Friday, December 21, 2012

What’s missing from the “recovery planning” for Chester Upland, Dusquene, Harrisburg, York, Philly?


Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1750 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.

These daily emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg


First Book works through existing community programs, literacy efforts and schools to provide an ongoing supply of new books and reading materials – at low or no cost.
Your tax-deductible donation to First Book will fund new books for children in need and help knock down the greatest barrier to literacy development in the United States and beyond — access to books. 97% of donations go directly to programming, providing new books for children in need.
Click here to donate to First Book


What’s missing from the “recovery planning” for Chester Upland, Dusquene, Harrisburg, York, Philly?

If we want to make a difference for kids in high poverty districts, this is what a solution might look like; things that kids in well funded, middle class, successful public school districts take for granted:

Top 10 education policy wishes

Here are the top 10 items on an education wish list for the holiday season and the New Year. It was written by Greg Kaufmann, who reports on poverty for the Nation, and Elaine Weiss, the national coordinator for the Broader Bolder Approach to Education. This appeared on  The Nation’s website and was also picked up by Valerie Strauss on her Answer Sheet blog at the Washington Post.

Pittsburgh Public Schools board passes $521.8 million general fund budget

By Bill Schackner / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette December 19, 2012 8:43 pm
The Pittsburgh Public Schools board Wednesday night passed a $521.8 million general fund budget for 2013 but will not set a property tax levy until January due to unfinished county property assessment hearings.
The district's spending plan for the coming calendar year is $8 million, or 1.5 percent, less than the 2012 budget. It envisions no additional school closings but will require the district to again tap into its shrinking fund balance to help offset an operating shortfall that could approach $9.8 million by the end of next year.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/pittsburgh-public-schools-board-passes-5218-million-general-fund-budget-667015/#ixzz2FeUd8hCu

York City schools' recovery officer introduces process

David Meckley discussed upcoming work at a school board meeting Wednesday.
By ANGIE MASON York Daily Record/Sunday News Updated: 12/19/2012 10:35:15 PM EST
An advisory committee created to help craft a plan for turning around the York City School District's finances will begin meeting sometime in January, the district's new chief recovery officer said Wednesday night.
The city district was recently declared in financial recovery by the state education department, and David Meckley was appointed as chief recovery officer, tasked with helping the district create a financial recovery plan. Meckley attended Wednesday's board meeting and gave those in attendance a glimpse at what the process will entail. Among the first steps is creating an advisory committee, in accordance with financial recovery law.
http://www.ydr.com/rss/ci_22227529

“Whatever your opinion may be of charters, there’s no question the District has failed  to explain its inconsistent approach of allowing charter expansion without regard to expense or academic quality while insisting on draconian and widespread sacrifice among District schools. This despite the fact that many of the District schools targeted for closure outperform some of the charters the SRC renewed and expanded last spring.”
Philly mass school closings: Why the numbers don't add up
The notebook Commentary by Helen Gym on Dec 20 2012
Like most of the public, I’ve been baffled by the District’s latest rationale for closing down an unprecedented number of schools in a single year. In observing the school hearings this week, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a quote by Maya Angelou: “There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.”
http://thenotebook.org/blog/125462/mass-school-closings-why-numbers-dont-add

School cheating probe winds down
Allentown Morning Call By Kathy Matheson, Of The Associated Press 10:49 p.m. EST, December 20, 2012
PHILADELPHIA — A school cheating investigation that has led to educator suspensions, stricter testing protocols and more than 140 professional misconduct complaints is winding down, state education officials say.  The Philadelphia district and two city charter schools are the only remaining subjects of the 17-month probe into suspicious math and reading scores on standardized tests known as the PSSAs, or Pennsylvania System of School Assessment.
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-school-cheating-probe-20121220,0,5226602.story

