Started in November 2010, daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 4050 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, Governor's staff, current/former PA Secretaries of Education, superintendents, school solicitors, principals, charter school leaders, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, business leaders, faith-based organizations, labor organizations, 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, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
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Keystone
State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup for October 26, 2020
Over 300 Pennsylvania School Boards Adopt Resolutions for
Charter Funding Reform
Why are cyber
charter tuition rates the same as brick and mortar tuition?
Taxpayers in House Ed Committee Member Maureen Madden’s school districts
paid over $14.1 million in 2018-2019 cyber charter tuition. Statewide, PA taxpayers paid over $600 million for cyber charter
tuition in 2018-2019.
|
East Stroudsburg Area SD |
$4,765,876.50 |
|
Pocono Mountain SD |
$6,774,544.22 |
|
Stroudsburg Area SD |
$2,636,803.37 |
|
|
$14,177,224.09 |
Source: PDE via
PSBA
This IDEA Full Funding Act, currently languishing in Congress,
would create a plan to gradually increase Federal IDEA Funding to its original
commitment of funding 40 percent of the of the costs by fiscal year 2029. But
its adoption by Congress is far from certain.
Guest Column: A sad case of federal government negligence
Delco Times Opinion By Joseph Batory Times
Guest Columnist October 26, 2020
Joseph Batory was superintendent of schools
in the Upper Darby School District from 1984 to 1999. He has been recognized
with the Lifetime Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of
School Administrators.
The Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA)
became law in 1975. Through this legislation, the United States Congress
approved federal financial support of up to 40% of the costs of implementation
of the appropriate special education services for all children with
disabilities by school districts. This was a groundbreakingly positive federal
government law. The result is that the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) has now had a significant impact for students with disabilities by
supporting their right to a free, appropriate public education. Data from the
American Association of School Administrators shows that more than six million
students now receive special education services designed to meet their
individual needs. And about 350,000 infants and toddlers receive early
intervention services. …but over the
past four decades the reality is that the federal funding for IDEA each year
has not been anywhere near its adopted legislative promise to school districts.
And this has created significant local revenue shortages of billions of dollars
for school districts to provide special education services across the USA.
The IDEA Full Funding Act currently has 155 cosponsors in
Congress, including 9 of the 18 members from Pennsylvania. Is your Congress member
on the cosponsor list?
H.R.1878 - IDEA Full Funding Act - Cosponsors
Over 300 Pennsylvania School Boards Adopt Resolutions for
Charter Funding Reform
POSTED ON OCTOBER 23, 2020 IN PSBA
NEWS
Between 2018 and 2019, Pennsylvania school
districts spent over $2 billion in taxpayer money on mandatory payments to
brick-and-mortar and cyber charter schools. The school boards from over 300 school districts across
Pennsylvania have now adopted resolutions calling for the General Assembly to
enact significant charter funding reform. This represents a majority
of all school districts in the Commonwealth. Read the full press release to
learn more about the resolution and charter funding reform.
DeVos says America's public schools are designed to
replace home, family
Post Gazette by VALERIE STRAUSS The
Washington Post OCT 25, 2020 8:00 AM
In 2015, Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos
declared that “government really sucks” — and after serving nearly four
years as U.S. education secretary, she has not tempered that view one iota. She
gave a speech last week at a Christian college disparaging the U.S. public
education system, saying it is set up to replace the home and family. While
blasting the government is nothing new for DeVos — critics see her as the
most ideological and anti-public-education secretary in the Education
Department’s 40-plus-year history — she gave what may be her fiercest
anti-government polemic at the Hillsdale College event in her home state
recently. She explained how her philosophy was formed by Abraham Kuyper, a
neo-Calvinist Dutch theologian-turned-politician who was prime minister of the
Netherlands between 1901 and 1905 and who believed that Protestant, Catholic
and secular groups should run their own independent schools and colleges. The
United States could fix its education system, she said, if it were to “go
Dutch” by embracing “the family as the sovereign sphere that it is, a sphere
that predates government altogether.” She said that if given a second term as
education secretary, she would keep pushing for alternatives to traditional
public schools.
