Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
reach more than 3250 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors,
administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers,
Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, 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 and searchable at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
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The Keystone State Education Coalition is pleased to be listed
among the friends and allies of The Network for Public Education. Are you a member?
PA Ed Policy Roundup for July
23, 2014:
New PA Basic
Ed Funding Commission to start work on Thursday
BASIC EDUCATION FUNDING COMMISSION ORGANIZATIONAL
MEETING
Thursday July 24, 2014 1:30
PM Room 8E-B East Wing
Corbett's
counterproductive pension proposal
Inquirer Opinion By Dwight Evans POSTED: Wednesday, July
23, 2014, 1:08 AM
State Rep. Dwight
Evans (D., Phila.) represents the 203d District and served more than two
decades as Democratic chairman of the House Appropriations Committee
Gov. Corbett is blaming pension costs for increased school taxes. House Republican leaders Sam Smith and Mike Turzai boast that Republican pension legislation would provide budgetary relief to school districts. Both claims are false.
Gov. Corbett is blaming pension costs for increased school taxes. House Republican leaders Sam Smith and Mike Turzai boast that Republican pension legislation would provide budgetary relief to school districts. Both claims are false.
Once Upon a Time: An Analysis
of the 2014-15 General Assembly Approved Budget
Posted by PA Budget and Policy Center
The $29.0 billion 2014-15 state General Fund budget enacted
earlier this month fails to confront Pennsylvania ’s
serious revenue problems. Lawmakers pretended that the half billion dollar
revenue shortfall in 2013-14 did not exist and “balanced” the 2014-15 budget
with one-time transfers, accounting tricks, and phantom revenues. The budget relies on a myriad of dubious
revenue sources including an increase in collections well above what the
Independent Fiscal Office projected, revenue from a proposed casino that does
not yet have a gaming license, and federal approval of the governor’s “Healthy
Pennsylvania” alternative to Medicaid expansion. If these revenues fail to
materialize, it is quite likely that Pennsylvania
will face a mid-year budget crisis. Already,
there are signs that revenue collections will head off course. On July 18, in
response to a lawsuit challenging the governor's plan to expand gas drilling in
state forests and parks, the Corbett administration agreed not to lease any
more state land for drilling until the court makes a ruling. The budget assumes
that $95 million will be raised from these leases, however this revenue will be
delayed if it arrives at all.
Court opens door to charter
school expansion in Bethlehem and rest of Pennsylvania
By Steve Esack,
Morning Call Harrisburg
Bureau 9:32 p.m. EDT, July 22, 2014
HARRISBURG — The Dual Language Charter School in Bethlehem —
and all other charter schools in Pennsylvania — could be one step closer to
opening up multiple facilities under a court ruling filed Tuesday. In a 2-1 decision, Commonwealth Court ruled that charter
schools can open more than one school by amending the charters they hold with a
local school board. The decision overturned rulings by the Bethlehem Area
School Board and the state Department of Education's Charter Appeal Board. Bethlehem Superintendent Joseph Roy said the
administration and board have not determined whether to appeal to the state
Supreme Court.
Senate GOP leadership to
Corbett: Re-appoint Office of Open Records director Terry Mutchler
By on
July 22, 2014 at 8:29 PM
Two powerful Republican
senators are now among a throng standing in Office of Open Records director Terry
Mutchler's corner, saying she deserves a second six-year term in her
position.
In a letter (below)
sent on Tuesday to Gov. Tom Corbett, Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati,
R-Jefferson County, and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware
County, said they share the governor's goal of promoting openness and
transparency at all government levels.
And they "believe that allowing Terry to serve a second term is a
critical step in reaching that goal," the letter states.
Here's
a related prior posting:
"They don't feel they should be
subject to this law, or, candidly, subject to you," Mutchler told senators
on the state government committee, which is considering legislation to amend
the five-year-old law. "They are a cancer on the otherwise healthy
right-to- know-law."
Philly.com By Amy
Worden, Inquirer Harrisburg
Bureau POSTED: May 15, 2013
Executive director Terry Mutchler said her office had
received 239 appeals in cases in which charter schools either rejected or
failed to answer requests from the public for information such as budgets,
payrolls, or student rosters. She said her office ruled in favor of the schools
on just six of those appeals.
JOHN BAER, DAILY
NEWS POLITICAL COLUMNIST Tuesday, July 22, 2014, 3:01 AM
THIS IS NOT a plea for more school funding. Not even as Philly kids, teachers and parents
await word on whether schools are shuttered in September for lack of funding.
This is a reminder that the money's already there.
It's a reminder of how Pennsylvania 's
vast, expensive public-education system hoards tax dollars in multiple and
movable accounts.
