $4 million, than they would have if funds were given out
the way Gov. Tom Wolf had wanted. The state education
department posted updated state budget information on Monday, showing how new
2015-16 school funds will be distributed.
About $150 million more in statewide basic education dollars will be
given out using a new funding formula recommended by a state
commission. That formula was designed to create a more fair system
statewide and considers factors such as district wealth, local tax levels,
district enrollment and more. olf
supports that formula but had not wanted to use it for 2015-16. He'd
planned to distribute the additional funding differently, saying he wanted to
restore budget cuts districts had experienced in the past.
Blogger note: If anybody knows which, if any of the
spreadsheet links on this site actually contain final numbers – please enlighten
me. Thanks!
PA Department of Education Website – Education Budget
DePasquale warns of costs
of Pa. budget stalemate
Why Newsworks BY MARY WILSON MAY 1, 2016
The state's top
fiscal watchdog says another budget impasse would lead to a "backdoor tax
increase" in Pennsylvania. Auditor
General Eugene DePasquale said Thursday that if lawmakers and the governor
allow another lengthy budget stalemate to take place without
"dealing" with the state's projected structural deficit, the
commonwealth will receive another credit downgrade, hiking the cost of
borrowing. "Every road project,
every school construction project, every time a school district or the state
want to take out a loan ... that money will not go as far," said
DePasquale at a press conference in the Capitol. Pennsylvania has received multiple credit
downgrades over the past few years. Rating agencies have cited the state's
growing pension debt, the use of one-time money sources to balance its budget,
and, more recently, partisan gridlock.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/93254-depasquale-warns-of-costs-of-pa-budget-stalemate
John Finnerty | Next budget battle may be worse than
the last, says auditor general
Tribune Democrat By John Finnerty jfinnerty@cnhi.com
May 2, 2016
State Auditor
General Eugene DePasquale speaks Thursday, April 7, 2016, at The Tribune-
HARRISBURG – As bad
as the budget situation has been, there have always been a few states in worse
shape. Maybe not for long, Auditor
General Eugene DePasquale warned this week. If Gov. Tom Wolf and
lawmakers can’t get together to bridge the gap between the state’s collections
and the money it spends, DePasqaule said the state’s credit rating will slip. That means public
dollars won’t stretch as far when the state or school districts borrow to pay
for construction. Pennsylvania now has
an AA-minus bond rating - the same as California and Michigan - from Standard
& Poor’s. Illinois, New Jersey and
Kentucky are the only states with lower ratings from the agency. Standard & Poor’s dropped Pennsylvania’s
bonds to their current level two years ago, citing concerns about pension
liabilities. The rating was AA for at
least a decade before that, according to an analysis by the Pew Charitable
Trusts. The nine-month budget impasse
that ended in March left no long-term strategy to pay the state’s bills. The next budget, due
in just two months, must include plans to bring the state’s income in line with
the money it spends, DePasquale told reporters Thursday.
“Gov. Wolf still wants a broad-based tax increase to raise
enough money to close the deficit and increase funding for public schools.
Republicans who control the Assembly still say that tax increases should be a
last resort and that a mix of cuts and smarter budgeting would produce a good
plan.”
Bill would fund schools through
another budget impasse
Inquirer and Post Gazette
by Karen Langley and Angela
Couloumbis, HARRISBURG BUREAU Updated: MAY
3, 2016 — 1:08 AM EDT
HARRISBURG - The
next state budget is not due for two months, but after last year's gridlock,
legislators on Monday took a step toward preventing a repeat of the stalemate
that kept school funding bottled up for months.
Returning after a two-week recess, members of the House Education
Committee approved a bill that would keep school funds flowing if a budget is
not enacted by Aug. 15 - six weeks after the next fiscal year starts July 1. The governor's office and Republican
legislative leaders were not admitting the need for such an insurance policy.
One opponent suggested the measure might lessen the pressure to pass a spending
plan on time this year. But one thing is
certain: Neither side appears to have moved away from the hard-and-fast
positions staked out during the historic impasse.
PA Capitol Digest
by Crisci Associates MAY 2, 2016
Pennsylvania
collected $3.7 billion in General Fund revenue in April, which was $24.8
million, or 0.7 percent, less than anticipated, Secretary of Revenue Eileen
McNulty reported Monday.
Fiscal year-to-date
General Fund collections total $25.9 billion, which is $122.6 million, or 0.5
percent, above estimate.
“Given that this measure doesn't force schools to do anything,
Rep. Greg Vitali, D-Delaware, commented on the House floor, "It's a bill
about nothing. That's very Seinfeld-esque."
