Daily Voucher Update/ PSBA: Public education loses strong advocate

Danville News/Sunbury Daily Item Feb. 21, 2011

Street Talk: School Vouchers Get Mixed Reviews

By Joseph Deinlein

Union County Republicans are endorsing a state Senate bill that backs a program to create a state-funded scholarship program for students trapped in failing schools.

http://dailyitem.com/0100_news/x253820271/Street-Talk-School-vouchers-get-mixed-reviews

State's voucher proposal stirs local debate
The (Norristown) Times Herald, Feb. 21, 2011

By Linda Stein
“We question the constitutionality of vouchers as they stand,” Weiss said. “The vouchers wouldn't apply equally to all Pennsylvanians and we question the effectiveness of vouchers (compared to) the effectiveness of tax credits.”

http://timesherald.com/articles/2011/02/21/news/doc4d628c8e5ddf5807391097.txt

Public education loses strong advocate

PSBA 2/21/2011

(Feb. 20, 2011) The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is saddened by the recent death of Timothy M. Allwein, PSBA assistant executive director for Governmental and Member Relations -- a dear friend, colleague and staunch supporter of public education.

http://www.psba.org/news-publications/headlines/details.asp?id=1644

Inky OPED: Pa.'s unaccountable voucher bill/ WHYY: Senators Leach & Williams' debate SB1/ Delco Times OPED: School vouchers aren't the answer/ CNN: Ravitch - Why America's teachers are enraged

Philadelphia Inquirer Opinion Posted on Mon, Feb. 21, 2011

Pa.'s unaccountable voucher bill

By Lawrence A. Feinberg

In support of Pennsylvania's Senate Bill 1, which would provide taxpayer-funded vouchers to private schools, voucher evangelists have been citing a report by the Foundation for Educational Choice, "A Win-Win Solution: The Empirical Evidence on How Vouchers Affect Public Schools." However, a review of the report by the National Education Policy Center finds no credible evidence that vouchers have improved student achievement.

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20110221_Pa__s_unaccountable_voucher_bill.html

WHYY Newsworks February 19, 2011

Listen to Senators Leach & Williams debate SB1 on Radio Times

Pennsylvania's Senate Education Committee held hearings earlier this week on a new bill that would allow low-income families tax-funded vouchers to send their children to a school of their choosing rather than a failing neighborhood school.

On Friday, Democratic State Senators Anthony Hardy Williams from Philadelphia and Daylin Leach from Montgomery County passionately debated the issues surrounding public education and the new bill on Radio Times.

If you missed Friday's heated debate listen to the full broadcast (50 minutes) here from Radio Times.

Charlotte Hummel is School Board President in the William Penn School District

Delaware County Times Saturday, February 19, 2011

Guest Column: School vouchers aren’t the answer

By CHARLOTTE HUMMEL, Times Guest Columnist

http://delcotimes.com/articles/2011/02/19/opinion/doc4d5f3d9a3331d089076164.txt

Why America's teachers are enraged

By Diane Ravitch, Special to CNN

February 20, 2011 6:05 p.m. EST

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/20/ravitch.teachers.blamed/index.html?hpt=T2#

Democratic Policy Committee to hold public hearing on school vouchers Tuesday in Philadelphia

Press Release: http://www.pahouse.com/PR/096021811.asp

State Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster

Chairman, Democratic Policy CommitteePreview
www.pahouse.com/sturla

Democratic Policy Committee to hold public hearing on school vouchers Tuesday in Philadelphia

HARRISBURG, Feb. 18 – House Democratic Policy Committee Chairman Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, announced today that the committee will hold a public hearing on school vouchers from  2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22  at the Independence Visitor Center, Liberty Ballroom, Sixth and Market streets, Philadelphia.

House Education Committee Democratic Chairman James Roebuck, D-Phila., will be in attendance.