As more students head back, here’s what we now know (and
still don’t) about schools and COVID spread
Chalkbeat Philly By Matt Barnum Oct 25, 2020, 6:43pm EDT
Two months ago, Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown
University’s School of Public Health, was something of a school reopening
skeptic. In places with relatively high COVID rates, like Florida and Texas,
K-12 school buildings should stay shuttered to protect the health of teachers,
students, and their communities, he argued. Now, his view is changing. “The
evidence so far suggests that we can likely open schools — especially K-5 —
pretty safely in most parts of the country,” he said, as long as those schools
take precautions like requiring masks. “I’m getting slowly but surely persuaded
that I may have been too cautious.” That’s because where schools have reopened,
things have gone relatively well, as least as far as scientists and public
health officials can tell right now. Many European countries have reopened
schools with apparent success, too. That
consensus is pushing more schools to reopen buildings, even as case counts rise across
the country, and is driving increasingly confident
claims that there is little or no relationship between schools and COVID
spread. It’s also true, though, that the existing evidence is still limited,
and some epidemiologists say it’s simply too soon to reach firm conclusions.
One of the hottest legislative races in Pa.: Republican
Sen. John DiSanto v. Democratic challenger George Scott
Penn Live By Ivey
DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com Today 5:30
AM
One of the hottest races this November - the
state 15th Senatorial District contest between Republican incumbent John
DiSanto and Democratic challenger George Scott - offers all the suspense of the
election cycle. DiSanto is aiming to keep his seat in a district that is nearly
equal parts Republican and Democratic, balanced with a swath of independents.
Scott is riding the wave of excitement stoked by the Democratic Party
determined to overturn seats up and down the ticket starting at the top. Democrats
are counting on Scott to help flip the Senate, while a DiSanto victory would go
a long way in helping Republicans maintain control of the chamber. The tea
leaves on the district, which represents Dauphin and Perry counties, have been
in a state of flux most recently: The district went for DiSanto and President
Donald Trump in 2016, but two years later in the midterm election, helped buoy
Democrats Gov. Tom Wolf and Sen. Bob Casey to re-election. If ever a statewide
race was as crucial as intriguing, this is it.
School leaders Monday expect the state to classify Lackawanna
County as having “substantial” COVID-19 transmission for the second straight
week. After two weeks in the substantial category, the state departments of
health and education recommend that school districts offer virtual learning
only. The recommendation is not a mandate, so the decision will ultimately be
left to the districts.
As COVID-19 cases rise, challenges with virtual learning
remain
Times Tribune BY SARAH HOFIUS HALL STAFF WRITER Oct 25,
2020 Updated 46 min ago
SCRANTON — Jayden Rodriguez needed a better
internet connection. He left his friends in the gymnasium, sat down in the
computer lab at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeastern Pennsylvania and
opened his laptop. With his mask and headphones on in the empty room, he
watched as his teacher at Scranton’s William Prescott Elementary School
reviewed the day’s lesson on complex, compound and simple sentences. The
10-year-old, who hopes to be a business owner one day, misses art and music
classes. He longs to go down the slide or climb the rock wall at the school’s
new playground, used for less than a year before the coronavirus pandemic
began. “I just want to go back to school, with safety requirements,” said
Jayden, one of 30 children who complete virtual lessons at the club each day. The
Scranton School District unveiled a plan Monday for a phased hybrid return to
classrooms starting in mid-November. But by the end of the week, it became
clear that those plans, along with in-person instruction across Lackawanna
County, would likely be on hold.
All-online learning in Westmoreland County could
aggravate longstanding internet problems
KRIS B. MAMULA AND NICK TROMBOLA Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette OCT 26, 2020 6:04 AM
In recent weeks, school officials across
Westmoreland County have been watching with concern as COVID-19 rates headed
the wrong direction. As various schools in the county have closed after cases
kept popping up, the state is on the brink of recommending suspending all
in-classroom teaching and sending kids home to tamp down infections. If that
happens — and if the county’s 17 school superintendents go along with such a
recommendation — that could tip many districts and their thousands of students
into a technological no man’s land that they’ve been working hard to outrun: a
lack of good access to the internet and computer equipment across their student
populations. The Hempfield Area School District — the biggest in the county
— has scheduled a special board meeting Monday to discuss the possibility
of moving all classes online, but it’s not entirely ready for such a
move.
Hazleton Area School District going virtual for two weeks
District officials say it's due to a recent
surge in coronavirus cases.
WNEP Web Staff Published: 9:02 PM EDT
October 25, 2020 Updated: 10:08 PM EDT October 25, 2020
HAZLETON, Pa. — Another district in
northeastern Pennsylvania has decided to suspend in-person classes. Hazleton
Area School District officials tell Newswatch 16 that the district will be
virtual starting Monday, October 26. Students will complete online classes for
at least the next two weeks. Officials say most students weren't back to
in-person classes yet, so the change will only affect about 300 of the 12,000
students within the district in Luzerne County.
Wyoming Valley West, Greater Nanticoke Area going virtual
Both districts have decided to go virtual
after recent COVID-19 spikes in Luzerne County.