Daniel Boone School Board may cut kindergarten, sports, staffing
Pottstown Mercury By Denise Larive Journal Register News Service Posted: 12/19/12 12:01 am
BIRDSBORO — Daniel Boone Area School District parents expressed disbelief Monday night when they heard for themselves that the district’s now half-day kindergarten program is on the chopping block as just one measure to make up a $5 million deficit in the 2013-14 budget.
The school board has until June 30 to adopt a final budget, but district administrators proposed drastic measures to balance the plan at a Dec. 6 meeting.
To make up for the $5 funding shortfall, administration propose the maximum property tax hike allowed by the state, eliminating kindergarten and all extracurricular activities including sports and marching band, eliminating two school buses, and furloughing 40 professional staff, including 28 full time positions.

State's new PennWATCH website makes tons of information available

By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau December 21, 2012 12:19 am
HARRISBURG -- If you'd like to know the number of salaried employees for the milk marketing board (23) or which agency has spent the most this fiscal year (education), you won't need a right-to-know request.  Those facts are among the reams of information on the business of Pennsylvania government available on the new PennWATCH website. The site, the product of a 2011 law, compiles in one place information that is legally public under the state right-to-know law.

PennWATCH

An open window into YOUR state government

It’s your money, find out how it is being spent.  PennWATCH lets you keep tabs on the state budget, spending, revenue, employees and performance – all in one website! 
Learn more about PennWATCH, the agencies that provide data and the types ofinformation included.

Boehner's Plan B fiscal cliff bill pulled amid dissension in GOP caucus

From Deirdre Walsh, Dana Bash and Craig Broffman, CNN
updated 9:10 PM EST, Thu December 20, 2012
Washington (CNN) -- House Speaker John Boehner's proposal to avert the looming fiscal cliff's automatic tax increases has failed to get enough Republican support, throwing yet another monkey wrench into the contentious debate.
Boehner said earlier Thursday that he was confident that his so-called Plan B -- which would extend tax cuts that are set to expire at year's end for most people while allowing rates to increase to 1990s levels on income over $1 million -- would pass the House, and in the process put pressure on President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Senate. But that gambit seemed in doubt Thursday, as Republican leaders struggled to get all their members to sign on, knowing the chamber's Democrats oppose it.

The Year In Research On Market-Based Education Reform: 2012 Edition

Shanker Blog Posted by Matthew Di Carlo on December 20, 2012
2012 was another busy year for market-based education reform. The rapid proliferation of charter schools continued, while states and districts went about the hard work of designing and implementing new teacher evaluations that incorporate student testing data, and, in many cases, performance pay programs to go along with them.
As in previous years (see our 2010 and 2011 reviews), much of the research on these three “core areas” – merit pay, charter schools, and the use of value-added and other growth models in teacher evaluations – appeared rather responsive to the direction of policy making, but could not always keep up with its breakneck pace.*

"The concentration on examination and testing can have a deleterious effect in a couple of ways. First of all there is documented evidence that kids get stressed out . . . but moreover what we find is that the overemphasis on tests can dampen down some aspects of creativity, critical thinking, originality, aesthetic work and a lot of the kind of higher order competences that are really required for the new economy and for global economies."

Should Singapore scrap the primary school exam?

ABC Radio Australia By Kevin Ponniah Updated 3 December 2012, 12:56 AEST
Singapore's education system is known as one of the most competitive in the world, but it's facing big changes.  Singapore's education system is known as one of the most competitive in the world, so it has come as a huge surprise that the country's Ministry of Education and Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) will stop listing the top-scoring students in all national examinations.

