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PA Ed Policy Roundup for July
14, 2014:
K12 Inc 2013
executive compensation jumped 96% to $21 million; Agora Cyber SPP score was
48.3; 70 is considered passing.
Considering "online tuition-free
public education" that uses your neighbors' tax dollars for windfall
executive compensation and ubiquitous advertising? These guys want you!
K12 Inc 2013
executive compensation jumped 96% to $21 million; Agora Cyber SPP score was
48.3; 70 is passing.
As
of February, 2013 Agora Cyber was serving 2,857 Philly students, the most of any
PA cyber
In
addition to never making AYP. Agora's 2012 graduation rate was 45% while the Philly School
District
Did you catch our weekend posting?
PA Ed Policy Roundup for July 12, 2014:
Ed Secretary Duncan: Philly school funding
'unacceptable'
EPLC
Education Notebook July 11, 2014
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Corbett takes pension fight
to the public - will they listen?: The Sunday Brunch
By John L. Micek | jmicek@pennlive.com on
July 13, 2014 at 9:09 AM, updated July 13, 2014 at 12:01 PM
Good Sunday Morning, Fellow Seekers.
Gov. Tom Corbett is apparently making good on his promise to enlist voters to pressure the Legislature into passing a pension reform package this year. The Republican has launched robocalls in southeastern Pennsylvania, home to several competitive state Senate races, urging voters to contact their local lawmaker, according to a post by the right-leaning Keystone Report. It's tough to understate how large the pension problem really is, just as it's tough to understate the mix of bipartisan, civet cat greed, financial mismanagement and plain old economic apocalypse that led the state to its current predicament. Trading stadiums for pensions in 2001, Gov. Tom Ridge went along with a pension hike that boosted retirement benefits for state employees, teachers and lawmakers. Despite sweaty palms and nervous glances, lawmakers went along with the scheme, even though they had only hours to review it before it was rammed through the General Assembly. The vote jacked up pension debt "by $10 billion instantly," according to an analysis byThe Commonwealth Foundation. Which, was, y'know, all kinds of awesome.
Gov. Tom Corbett is apparently making good on his promise to enlist voters to pressure the Legislature into passing a pension reform package this year. The Republican has launched robocalls in southeastern Pennsylvania, home to several competitive state Senate races, urging voters to contact their local lawmaker, according to a post by the right-leaning Keystone Report. It's tough to understate how large the pension problem really is, just as it's tough to understate the mix of bipartisan, civet cat greed, financial mismanagement and plain old economic apocalypse that led the state to its current predicament. Trading stadiums for pensions in 2001, Gov. Tom Ridge went along with a pension hike that boosted retirement benefits for state employees, teachers and lawmakers. Despite sweaty palms and nervous glances, lawmakers went along with the scheme, even though they had only hours to review it before it was rammed through the General Assembly. The vote jacked up pension debt "by $10 billion instantly," according to an analysis byThe Commonwealth Foundation. Which, was, y'know, all kinds of awesome.
"Clearly, pensions are one of the most significant, if
not the most significant, drivers of expenditures in school budgets, which in
turn drives property taxes," said Jay Himes, executive director of the
Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials.
Corbett: Pension overhaul
targets property tax issue
By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau July 13, 2014 11:22 PM
Gov. Corbett's budget
standoff illustrates GOP divide in Pennsylvania
By The Associated
Press on July 12, 2014 at 9:37 AM, updated July 12, 2014 at 9:41
AM
The relationship between Gov. Tom Corbett and his fellow
Republicans in the Legislature took a turn toward the dysfunctional this week
as they traded insults about leadership following his
decision to veto millions from the General Assembly's budget. It's not unusual in the Capitol for the
executive and legislative branches to gripe about each other, sometimes even
publicly, but the intra-GOP battle has left the governor's agenda in limbo with
just four months before voters decide if he gets another term. It also has raised questions about what a
second Corbett term would look like, even if his party keeps control of one or
both chambers.
“Eventually
everyone is going to have to cut programs in order to make these payments,”
Wentzel said. “We’re doing everything we can to not put the burden on the local
taxpayer.”