Philly-Area School Districts'
Reserves
Philly.com July 22, 2017
What is the recommended level of a fund balance? This
differs depending on the circumstances of a school district, however, the
Pennsylvania School Boards Association recommends using the one of the
following guidelines: One relies on a formula where a predetermined number of
months (usually one to three months) of operating expenditures are used;
The other is used by the three major bond rating agencies - Moody's, Standard
& Poor's, and Fitch. The rating agencies recommend between 5% and 10% of
current period operating expenditures (budget); Section 688 of the school
code says that when the fund balance exceeds between 8 and 12% of expenditures,
depending on the size of the budget, the district must consume any fund balance
in excess of 8% prior to increasing taxes.
PSBA: Frequently Asked
Questions: School District Fund Balances
How to dismantle a school
system
Racked by budget
cuts, Pennsylvania
Aljazeera America
by @danieldenvir July 22, 2014 6:00AM ET
Graduating seniors last
month celebrated the end of a difficult year at Philadelphia ’s
Bartram High
School , one prominent example of Pennsylvania ’s deepening public education
crisis.
Michael Miller, the
father of one college-bound graduate, complained that the state keeps “taking
money and taking money, and it’s a scary thought where we’ll be in five years.”
He returned from military service in Afghanistan just as Republican Gov.
Tom Corbett’s education budget cuts began to hit the state’s poorest districts. For years Pennsylvania has served as a testing ground for
the conservative theory of small government — more specifically, since 2010,
when Corbett signed a no-new-taxes pledge crafted by anti-tax crusader Grover
Norquist and rode a Tea Party wave into office. The effects have proved
deleterious. Corbett’s cuts to public education have been particularly painful,
with poor districts like Philadelphia
bearing the brunt.
The city’s school
district now faces its third consecutive budget crisis under Corbett, who
cannot visit his state’s largest city without facing massive protests.
According to data provided by the School
District of Philadelphia
Educating the city's children
with the resources at hand
the notebook By James H.
Lytle on Jul 22, 2014 12:51
PM
Those of us concerned
about public education in Philadelphia have been
so caught up with the School District ’s
financial crisis that we have given little thought to how District and charter
schools, and publicly funded schooling for the city’s kids, might be
reimagined. Our priority has been filling the gaps, dealing with deficits and
not possibilities.
The underlying
assumption of advocates, District leadership, and elected officials is that if
funding were restored for nurses and counselors, art and music teachers,
smaller class sizes, preschool programs, books and supplies, and facilities
improvements, then all would be well. And if additional funds were available to
provide programs and services beyond the basics, then prosperity would be at
hand. But the public seems disinclined
to provide the levels of support that the best suburban and private schools
enjoy. And equally important is that the District’s performance record for the
last several decades provides little evidence that additional funding will, by
itself, lead to broad, substantive improvement.
District inviting educators,
others to redesign schools
the notebook By Dale
Mezzacappa on Jul 22, 2014
06:11 PM
The Philadelphia School
District
"We're doing this
now because we see a tremendous opportunity within the school system in the
city to provide space for really talented and passionate people to help us with
transformation efforts in specific schools," said Deputy Superintendent
Paul Kihn in an interview.
He said the so-called School Redesign Initiative is an opportunity to act on ideas to
create community schools, among other transformative models. The District is
seeking a letter of intent from interested teams by Aug. 19 and will choose 10
teams by Oct. 10.
Phila. district asks for
proposals for overhauling education
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 1:08 AM
POSTED: Tuesday, July 22, 2014,
7:17 PM
If you have an idea for overhauling a city public school, the Philadelphia School District
That's a shift for a system that has relied heavily on charter
conversions to reform struggling schools. Schools slated for redesign would
remain part of the district and would continue to employ union-represented
teachers. As many as 10 schools could be
transformed beginning in September 2015.
Philly schools open up
overhaul proposals to community
SOLOMON LEACH, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM,
215-854-5903 POSTED: Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 3:01 AM
EDUCATORS, PARENTS, community groups and universities that have
bold ideas to improve a Philadelphia
public school now have a vehicle to pitch their plans.
The school district yesterday announced the start of the School
Redesign Initiative, its latest effort to allow stakeholders to identify,
develop and implement their innovative plans at existing schools.
The district said the goal is to increase the number of
high-quality schools, but many question the rationale behind the plan at a time
when schools lack basic resources, such as counselors, full-time nurses and
librarians, and the district faces an estimated $93 million deficit, which
could require hundreds of layoffs.