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

A Broader, Bolder Christmas: Top Ten “Gifts” for Under the (Education Policy) Tree


Some folks think that charter schools, vouchers, tax credits and testing will make all the  difference for kids in high poverty districts.  After 13 years watching those policies being implemented, this blogger's view is that they just move the money around.  If we want to make a difference for those kids this is what a solution might look like; things that kids in well funded, middle class, successful school districts take for granted:


Today in Poverty: An Education Wish List

The Nation by Greg Kaufmann on December 19, 2012 - 11:37 AM ET
A Broader, Bolder Christmas:
Top Ten “Gifts” for Under the (Education Policy) Tree
Co-authored with Elaine Weiss

10. A Roof Over Every Student’s Head:
Children who lack stable homes are more anxious and less focused than their peers who have adequate housing. They are also at higher risk for poor health and developmental problems, and have lower educational attainment. There is no reason why any child in the United States should not enjoy stable housing. Moreover, we end up paying more for children to sleep in cars or in shelters than we would to provide their families with apartments. It’s time to fund the National Housing Trust Fund that was signed into law by President George W. Bush but never funded.

9. School Breakfast and Lunch for All Eligible Students: 
Children who are hungry have difficulty concentrating and an impaired learning ability. The recession raised already unacceptable levels of child food insecurity to crisis levels. In Ohio, one in four children was at risk of going hungry in 2012. More than half of surveyed teachers told Share our Strength that they buy food to feed their hungry students. Eating school breakfasts is associated withincreased math and reading scores, improved speed and memory in cognitive tests, stronger academic performance, and improved attendance and punctuality.  It’s time for schools to adopt policies like universal breakfast and breakfast in the classroom.

8. Expanded Access to Quality Pre-kindergarten:
 When a Nobel Laureate economist (James Heckman), chair of the Federal Reserve Bank (Ben Bernanke) and one of the nation’s best-loved billionaires (Warren Buffett) all agree that quality pre-kindergarten is the smartest public investment, shouldn’t that give us pause? A recent report on Texas’s large, poor-quality pre-k program demonstrates that even low-cost programs deliver public benefits. Expanding access in states that already provide higher-quality pre-k—like Alabama, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—would greatly increase those benefits. Further, Head Start currently serves fewer than half of eligible low-income 3- and 4-year-olds and needs renewed attention. Research shows that children who participated in a quality program during their preschool years are better prepared to learn, have higher self-esteem, and more developed social skills when they start kindergarten. These investments are truly a no-brainer.

7. Elimination of Waiting Lists for Child Care Subsidies:
One of the policy areas hardest-hit by the recession is subsidized child care. In 2012, twenty-seven states had childcare policies that left families worse off than they were in 2011, and twenty-three denied assistance to eligible children. Only one state reimbursed childcare providers at the federally recommended level, compared to twenty-two in 2011, making it tough for them to serve low-income children. Florida alone has more than 75,000 children on waiting lists. It’s difficult for a parent to work, or even look for work, when quality, affordable childcare is unavailable.

6. Affordable physical, mental and dental medical care: 
Low-income children miss more school days each year—and many lack focus in class—relative to their economically better-off peers. This is due in part to higher rates of illnesses and fewer resources to address them, and it further widens the achievement gap. We urge the president to appropriate $50 million in his FY 2014 budget for school-based health center (SBHC) operations. SBHCs provide access to care for over 2 million school-aged children, protecting them from cavities and gum disease, ensuring that they can actually see their textbooks and whiteboards, reducing diabetes through diet and fitness counseling, screening and treating for depression and diverting students from emergency rooms so they can stay in school to learn.

5. Expanded learning time that delivers enriching after-school experiences: 
As an increasing number of states commit to expanding the school day and year, we urge them to ensure that low-income children benefit from the same kinds of mind- and world-broadening experiences as their higher-income peers. Music, arts, organized sports, chess, trips to museums and the theatre—all of these kinds of activities build on what students learn from 9–3. Adding hours simply for test preparation, however, would waste the opportunity for the kind of after-school experiences that inspired Pobo Efekoro, who says that learning to play chess literally changed his life.

4. Experienced, qualified teachers in appropriately sized classes:
Low-income and minority students are disproportionately likely to be taught by less qualified and uncertified teachers. These students also go to schools with larger classes, which make the individual, tailored instruction that at-risk students need very difficult to come by. President Obama would never send his children to schools without small classes and great teachers—at-risk children need this kind of environment more than anyone.

