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Keystone
State Education Coalition
Here's Where the
GOP Tax Bill Could Hit School Funding the Hardest
We
will be offline for a couple days. The Roundup will return on Friday December
22nd
GOP set to
roll $1.5T final tax bill through House, Senate
Delco Times By Marcy
Gordon, The Associated Press POSTED: 12/19/17,
5:24 AM EST
WASHINGTON >> Their long-sought political goal
within grasp, Republicans in Congress are set to catapult sweeping $1.5
trillion tax legislation through the House, rolling over a dozen GOP defectors
from high-tax states. The Republicans’ final drive to deliver the tax package
to an eager President Donald Trump begins Tuesday with a vote in the
House. Quickly following, a vote later in the day or on Wednesday in the Senate
is expected to seal the deal. Both tallies likely will cling along party lines.
The Senate result was in doubt in recent weeks. Only on Friday did Republican
leaders cement the needed support for the legislation, securing endorsements
from wavering GOP senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Bob Corker of
Tennessee. More holdout GOP senators— moderate Susan Collins of Maine
and Mike Lee of Utah — came into the fold on Monday. Now the biggest
reshaping of the U.S. tax code in three decades is on a clear path to passage and
a presidential signing into law.
Here's
Where the GOP Tax Bill Could Hit School Funding the Hardest
Education Week Politics K12 Blog By Andrew Ujifusa on December
18, 2017 7:36 AM
The most significant change for schools in the
Republican tax reform plan is likely how state and local taxes are handled
because of its potential impact on school funding. But why? And where
could it have the greatest impact? Buckle up. Here's a bit of background: The
final bill agreed to by a group of House and Senate lawmakers on Friday imposes
a new cap of $10,000 on deductions taxpayers can take for either property and
income taxes, or property and sales taxes. That's much less than what some
people, particularly in high-tax states, can deduct now. However, the standard
deduction is doubled in the bills, meaning some taxpayers may no longer take
state and local tax deductions yet still benefit. Regardless, state and
local governments effectively get a "discount" when they collect
revenue. That's because residents can use the state and local deductions they
can currently take to reduce their overall tax burden. Under the final bill,
that aforementioned discount could be reduced. That could mean flat or reduced
tax revenues, and therefore flat or reduced funding for public
schools. Right now, 28 percent of federal taxpayers take state
and local deductions.
Use GovTrack to find out who represents you in Congress and what bills they have sponsored.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members
Joint Letter
to Congress Regarding the Tax Bill
AASA, The School Superintendents Association
Association of Educational Service Agencies
Association of School Business Officials
National Rural Education Advocacy Consortium
National Rural Education Association
December 15, 2017
Dear Congress, Our organizations write to express
our strong and continued opposition to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (HR 1).
Collectively our organizations represent public school superintendents,
educational service agency administrators, school business officials, and rural
educators. We are unified in our unwavering belief that federal education
policy must be premised on strengthening and supporting our nation’s public
schools, and HR 1 falls far short of this task. The comprehensive tax bill
includes provisions that undermine the strength of our nation’s public school
systems and compromises the ability of these systems to adequately and
effectively provide educational opportunities and services to the students they
serve. Our concerns are both procedural and substantive. We urge Congress to
slow its effort to ensure a product that has solid policy footing and broad,
bipartisan support. Substantively, we find that this conference agreement being
considered includes no policy benefit to public education and, in fact,
includes policy proposals that negatively impact education.
http://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Policy_and_Advocacy/files/Group%20Opposition%20Letter%20Tax(1).pdf
A Tax Plan
to Turbocharge Inequality, in 3 Charts
New York Times by David Leonhardt DEC. 17, 2017
The Republican tax bill is an audacious attempt to
accelerate the economic trends of the last half-century. If you’re a fan of
these trends — rapidly rising inequality and stagnant middle-class incomes —
you should love the bill. If you’re not a fan, you can at least take comfort in
knowing that you’re in the majority of Americans, as polls consistently show. Over
the last few decades, the rich have not only enjoyed the largest pre-tax
raises, by far. They have also received big tax cuts. The middle class and
poor, meanwhile, have suffered from slow-growing incomes — and from overall tax
rates that are higher today than in the mid-1960s. The first part of that story
is widely known. The rich have gotten richer, for a whole variety of reasons.