The School District Won’t Say
It, but Camden NJ
Stephen Danley's Blog
Posted July 22, 2014, by Stephen Danley
Assistant Professor Public
Policy and Administration, Rutgers
University
With news that 10 Uncommon and Mastery Schools have been
approved for Camden , it’s becoming increasingly
obvious that the Camden School District is being dishonest with the Camden residents. The
district has repeatedly assured parents and students that traditional schools
were not closing or at risk. That’s simply not possible with close to 7,000
students being moved to Uncommon and Mastery Schools.* So why
mislead about school closures? Because, as we’ve seen in Newark , communities will rally around their
schools once they are threatened. It’s easier just to open new schools, claim
it is about providing
additional quality options, than enact closures based on
projected deficits. The strategy was just successful for firing over 200
teachers.
http://danley.rutgers.edu/2014/07/22/the-school-district-wont-say-it-but-camden-schools-are-closing/
New state rankings on how America
A
new report on how America’s children are faring, just released by
the nonprofit Annie E. Casey Foundation, found that Massachusetts is
doing the best job and Mississippi the worst in four areas: economic
well-being, education, health and family/community indicators. The KidsCount 2014 Data Book finds that in
2012, 23 percent of U.S. children were living below the official poverty
line and many others live just above it, a jump from 2005 when 19 percent were
living below the poverty line. It is the
25th such annual report released by the foundation, which collects and analyzes
a mountain of data about the well-being of America’s children and issues a
report with state rankings and a great deal of other information, which you
can see
in full here. Using the latest available data, it looks at the four areas
to reach conclusions about how well children are doing in the United States .
The EDifier by Jim Hull July 22, 2014
A new study from the School
Choice Demonstration Project at
the University of
Arkansas
These are incredibly strong findings for charter schools. If
charter schools can do everything traditional public schools do at nearly half
the cost why shouldn’t policymakers invest more in their expansion? The problem
is this study doesn’t even attempt to determine if charter schools can provide
the same services with fewer funds than traditional public schools
Valarie Wilson won the
runoff election to be the Democratic candidate for Georgia ’s State Superintendent of
Education. The Republican primary was
too close to call.
Valarie Wilson was
endorsed by the Network for Public Education as a true friend of public
schools. Her opponent, Alisha Thomas Morgan, was supported by
the hedge fund group Democrats for Education Reform, Michelle Rhee’s
StudentsFirst, and the pro-voucher American Federation for Children.
I am happy to report
that the Network for Public Education is growing and thriving. This is due in
no small part to the excellent work of Rob Perry, who organized our website and
wrote our newsletter. Rob did a superb job in building our Facebook presence,
and after two years of dedicated service, has decided to move on to another
opportunity. We found Rob by putting out an appeal on this blog and are hoping
to be lucky again. We are now looking
for a new communications director. Here
is the official job description:
http://dianeravitch.net/2014/07/22/network-for-public-education-seeking-new-communications-director/
This Week's
Testing Resistance and Reform News:
Fairtest.org
University
of Pennsylvania Graduate School
The National Writing Project's
resources for teachers\Inspiring Students to Write
The Philadelphia Writing project
(PhilWP), a renowned local site of the National Writing Project, teaches
writing and literacy as critical tools for learning. Penn GSE professor Dianne
Waff works with teachers to move them and their students toward
writing-intensive lives that connect learning, high student achievement, and
personal growth. The following tips come
from experienced PhilWP Teacher Consultants (TCs), who offer ideas to encourage
students to write and develop a love for words and creative expression.
BATS DC
Rally July 28 10 am
The Badass Teachers Association (BATs), an activist organization
of over 50,000 teachers will be holding a rally in Washington D.C. USDOE
Plaza
Bucks Lehigh
EduSummit Monday Aug 11th and Tuesday Aug 12th
Location: Southern Lehigh High School5800 Main Street , Center Valley , PA
18034
Time: 8 AM - 3 PM Each Day(Registration starts at 7:30 AM. Keynote starts at 8:00 AM.)
Location: Southern Lehigh High School
Time: 8 AM - 3 PM Each Day(Registration starts at 7:30 AM. Keynote starts at 8:00 AM.)
The Bucks Lehigh EduSummit is a
collaboratively organized and facilitated two day professional learning experience
coordinated by educators in the Quakertown Community School District , Palisades School District, Salisbury
Township School District, Southern Lehigh School District, Bucks County IU, and Carbon Lehigh IU, which are all located in
northern Bucks county and southern Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Teachers in
other neighboring districts are welcome to attend as well! The purpose of the
EduSummit is to collaborate, connect, share, and learn together for the benefit
of our kids. Focus areas include: Educational Technology, PA Core, Social
Media, Best Practices, etc.
http://buckslehighedusummit2014.wikispaces.com/Home
http://buckslehighedusummit2014.wikispaces.com/Home
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 region who want to help ensure all three and
four year-old children can access quality pre-K.
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 30, 5-7pm
Anne's House
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 July 31
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.
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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