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PA Ed Policy Roundup for July
4, 2014:
Spectacular victory for
Philly schools - pretty depressing
Corbett still mulling
over Pa. budget
AMY WORDEN, INQUIRER
HARRISBURG BUREAU LAST UPDATED: Friday, July 4, 2014, 1:08 AM POSTED: Thursday,
July 3, 2014, 6:35 PM
HARRISBURG - A day after the climactic end to the budget
marathon in the state House - with a cigarette tax for Philadelphia and a
pension bill ready to be voted on - Gov. Corbett was still mum about when, or
if, he will sign the budget delivered to him Monday by the legislature. Corbett, his perfect on-time budget deadline
streak broken, has 10 days to sign the $29.1 billion spending plan. "He's still reviewing it," said
Corbett spokesman Jay Pagni, offering no additional details.
Spectacular victory for
Philly schools - pretty depressing
WHYY Newsworks DAVE DAVIES OFF MIC A BLOG BY DAVE DAVIES JULY 3, 2014
In a stunning, come-from-behind legislative win in Harrisburg,
Mayor Michael Nutter and backers of the beleaguered Philadelphia school system
managed to get a key vote last night authorizing a cigarette tax in the city to
fund the schools. Without it, there was
the prospect of 1300 layoffs and schools not opening on time in September. But honestly, this is awful. The alternative,
I admit, was worse than awful. It was catastrophic. But consider where we are
in funding schools for Philadelphia kids:
The city now has the right to levy the fifth straight tax increase on
its citizens for schools in recent years, and that leaves us $40 million or so
short of being able to open schools this fall with an educational product
pretty much everybody believes in unacceptable.
The budget debate - and
the weird week that was: John L. Micek
By John L. Micek |
jmicek@pennlive.com on July 03, 2014 at 8:37 AM, updated July
03, 2014 at 10:18 AM
And this is why they call it "Lazarus Week."
Just when it looked like pension reform was dead forever and
always (and that may yet happen), the Republican-controlled state House staged
a minor miracle this week, as it sprung legislation favored by Gov. Tom
Corbett from a committee chaired by one of his most vocal critics.
Weird stuff happens in the hothouse environment of the Capitol
during the final push to approve a state budget.
NE PA Educators: Corbett
budget is not enough
Scranton Times Tribune
BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL Published: July 4, 2014
As area educators wait for the governor to sign the 2014-15
state budget, they wonder how this spending plan will allow them to afford
pensions, salaries and textbooks. Though
the budget on Gov. Tom Corbett’s desk contains a slight increase in total
education funding, the boost will not cover additional costs for pensions that
districts must pay this year. “It
certainly does not address the serious fiscal problems we’re facing,” said
Abington Heights Superintendent Michael Mahon, Ph.D. Basic education funding, the largest line
item for districts, remains flat for 2014-15, and still does not equal the
level of funding districts received four years ago. In Mr. Corbett’s first
three budgets, school districts in Northeast Pennsylvania saw their funding
slashed by $143.8 million. His first budget, the 2011-12 budget, cut almost $1
billion from education statewide, and those cuts were not restored for 2012-13.
The 37 districts in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne and
Wyoming counties saw an additional $12.3 million in basic education funding in
2013-14. The governor’s administration has claimed he did not cut funding
because former Gov. Ed Rendell chose to use federal stimulus dollars for
education, and when stimulus money ran out, so did the education funding.
‘Guesswork' on state
budget puts Pottstown short of budget mark
By Evan Brandt, The Mercury POSTED: 07/03/14,
3:15 PM EDT |
POTTSTOWN — When all the state budget dust settles, Linda Adams
anticipates the $55.9 million Pottstown Schools budget will be as much as
$170,000 short of the mark.
That’s because when the Pottstown Business Manager built the
budget for the new fiscal year, she had little choice but to plug in the
numbers from Gov. Tom Corebett’s budget address in February, which would have
increased Pottstown’s state aid by nearly $550,000.
She didn’t have much else to go on. Unlike in previous years, when the
Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials issued regular updates on
budget negotiations in Harrisburg as the end of the fiscal year approached, in
recent years there has been nothing. “The
governor’s budget comes out in February, and then it’s like a silent pit until
the last minute,” Adams said. “I’ve been doing budgets for 30 years and I’ve
never had to use so much guesswork as I have in the last five years.”
Prior to her life in the public education, Adams worked in
business. “In my former life, I oversaw
a billion-dollar budget and we would never have been allowed to have this much
uncertainty so close to the end of the fiscal year,” she said. “At this point
in time, most businesses would have their plans for the next fiscal year well
in place.” But this is Pennsylvania.