The74 by CAROLYN PHENICIE December 18, 2017
Weeks after
fighting over tax reform — including pitched battles involving several
education issues — GOP leadership released a final compromise late last
week. On higher education, the bill
ultimately didn’t include provisions that alarmed college and university
leaders the most, like taxing graduate students’ tuition benefits. It does
include a tax on university endowments, though one that would hit fewer
colleges than previous iterations of the bill, Inside Higher Ed reported. In the K-12 space, lawmakers had to make
crucial decisions on the federal tax treatment of state and local taxes that
fund the bulk of school spending, approving an expansion of a college-saving
program to include K-12 school choice, and preserving a small but symbolic
deduction for teachers’ supplies. Lawmakers in both chambers are set to vote on
the bill later this week; here’s where five key education provisions shook out.
https://www.the74million.org/article/how-education-fared-in-congress-tax-deal-compromise-teacher-tax-deductions-charter-financing-3-more-noteworthy-fixes/
Sen.
Daylin Leach to ‘step back’ from 7th District Congress race after reports of
inappropriate conduct
By Alex
Rose, Delaware County Daily
Times POSTED: 12/18/17,
12:58 PM EST
State Sen. Daylin Leach announced Monday that he is
“taking a step back from” his congressional campaign amid calls for him to
resign his seat and exit the race for Pennsylvania’s 7th District. “While I’ve
always been a gregarious person, it’s heartbreaking to me that I have put
someone in a position that made them feel uncomfortable or disrespected,” said
Leach, who represents parts of Montgomery and Delaware counties, of accusations
that he acted inappropriately toward women. “In the future I will take more
care in my words and my actions, and I will make it my top priority to protect
those who to speak up to help change the culture around us.” The 56-year-old
state senator’s statement comes in response to mounting pressure from Democrats
and Republicans alike for him to bow out and for an investigation into the
allegations to be launched. “I have watched these allegations hurt my family
and supporters, and respectfully ask for privacy for my family. Today, I am
taking a step back from the congressional campaign to focus on my family and
work with Senate leaders to address these allegations and fully cooperate as
they are all vetted.”
SB2
Voucher Bill: There's not much reform in this school reform bill | Opinion
Penn Live Guest Editorial By Patricia Taylor
Updated 8:32 AM; Posted 8:30 AM
Call Senate Bill 2 whatever you
like, but it is really a voucher scheme that takes taxpayer money from the
public schools and gives it to private/religious schools. This
legislation, sponsored by Sen. John DiSanto (R-District 15), is called the
Education Savings Account Act. Local co-sponsors include Sen. Mike Regan,
R-Cumberland, Sen. Mike Folmer, R-Lebanon, and and Sen. Scott Wagner,
R-York. The bill is currently before the Senate Education Committee, but it
could be sent to the full Senate at any time. Education Savings Accounts (ESA)
are new and costly government entitlements that enable families, who live in
the attendance area of a low-performing school, to drain taxpayer money away
from the local school district to pay for their child's private/religious
school education. Unfortunately, ESAs do not guarantee that children in
low-performing schools will be able to attend the private/religious school of
their choice, nor do they do anything to improve the quality of the child's
education.
SB2
Voucher Bill: Senator swap in education committee likely to impact school
choice vote in Pa.
WHYY By Katie Meyer, WITF December 14, 2017
The state Senate
Education Committee is making a mid-session personnel change — switching out
one Republican senator for another. Erie County Republican Senator Dan Laughlin
is officially moving from the Education Committee to the Community, Economic,
and Recreational Development Committee. His replacement has been announced as
Rich Alloway, a fellow Republican from Franklin County. The move is significant
because of Senate Bill 2 — a measure would let students in the
lowest-performing public schools use the money the state would have spent on
their education for alternative school options. Laughlin is a key opponent, and
a big reason the bill failed to get to the Senate floor in October by one vote.
Meanwhile, Alloway is one of the bill’s co-sponsors.