School districts wrestle
with budgets
By Vince Sullivan,
Delaware County Daily
Local school districts hope
money for construction costs is coming after state budget approval
By on
July 13, 2014 at 4:30 PM, updated July 13, 2014 at 6:05 PM
Bethlehem
Area schools Superintendent Joseph Roy hopes the end of a state moratorium on
school construction cost reimbursements offers a financial boost for his
district. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom
Corbett hoped to extend the 2012
freeze another year but the state Legislature declined to act ahead of the June
30 expiration. It means the Pennsylvania
Department of Education is now accepting new projects in the Planning and
Construction Workbook reimbursement process, known as PlanCon, said Tim Eller,
department spokesman. The budget
Corbett signed into lawThursday increases PlanCon funding by $10 million to
$306 million.
"School districts
can start submitting new construction reimbursement projects," Eller said.
"They are going to take their place behind about 350 projects."
The backlog of projects
requires about $1.6 billion.
"On the plus side, thanks to Mayor
Nutter, the state has a potential new slogan: "A vortex of political hell
with no way out."
Harrisburg borrows a page from Washington
KAREN HELLER, INQUIRER COLUMNIST POSTED: Sunday,
July 13, 2014, 1:09 AM
Summer is usually sleepy in our state capital, but this season
fireworks keep igniting, though not in a good way. Gov. Corbett approved the
state budget but cut a fifth of the legislature's allowance because it wouldn't
give him pension reform. Corbett's critics immediately assailed the move as
"about politics and not the hard work of governing." And by critics, I mean fellow Republicans.
The GOP has long been perceived as the unified party. Not so in Harrisburg , which has
specialized in internecine warfare, even as the GOP controls everything.
Editorial: Legislature keeps
fiddling around as Pa.
Delco Times Editorial
POSTED: 07/12/14, 10:15 PM EDT
Nero had nothing on the
fine denizens who we send to represent us in Harrisburg . Fiddling while serious issues
burn? These folks play it like a Stradivarius.
Here’s the good news. The state has a $29.1 billion spending plan in
place, albeit 10 days after the deadline, breaking Gov. Tom Corbett’s run of
three straight on-time budgets. And it
does not raise taxes, giving the governor something to chortle about as he hits
the road for an uphill re-election battle vs. York businessman Tom Wolf. It offers a modest
increase in education funding, after years of cuts, exacerbated by the
disappearing act of federal stimulus funds.
Unfortunately, it does
not do much of anything else either.
Corbett’s choice: The
governor spurns those he needs to get results
Post Gazette By the
Editorial Board
July 13, 2014 12:00 AM
Gov. Tom Corbett
publicly scolded the Legislature and took away some of its money Thursday, a
move that said more about his re-election campaign than the state budget he’d
just signed or his quest for pension reform.
It was a peculiar way to end the annual fight over state spending, and
it’s hard to see how it will help Mr. Corbett persuade lawmakers to enact
pension changes that he and many school officials say they need to prevent
property tax increases.
"My students weren't able to make progress this
year," said Ciancetta, 28. "I did them an injustice. The School District did them an injustice. They did not get
the education they should have." Ciancetta's is one story, but it is emblematic of the plight of
many teachers. The teaching profession has long had a fair amount of turnover,
but in recent years the profession has gotten less stable, with higher numbers
of teachers leaving in their first five years.
After seven years, too
frustrated and tired to teach anymore
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Monday, July 14, 2014, 1:07 AM
Maria Ciancetta isn't sure what to believe: Did she make a
difference in students' lives, or throw away seven years? When she walked out of Benjamin
Franklin High
School on a warm day in June, Ciancetta quit the Philadelphia School District
She started out starry-eyed, certain she would work in Philadelphia classrooms
for decades. But things deteriorated every year. She said she lacked basic
supplies, was ordered to teach in an area where she had no certification or
training, and feared for her safety.