"This is not a way to run a
high-performing school system," Pritchett wrote in his resignation letter
to Mayor Nutter. "And these challenges will not change until our citizens
recognize the fundamental need for a quality education for EVERY child and
demand that our governments at the local, state, and federal level all
participate in the creation of a fully funded educational program."
A frustrated Pritchett
resigns from SRC
KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Friday, July 4, 2014, 1:08 AM POSTED: Thursday,
July 3, 2014, 8:05 PM
In a surprise move, Wendell Pritchett resigned Thursday from
the School Reform Commission, citing frustration with and fear for the state of
public education in Philadelphia.
He will be replaced by Marjorie Neff, who until June was
principal of Masterman, the city's top magnet school. Neff spent 38 years as a
teacher and principal and was the first Philadelphia School District educator
to ever serve on the SRC. Pritchett, a
well-regarded academic who was the longest-serving member of the commission,
said the SRC's job had essentially become figuring out which from a menu of bad
options will cause the least damage to city students.
Tradeoff in the cigarette
tax bill: Potential for more new charters, more appeals
WHYY Newsworks By Kevin McCorry for NewsWorks on Jul 3, 2014
07:15 PM
Very probable, optimistic, off the table, never happening,
dead, passed.
Such was a week in the life of the Philadelphia cigarette tax.
On Wednesday night, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
approved the
measureby a 119-80 vote. The Senate,
which passed similar language earlier in the week, will likely vote on it
Tuesday. If approved, it will head to Gov. Corbett's desk.
The Philadelphia School District has been counting on the tax –
$2 per pack on cigarettes sold within city limits – to help close its $93
million budget gap. The tax is expected to generate $40 million to $45 million
in its first year and double that in years to come.
Even if the District completely closed that budget gap, it says
that would only provide enough resources to maintain this past school year's
admittedly "insufficient" levels of staffing and programs. To
implement his vision for District growth, Superintendent William Hite has asked
for $224 million above this figure.
Pritchett resigns from
SRC; Nutter names retired principal Neff to replace him
The notebook By Paul
Socolar on Jul 3, 2014 04:54 PM
The School Reform Commission has a new member, Marjorie Neff, a
longtime District principal who just retired from her post at the Masterman
School. Mayor Nutter named her Friday to the SRC to replace Wendell
Pritchett, who has served as a mayoral appointee since September 2011. Pritchett, whose term runs until January
2017, submitted his resignation today.
He recently returned to the University of Pennsylvania law school as a
professor and interim dean after serving as chancellor of Rutgers University -
Camden.
Neff, a parent of two Philadelphia public school graduates who
lives in Mount Airy, spent 38 years in the District, nine of them as the
principal of Powel Elementary and eight years at Masterman.
Neff is the first current or former School District educator to
serve on the SRC in the 12-year history of that body. As a principal, she was outspoken in
addressing inadequate funding in the School District.
House approval of
cigarette tax hailed as victory by officials and funding advocates
The notebook By David
Limm on Jul 3, 2014 12:00 PM
After a seesaw week of negotiations in
Harrisburg, House legislators late Wednesday night passed, 119-80, an amended bill that allows Philadelphia to add a $2
per-pack tax on cigarettes to help fund the city's schools. The
entire Philadelphia delegation supported the bill.
If approved by the Senate and Gov. Corbett, who have both
supported the tax, the School District stands to gain as much as $45 million in
the first year and about $80 million the year after. The tax should narrow the
District's substantial 2014-15 budget gap to less than $40 million.
Its approval was hailed as a victory by both elected officials and
advocates for more school funding.
Right, Students First
Inquirer by Karen Heller POSTED: THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2014,
10:24 AM
Our quote of the day comes from none other than Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Corbett.
After a long contentious battle over school funding, where
Philadelphia Democrats begged Harrisburg to enact a $2-a-pack tax that
would be levied only against city smokers, a no-brainer in any other
political climate, the House finally passed the measure late Wednesday. This
came after Corbett said over the weekend, "I would encourage the
delegation, the Democrat delegation, from the city of Philadelphia ... to give
the votes to get a pension bill done so they can get a cigarette tax done so
they can get additional funding for the school district of Philadelphia,"
adding "It's in their hands." The statement was met with outrage and
derision by the Philadelphia delegation and Mayor Nutter.
So what did Corbett, who has yet to visit a district-run school
as governor, say last night, July 2, after the cigarette tax passed? Please don't read the following while
drinking any hot beverage: "We have worked for over a year, above the
partisan politics, to put the students of Philadelphia first."
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-blinq/Right-Students-First.html#PWOKIkM4GEuGYkgm.99
Former PA Cyber chief seeks
more time for trial
TribLive from Staff and Wire Reports Published: Thursday,
July 3, 2014 1:15 pm | Updated: 8:18 pm, Thu Jul 3, 2014.