The current agenda for the hearing is:

• 2 p.m. – Welcome and opening remarks
• 2:10 p.m. – Joe Watkins, chairman, Students First
• 2:30 p.m. – Dr. Leroy Nunery, deputy superintendent/deputy CEO, School District of Philadelphia
• 2:50 p.m. – Jerry Jordan, president, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers
• 3:10 p.m. – Shelly Yanoff, executive director, Public Citizens for Children and Youth
• 3:30 p.m. – Lawrence Feinberg, co-chairman, Keystone State Education Coalition
• 3:50 p.m. – Panel from REACH Alliance and Foundation: Otto Banks, executive director; Matthew Brouillette, board member; and Phillip Murren of Ball, Murren & Connell
• 4:10 p.m. – Mary Rochford, superintendent, Archdiocese of Philadelphia
• 4:30 p.m. – Susan Gobreski, executive director, Education Voters of Pennsylvania
• 4:50 p.m. – Closing remarks

For more information about the Policy Committee, go to www.pahouse.com/PolicyCommittee.

The hearing is open to the public.

Sen. Leach: "saving five starving people by taking the food from the other 50"/ SB 1 Testimony of PSBA/ Daily News: On school vouchers, the data isn't encouraging/ PA Catholic Conference on Vouchers

Here are a couple quotes from Wednesday’s Senate Ed Committee hearing:

Sen. Daylin Leach (D., Delaware) was among those who argued vouchers would hurt the public schools by draining away funding. Even though some public schools would have fewer children to educate, fixed costs would remain the same.

"This is not a neutral bill," Leach said. "This is a bill which takes the money from the kids left behind. Rather than saying this is a saving five starving people, this is saving five starving people by taking the food from the other 50. This is a bill that helps a few people, possibly, but hurts everyone else."

"There are no requirements in the bill for private or religious schools to be successful, no standards or measures to make sure they are successful before or after the get the vouchers," said Baruch Kintisch, director of policy advocacy for the Education Law Center, which advocates for families with the neediest children in public schools. "Those schools could be worse than the neighborhood schools that they're coming from."

 

SB 1 Testimony of PSBA Executive Director Tom Gentzel

http://piccola.org/education/2011/021611/Gentzel.pdf

Opinion - Philadelphia Daily News, Feb. 17, 2011

On school vouchers, the data isn't encouraging

By KATE SHAW

ONCE again, Pennsylvania has a governor who promises to make education a central focus of his administration.

“….For 20 years, we have conducted independent, reputable research that focuses on finding ways to improve education policy and practice. We looked at the track record of voucher programs that already exist in school districts and states throughout the country, making sure to examine only the most robust research from nonpartisan and reputable researchers.

What we found will come as an inconvenient truth to many: Vouchers produce few, if any, statistically significant effects on student achievement.”

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20110217_On_school_vouchers__the_data_isn_t_encouraging.html

PA Catholic Conference Voucher Coverage

http://www.pacatholic.org/tag/vouchers/

Chamber of Commerce vs. Tea Party over Wake County schools

I have been meaning to post on this topic for some time but attention has been focused on SB 1.  At a SPSDEC, now Keystone State Education Coalition meeting last year in the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District, a handout by Richard Kahlenberg entitle “Turnaround Schools That Work: Moving Beyond Separate but Equal”   http://tcf.org:8081/Plone/publications/2009/11/pb700/pdf   generated considerable interest.  That report considered economic integration as a key factor in creating a scalable model for turnaround schools that work.

A related recent post by Mel Riddle ( “PISA: It’s Poverty Not Stupid”)  of the National Association of Secondary School Principals on The Principal Difference Blog reviewed the PISA results disaggregated by the level of poverty in schools.

Washington Post Answer Sheet Blog

Posted at 5:00 AM ET, 02/17/2011

Chamber of Commerce vs. Tea Party over Wake County schools

By Valerie Strauss

My guest is Richard D. Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a nonprofit public policy research organization, writes about education, equal opportunity and civil rights.