Bill that lets 'God' back
in school on its way to state Senate for consideration
The state House on Monday
passed legislation that allows schools to post the national motto, "In God
We Trust," as well as the Bill of Rights in classrooms and other locations
in their buildings.
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on May 02, 2016 at 6:28 PM
While its fate
remains uncertain in the Senate, the state House on Monday voted 179-20 to allow public schools to post the national motto in
classrooms or other locations within their buildings. The last time the House sent a similar bill to
this one over to the Senate it died due to inaction. Like the one it passed in the last legislative
session, the legislation doesn't make the posting of "In God We
Trust" a requirement to be posted. Rather it is intended to expose
students to the phrase that carries historical significance while allaying
concerns that some school officials had about whether it was permitted to post
a slogan that has religious overtones in public school buildings. The legislation was amended to include
allowing the Bill of Rights to be posted in schools as well.
Pittsburgh
Public Schools to vote on protection measures for transgender students
Trib Live BY ELIZABETH BEHRMAN | Monday, May 2, 2016,
11:30 p.m.
The Pittsburgh
Public Schools board plans to vote June 22 on a districtwide policy that would
protect transgender students from discrimination. If it is approved, the district plans to
implement the policy by next school year.
The board, during a nonvoting meeting Monday night, discussed a draft of
the policy posted on the district's website last month. It would provide
guidance to teachers and students about students who identify with a gender
other than their sex at birth. The eight-page policy would allow all students
to use the bathrooms, wear the clothing and use a name appropriate to their
gender identity. District employees
would not be required to notify the student's parent about the child's
transition. “I'm glad to see that
Pittsburgh Public Schools continues to do what's right by law and protect all
students,” board member Sylvia Wilson said. Transgender rights
have been a controversial topic across the country following the passage of
laws in some states that require citizens to use bathrooms that correlate with
their biological sex. Last month, the
Springfield School Board in Montgomery County became the first in Pennsylvania
to pass a formal policy on transgender students and the Lower Merion School
District, also in Montgomery County, had a first reading of its policy.
Commentary: Phila. behind
peer cities in education funding
Inquirer Commentary By
Max Weiss and Wendell Pritchett Updated: MAY
3, 2016 3:01 AM EDT
Max Weiss, a graduate of Julia
R. Masterman School and a former teacher, is a third-year student at the
University of Pennsylvania Law School. weissmax@pennlaw.upenn.edu
Wendell Pritchett, a
presidential professor of law and education at Penn Law, is a former member of
Philadelphia's School Reform Commission. pritchet@law.upenn.edu
Over the past five
years, the funding crisis in the School District of Philadelphia has become
well known to everyone in the region, as well as many people across the
country. As a result of cuts in state and federal funding during the summer of
2011, the district faced a deficit in excess of $600 million for fiscal 2012.
In preparing the fiscal 2013 and 2014 budgets, the School District faced gaps
in excess of $300 million. While the
district has secured funding (mostly from the city) to reduce these gaps, it
has been forced to lay off several thousand people and eliminate many important
programs. In 2011, the total staff of the district was 23,943. In 2015, the
staff had decreased to 16,833. Children,
parents, teachers, advocates, School District leaders, and local officials
might disagree on many aspects of the public school system in Philadelphia, but
they all agree that the declines in state and federal support have crippled the
district's ability to educate our children.
Report: Local School Funding: A Comparison of
Philadelphia and Other Major Cities Over the Past Decade
Authors Max Weiss
University of Pennsylvania Law School ‘Wendell E. Pritchett Presidential
Professor of Law and Education University of Pennsylvania Law School 16 April
2016
“It’s real simple,” Demalis said. “The PSERS (Public School
Employees’ Retirement System) retirement rate is jumping to 30.03 percent. That
is how much of the salary goes into retirement that we’re paying. It was 25.84
percent. That increase is $351,835, so pretty much all of our budget increase
is PSERS. There are other pieces of the pie going up and down, but that is the
biggest piece. At least 60 percent of our millage is to cover the deficit in
special education. By deficit, I mean the difference of the special education
expense versus the special education subsidy, and that’s by law.”