PITTSBURGH — Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School founder Nick
Trombetta is still waiting for the government to provide an additional 288,000
documents. He’s also waiting for a
response to his legal team’s motion to dismiss the criminal case against him. In a motion filed Wednesday, Trombetta’s
lawyers said a federal judge should give them 60 more days to file pretrial
motions.
A federal grand jury in August indicted Trombetta, of East
Liverpool, Ohio, on 11 counts of mail fraud, bribery, tax conspiracy and filing
false tax returns. Trombetta is accused of using his position as the head of
the Midland-based PA Cyber and his control of several related entities to grab
at least $1 million in taxes paid to the school, prosecutors say.
“In 2003, then-Gov. Ed
Rendell tapped him to help lead the state education department
as deputy secretary. He became the acting education secretary from 2004 to
2005, then was officially appointed to the role from 2005 to 2009”
Former ASD chief announces
retirement
Gerald Zahorchak, who spent one year in
Allentown, will step down as superintendent of Greater Johnstown next year.
Staff
and wire reports 9:15
p.m. EDT, July 3, 2014
Gerald Zahorchak, whose
one-year stint as Allentown School District's superintendent ended in turmoil,
has announced his retirement as chief of the Greater Johnstown School District.
Zahorchak told the Greater
Johnstown School Board last week that he will leave at the end of the 2014-15
school year, which began Tuesday. Zahorchak
is a product of Greater Johnstown, serving as president of the Class of 1975
and co-captain of the Trojan football squad. After college, he re-entered the
classroom as faculty before a years-long furlough. He moved on to North Star,
then became a principal in the Shanksville-Stonycreek School District, then
returned to North Star as an elementary and middle school principal and
strategic planning coordinator.
Pileggi bill would freeze property taxes for senior
citizens
Proposed legislation sponsored
by state Sen. Dominic Pileggi to freeze school property taxes for senior
citizens will be one of the first bills to be debated when state lawmakers
return from summer recess later this year.
Pileggi, R-9th of Chester, the state Senate majority leader, wants to
freeze property taxes for homeowners age 65 and older. His bill, Senate Bill
299, is known as the Taxpayer Relief Act, but it does not specifically address
ways to pay for the freeze. One possibility mentioned by Pileggi is legalizing
keno-style lottery games. Keno is an electronic numbers game. “There has been a concern recently about the
impact of increasing property taxes on senior citizens,” Pileggi said. “This
(SB 299) presents an alternative that is achievable and the concept is sound.
It simply comes down to finding the necessary revenue.”
According to Pileggi’s
estimates, it will cost the state $76.1 million to implement a senior citizen
property tax freeze in the first year, and $347.2 million by the fifth year.
LOBBYING IS REALLY HARD THESE DAYS
Jean
Jacques Crawb's Blog July
3, 2014by
For
those of you who are not aware of Pennsylvania’s budget dilemma, here is a good
way to find out. The revenue picture is very dim for us here in the
Commonwealth. There are a number of estimates that run from 1.2 billion to 2.0
billion shortfalls in our tax collections. That has caused a minor earthquake
in the process of creating a new budget.
The governor laid out a budget in February that appeared to be reasonable (by current standards). However, what he and his staff did not know was that they would be shy a bunch of revenue. The Governor’s no tax increase pledge makes raising any kind of new revenue almost impossible. So, as the months went by, there were hints that we might get a Marcellus Shale (natural gas) severance tax and that the Governor might actually sign onto the Affordable Care Act. Those two things might not have filled the hole in the budget, but it would have gone a long way. As the months rolled on, it was apparent that the members of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives were going an entirely different way.
The governor laid out a budget in February that appeared to be reasonable (by current standards). However, what he and his staff did not know was that they would be shy a bunch of revenue. The Governor’s no tax increase pledge makes raising any kind of new revenue almost impossible. So, as the months went by, there were hints that we might get a Marcellus Shale (natural gas) severance tax and that the Governor might actually sign onto the Affordable Care Act. Those two things might not have filled the hole in the budget, but it would have gone a long way. As the months rolled on, it was apparent that the members of the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives were going an entirely different way.
Richard Scaife, conservative
champion, newsman and philanthropist, dies at 82
By The Tribune-Review Published: Friday, July 4, 2014, 3:03 a.m.
Tribune-Review owner and philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife, whose vision and funding reinvigorated conservative politics in America, died Friday, July 4, in his home. His death came just one day after his 82nd birthday. Many of the nation's leading conservatives considered him to be the man who sustained the Republican Party after its crushing defeat in the 1964 presidential election and the Watergate scandal in 1972.
By The Tribune-Review Published: Friday, July 4, 2014, 3:03 a.m.