WNEP Web Staff Published: 8:08 PM EDT
October 25, 2020 Updated: 10:11 PM EDT October 25, 2020
Wyoming Valley West School District announced
plans to go virtual. The district will only have online learning for two weeks,
starting on Monday October 26. This comes after at least two positive cases
were reported within the district last week. Similarly, Greater Nanticoke Area
School District will also halt in-person classes. According to a post on the
district's website, all schools within the district will be virtual from Monday
October 26 to Friday October 30.
Plum school district announces new COVID cases, Oblock
Junior High moves to 2 weeks of remote learning
LAUREN LEE Pittsburgh Post-Gazette OCT 25,
2020 8:12 PM
Plum Borough School District announced Sunday
that students at Oblock Junior High School will move to two weeks of remote
learning after the district was notified of two new positive cases of COVID-19.
The district also stated in a letter provided to families that one employee at
Plum Borough High School tested positive for COVID-19. After consultation
with the Allegheny County Health Department, Oblock Junior High School will
operate remotely until Nov. 6, with students and staff returning to the school
Nov. 9.
Third student in KCSD tests positive
The Express by LANA MUTHLER
LMUTHLER@LOCKHAVEN.COM OCT 26, 2020
MILL HALL – A third student in the Keystone
Central School District has tested positive for COVID-19, according to
superintendent Jacqueline Martin. Martin reported Friday evening on the
district website that the student attends Central Mountain Middle School. This
is the third student in the district to test positive since Oct. 16. The two
other students attend Central Mountain High School. Martin said this student
was exposed to the virus in a non-school event.
https://www.lockhaven.com/news/local-news/2020/10/third-student-in-kcsd-tests-positive/
North Hills School District Football Coach Tests Positive
For Coronavirus
No students or student members of the
football team have to quarantine at this time.
By: KDKA-TV News Staff October 25, 2020 at
3:41 pm
NORTH HILLS (KDKA) — A teacher who is also a
football coach at North Hills School District has tested positive for
coronavirus. The North Hills School District says the teacher noticed symptoms
on Saturday, Oct. 24 and tested positive for the virus Sunday, Oct. 25 after a
rapid test. According to the district, the teacher was in class with students
on Friday, Oct. 23 and also attended the school’s game in Fox Chapel but “was
wearing a mask and following social distancing guidelines to the extent
possible at all times.” At this time, there are no students or student members
of the football team that are required to quarantine. The Allegheny County
Health Department will alert anyone who does need to quarantine, the district
says.
Student tests positive for covid-19 at Kiski Intermediate
School
Trib Live by TEGHAN SIMONTON | Sunday,
October 25, 2020 3:09 p.m.
A student has tested positive for covid-19 at
Kiski Intermediate School, a letter from
Superintendent Tim Scott said, but the school will remain open. The Department
of Health was contacted and the district is following state recommendations,
according to the letter, sent Friday. “Last night the Department of Health
informed the district of a revised timeline based on their receipt of new
information and will communicate with individuals who are close contacts,”
Scott wrote. “Kiski Area Intermediate School will remain open. We will continue
to look at all cases individually and base closures on information received and
the recommendations from the Department of Health and the Department of
Education.” There have been at least six cases reported within the district,
including students and staff. Last week, two high school staff
members tested positive; the week
before, a staff member and
student at the upper elementary and a student at North Primary. None of
the cases resulted in the closure of school buildings.
Lynch-Bustin Elementary School closes due to staff member
testing positive for COVID-19
MyTwinTiers by: Daryl
Matthews Posted: Oct 25, 2020 / 09:28 PM / Updated: Oct
26, 2020 / 12:51 AM EDT
ATHENS, PA. (WETM-TV) – Due to a faculty
member at a school, some students will be going remote starting Monday. According
to the Lynch-Bustin Elementary School Facebook page, school officials were
notified Sunday, late afternoon of a staff member testing positive for
COVID-19. The Facebook page states that the elementary school will be
closed tomorrow while faculty and staff review with the Department of Health
the necessary steps for contact tracing and/or, exposure to students. So far
there is no word on when the elementary school will reopen. According to Craig
Stage Superintendent of Schools Athens Area School District, all other schools
in the district will remain open, and classes will be held as normal.
Middletown Middle School Goes Fully Remote After Second
Positive Test
WHP580 Oct 26, 2020
(Middletown, PA) -- Classes at Middletown
Middle School are fully remote through the end of the week after another
positive COVID-19 case within the district. Administrators made the move
last Friday, saying two students at the school tested positive within the past
two weeks. All junior high sports are cancelled through this Friday as
well.