3. Fully-resourced schools:
The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education we seek—and physical education our children need—require properly equipped laboratories, libraries and gymnasiums in every school. Even before the recession, schools serving low-income communities were less likely to have these “amenities.” Now a growing number of districts view these basic academic necessities as extras and are stripping them from their budgets. We are certainly not going to produce learners and workers who are ready to thrive in a twenty-first-century economy if they haven’t experimented with test tubes, played on organized teams or conducted sophisticated internet-based research.

2. An enriching, holistic curriculum:
Stop the madness! We say we want more STEM majors, creative thinkers, students who are college- and career-ready, and fewer obese children. It is hard to imagine how making everything contingent on math and reading test scores–resulting in neglect of science, arts, music, critical thinking and elimination of recess—can do anything but ensure that we’ll achieve exactly none of those goals. Policies that provide all children with a holistic, enriching education—and that minimize an emphasis on standardized testing—would do far more to help young people achieve their potential.

1. National policies that enable parents, families, and communities to provide children with what they need to thrive educationally. 
As the fiscal cliff looms, revenue and spending decisions affect not only on our nation’s budget, but our children’s educational and life prospects. The Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, WIC, SNAP (food stamps), Medicaid, housing vouchers and other federal programs that might seem unrelated to schooling enhance children’s ability to succeed. You can speak out to protect these vital investments here.

Elaine Weiss is the national coordinator for the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education, where she works with a high-level Task Force and coalition partners to promote a comprehensive, evidence-based set of policies to allow all children to thrive.
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Ridge, Casey respond to Newtown school shootings: both would support ban on assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips


Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1750 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.

These daily emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg


First Book works through existing community programs, literacy efforts and schools to provide an ongoing supply of new books and reading materials – at low or no cost.
Your tax-deductible donation to First Book will fund new books for children in need and help knock down the greatest barrier to literacy development in the United States and beyond — access to books. 97% of donations go directly to programming, providing new books for children in need.
Click here to donate to First Book


Ex-Gov. Tom Ridge on gun control: 'It's a little more complicated than just bans and background checks'
By ROBERT J. VICKERS, The Patriot-News  on December 19, 2012 at 3:27 PM
Former Gov. Tom Ridge added his voice to the growing chorus calling for more protective gun control laws Wednesday, as legislators and activists across the country continued to reacting to last week's mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.
But while Ridge agreed that assault weapons and high capacity ammunition clips should be banned, the former expert Army marksman and first Homeland Security Secretary warned that any efforts to better protect the public should include measures related to mental health and privacy.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2012/12/ridge_calls_for_assault_weapon.html

Sen. Bob Casey changes stance, supports new gun laws

Jonathan Tamari INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU
POSTED: Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 8:47 PM
WASHINGTON - Sen. Bob Casey, who has long opposed new gun laws, said Wednesday that he had changed his views in the aftermath of last week's shootings in Newtown, Conn., and would support bills to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips.
In an interview in his office, the ordinarily staid Casey (D., Pa.) told The Inquirer that he was "haunted" by the images and reports of children killed in their school, and teachers slain trying to protect them. He said his wife confronted him as he reassessed the issue over the weekend.

PA Senate Standing Committee Chairs for the 2013-14 Legislative Session

Senator Scarnati’s website December 19, 2012
Today Chair assignments have been announced for each of the 22 Senate Standing Committees, according to Senator Joe Scarnati (R-25).  “We are fortunate to have members from various backgrounds and regions across our Commonwealth who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to Harrisburg,” Scarnati said. “Membership of committees will be announced prior to the reconvening of the Senate on January 22, 2013.”