Tribune-Review owner and philanthropist Richard Mellon Scaife, whose vision and funding reinvigorated conservative politics in America, died Friday, July 4, in his home. His death came just one day after his 82nd birthday. Many of the nation's leading conservatives considered him to be the man who sustained the Republican Party after its crushing defeat in the 1964 presidential election and the Watergate scandal in 1972.
His support for and promotion of a conservative agenda led to
Ronald Reagan's election as president in 1980 and the nation's turn toward the
principles those two men shared.
He and Reagan remained friends and admirers until the latter's
death in 2004.
Politics, however, was just one aspect of his many-faceted
life.
“Dick Scaife was the epitome of a libertarian,” said attorney
H. Yale Gutnick, who represented his close friend for more than three decades.
“He resented government intrusion into our lives while vigorously defending
free speech, freedom of the press, the separation of church and state, a
woman's right to choose, and other individual liberties.
Richard
Mellon Scaife, Influential U.S. Conservative, Dies at 82
New York Times By ROBERT D. McFADDEN JULY 4, 2014
Richard Mellon Scaife, the Pittsburgh philanthropist and
reclusive heir to the Mellon banking fortune, whose support for right-wing
causes laid the foundations for America’s modern conservative movement and
fueled the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton, died on Friday. He was
82. Mr. Scaife’s death was reported by
the The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, a newspaper he owned. No cause of death was
given. Decades before David and Charles
Koch bankrolled right-wing causes, Mr. Scaife and Joseph Coors, the beer
magnate, were the leading financiers of the conservative crusade of the 1970s
and ’80s, seeking to reverse the liberal traditions of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society.
First look: StudentsFirst
opens its books - NEA’s losses are slowing - The Common Core’s testing collapse
Politico By CAITLIN EMMA |
07/03/14 10:05 AM EDT
With help from Allie Grasgreen, Stephanie Simon and Seth
Zweifler
FIRST LOOK: STUDENTSFIRST OPENS ITS BOOKS Former
D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee directed hundreds of thousands of dollars in the
last election cycle to conservative candidates and organizations through her ed
reform group StudentsFirst, according to the group’s latest tax filings. The
990 forms cover the fiscal year from August 2012 through July of 2013. They
show that StudentsFirst and its sister organization, StudentsFirst Institute,
raised a combined total of $26.7 million, down slightly from $28.6 million the
previous year. The haul includes a huge bequest of stock, worth $2.6 million,
from an unnamed donor. (Rhee will not disclose her funders.) On the expense
side, Rhee’s group spent $2 million for consulting services from the Democratic
firm SKDKnickerbocker. It also spent $1.7 million on membership fees paid to
the grassroots activist site Change.org. The site hosted a number of
StudentsFirst petitions that gathered tens of thousands of signatures — and
provided Rhee’s organization with a trove of email addresses — until protests
from organized labor prompted Change.org to cut ties with StudentsFirst.
— Rhee, who earns nearly $350,000 a year, also
spent heavily on political activism in the year covered by the tax forms.
Good Riddance to the
Common Core Tests!
A few years ago, Arne Duncan, Bill Gates, David Coleman, and a
merry band of policy wonks had a grand plan. The non-governmental groups like
Achieve, the National Governors Association, the Council of Chief State School
Officers, and Coleman’s own Student Achievement Partners would write the Common
Core standards (paid for by the Gates Foundation); Duncan would require states
to agree to adopt them as a condition of eligibility for a share of the
billions of Race to the Top funds at a time when states were broke; the Feds
would spend $370 million to develop tests for the standards; and within a few
short years the U.S. would have a seamless system of standards and assessments
that could be used to evaluate students, teachers, and schools.
The reason that the Gates Foundation had to pay for the
standards is that federal law prohibits the government from controlling,
directing, or supervising curriculum or instruction. Of course, it is ludicrous
to imagine that the federally-funded tests do not have any direct influence on
curriculum or instruction. Many years ago, I interviewed a professor at MIT
about his role in the new science programs of the 1960s, and he said something
I never forgot: “Let me write a nation’s tests, and I care not who writes its
songs or poetry.”
So how fares the seamless system? Not so well. Critics of the
standards and tests seem to gathering strength and growing bolder. The lack of
any democratic process for writing, reviewing, and revising the standards is
coming back to bite the architects and generals who assumed they could engineer
a swift and silent coup.
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:
United Way Building, 6th Floor 1709 Ben Franklin Parkway 19107
Wed July 9, 5-7 PM
Wed July 30, 5-7 PM
United Way Building, 6th Floor 1709 Ben Franklin Parkway 19107
Wed July 9, 5-7 PM
Wed July 30, 5-7 PM
Call a Pre-K Friend in Mont Co:
Anne's House 242 Barren Hill Road Conshohocken PA 19428
Wed July 16, 5-7pm
Wed July 30, 5-7pm
Anne's House 242 Barren Hill Road Conshohocken PA 19428
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 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.
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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