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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for September 15, 2015:
"Stopgap? We don't need no stinking stopgap."
“This is on the agenda
because we’ve seen other districts around the state doing this. It’s a
cash-flow issue and it’s also an equity issue,” school board member Adam Schott
said at last week’s meeting. “I’m uncomfortable advancing resources to cyber
charter schools when we don’t have those resources for our own kids.”
Cyber charter
schools with students from School
District of Lancaster 30 N. Ann St. ,
and the remaining $2 million going to cyber charter schools. At a committee of the whole meeting Sept. 8,
school board members said they wanted to continue reimbursement payments to La
Academia, but many board members voiced support for withholding a portion of
payments to the for-profit cyber charter schools. Each year, 125 to 150 School District of Lancaster Pennsylvania
receive 100 percent of their public funding through school districts. When a
student enrolls in a charter school, the student’s home school district must
pay tuition to the charter school for that child. Withholding those payments should save the
district about $100,000 per month, Matt Przywara, School District of Lancaster
Charter schools among
lowest-scoring in Pennsylvania
Trib Live By Emily
Balser Monday, Sept. 14, 2015, 9:30 p.m.
Editor's note: The Tribune-Review examined school districts and charter schools in seven WesternPennsylvania
counties. This is the second of a two-day report. Today: Charter schools and
how they seek to reverse falling student performance. Charter schools, specifically cyber charter
schools, are among the lowest-scoring schools in the state and have some of the
highest numbers of economically disadvantaged students, a Tribune-Review
analysis found. “Yes, there is data that
shows a correlation between poverty and underperforming,” said Bob Fayfich,
director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools. He said one reason cyber charters have low
scores is the turnover of students who were behind in traditional schools.
Editor's note: The Tribune-Review examined school districts and charter schools in seven Western
Who is winning the hearts
and minds battle of the budget stalemate?
The PLS Reporter Author: Jason Gottesman/Monday, September
14, 2015
"The Republican-controlled House
returns to session next Monday and plans to begin its consideration of the
stopgap proposal. The House rules would allow that chamber to consider it for
final passage by Wednesday, at the earliest. So if all goes as the Republicans
in both chambers plan, a stopgap budget bill could be on its way to Wolf's desk
for enactment by the end of the first day of autumn."
We deserve better than a
stopgap budget, and passing one would take away all urgency: Editorial
By PennLive Editorial Board on
September 14, 2015 at 5:20 PM
Stopgap? We don't
need no stinking stopgap.
We need a budget, a
full-on, long-term, no-tricks budget. And we don't think lawmakers – or voters
– should put up with a proposal that stops short of that. Passage of a stopgap measure would
provide a portion of the state's yearly funding for social service
providers and schools – "essential services." Republican senators
plan to introduce such legislation when they return to session Wednesday,
PennLive's Christian Alexandersen reported.
On the surface, we
appreciate that Republican lawmakers are attempting to do something in light of
the budget impasse, which is nearing 80 days. We assume that both sides are
quite frustrated by a lack of apparent progress. And we are well aware that is
was Gov. Tom Wolf, by
choosing to veto the entire Republican-approved budget earlier
this summer instead of using his line-item powers, who caused this
situation. We realize that as we call
for a rejection of a stopgap budget, it makes it sound as though we are
rejecting compromise, and we are rejecting money for essential services, agencies and
schools that need it. On the second point, you would be right. It's unfortunate
that these groups continue to be the most affected pawn in this budget game,
and we are sensitive to the fact that without a budget being approved, they
will struggle. We need a budget, a
full-on, long-term, no-tricks budget. And we don't think lawmakers – or voters
– should put up with a proposal that stops short of that. However, what urgency would there be to pass
a full budget with a stopgap measure in place?
"Some important issues
are at stake in the budget impasse, especially school funding and public
pension reform. But those issues make it all the more important that the
government pass an actual budget rather than a “stopgap” appropriation. A
“stopgap” would only produce more controversy, because the majorities that pass
it inevitably will fund their priorities. And with their political priorities
funded, there will be even less pressure on them to do their jobs and pass a
realistic full budget. It’s time for
compromise, not for a stopgap appropriation that makes it look like lawmakers
are doing their jobs."