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20140714_After_seven_years__too_frustrated_and_tired_to_teach_anymore.html#wejf9CQeXqGXQhXq.99
Blogger's note: For
the 2012-2013 school year PA Cyber has a Pennsylvania School
PA Cyber Charter
School
Trib Live By Megan
Harris Saturday, July 12, 2014, 9:00 p.m.
As school districts statewide continue cutting,Pennsylvania 's largest cyber
school announced plans for widespread expansion, including at least 80 new
teachers and a $5.7 million building project in downtown Midland
in Beaver County
As school districts statewide continue cutting,
“It's a big jump, but
we're a big school,” said Michael Conti, CEO of Pennsylvania Cyber Charter
School. “For so long, we've relied on our students and our parents to do the
heavy lifting for every child's education. We're changing things up a bit.”
The expansion arrives
less than a year after prosecutors indicted the company's founder and former
CEO Nicholas Trombetta, who investigators allege illegally funneled $1 million
from school coffers. Trombetta pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of mail fraud,
bribery, tax conspiracy and filing false tax returns last year. A trial date
has not been scheduled.
By Jenna Ebersole Pocono Record Writer July 12,
2014
The now-defunct Pocono
Mountain Charter
School Shawnee Tabernacle
Church
The auction for the entire contents of the school, from smart
boards to desks and lockers, is scheduled tentatively for 10 a.m. Aug. 2
pending litigation.
Former PA Cyber School CEO
seeks dismissal of fraud charges
By The
Tribune-Review Saturday, July 12,
2014, 9:00 p.m.
A federal grand jury in August indicted PA Cyber Charter School founder and former CEO Nicholas Trombetta ofEast Liverpool , Ohio
A federal grand jury in August indicted PA Cyber Charter School founder and former CEO Nicholas Trombetta of
Mutual merger: Cornell should
give serious thought to Moon’s idea
Post-Gazette By the
Editorial Board
July 14, 2014 12:00 AM
School district mergers
are a tough sell in Pennsylvania .
Twenty-nine years
elapsed between the court-ordered creation of the Woodland
Hills School
District from five districts and the next merger, the
voluntary combining of Monaca and Center Area in 2010 to form Central
Valley . Clairton sent
letters to four districts in 2011 seeking to discuss possible jointures, but
there were no takers. That dismal
history suggests that pessimism probably is warranted in the most recent
discussion of a potential merger.
Why property tax reform fails
Soaring pension payments, rising costs and shrinking state and
federal aid at Pennsylvania ’s
public schools are creating a pattern of program cutbacks and teacher layoffs. And, in most cases, the only option school
district officials have is to raise property taxes to ease the pain.
A recent report issued by two statewide groups representing
school managers found that the local share of school funding has increased
eight percent in just four years. It concluded that higher property taxes are
an annual fact of life in most districts — regardless of region or size.
The sharp spike has motivated many residents to call for a plan
that would eliminate property taxes altogether and replace them with higher
state sales and income taxes.
Common Core, hatched by
governors, proving 'radioactive'
Reviled by staunch
conservatives, the common education standards designed to improve schools and
student competitiveness are being modified by some Republican governors, who
are pushing back against what they call the federal government's intrusion into
the classroom.
The Common Core
standards were not on the formal agenda during a three-day meeting of the
National Governors Association that ended Sunday, relegated to hallway
discussions and closed-door meetings among governors and their staffs. The
standards and even the words, "Common Core," have "become, in a
sense, radioactive," said Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican whose
state voluntarily adopted the standards in 2010.
Meeting with U.S.
WHYY Newsworks BY KEVIN
MCCORRY JULY 11, 2014
Drug abuse. Violence. Incarceration.
Those are the pitfalls that plague far too many young men of
color in America ,
according to the White House. In order
to steer young men away from that fate, President Obama has started the My
Brother's Keeper initiative, a federal effort to call special attention to the
plight of young black and Latino men, while developing best practices to keep
them on track to fulfilling their potential.
