Daily postings from the Keystone State Education Coalition now
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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 regulatory agencies, professional
associations and education advocacy organizations via emails, website, Facebook
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PA Charter Schools: $4 billion taxpayer
dollars with no real oversight
Charter schools - public funding without
public scrutiny; Proposed statewide authorization and direct payment would
further diminish accountability and oversight for public tax dollars
PA School Funding Campaign seeks
commitment to restore student funding
PA School Funding Campaign Challenges
Lawmakers to Use 2013-2014 Budget to Promote Opportunities for Students and
Make Commitment to Restore Funding for Student Programs and Services
WHAT: Representatives of
the Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign will explain the
Campaign's Policy Agenda for the 2013-2014 State Budget, reporting on the
effects
of the nearly $900 million cut in annual state support for K-12 students, and
describing steps the Governor and General Assembly should take to begin to
restore
the cut and reduce certain charter school costs to school districts. They
also will
discuss the need for state lawmakers to make a 3-year commitment to completely
restore lost funding to districts for student
programs and services and to use a state
funding distribution formula that promotes an equitable education opportunity
for all
students in all districts.
The Pennsylvania School Funding Campaign is an unprecedented coalition of more
than 30 statewide and regional education and advocacy organizations representing
hundreds of thousands of parents, students, educators, school board members,
administrators, and other concerned citizens advocating for adequate and
equitable
funding of Pennsylvania
WHERE: Capitol Rotunda, Harrisburg WHEN:
Tuesday, April 30 - 10:00 a.m.
WHO: Joan Duvall-Flynn, Education Committee Chair, NAACP Pennsylvania
Deborah Dunstone, President, Pennsylvania PTA
Joe Bard, Executive Director, PA Association of Rural and Small Schools
Michael Churchill, Of-Counsel, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Rhonda Brownstein, Executive Director, Education Law Center
Ron Cowell, President, The Education Policy and Leadership Center
Others to be Announced
WHO: Joan Duvall-Flynn, Education Committee Chair, NAACP Pennsylvania
Deborah Dunstone, President, Pennsylvania PTA
Joe Bard, Executive Director, PA Association of Rural and Small Schools
Michael Churchill, Of-Counsel, Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia
Rhonda Brownstein, Executive Director, Education Law Center
Ron Cowell, President, The Education Policy and Leadership Center
Others to be Announced
By SAVANNAH
DEMPSEY (sbarr@sungazette.com) , Williamsport
Sun-Gazette April 26, 2013
HUGHESVILLE -
Outreach for behaviorally challenged students and cyber and charter school
tuition were topics of discussion at the East Lycoming School Board meeting,
held Tuesday evening. …Cyber school and
charter school attendees also place a heavy financial burden on the school
district. According to Superintendent Michael Pawlik, the district spent an
estimated $400,000 on charter and cyber school tuition in the 2012-13 school
year. During the meeting, the board
adopted a resolution that calls for the reform of the state's charter and cyber
school funding formula. The resolution asks that the state come up with a cyber
and charter school funding formula "based on the actual cost of educating
students ... at the charter school."
Dim the lights: No musical
for CAPA
Martha Woodall, Inquirer
Staff Writer POSTED: Friday, April 26, 2013 , 6:41 AM
Money is so
tight in the Philadelphia
School District South Broad Street Oberlin College
in Ohio
Senior Daniel
Wisniewski was disappointed, too. He played Javert in Les Mis and
had expected to audition for an even bigger role this spring. "I feel bad for all the other
seniors," he said. "This was going to be our year."
But
disappointment turned to disbelief when they heard that a new performing-arts
charter high school that the School Reform Commission approved last year
planned to buy GlaxoSmithKline's former North American headquarters at 16th and
Vine Streets for $29 million.
"Really?"
said Wisniewski, who will major in theater at Ithaca College
Philly school funding
from city could be tied to state commitment
WHYY
Newsworks By Tom MacDonald @tmacdonaldwhyy April 25, 2013
Could the city of Philadelphia
Even though there
isn't yet a formal request for $60 million from the city for the
schools, Council President Darrell Clarke says district representatives
will ask officially in May.