Yough Intermediate Middle shuts down after another covid
case
Trib Live by TEGHAN SIMONTON | Sunday,
October 25, 2020 7:23 p.m.
Yough Intermediate Middle School will shut
down for five days starting Monday, the district announced Friday. A second
staff member has tested positive for covid-19 in under two weeks. “As per
Department of Education guidelines, schools having two cases within a 14 day
period, would require a five day school closure,” reads a letter sent
to district families from Superintendent Janet M. Sardon. “Yough Intermediate
Middle School academics, athletics, and extracurricular activities will be shut
down for five school days from Monday, October 26 through Friday, October 30.” The
building’s reopening will be determined based on Westmoreland County’s
community transmission rating on the state’s Early Warning Monitoring System Dashboard. The county
last week received a rating of “substantial” for having a covid-19 incidence
rate of 140 cases per 100,000 residents. Days before announcing the middle
school closure, district officials had hinted at a possible district-wide
return to 100% remote learning beginning Wednesday, Oct. 28, depending on the
results of an update to the dashboard Monday. District families were told to expect
a phone call on Monday afternoon to inform them of the county’s status. If the
county remains in “substantial” this week, the district said, it would move to
distance learning.
Council Rock board delays vote on five-day-a-week return
to schools
Chris English Bucks
County Courier Times October 23, 2020
The Council Rock School Board will wait another
two weeks before deciding on a timeline to give students an option to
return to classrooms full time. Starting the full-time in-person choice on
Nov. 16 had been the preference of a board majority before Thursday
night's meeting, but instead the board voted 7-2 to approve a motion
by member Mark Byelich to table a decision until the Nov. 5 meeting. The vote
came after Superintendent Robert Fraser presented a detailed alternative plan
that would give students in grades kindergarten through six a full-time
in-person choice starting Feb. 22, pandemic conditions allowing. His plan
did not specify a target date for other grades.
COVID-19 causes enrollment swings at Valley schools
Daily Item By Eric Scicchitano
escicchitano@dailyitem.com Oct 25, 2020
Swings in the enrollment figures of in-person
students and remote learners vary district to district across the Valley as the
spread of COVID-19 caused families to consider options beyond the traditional
school day, according to data provided by public school administrators. Lewisburg,
Midd-West, Milton, Warrior Run, Selinsgrove and Shikellamy districts all
currently have more students attending school in person compared to the start
of the 2020-21 school year. The reverse is true at Mifflinburg, Mount Carmel
and Shamokin districts, where enrollment in remote options rose. The threat of
COVID-19 forced school administrators to plan for the physical reopening of
schools and what options to offer families preferring a remote experience.
They’ve also had to create contingencies for when positive cases are confirmed
in school buildings. Milton, Danville, Shamokin, Mount Carmel, Shikellamy,
Selinsgrove and Line Mountain all had positive cases so far. Select Milton and
Danville schools closed briefly to mitigate the spread of the disease. Mount
Carmel is the lone Valley district to transition fully to remote education as a
mitigation measure, which lasted two weeks before schools reopened.
More than 110 COVID-19 cases have been reported at
Lancaster County schools. Here's where they are [update]
Lancaster Online by ALEX GELI | Staff Writer Oct 23,
2020
More than 110 cases of COVID-19 have been
reported at Lancaster County schools so far into the 2020-21 school year. The
cases come from 16 school districts, plus a brick-and-mortar charter school in
Lancaster city and the county's career and technology center. And that might
not be all.
Philadelphia has the highest number of registered voters
in 35 years
More than 90% of eligible residents have
signed up to cast a ballot.
WHYY/Billy Penn by Danya Henninger Yesterday, 12:15 p.m.
Next time you’re in the supermarket, at a
park, or anywhere in Philly with other adults, look around. On average, 9 out
of 10 your socially distant citymates are registered to vote. That’s a record
high for Philadelphia voter registration over the past three decades. As of
Oct. 19, the deadline for the November general election, more than 1,120,000 Philadelphians
had signed up to cast a ballot, according to statistics from the Pa. Department
of State. In total volume, that’s higher than any year since 1984, per data kept by the
Office of City Commissioners, when registration hit a peak of just over
1,135,000.
Trump and Biden Finally Talk Schools
School reopening hasn’t been an issue in the
presidential campaign — until last night.