As is, young black men make up 6 percent of the U.S.
population, but 43 percent of its homicide victims. As part of the effort to alter that trend,
U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan hosted a roundtable
discussion Friday at Philadelphia
Community College
AFT calls for Education
Secretary Duncan to submit to ‘improvement’ plan or resign
Education Secretary Arne Duncan’s relations with the country’s
largest teachers unions — which collectively have more than 4 million members —
keep getting worse. Earlier
this month, the nation’s largest teachers unioncalled for him to resign. On
Sunday, the second-largest teachers union passed a resolution that
stopped short of a direct call for him to quit but urged President Obama to put
Duncan on an
“improvement plan.” If Duncan
doesn’t improve, he should resign, it says.
The obvious hitch: Obama hasn’t shown a single sign that he disagrees
with Duncan’s education reform agenda, which is largely focused on using
standardized test scores to hold educators accountable (a method that
accountability experts say is unreliable) as well as implementing the
controversial Common Core State Standards and increasing the number of charter
schools.
NSBA School Board News Today July 12, 2014
A ruling by Arizona Superior Court Judge
Kathleen Cooper requires the State of Arizona
to adjust base level funding for
public education to reflect inflationary increases the Arizona Legislature has
not provided to public schools for the past five years as mandated by law. The decision, issued on July 11, 2014, will provide a minimum
of close to $300 million to schools in the next fiscal year.
“This is a significant mark in time for Arizona public education as it restores
funding to a level that reflects five lost years of inflationary increases,”
said Tim Ogle, executive director of the Arizona School Boards Association. “The ruling
also is a directive that the law can’t be ignored and that our students and
teachers won’t lose any more ground.”
The base level is one of the major factors in the state funding
formula for pubic schools.
The court also agreed in principle with plaintiffs – a
group of education organizations led by the Arizona School Boards
Association, Arizona Education Association and
the Arizona Association of
School Business Officials – that public schools should have received
close to $1 billion in additional funding to account for inflation over the
past five years.
Educational Collaborators Pennsylvania Summit
The Educational Collaborators, in partnership with the Wilson School
District
Pre-K for PA has supporters
all over the greater Philadelphia
We need your help -- join an upcoming phone bank. Join
a fun gathering of like minds in Philadelphia
and Conshohocken on Wednesday evenings throughout the summer. We are
calling fellow Pre-K for PA supporters to build local volunteer teams.
Call a Pre-K Friend in Philly:
UnitedWay Building 1709 Ben Franklin Parkway
Wed July 30, 5-7 PM
United
Wed July 30, 5-7 PM
Call a Pre-K Friend in Mont Co:
Anne's House242 Barren
Hill Road
Wed July 16, 5-7pm
Wed July 30, 5-7pm
Anne's House
Wed July 16, 5-7pm
Wed July 30, 5-7pm
RSVP: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51084/c/10476/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=9390
EPLC Education Issues
Workshop for Legislative Candidates, Campaign Staff, and Interested Voters - Harrisburg
Register Now! EPLC will again be hosting
an Education Issues Workshop for Legislative Candidates, Campaign Staff,
and Interested Voters. This nonpartisan, one-day program will take place
on Thursday, July 31 in Harrisburg .
Space is limited. Click
here to learn more about workshop and to register.
PSBA opens nominations for
the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award
The nomination process is now open for the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award. This 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. Applications will be accepted until July 16, 2014. The July 16 date was picked in honor of Timothy M. Allwein's birthday. The award will be presented during the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in October. More details and application are available on PSBA's website.
The nomination process is now open for the Timothy M. Allwein Advocacy Award. This 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. Applications will be accepted until July 16, 2014. The July 16 date was picked in honor of Timothy M. Allwein's birthday. The award will be presented during the PASA-PSBA School Leadership Conference in October. More details and application are available on PSBA's website.
Education Policy and Leadership Center
Click here to read more
about EPLC’s Education Policy Fellowship Program, including: 2014-15 Schedule
2014-15 Application Past Speakers Program Alumni And More Information
2014
PA Gubernatorial Candidate Plans for Education and Arts/Culture in PA
Education Policy and
Leadership Center
Below is an alphabetical list of the 2014 Gubernatorial Candidates and
links to information about their plans, if elected, for education and
arts/culture in Pennsylvania . This list will be updated, as more information becomes available.
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