Speaker-Designate Smith Announces PA House Committee Chairs for the 2013-14 Session
PA House Republican Caucus 12/19/2012
HARRISBURG – Speaker-Designate Rep. Sam Smith (R-Jefferson County) today announced the appointments of both Republican and Democratic committee chairmen for the 2013-14 Legislative Session, which begins in January. 
House committees study each bill and determine which proposals will go to the full House. They conduct public hearings on key issues, allowing citizens and interested groups to have a say in the legislative process, and they serve as a resource for members and others. 
“These House committees will tackle the serious issues facing Pennsylvania and, through public hearings and meetings, vet those issues and proposed solutions with public,” Smith said. “These men and women of both caucuses will lead the way in preparing legislation for the full House to consider.”   Committees are outlined in the House Rules that are enacted for each session. 
Smith made the following appointments, which are unofficial until announced on the House floor:

Armstrong SD plans hearing on Elderton charter school

Tribune-Review By Tim Karan  Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 12:01 a.m.
Elderton is one step closer to breathing life into its proposed charter school.
Armstrong School District has announced a public hearing to discuss the possible opening of Everlasting Elderton Charter School at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 27 at Lenape Elementary School in Ford City.  The school‘s founding board filed a formal application with ASD on Nov. 14, and ASD board president Joe Close said the district was mandated to conduct a hearing before Dec. 29.

Cyber plans represent progress

Observer-Reporter Opinion published dec 18, 2012 at 11:48 pm
The whole idea of taking a course while perched in front of a computer is, admittedly, a little alien to those who spent their primary and secondary educations in classrooms where they could directly interact with a teacher a few feet away.
But in our wired world, more students are retreating to computer-based charterschools, which have drained students and taxpayer dollars away from traditional classrooms. Under Pennsylvania law, if a student decamps to a charter or cyberschool, his per-pupil state funding goes with him. That’s the case even if the school is based in, say, California. Another sore point for educators is that these online schools often operate under a looser set of mandates than traditional schools do.
Rather than trying to beat cyberschools, however, three area school districts have decided to join them.  In a move not unlike the bookseller Barnes & Noble setting up its own online retail site to compete with the Amazon.com behemoth, the Washington, Trinity and Western Beaver school districts are forming a partnership they’re calling the Collaborative Online Academy, which will allow students in their districts to be cyberschooled while keeping per-pupil funding within the district.

Wm Penn Foundation Launches Strategic Vision With $3.2 Million In Grants

William Penn Foundation Publication Date: December 19, 2012
Today, Helen Davis Picher, interim president of the William Penn Foundation, announced more than $3.2 million in new grants to launch the implementation of the Foundation’s 10-year strategic vision.  The grants will go to: the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe ($1.5 million); the Children’s Literacy Initiative ($1 million); and a group of organizations working for environmental stewardship ($715,500 among four organizations).
The Foundation’s strategic vision focuses on three principal objectives: closing the achievement gap for low-income children; protecting the region’s water quality; and making Greater Philadelphia an even more vibrant and creative community.

Early Literacy Program Helps to Close the Achievement Gap for Philadelphia’s Children

William Penn Foundation By Anna Guarneri, Program Associate Publication Date: 12/19/2012
Children’s Literacy Initiative (CLI), created in Philadelphia and now nationally recognized as a leader in early literacy, has been working for 24 years to right the imbalance in early literacy achievement. CLI works with Pre-K to third grade educators to transform instruction so that children can become powerful readers, writers, and thinkers. Their approach promotes and sustains quality teaching, which research consistently shows is the number one in-school factor in increasing student achievement. 

Teacher Evaluations & Student Achievement: A Progress Report
Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children December 19, 2012
Pennsylvania has taken critical steps this year to improve teacher effectiveness, but more work remains. As part of our “Making the Grade” initiative on teacher effectiveness, Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children is pleased to share with you our latest policy report in this area, “Teacher Evaluations & Student Achievement: A Progress Report.” This report provides a status update on Pennsylvania’s efforts thus far to help teachers become more effective in the classroom and looks at the work that lies ahead. CLICK HERE to read it.