By Richard D. Kahlenberg
Wake County, North Carolina, which includes the city of Raleigh and the surrounding suburbs, has made headlines in recent months as a new Tea Party-backed school board majority has sought to dismantle the district’s longstanding and nationally acclaimed school integration plan.
The policy had the goal of limiting the proportion of low-income students in any given school to 40 percent and was based on decades of research finding that concentrations of school poverty are bad for education.

As Stephanie McCrummen noted in a front page story in The Washington Post last month, one tea party school board member argued that a new plan that would allow much higher concentrations of poverty could actually improve the prospects of low-income kids.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/guest-bloggers/chamber-of-commerce-vs-tea-par.html?wprss=answer-sheet

SB 1 Hearing Video and Testimony/ ELC Position on SB 1/ Inky: SB1 Hearing/ PN: SB1 Hearing/ St.Rep. Kampf Prevailing Wage Exemption Bill

Senate Education Committee Public Hearing on Senate Bill 1

Here is a link to the video (9 hours) and written testimony submitted for the Senate Education Committee hearing on SB 1 yesterday:

http://piccola.org/education/2011/021611/agenda.htm

 

Education Law Center Position Statement on Senate Bill 1

Baruch Kintisch,  Sandy Zelno

This is the ELC’s position paper on SB 1 which was submitted as testimony yesterday

http://piccola.org/education/2011/021611/Kintisch.pdf

 

Posted on Thu, Feb. 17, 2011

Heated debate in Pa. Senate hearing on school vouchers

By Adrienne Lu

INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

HARRISBURG - During a day-long hearing before a state Senate committee Wednesday, school-voucher advocates argued that the issue boiled down to a matter of choice.

Low-income families, voucher proponents argued, should have the same kind of choice that wealthier families have always had - to opt out of local public schools in favor of private or parochial schools.

Opponents countered, with equal passion, that by taking money and students out of public schools, vouchers would hurt the schools that needed the most help.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20110217_Heated_debate_in_Pa__Senate_hearing_on_school_vouchers.html?page=1&c=y

 

Gov. Tom Corbett's administration supports school vouchers

Published: Wednesday, February 16, 2011, 5:17 PM

State Education Secretary-nominee Ronald Tomalis, the first speaker at a Senate Education Committee hearing that drew a standing-room-only crowd, said targeting school vouchers at low-income youngsters in the worst-performing public schools would intensify competition within the state's educational system to produce "exponential benefits" for all students.

"With competition comes diversity, and with diversity adoption of programs to meet the individual needs of the student," he said.

Tomalis did not endorse a bill sponsored by Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, the committee's chairman, that within three years would allow any low-income public-school student to use the per-pupil subsidy the state government sends to his or her school district to attend a different private, public or religious school. Tomalis said the bill "starts the conversation" about how to expand choices for students.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/02/gov_tom_corbetts_administratio.html

At the Senate Education Committee hearing yesterday committee members repeatedly mentioned coming legislation that would address mandate relief and charter school reform.  Here’s a related posting on mandate relief:

State Rep. Warren Kampf’s news release 2/16/2011

Kampf Introduces Bill to Exempt School Districts From Prevailing Wage

Rep. Warren Kampf (R-Chester/Montgomery) today introduced a bill to reduce costs for school districts across Pennsylvania by exempting them from the state’s prevailing wage requirements for public works contracts, unless they choose to opt in to those requirements. 

http://www.repkampf.com/NewsItem.aspx?NewsID=10540

VOUCHERS - TOP BLOG POSTINGS

Yesterday was the busiest traffic day on the Keystone State Education Coalition blog since we went online November 1st.  Thanks very much for your continued interest.


Here are the most visited  blog postings to date:

Madonna Poll shows 67% of Pennsylvanians oppose giving public money to parents so they can send their children to private school

Questions about the 144 failing schools list

Follow the voucher money

Questions about vouchers your legislators should be asking

PISA, Poverty and Policy

”…no credible evidence that the achievement of public or private school students has been improved by the availability of vouchers”