Editorial: ‘Stopgap’ plan
invites more politics No vacation for theatrics; goal should be full budget
Having used the lack
of a state budget mostly as a prop for political theater, Republican leaders of
majorities in both houses now want to do more of the same with a “stopgap”
budget to fund certain priorities. It’s
now more than 70 days since July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year, and the
state government does not have a budget. Not coincidentally, the Legislature’s
summer vacation was about the same length even as legislative leaders
supposedly negotiated with the Democratic administration. Over the entire time that the state
government has been without a budget, vacationing lawmakers have been paid
because they have been careful to hoard scores of millions of dollars of the
taxpayers’ money precisely to cover such a contingency. Those unwarranted
reserves, legislative leaders say, are “in case of” a budget impasse with the
administration. But, as this year’s ongoing charade shows, the massive reserves
enable and invite an impasse; the reserves are a self-fulfilling prophecy. Now legislative leaders want to push for a
stopgap budget because the impasse has begun to produce some political heat.
Social service agencies and school districts don’t have the luxury of hoarding
public money, so for them and millions of Pennsylvanians who depend on them,
the budget impasse actually is a crisis.
Full-speed ahead with
Senate's plans to consider stopgap budget
Penn Live By Jan Murphy | jmurphy@pennlive.com Email
the author | Follow on Twitter on
September 14, 2015 at 4:52 PM, updated September 14, 2015 at 5:03 PM
After a brief
meeting between Gov. Tom Wolf and legislative leaders on Monday morning, Senate
Republicans found no reason not to proceed this week with their plans to
consider a stopgap budget. The stopgap
budget would drive out about a third of the funding that was included in the GOP-passed $30.2 billion budget that Wolf vetoed in its
entirety on June 30.
That would provide
temporary relief to financially strapped social service agencies and school
districts that have laid off staff, curtailed some services and put off paying
bills while awaiting a budget
agreement, which has encountered a number of roadblocks. Asked if any progress was made at Monday's
meeting toward reaching a final budget agreement, Senate Republican general
counsel Dave Thomas said, "We said all along if we got to the point where
we thought there was real progress and we were very close to obtaining a budget
agreement, we would forgo the stopgap. So the fact that I'm telling you we are
going forward with it answers that question." The Senate
Republicans plan to begin the approval process on Wednesday.
They plan to call for a vote to move a stopgap budget bill out of the
appropriations committee on Wednesday to position it for a vote by the full
chamber on Friday.
Area lawmakers will accept
pay, blame Gov. Wolf for budget impasse
By Eric Devlin,
The Mercury POSTED: 09/14/15,
6:06 PM EDT | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
Pottstown>>
Not every legislator in Harrisburg
is willing to give up their paycheck during the state’s budget impasse. Three Republicans — state Sen. Bob Mensch,
R-24th Dist., state Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-26th Dist., and state Rep. Tom
Quigley, R-146th Dist. — all told The Mercury they will continue to collect a
check because they feel they’re doing their job. They blame Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a
Democrat, for the three-month impasse but promised to look into finding
short-term solutions when the legislature meets again next week. Taking no pay “puts us at a real disadvantage
vis-a-vis the governor,” Hennessey said.
Wolf is already working without pay. Before he even took office, Wolf, a
millionaire businessman, said he would not take his $187,256 annual salary,
either returning it to the state or donating it to charity. “He’s independently wealthy. He can wait,”
Hennessey continued. “His position right now is he wants all the tax increases
that he’s asked for from the very beginning, which would be an $8 billion tax
increase and we have a $30 billion budget.”
"In 2008, Gov. Ed
Rendell furloughed 24,000 workers and another 77,000 missed at least one
paycheck. This put pressure on the Republican legislature to put together
a bridge budget and finally end a 101-day impasse. A year later the state Supreme Court ruled
6-1 that the term "shall pay" meant what it said, and forbade any
further payless paydays. It eliminated state employees from the status of
hostages, but it also removed the single, greatest source of pressure to get
the job done."
So remind me why we even
*need* a budget again?: Dennis Roddy
PennLive Op-Ed By Dennis Roddy on September 14, 2015
at 11:00 AM, updated September 14, 2015 at 12:22 PM
Here is a
provocative idea sure to frighten Harrisburg 's
bellhops and bartenders — the only people truly dependent on the general
assembly for their incomes: I don't care
if they pass a budget and neither do you. Budgets don't pass unless all parties
feel one of two things.