In addition to asking
the city for $60 million, the School District District
of Philadelphia is seeking $120 million from the state to help fill the its
$300 million budget shortfall.
Derry Area officials
consider slightly lower tax hike
TribLive By Jeff
Himler Published: Saturday,
April 27, 2013, 12:01 a.m.
…..Koluder said
a 3-mill hike would raise the average Derry Area property owner's tax bill by
$35.49. Koluder said salaries and
benefits account for the largest anticipated increase in expenditures, at
$772,700. Most of that, $608,580, is attributed to spiking costs for retirement
benefits. According to Koluder, the
district will spend about $70,000 less than was originally planned for health
benefits because it obtained a better-than-expected rate for coverage through
an area consortium. He said installation of new energy-efficient lighting will
create additional savings. With
anticipated decreases of $447,000 in state funding and $138,000 in federal
funding, the district is looking to draw about $1.4 million from its fund
balance in order to balance the 2013-14 budget.
Fixing the 'Opportunity Gap' to Close the Achievement Gap
Education Week
Politics K-12 Blog By Lesli A. Maxwell on April
25, 2013 5:00 PM
What would
it really take to close the achievement gap?
The answer,
according to a cadre of education scholars who have just published a new book,
is to fix the "opportunity gap" that exists between children born
into middle class and affluent families and those who are not. Thirty years after the release of the
seminal A Nation at Risk report ushered in an era of academic
standards and standardized tests to measure how students were mastering
those, "Closing the Opportunity Gap," argues
that until federal and state governments, as well as local school districts,
devote as much time and attention to making investments in broad access to
quality preschool, health care, good teachers, and rich curricula as they have
to driving up test scores and graduation rates, the academic gaps between upper
and middle-class kids and their low-income peers will never disappear.
Network for Public Education Newsletter Volume 1, Issue #6 April 26, 2013
Welcome to the
sixth edition of our newsletter. There is a lot happening in our movement! This
week we launched the NPE Newsbrief, which brings you news from all over the
country. You may not agree with everything you read -- but that is part of what
makes things dynamic. We have also added several new items to our activist
Toolkit -- at great place to find ideas for how you can get organized
and make a difference. You have a role to play, and we are doing our best to
give you tools and information to help you get involved. Thanks for joining us on this journey.
We Are Winning! The Coming
Revolution in American Public Education!
Diane Ravitch’s
Blog By dianerav April
26, 2013 //
Dear Friends, Never
despair! We are winning.
John Tierney of
the New York Times just published an article about “The
Coming Revolution in Public Education.”
Tierney sees what we see. The insane obsession with bubble-guessing is
out of control. The profiteers have over-reached. The Billionaire Boys Club do
not own us nor can they buy our schools. They are losing. We are winning. We
are winning because we are fighting for children and for better education for
all. We are not fighting for profits and test scores.
The Coming Revolution in
Public Education
Critics say the standardized test-driven reforms
pushed by those like Michelle Rhee may actually be harming students.
The Atlantic by JOHN TIERNEYAPR 25 2013, 11:01 AM ET
It's always hard
to tell for sure exactly when a revolution starts. Is it when a few
discontented people gather in a room to discuss how the ruling regime might be
opposed? Is it when first shots are fired? When a critical mass forms and the
opposition acquires sufficient weight to have a chance of prevailing? I'm not
an expert on revolutions, but even I can see that a new one is taking shape in
American K-12 public education.
The dominant regime for the past decade or more has been what is sometimes called accountability-based reform or, by many of its critics, "corporate education reform." The reforms consist of various initiatives aimed at (among other things): improving schools and educational outcomes by using standardized tests to measure what students are learning; holding schools and teachers accountable (through school closures and teacher pay cuts) when their students are "lagging" on those standardized assessments; controlling classroom instruction and increasing the rigor of school curricula by pushing all states to adopt the same challenging standards via a "Common Core;" and using market-like competitive pressures (through the spread of charter schools and educational voucher programs) to provide public schools with incentives to improve.