SCASD OKs
changes to school day
Centre Daily Times BY LEON VALSECHI lvalsechi@centredaily.com DECEMBER 18, 2017
The State College Area school board voted 8-1 on
Monday to move forward with the district’s extended student day proposal after
months of discussion and amendments to the plan. Prior to the vote, the board was presented with an
updated version of the proposal that extends the elementary day by 44 minutes.
The middle school duration does not change, and the high school day is
shortened by six minutes. Starting with the 2018-19 school year, the elementary
start time moves from 8:44 to 8:10 a.m., and the day will end at 3 p.m. instead
of 2:50 p.m. Middle and high school students will start at 8:40 a.m. instead of
8:10 a.m., and their days will end at 3:42 p.m. and 3:40 p.m., instead of 3:12
p.m. and 3:16 p.m., respectively. The current six-hour and six-minute
elementary day is one of the shortest in the state, according to Vernon Bock,
assistant superintendent of elementary education. The extended elementary day
will allow for 24 minutes of core learning, which the district expects will
close achievement and opportunity gaps identified during the construction of
the proposal.
This edition of the Notebook is supported by the
Samuel Fels Fund and takes a look at the myriad challenges foster children face
in getting an education and graduating from high school in
Philadelphia.
PHILLY'S 7TH WARD BY ZACHARY WRIGHT DECEMBER 18, 2017
For years, I have experienced the world of education
through the role of a teacher. I’ve engaged in discussions about fair funding
formulas and school segregation. I’ve advocated for access to effective charter
schools. I’ve mentored students who, due to systemic racism both in education
as well as housing, find themselves without the financial access to
postsecondary opportunities that their work has more than earned for them. I’ve
thought deeply of the inequities of our educational system and have fought
for my
understanding of social justice. But now it’s different. Now, I’m getting my first exposure to the world of
education through the lens of a parent and, more specifically, as a parent of a
child with autism. The process of finding a quality educational opportunity for
my son has me questioning my integrity as I face the dilemma of having one’s
interests run perpendicular to, rather than parallel with, one’s morals.
How Philly
can become home to the best student writing in the country | Perspective
Inquirer by Tim Whitaker, For Philly.com
Updated: DECEMBER 15, 2017 — 3:01 AM ESTTim Whitaker is the executive director of Mighty Writers.
When people find out I’m the executive director of a
youth writing program, they immediately assume my goal is to turn kids into
future professional writers. I’m not that cruel. There are easier ways to make
a living. What I do tell young people is this: If you believe you’ll never be
happy doing anything else, if the desire to write engulfs your every thought
like a Santa Ana brush fire, then go for it. But if writing is just one of
several avenues you’re pondering as a future livelihood, you might want to save
yourself from a possible life of indigence and desolation and try the other
avenues. Writing is hard. And lonely. And adequate remuneration is almost
always elusive. But what is true, and this I tell young people as
well, is that the ability to write is wondrous.
And often miraculous.
Food fight: Districts fear new state rules will drive up unpaid school lunch debt
Bucks County Courier
Times By Jo
Ciavaglia Posted
Dec 17, 2017 at 6:00 AM
With some area districts thousands of dollars in
debt as a result of unpaid school lunches, officials worry new Pennsylvania
rules will only hurt their ability to lower negative balances.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, except for
students in a school cafeteria. The Council Rock School District was $14,192 in
the red at the end of the 2016-17 school year as a result of unpaid lunch
bills. Neshaminy School District was out roughly $9,500 for school lunch tabs
including four students who owed at least $100 and another who owed more than
$200. Roughly 300 students in the Quakertown School
District owed an average of $13.85 each at the end of the last school year.
Upper Moreland School District had 45 students with delinquent lunch accounts
at the end of the last school year with roughly one-quarter owing more than
$50. In Bristol Borough, 40 percent of the district’s 1,265 students owed an
average of 75 cents in lunch money last year. Those districts aren’t outliers,
either. The School Nutrition Association, a nonprofit school food services
professional group, conducted a review of 1,000 U.S.
school lunch programs last year and found 76 percent had unpaid meal debt.
Trib Live JAMIE
MARTINES | Monday, Dec. 18, 2017,
8:15 a.m.