New York Times By Amelia Nierenberg and Adam
Pasick Oct. 23, 2020
The debate over when and how to reopen
schools has been a burning question for parents since the pandemic began. But
you wouldn’t know it from the presidential campaign — much to the frustration
of families and educators whose daily lives have been disrupted. “Remote
schooling in particular has upended so many parents’ lives for months on end,
not to mention the effect it’s having on kids,” said our colleague Abby
Goodnough, who wrote about the issue this week. “If
nothing else, I think families would like to hear the candidates acknowledge
the strain they are under.” Schools did get some airtime in Thursday night’s
debate — but only briefly.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/23/us/trump-biden-debate-school-reopenings.html
Jerry Jeff Walker, Who Wrote and Sang ‘Mr. Bojangles,’
Dies at 78
He never had a Top 40 pop hit. But his
best-known composition became an enduring standard, and he became a mainstay of
the outlaw country movement.
New York Times By Bill Friskics-Warren Oct.
24, 2020
Jerry Jeff Walker, the
singer-songwriter who wrote the much-recorded standard “Mr. Bojangles” and later
became a mainstay of the Texas outlaw movement that catapulted Willie Nelson
and Waylon Jennings to fame, died on Friday at a hospital in Austin, Texas. He
was 78. His former publicist John T. Davis said the cause was cancer. Mr.
Walker learned he had throat cancer in 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/24/arts/music/jerry-jeff-walker-dead.html
Blogger note: This is my favorite version of this song. Bromberg played guitar in Walker’s band for a
couple years and his version includes a narrative about the song.
Mr. Bojangles- performed by David Bromberg
YouTube Runtime 7:27
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muG8kDYbZ5Q
What's the connection between reading early and high
school dropout rates? Learn with us at the Education First Compact on 11/5.
Philadelphia Education Fund Free Virtual
Event Thursday November 5, 2020 9:00 am - 10:30 am
From Pre-K to Fifth Grade: Early Literacy as
Dropout Prevention
It’s long been understood that literacy is
the gateway to learning. No doubt you’ve heard the maxim: In grades
K-3, a student must learn to read, so that in grades 4-12 they can read to
learn.
In the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2014
report, “Double Jeopardy,” researchers also found a link between 4th
grade reading proficiency and high school completion rates. Astonishingly,
they discovered that students with low levels of proficiency were four times as
likely to drop out of high school. In Philadelphia, the struggle to improve
upon rates of early literacy is a collaborative one. At the center of
these local efforts are the School District of Philadelphia, the Children’s
Literacy Initiative, and various community partners engaged through
Philadelphia’s Read By 4th Campaign. Join us for the November Education First
Compact to probe such questions as: What lessons has been learned prior to and
during COVID? What adjustments are being made during this period of distance
learning? What challenges remain? And, most importantly, what role can the
larger Philadelphia community play in the effort?
Panelists:
- Caryn
Henning, Children’s Literacy Initiative
- Jenny
Bogoni, Read By 4th Campaign
- Nyshawana
Francis-Thompson, School District Office of Instruction and Curriculum
Host: Farah
Jimenez, President and CEO of Philadelphia Education Fund
Schedule: 9:00 – 9:45am
Presentation
9:45 – 10:15am Q & A
Attendance is free, but registration is
required.
Adopt the resolution against racial inequity!
School boards are asked to adopt this
resolution supporting the development of an anti-racist climate. Once adopted,
share your resolution with your local community and submit a copy to PSBA.
Learn more: http://ow.ly/yJWA50B2R72
Adopt the 2020 PSBA resolution
for charter school funding reform
In this legislative
session, PSBA has been leading the charge with the Senate, House of
Representatives and the Governor’s Administration to push for positive charter
reform. We’re now asking you to join the campaign: Adopt the resolution: We’re
asking all school boards to adopt the 2020 resolution for charter school
funding reform at your next board meeting and submit it to your legislators and
to PSBA.
Resolution for charter funding reform (pdf)
Link
to submit your adopted resolution to PSBA
308 PA school boards have
adopted charter reform resolutions
Charter school funding reform continues to be
a concern as over 300 school boards across the state have adopted a resolution
calling for legislators to enact significant reforms to the Charter School Law
to provide funding relief and ensure all schools are held to the same quality
and ethics standards. Now more than ever, there is a growing momentum from
school officials across the state to call for charter school funding reform.
Legislators are hearing loud and clear that school districts need relief from
the unfair funding system that results in school districts overpaying millions
of dollars to charter schools.
https://www.psba.org/2020/03/adopted-charter-reform-resolutions/
Know Your Facts on Funding and Charter Performance. Then
Call for Charter Change!
PSBA Charter Change Website:
https://www.pacharterchange.org/
The Network for Public Education Action Conference has
been rescheduled to April 24-25, 2021 at the Philadelphia Doubletree Hotel
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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