The dominant regime for the past decade or more has been what is sometimes called accountability-based reform or, by many of its critics, "corporate education reform." The reforms consist of various initiatives aimed at (among other things): improving schools and educational outcomes by using standardized tests to measure what students are learning; holding schools and teachers accountable (through school closures and teacher pay cuts) when their students are "lagging" on those standardized assessments; controlling classroom instruction and increasing the rigor of school curricula by pushing all states to adopt the same challenging standards via a "Common Core;" and using market-like competitive pressures (through the spread of charter schools and educational voucher programs) to provide public schools with incentives to improve.
Critics of the
contemporary reform regime argue that these initiatives, though seemingly
sensible in their original framing, are motivated by interests other than
educational improvement and are causing genuine harm to American students and
public schools. Here are some of the criticisms: the reforms have self-interest and profit
motives, not educational improvement, as their basis; corporate interests
are reaping huge benefits from these reform initiatives andspending
millions of dollars lobbying to keep those benefits flowing; three big
foundations (Gates, Broad, and Walton Family) are funding much of the backing
for the corporate reforms and are spending
billions to market and sell reforms that don't work; ancillary goals of
these reforms are to bust
teacher unions, disempower educators, and reduce spending on public
schools;standardized
testing is enormously expensive in terms both of public expenditures
and the diversion of instruction time to test prep; over a third of charter
schools deliver "significantly
worse" results for students than the traditional public schools
from which they were diverted; and, finally, that these reforms have produced
few benefits and have actually caused harm, especially to kids in
disadvantaged areas and communities of color.
Hedge Funders Say It's 'A
Badge Of Honor' To Be Targeted By 'Thuggish' Teachers Unions
Business Insider by Julia La Roche
| Apr. 25, 2013, 9:36 AM | 4,668 | 48
The American
Federation of Teachers, a labor union that represents teachers, is going after
a bunch of hedge funders who support education reform. Last week, the
AFT released
a "watch list" of hedge funds they think are
"attacking" their defined benefit plans (DB plans) through their
support of various educational reform groups.
Superintendents, Business
Managers, School Board Members, Union Leaders, Any Others interested in PSERS
and wanting to learn more about Pension Reform . . .
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 Registration: 6:30 p.m.
Presentation: 7:00 p.m.
Allegheny
Intermediate Unit 475 East Waterfront Drive Homestead ,
PA 15120
Jeffery B. Clay,
Executive Director for the Pennsylvania Schools Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) will present on the topic of pension
reform. Mr. Clay’s presentation will review the increases in retirement
contributions and the Governor’s proposal on pension reform. As one
concerned about public education, we are sure that you will find this meeting
enlightening and a valuable investment of your time.
In order to
accommodate those attending and prepare the necessary materials for the
meeting, please register using the following link: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6252177431 by May 7, 2013 .
If you have any
questions regarding the registration process, please contact Janet Galaski
at 412.394.5753 or janet.galaski@aiu3.net.
NAACP 2013 Conference on the State of Education
in Pennsylvania
A Call for
Equitable and Adequate Funding for Pennsylvania
Media Area
Branch NAACP Saturday, May 11, 2013
9:00 am – 2:30 pm (8:30 am registration)
Marcus Foster
Student Union 2nd floor, Cheyney University of PA, Delaware County
Campus
Information and
registration at: http://www.naacpmediabranch.org/2013_conference.html
Sign Up Today for PILCOP Special Ed CLE Trainings
Spots are
filling up for the final three trainings in our 2012-2013 Know Your Child’s
Rights series with seminars on ADAAA, Pro Se Parents and Settlement Agreements.
For seminar details
and registration: http://pilcop.org/sign-up-today-for-special-ed-cle-trainings/
Turning the Page for
Change celebration, June
11, 2013
Please join us for the Notebook’s annual
Turning the Page for Change celebration on June 11, 2013 , from 4:30
- 7 p.m. at the University
of The Arts 320 S. Broad Street