Pennsylvania schools aren't doing enough to teach
students financial literacy, according to a report by researchers at Champlain College in Vermont. The
Keystone State was one of 11 to receive an F grade, and 27 states that received
a C, D or F. States were rated based on graduation requirements and the rigor
of academic standards. Researchers also looked at state guidelines for how
schools must teach personal finance. Though students in Pennsylvania have
access to coursework that could touch on personal finance concepts — math,
economics, family and consumer sciences or computer classes, for example —
they're not required to take a personal finance coursework in order to
graduate, the report said. A 2016 report to the governor compiled by the
state Department of Education and Department of Banking and Securities found
that 75 Pennsylvania school districts — about 15 percent — require a personal
finance course for graduation.
Register
for New School Director Training in December and January
PSBA Website October 2017
You’ve started a challenging and
exciting new role as a school director. Let us help you narrow the learning
curve! PSBA’s New School Director Training provides school directors with
foundational knowledge about their role, responsibilities and ethical
obligations. At this live workshop, participants will learn about key laws,
policies, and processes that guide school board governance and leadership, and
develop skills for becoming strong advocates in their community. Get the tools
you need from experts during this visually engaging and interactive event.
Choose from any of these remaining
locations and dates (note: all sessions are held 8 a.m.-4 p.m., unless
specified otherwise.):
·
Jan. 6, Haverford Middle School
·
Jan. 13, A W Beattie Career Center
·
Jan. 13, Parkland HS
Fees: Complimentary to All-Access
members or $170 per person for standard membership. All registrations will be
billed to the listed district, IU or CTC. To request billing to
an individual, please contact Michelle Kunkel at michelle.kunkel@psba.org. Registration also includes a
box lunch on site and printed resources.
NSBA 2018
Advocacy Institute February 4 - 6, 2018 Marriott Marquis, Washington D.C.
Register Now
Come a day early and attend the Equity
Symposium!
Join hundreds of public education advocates
on Capitol Hill and help shape the decisions made in Washington D.C. that
directly impact our students. At the 2018 Advocacy Institute, you’ll gain
insight into the most critical issues affecting public education, sharpen your
advocacy skills, and prepare for effective meetings with your representatives. Whether
you are an expert advocator or a novice, attend and experience inspirational
keynote speakers and education sessions featuring policymakers, legal experts
and policy influencers. All designed to help you advocate for your students and
communities.
Local School Board Members to Advocate on Capitol Hill in 2018
NSBA's Advocacy Institute 2018 entitled, "Elected. Engaged. Empowered: Representing the Voice in Public Education," will be held on February 4-6, 2018 at the Marriott Marquis in Washington, D.C. This conference will convene Members of Congress, national thought-leaders, state association executives and well-known political pundits to provide local school board members with an update on key policy and legal issues impacting public education, and tactics and strategies to enhance their ability to influence the policy-making process and national education debate during their year-round advocacy efforts.
WHAT'S NEW - ADVOCACY INSTITUTE '18?
·
Confirmed
National Speaker: Cokie Roberts, Political Commentator for NPR and ABC News
·
NSBA
will convene first ever National School Board Town Hall on School Choice
·
Includes
General Sessions featuring national policy experts, Members of Congress,
"DC Insiders" and local school board members
·
Offers
conference attendees "Beginner" and "Advanced" Advocacy
breakout sessions
·
NSBA
will host a Hill Day Wrap-Up Reception
Click here to register for the Advocacy Institute. The
hotel block will close on Monday, January 15.
Registration is now open for the 2018 PASA Education Congress! State College, PA, March 19-20, 2018
Don't miss this marquee event for Pennsylvania school leaders at the Nittany Lion Inn, State College, PA, March 19-20, 2018.
Learn more by visiting http://www.pasa-net.org/2018edcongress
SAVE THE DATE for the 2018
PA Educational Leadership Summit - July 29-31 - State College, PA sponsored by
the PA Principals Association, PASA, PAMLE and PASCD.
This year's Summit will be held from July 29-31, 2018 at the Penn Stater
Conference Center Hotel, State College, PA.
Any comments contained herein are my comments, alone, and
do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other person or organization
that I may be affiliated with.
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