Shenandoah Valley OKs
tentative budget
Republican Herald BY JOHN E. USALIS Published: May 3, 2016
SHENANDOAH — The
Shenandoah Valley school board tentatively adopted its 2016-17 fiscal year
budget that includes a real estate tax increase of 2.085 mills to deal with a
deficit due to pension cost increases and lack of funding from state and
federal sources. The proposed general
operating budget plan of $18,124,150 includes an increase of $346,599, or 1.95
percent, over the budget in the current fiscal year — $17,777,551 — that will
end June 30. Real estate taxes will
increase from 54.89 to 56.975 mills. Each mill brings in about $73,000. “At this point this is tentative. It is not
the final budget,” district Acting Superintendent/Business Manager Anthony P.
Demalis Jr. said. “The budget as proposed, and it will probably end up changing
somewhat, is 1.95 percent higher than last year.” Demalis said there are expenses that have
increased in which the school district has no control.
“The proposed budget, which represents a 4.5 percent
increase from last year's budget of $51.5 million, includes $1.6 million for
increases in the Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement and $800,000
in salary increases, he said.”
Penn-Trafford
adopts tentative budget containing tax increase
Trib Live BY MARY PICKELS | Monday, May 2, 2016,
9:27 p.m.
Penn-Trafford School
Board on Monday adopted a $53.8 million tentative budget with a 2.4-mill
increase in real estate taxes for 2016-17.
The increase would bring the millage rate to 80.25 in Westmoreland and
16.92 in Allegheny County. The district
raised taxes 1 mill last year. One mill will bring in $275,000 in tax revenue. “Even though you may not like what you end up
hearing tonight, I think we're in a lot better position than a lot of other
districts because we've used a lot of foresight over the years to put ourselves
in a position where the budget remains at a reasonable level,” schools Business
Manager Brett Lago said during his presentation. “We don't have any extravagant spending.
We've maximized our revenues, and we've faced some challenges in terms of what
both the state and federal governments have done to us in terms of our funding
levels,” Lago said. The preliminary
budget for 2016-17 was presented on the same day that the district received its
latest state update on the 2015-16 budget, he said.
Riverside School District
in a budget bind
Times Tribune by KATHLEEN
BOLUS, STAFF WRITER Published: May 3, 2016
The Riverside School
District will continue to look for ways to balance its 2016-17 budget a week
after voters turned down a referendum to raise taxes in the district. Over the next three to four weeks, the board
and administrators will reach a final budget despite receiving final state
subsidy amounts for the 2015-16 school year from the state Department of
Education only on Monday, Superintendent Paul Brennan said. “We’re looking for answers in other areas,”
he said. “The scraping and clawing with our budget is at a new intensity.” On the April 26 primary election ballot, the
district asked taxpayers from Moosic and Taylor if they’d approve hiking school
district real estate taxes by an additional 4.47 mills, or 3.93 percent. A mill
is equal to $1 in tax for every $1,000 of assessed property value. A “yes” outcome could have resulted in an
increase of as much as 8.93 mills, or 8.16 percent, during the 2016-17 school
year. More than 90 percent of ballots cast — about 3,370 voters — were against
the tax increase, while 308 were in favor, according to unofficial results. Seeking the yes vote was another way for
Riverside to explore options to balance its budget, Mr. Brennan said. Riverside is still able to raise taxes 4.46
mills for the 2016-17 school year under the state’s Act 1 Index, which limits
the amount a district can raise property taxes.
NEWS RELEASE: PSBA releases recommendations for ESSA
implementation in Pennsylvania
An Every Student
Succeeds Act Study Group (ESSA), convened by the Pennsylvania School Boards
Association (PSBA), has released recommendations on how the new ESSA should be
implemented in the commonwealth. ESSA was signed into law in December 2015 and
replaces the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). A report with recommendations was
developed by a diverse group of more than 80 school directors, school
administrators and subject experts.
All states,
including Pennsylvania, are now in the process of crafting new state plans that
are expected to be submitted for approval to the U.S. Department of Education
in Fall 2016 and take effect beginning in 2017-18. “We are pleased to make these recommendations
on behalf of the participants of the study group,” said PSBA Executive Director
Nathan Mains. “The study group, all education experts, had very thoughtful and
probing conversation around ESSA implementation. We strongly encourage the
Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) to take these recommendations into
consideration as it moves forward with the state’s plan.”
The ESSA has been
heralded by many for returning accountability to the states. These changes mean
that individual states will bear more responsibility for implementing the law
and its new requirements. PSBA convened the study group to begin the process of
making recommendations to PDE, Gov. Tom Wolf and the General Assembly.
The report is the
result of several weeks of discussion and preparation by study group members,
culminating in a two-day meeting held March 2-3, 2016, during which attendees
reviewed and discussed the new law in subgroups from four perspectives:
assessment, schools identified as being in the “bottom 5%,” educator
effectiveness, and charter school issues and solutions.
