Daily
postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1750
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 education advocacy organizations via emails, website,
Facebook and Twitter.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
First Book works through
existing community programs, literacy efforts and schools to provide an ongoing
supply of new books and reading materials – at low or no cost.
Your tax-deductible
donation to First Book will fund new books for children in need and help knock
down the greatest barrier to literacy development in the United States
How you can help the Connecticut
By Viktoria Sundqvist The Middletown 12/15/12 01:59 pm
Newtown Youth and Family
Services is located at 15
Berkshire Road , Sandy Hook , CT 06482
Another group
accepting donations is the Newtown Parent Connection, which accepts donations
on its website, www.newtownparentconnection.org. Donations can be
made via Paypal or any major credit card, and the organization says all
donations will be donated directly to those affected by the shooting. For
further details, call 203-270-1600.
The United Way Western
Connecticut is accepting donations in a partnership with Newtown
Savings Bank. Check donations may be mailed to: Sandy Hook School Support Fund,
c/o Newtown Savings Bank, 39 Main
St. Newtown
CT
“To several staff,
volunteers and contributors, Newtown is home,”
the United Way Western Connecticut says on its website.
“We will stand with the community and everyone affected directly and indirectly
by this tragic event as we face the days and weeks ahead.”
In Massachusetts Pennsylvania
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Massachusetts
By Jon Marcus NEW ENGLAND CENTER
Students at a privately
operated online school that is costing Massachusetts taxpayers almost $2.5
million a year are falling far behind other students in the state based on
their assessment test scores, and half of them are quitting during the academic
year or failing to return the next year.
State and local records reviewed by theNew England
Center for Investigative Reporting
show that the Massachusetts
Virtual Academy
Twenty-five percent dropped out last year, and, each fall, another 20 to 30 percent do not come back.
The results come at a time when legislators are considering allowing up to 10 online schools to operate across the state, which could enroll as many as 19,000 students.
A spin-off of the Greenfield Public Schools, MAVA accepts students from 148 otherMassachusetts school districts including
Lowell , Lawrence ,
Attleboro , Worcester ,
Boston , Fall River ,
Springfield , New Bedford
and districts on Cape Cod .
The districts payGreenfield
State and local records reviewed by the
Twenty-five percent dropped out last year, and, each fall, another 20 to 30 percent do not come back.
The results come at a time when legislators are considering allowing up to 10 online schools to operate across the state, which could enroll as many as 19,000 students.
A spin-off of the Greenfield Public Schools, MAVA accepts students from 148 other
The districts pay
EDITORIAL:
Legislature must put property tax reform recommendations into action
Now a study has been completed including a draft report with 13 recommendations to get the ball rolling on property tax reform.
Students
and Sequestration
When students speak,
we need to listen. And when students advocate for their own public education,
their voices speak truth to power. Yesterday, two Pittsburgh
Both students were
speaking specifically about the looming federal tax and spending cuts that will
come with sequestration. That’s the “fiscal cliff” that we’ve been hearing so
much about – which, according to economists is actually the wrong metaphor,
since it is more of a slope – that will trigger automatic, across the board
budget cuts to departments including education, unless Congress gets its act in
gear and makes a deal. Those cuts would be felt starting next fall, for the
2013-14 academic year, and would hit programs such as Title I and Head Start,
which provide support for low income students.
The Pittsburgh Public
School District
Boehner's New Offer on Taxes Could Help Reach a Deal
New York Times by Jonathan Weisman and Jackie Calmes Dec. 16 3:52 PM
Speaker John A. Boehner’s latest offer to
President Obama to allow tax rates to rise on incomes over $1 million has
already changed the terms of negotiations to avert a fiscal crisis in January,
and both sides on Sunday expressed new optimism that a deal could be reached
this week.
In a phone call with Mr. Obama on Friday, the
speaker, who had resolutely opposed allowing income tax rates to rise on
anyone, instead spoke in terms of preventing taxes from rising on everyone with
a yearly income below $1 million. He also said he could accept an agreement
that would raise $1 trillion in new revenues over 10 years, up from $800
billion, if the president committed to significant savings from benefit
programs like Medicare, according to people familiar with the talks.
The DeVos family has been
a major player funding candidates in Pennsylvania to advance vouchers, contributing
millions using their American Federation for Children as a vehicle to fund
Pennsylvania’s Students First PAC.
Michigan
New York Times By NICHOLAS
CONFESSORE and MONICA DAVEY
Published:
December 16,
2012
As Republican leaders in
Washington grappled after the election with
their failure to unseat President Obama, Dick DeVos, one of Michigan ’s
wealthiest men, began dialing up state lawmakers in Lansing
Although Mr. Obama won Michigan
The time had come, Mr.
DeVos told Republican lawmakers, for the bold stroke they were considering: a
law banning requirements that workers pay union dues or fees, in the state
where the modern American labor movement was born. If the lawmakers later found
themselves facing recalls or tough re-election fights, Mr. DeVos told them, he
would be there to help.
MAJOR
FOUNDATION AWARD HELPS ADVANCE WORLD CLASS STRATEGY
$200,000
to the Economy League and United Way for Kindergarten Readiness
Economy League of Greater Philadelphia December 13,
2012
Philadelphia,
Pa. (December 13, 2012) United Way of Greater Philadelphia and
Southern New Jersey (UWGPSNJ) has been awarded a Roadmaps to Health Community
Grant of $200,000 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to improve
kindergarten readiness rates in Pennsylvania. The grant will support a two-year
education and advocacy campaign, co-directed by the Economy League of
Greater Philadelphia and in partnership with a coalition of local education and
community partners,to build broad support among parents, school superintendents
and boards, key business leaders, state agencies and elected officials to adopt
and implement common kindergarten readiness assessments across the early
childhood and K-12 education sectors. (Continue reading the press release)
Exclusive! Pasi Sahlberg
on TIMSS and PIRLS
Diane Ravitch’s Blog December 14, 2012 //
At my request, Pasi
Sahlberg has written comments on the latest international test scores. Sahlberg
is a prominent Finnish educator and author of the award-winning book “Finnish
Lessons.”
TIMSS/PIRLS: Reactions from
Asia ’s Top Performers
Yong Zhao’s Blog 16 DECEMBER 2012 42 NO COMMENT
Handwringing and head scratching around the 2011
TIMSS and PIRLS results released yesterday continue around the globe. While
Western countries show great admiration of the outstanding scores of East Asia and lament on their own abysmal performance,
the East Asian education systems, while celebrating their achievement, are
worried about something that the media in Western countries rarely mentions.
Here are some examples:
Walton Family Foundation
Having invested more than
$1 billion in education reform, the Walton Family Foundation is the largest
donor to initiatives that support parental choice and competition within
education.
Related prior KEYSEC
posting……
BACK TO SCHOOL 2012 -
WALMART: Save More, Live Better, Eradicate Public Education: 159,049,864
reasons to shop someplace else.
Probe sought into
private influence on public education policy
Increasingly
policy relating to public education is being made in secret with involvement
from private donors or organizations pushing their own agendas. In Philadelphia Philadelphia
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