The first is a sense
of responsibility. The second is pain. Tom
Corbett arrived in Harrisburg
with a Boy Scout's earnestness and thought, for reasons most have never
fathomed, that missing a budget deadline was a failure of such gravity that it
would take an archbishop to absolve him. On the day of his
first budget, I prepared a statement for him saying he was happy to be signing
an on-time budget. He instructed me to
remove the word happy.
"Do you think
I'm happy with this budget?" he gasped. He was not.
"Poverty becomes the
common denominator among poorly performing schools.
Stephen C. Antalics Jr.: Is it time for radical change
in public education?
Morning Call Opinion
by Stephen C. Antalics September 14, 2015
Sen. Lloyd Smucker,
a Republican and chairman of the state Senate Education Committee, is proposing
legislation that could put poorly performing school districts under state
control. That prompts the questions: Why are some districts failing, and would
state takeover of only failing districts be the best solution? In response to Smucker's plan, Donna Cooper,
a former top official of Gov. Rendell's administration, was quoted as saying:
"A school without books, with class sizes of 30, without full-day
kindergarten or prekindergarten, a school without a nurse, is going to fail. It
doesn't matter who runs it." Sen.
Andrew Dinniman, a Democrat and minority chairman of the Education Committee,
noted that the majority of the schools that fail are in poor urban areas.
“A one year pause is not
enough,” Joseph Zupancic, Canon-McMillan School Board member said in calling
for more data to be collected over time before the new PSSA can be used as a
measurement of progress or success. “So we that we can take another set,
another year, and compare apples to apples instead of the apples to oranges
that we can get now.”
What Lower Standardized
Test Scores Mean for Pennsylvania
WHYY Newsworks WESA By ESSENTIAL
PITTSBURGH • SEP
14, 2015
Throughout
Pennsylvania parents of elementary and middle school students are opening their
mailboxes today to find standardized test scores for their children and their
schools that are much lower than they were last year. The drop has been
nearly unanimously attributed to a more difficult set of tests that are more
closely linked to Pennsylvania ’s
Common Core standards than they have been in the past. “I would caution any parent from over
interpreting these scores…this is a new baseline,” Heidi Ondek, Superintendent,
Quaker Valley School District said. “It
may take years before this is a reliable enough measure to base too much on
instructionally.” Ondek encourages
parents to talk to their child’s teacher about their son's or daughter's
progress, and she encourages everyone in the community to look at multiple
measurements when assessing schools. The
federal government seems to agree. All schools in the state have been
given a one-year waiver from the No Child Left Behind Act. Without the
waiver, many schools would find themselves at least on a federal watch list if
not worse.
By Jacqueline Palochko Of The Morning Call September 14, 2015
By Mary Niederberger
/ Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette September 15, 2015 12:00 AM
The number of
homeless students attending public school in Pennsylvania increased by 18
percent between the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school year
"The group, which formed
18 months ago and claims about 200 members, has been emphasizing issues not
usually on the front burner in union elections, such as the school-to-prison
pipeline, racial injustice, and, most visibly, students' right to opt out of
standardized tests."
Caucus of Working
Educators plans to challenge PFT leadership
The caucus, which
has been organizing since 2013, plans a "listening campaign" in
advance of next year's vote.
the notebook By Dale
Mezzacappa on Sep 13, 2015 03:16 PM
The Caucus of
Working Educators (WE), a group of mostly younger teachers committed to social
justice unionism, announced plans Thursday to put up a slate in next year's
election against Jerry Jordan and the current leadership of the Philadelphia
Federation of Teachers. The challenge is
the most robust and coordinated effort since the 1980s to unseat the dominant
Collective Bargaining Team that has run the PFT for more than 30 years. WE's mission -- to put stark focus on
educational inequality and the damage it does to teachers, students, and
society -- is in the spirit of internal dissent that has ousted long-term union
leadership in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and
Milwaukee. Its action has the potential to shake up the historically
dysfunctional PFT-District relationship, although whether it would become more
or less adversarial under WE is still not clear. "We are a diverse group of rank-and-file
members who felt disconnected from the PFT leadership," said Larissa
Pahomov, an English teacher at Science
Leadership Academy Philadelphia ."
Radnor teachers hold
informational picket at Radnor
Elementary School
Delco Times By Linda Stein, lstein@mainlinemedianews.com, @lsteinreporter on Twitter
POSTED: 09/14/15,
8:22 AM EDT
Radnor >>
Parents going to the fall open house at Radnor Elementary School last week were
greeted by Radnor Township School District teachers wearing black union-logo
T-shirts and handing out fliers to let them know they are working without a
contract. David Wood, the president of
the Radnor Teacher Education Association, said the union had voted to authorize
a strike in the spring. The teachers have been negotiating with the school
board since January without reaching a deal.