More Teachers 'Flipping' The School Day Upside Down

NPR All Things Considered by GRACE HOOD December 07, 2012 5:46 PM
All Things Considered 3 min 47 sec
Welcome to the 21st century classroom: a world where students watch lectures at home — and do homework at school. It's called classroom flipping, and it's slowly catching on in schools around the country.

Philadelphia Education Fund ‏@PhilaEdFund
The mission of the Philadelphia Education Fund is to improve the quality of public education in Philadelphia and the region, so that youth are prepared for college and careers.
GOALS
The Philadelphia Education Fund works with school districts and partners, including businesses, universities and non-profit organizations, as well as community stakeholders to:
·         Increase the number of public secondary schools (grades 6 – 12) that are high performing;
·         Increase the number of public school students who access postsecondary education and persist to completion;
·         Position the Philadelphia region as central to state and national dialogues about improving public education.

City Connects Year in Review: Boston

City Connects DECEMBER 19, 2012
Mission: To have every child engage and learn in school by connecting each student with the tailored set of intervention, prevention, and enrichment services he or she needs to thrive.
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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Can Public Education as We Know it Survive?


Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1750 Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators, legislators, legislative and congressional staffers, PTO/PTA officers, parent advocates, teacher leaders, education professors, members of the press and a broad array of P-16 education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.

These daily emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us on Twitter at @lfeinberg


First Book works through existing community programs, literacy efforts and schools to provide an ongoing supply of new books and reading materials – at low or no cost.
Your tax-deductible donation to First Book will fund new books for children in need and help knock down the greatest barrier to literacy development in the United States and beyond — access to books. 97% of donations go directly to programming, providing new books for children in need.
Click here to donate to First Book


Coalition proposes alternative solutions for Philly schools
Kristen A. Graham, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
POSTED: Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 8:26 PM
The solution for avoiding school closings and continued, painful budget cuts in the Philadelphia School District?
A coalition of community and student groups and the city teachers' union says it has found it: Focus on improving instruction. Ditch the School Reform Commission. Shift the way schools think about safety and discipline. Halt charter school growth.  And, most important, force Harrisburg to fund the Philadelphia School District equitably, making up billions in aid that would fix a broken school system, the advocates said.
The Philadelphia Community Education Plan, announced Tuesday by the Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools, is a 44-page document developed as an alternative to recommendations issued this year by the Boston Consulting Group, which was hired to study the district and recommend ways to radically overhaul its finances and operations.

Here’s the Philadelphia Community Education Plan:

Harrisburg School Board looks to "work collectively" with chief recovery officer Gene Veno

By ERIC VERONIKIS, The Patriot-News  on December 17, 2012 at 10:02 PM,
The Harrisburg School Board and the state-appointed official overseeing the district’s financial recovery started their relationship off on a good note tonight.  The board expressed a willingness to work with Gene Veno during its first public meeting since the state tapped him to develop and implement a fiscal recovery plan for the district on Dec. 12.

Allentown school board grills charter school applicant

Director addresses 'elephant in the room,' asks if applicant has ties to Gulen Movement.

By Steve Esack, Of The Morning Call 11:03 p.m. EST, December 18, 2012
For several hours Tuesday, the Allentown School Board asked a charter school applicant seeking to open a school dedicated to engineering about curriculum, money, parental support and other such issues.  They were normal questions school boards regularly pepper applicants seeking to open publicly funded independent schools in their jurisdiction under the 1997 charter school law.
But then Director David Zimmerman said he would address the "elephant in the room" by asking a question the consultant for Allentown Engineering Academy Charter School had earlier in the night called "obscene."