Within these topics,
subgroups developed key areas of recommendations. The full list of recommendations and details for each can be found
in the full report online. The goal of the study group
and PSBA is that the recommendations will be taken into consideration as PDE
begins convening its own study groups on April 28. Highlights from each group
are listed below:
Kansas Supreme Court Says Schools Could Close If
System Doesn't Change
NPR Morning Edition
by Sam Zeff May 2, 2016
In 13 states,
parents and school districts are suing, saying schools aren't getting enough
money to serve the needs of students. In
no other state are the courts more baked in to school funding than in Kansas,
though. There, the state Supreme Court
will hear arguments on the latest funding case within the next week. If
justices don't approve of the legislators' fix to the system, the court could
shut down public schools on June 30. One
of the plaintiffs in that case is the Kansas City school district. "I
understand that people want to paint us as money-grubbing mongers," says
district Superintendent Cynthia Lane. "But
really what we want is adequate resources to do the job we know how to
do." Lane's students are poor: 80
percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. Most, she says, live in homes
without computers or books. That's why her district is suing the state.
A teacher’s reading assignment for legislators — and
there will be a test
Washington Post By Valerie Strauss May 2 at 11:30 AM
Stuart
Egan is an English teacher in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School system in
North Carolina. He has taught all grades and levels of high school English, and
currently teaches AP English Language and Composition and Shakespeare 101 and
102. On his blog,Caffeinated Rage,
Egan writes often about the assault on public education by legislators in his
state who have lowered teachers’ pay, cut per-pupil spending, removed
due-process rights for some teachers as well as class size requirements, among
many other things. In the following post, he gives a literary assignment to
North Carolina lawmakers for some reading over the summer. His hope is that
these policy-makers will come to better understand people who don’t live or
look like they do.
Teacher protests close most Detroit schools again
Tuesday
Washington Post By Emma Brown May
3 at 7:39 AM
More
than 90 of the city’s roughly 100 public schools are closed Tuesday, according
to the district’s Facebook page. About 46,000 students attend the city’s
schools, and the second day of closures left
some parents scrambling to find alternatives for their children. The Detroit Federation of Teachers is seeking
to pressure state lawmakers to pass a bailout plan for the city’s troubled
school system. Without action at the statehouse, the district has said it won’t
be able to pay teachers over the summer. That would leave some teachers, who
receive their salaries throughout the year, unpaid for their work during the
school year.
Join the Pennsylvania Principals Association at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, at The
Capitol in Harrisburg, PA, for its second annual Principals' Lobby Day.
Pennsylvania
Principals Association Monday, March 21, 2016 9:31 AM
To register, contact Dr. Joseph Clapper at clapper@paprincipals.org by
Tuesday, June 14, 2016. If you need assistance, we will provide
information about how to contact your legislators to schedule meetings.
Click here for the informational flyer, which includes
important issues to discuss with your legislators.
2016 PA Educational
Leadership Summit July 24-26 State College
Summit Sponsors:
PA Principals Association - PA Association of School Administrators
- PA Association of Middle Level Educators - PA Association of
Supervision and Curriculum Development
The 2016
Educational Leadership Summit, co-sponsored by four leading Pennsylvania education associations,
provides an excellent opportunity for school district administrative teams and
instructional leaders to learn, share and plan together at a quality venue in
"Happy Valley."
Featuring Grant
Lichtman, author of EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education,
Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera (invited), and Dana
Lightman, author of POWER Optimism: Enjoy the Life You Have...
Create the Success You Want, keynote speakers, high quality breakout
sessions, table talks on hot topics and district team planning and job alike
sessions provides practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and
discussed at the summit before returning back to your district. Register and pay by April 30, 2016 for the
discounted "early bird" registration rate:
Pennsylvania
Partnerships for Children (PPC), a statewide children's advocacy organization
located in Harrisburg, PA has an immediate full-time opening for an Early
Learning and K-12 Education Policy Manager.
PPC's vision is to be one of the top ten states in which to be a child
and raise a child. Today, Pennsylvania ranks 17th in the nation for child
well-being. Our early learning and K-12 education policy work is focused on
ensuring all children enter school ready to learn and that all children have
access to high-quality public education. Current initiatives include increasing
the number of children served in publicly funded pre-k and implementing a fair
basic education formula along with sustained, significant investments in
education funding.
Interested in letting our
elected leadership know your thoughts on education funding, a severance tax,
property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf,
(717) 787-2500
Speaker of the
House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