In 2013, they inked to a two-year extension on their previous contract.
The state Department of Education lists the average Radnor teacher as paid
$81,994 (under the 2011-12 contract). In the surrounding districts of
Tredyffrin/Easttown the average teacher makes $84,257, in Upper Merion the
average teacher salary is $89,305 and in Lower Merion
the average teacher salary is $88,899, according to the state. The maximum
salary for RTSD teachers is $105,125 while the minimum salary for a teacher
just starting in the district is $48,500, according to the district.
KATHY BOCCELLA, INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Tuesday, September 15, 2015, 1:08 AM POSTED: Monday,
September 14, 2015, 5:05 PM
To protest their
lack of a contract, Radnor
Township School
District
"I opposed the
initiative that created charter schools because I did not believe that public
money belongs in schools that lack public oversight and accountability,"
Inslee wrote. "That remains my position. We must have accountability for
all taxpayer money spent on education, particularly at a time when the Court
has ruled that we have consistently failed to adequately fund public
schools."
No Special Session to Save Washington
State
"The trouble is that the
decision is based on evidence that is blatantly unfair. Of course charter
schools have posted better results than traditional public schools in Los Angeles
Education Week
Reality Check Blog By Walt Gardner on September
14, 2015 7:27 AM
Even though their
overall performance is mixed, charter schools are the darlings of reformers. In
certain cities, however, they have indeed posted impressive results. The
situation in Los Angeles ,
home of the nation's second largest school district, is a case in point ("A charter school expansion could be great for
L.A." Los
Angeles Los Angeles . As a result, the plan is to
double the number of students to nearly 300,000. ….I've long believed that if traditional
public schools could do the same, there would be no difference between the two.
Studies have compared the performance of students who applied to oversubscribed
charter schools but didn't win the lottery (and then enrolled in traditional
neighborhood schools) with that of students in the same charter schools. The
aim was to control for self-selection. In other words, motivated students
in charters versus motivated students in traditional schools. But other
factors contaminated the results.
"University of Pennsylvania
After years of cuts, school districts face teacher
shortages
Yahoo News By CHRISTINE ARMARIO and LISA LEFF September
14, 2015 4:03 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
When a new school year began at the Sierra Sands Unified District 150 miles
north of Los Angeles in August, students in four classes were greeted by a
substitute. The small district's human
resources department had worked aggressively through the summer to attract new
teachers. Staff members made out-of-state recruiting trips, highlighting their
area's low cost of living and proximity to Los Angeles . The district revamped its
website and asked residents to tap their families and friends for job
candidates. "We were leaving no
stone unturned," said Dave Ostash, assistant superintendent of human
resources of the 5,000-student district.
Still, when the bell rang on the first day of class, they fell four
teachers short.
After years of
recession-related layoffs and hiring freezes, school systems in pockets across
the United States
are in urgent need of more qualified teachers.
Shortages have surfaced in big cities such as Tampa ,
Florida , and Las Vegas ,
where billboards calling for new teachers dot the highways, as well as in states
such as Georgia , Indiana and North
Dakota that have long struggled to compete for
education graduates.
Pat Metheny Group - September Fifteenth (Live at
Saratoga July 1998)
YouTube Uploaded on
Sep 12, 2011 Runtime 8:43
Recorded Live at the
mountain winery saratoga
july 21-23 1998
SCHOOL PLAY - It's a touchy subject
School Play explores
our attitudes toward public education using the real voices of Pennsylvanians
from across the Commonwealth
The performance will
be held next Wednesday, September 16th at 7:00 pm at the
Suzanne Roberts Theatre (480 S. Broad St., Philadelphia). Tickets are
free. People can go to this link to RSVP: http://www.pccy.org/event/school-play-performance/
Help fund the statewide
tour of a live documentary play about the struggle to save public education in
Pennsylvania.