2 western Pa. districts arming police at schools

Hanover Evening Sun By JOE MANDAK Associated Press 12/17/2012 09:03:22 AM EST
PITTSBURGH—A western Pennsylvania school district whose board voted to eventually arm its school police instead got a court order over the weekend so officers in each of its schools could carry guns Monday in the wake of last week's school shooting in Connecticut.
Butler County President Judge Thomas Doerr's Sunday court order affecting the Butler Area School District and another for police in the South Butler County School District, both about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, were first reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Michigan Governor Snyder vetoes concealed weapons bill

Detriot Free Press by Kathleen Gray 3:54 PM, December 18, 2012  |  
Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill this afternoon that would have allowed gun owners with extra training to carry their concealed weapons in schools, day care centers, churches and stadiums.
In his veto letter sent to the legislature shortly before 4 p.m, Snyder said the bill had a fatal loophole that didn’t allow for those institutions to opt out of the new legislation and prohibit weapons from their buildings

School Officials Look Again at Security Measures Once Dismissed

New York Times By MOTOKO RICH Published: December 18, 2012
In 1999, the year of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, Heath E. Morrison was a middle school principal in Maryland, shocked by what he and his colleagues saw as a terrible but unique episode. “There was this intense desire not to overreact,” said Mr. Morrison, who is now superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district in North Carolina.
Since then, Mr. Morrison has come to view schools as much more dangerous places. In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings last week, he finds himself contemplating heightened measures to protect students, including increasing the number of security officers in schools who carry their own guns

A Connecticut Parent’s Letter to President Obama
Parents Across America by Wendy Lecker
Parents Across America grieves with the community of Newtown, Connecticut over the loss of their precious children and educators. The following letter, sent yesterday to President Obama from the founder of Parents Across America-CT, expresses some aspects of what many of our members are feeling at this difficult time.

“private vision of public education…severs the connection between public schools and the civic purposes for which they were established and that justify the use of taxpayer dollars to fund them.”

Can Public Education as We Know it Survive?

Huffington Post by Edward Fiske and Helen F. Ladd Posted: 12/18/2012 6:40 pm
Americans are now confronted with two radically different visions of public education. Which vision ultimately prevails will go a long way toward determining the quality of the education available to future generations of children.

Stop Federal Funding Cuts to Education

NSBA Video (runtime 1:41) Published on Nov 15, 2012
National School Boards Action Center (NSBAC) www.nsbac.org
Federal education programs face more than a $4 billion reduction for the 2013-14 school year under sequestration, unless Congress intervenes. View this video and visit www.nsbac.org to learn more about sequestration and the effect it would have on our students and schools. Join your local school board in urging Congress to protect education as an investment critical to economic stability and American competitiveness.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKQrP-2U4ao&feature=player_embedded

Sequestration Impact to Public Education
NSBA Video (runtime 12:44) Published on Dec 16, 2012
The National School Boards Association discusses the impact to public education from sequestration. Learn more at www,nsba.org/stopsequestration

Arts as Antidote for Academic Ills
New York Times By PATRICIA COHEN Published: December 18, 2012
Stationed in front of one of his large self-portraits, the artist Chuck Close raised his customized wheelchair to balance on two wheels, seeming to defy the laws of gravity.  The chair’s unlikely gymnastics underlined the points that Mr. Close was making to his audience, 40 seventh and eighth graders from Bridgeport, Conn.: Break the rules and use limitations to your advantage.
The message had particular resonance for these students, and a few educators and parents, who had come by bus on Monday from Roosevelt School to the Pace Gallery in Chelsea for a private tour of Mr. Close’s show. Roosevelt, located in a community with high unemployment and crushing poverty, recently had one of the worst records of any school in the state, with 80 percent of its seventh graders testing below grade level in reading and math.

The President’s Committee’s Turnaround Arts initiative
The President’s Committee’s Turnaround Arts initiative, created in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Education and the White House Domestic Policy Council, is a public-private partnership designed to help transform some the nation’s lowest performing schools through comprehensive and integrated arts education. Developed from the recommendations in PCAH’s recent report Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future Through Creative Schools, the Committee’s landmark research publication of May 2011, Turnaround Arts will test the hypothesis that high-quality and integrated arts education can be an effective tool to strengthen school reform efforts-boosting academic achievement and increasing student motivation in schools facing some of the toughest educational challenges in the country.
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