After standing-room-only
shows at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center in April, we’re taking
this compelling play about the precarious state of public education back to the
people who lent us their voices and stories. This October, we’re traveling
across the state, putting on free performances to spark conversations and
engage citizens. School Play is
a work of grassroots theatre, woven from the narratives of hundreds of
Pennsylvanians affected by our state’s school funding crisis. The play is
entirely crowd-sourced; the script is derived from the words of students,
parents, educators and legislators, and is available online for anyone to
perform. Artists Arden Kass, Seth Bauer
and Edward Sobel created School Play out of our personal
concern for our kids and our communities. The result is a funny, sad,
straight-talking documentary theatre piece, told through the words of real
people. You can read more about School
Play here, here, here and here.
Register Now for the Fifth
Annual Arts and Education Symposium Oct. 29th Harrisburg
Thursday, October
29, 2015 Radisson Hotel Harrisburg Convention Center 8:30 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. Act
48 Credit is available. The event will be a daylong convening of arts education
policy leaders and practitioners for lively discussions about important policy
issues and the latest news from the field. The symposium is hosted by EPLC and
the Pennsylvania Arts Education Network, and supported by a generous grant from
The Heinz Endowments.
The John Stoops Lecture
Series: Dr. Pasi Sahlberg "Education Around the World: Past, Present &
Future" Lehigh University October 8, 2015 6:00 p.m.
Baker Hall |Zoellner Arts
Center | 420 E. Packer Avenue | Bethlehem , PA 18015
Baker Hall |
Free and open to the
public! Ticketing is general admission -
no preseating will be assigned. Arrive early for the best seats. Please plan to stay post-lecture for an open
reception where you will have an opportunity to meet with students from all of
our programs to learn about the latest innovations in education and human
services.
Register now for the
2015 PASCD 65th Annual Conference, Leading and Achieving in an Interconnected World, to be
held November 15-17, 2015 at Pittsburgh Monroeville Convention
Center.
The Conference
will Feature Keynote Speakers: Meenoo Rami – Teacher and Author
“Thrive: 5 Ways to (Re)Invigorate Your Teaching,” Mr. Pedro Rivera,
Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Heidi Hayes-Jacobs – Founder and President
of Curriculum Design, Inc. and David Griffith – ASCD Senior Director of Public
Policy. This annual conference features small group sessions focused on:
Curriculum and Supervision, Personalized and Individualized Learning,
Innovation, and Blended and Online Learning. The PASCD Conference is
a great opportunity to stay connected to the latest approaches for innovative
change in your school or district. Join us forPASCD 2015!
Online registration is available by visiting www.pascd.org <http://www.pascd.org/>
Slate of
candidates for PSBA offices now available online
PSBA website July 31, 2015
PSBA website July 31, 2015
The
slate of candidates for 2016 PSBA officer and at-large representatives is now
available online, including bios, photos and videos. According to
recent PSBA Bylaws changes, each member school entity casts one vote per
office. Voting will again take place online through a secure, third-party
website -- Simply Voting. Voting will
open Aug. 17 and closes Sept.
28. One person
from the school entity (usually the board secretary) is authorized to register
the vote on behalf of the member school entity and each board will need to put
on its agenda discussion and voting at one of its meetings in August or
September. Each person authorized to register the school entity's votes has
received an email on July 16 to verify the email address and confirm they are
the person to register the vote on behalf of their school entity.
Register Now for PASA-PSBA
School Leadership Conference Oct. 14-16, 2015 Hershey Lodge & Convention
Center
Save the date for the
professional development event of the year. Be inspired at more than four
exciting venues and invest in professional development for top administrators
and school board members. Online registration is live at:
Register Now – PAESSP
State Conference – Oct. 18-20 – State College, PA
Registration is now
open for PAESSP's State Conference to be held October 18-20 at The
Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College, PA! This year's
theme is @EVERYLEADER and features three nationally-known keynote
speakers (Dr. James Stronge, Justin Baeder and Dr. Mike Schmoker), professional
breakout sessions, a legal update, exhibits, Tech Learning Labs and many
opportunities to network with your colleagues (Monday evening event with Jay
Paterno). Once again, in conjunction
with its conference, PAESSP will offer two 30-hour Act 45 PIL-approved
programs, Linking Student Learning to Teacher Supervision and Evaluation
(pre-conference offering on 10/17/15); and Improving Student Learning
Through Research-Based Practices: The Power of an Effective Principal (held
during the conference, 10/18/15 -10/20/15). Register for either or both PIL
programs when you register for the Full Conference!
REGISTER TODAY for
the Conference and Act 45 PIL program/s at:
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
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