Daily postings
from the Keystone State Education Coalition now reach more than 1500
Pennsylvania education policymakers – school directors, administrators,
legislators, members of the press and a broad array of education advocacy
organizations via emails, website, Facebook and Twitter.
These daily
emails are archived at http://keystonestateeducationcoalition.org
Follow us
on Twitter at @lfeinberg
Please take 5 minutes to join parents and community
members across the Commonwealth in calling their legislators and Governor
Corbett on Wednesday and urge them to change the direction we are heading and
INVEST IN PUBLIC EDUCATION!
Tell them to support the following additional
improvements to funding for school districts:
·
Restore an additional $50 million to the Senate-approved funding
for Accountability Block Grants, restoring the line item to this year’s level
of $100 million (still $150 million below the 2010-2011 budget level).
·
Add at least $50 million for Charter School
·
Provide at least a cost-of-living increase to the Basic Subsidy
and Special Education line items, which will help to mitigate the seriously negative
effects of last summer’s huge cut in state funding for school districts.
Use our Call
to Action Guide for all the information you'll need to
participate. It's that easy!
Spread the word. Forward this email to
your friends, post on Facebook and Twitter or do what others are doing,
encourage parents and neighbors by passing out flyers.
Posted: Tue, May. 22,
2012, 6:08 AM
Survey: Pa.
By Dan Hardy INQUIRER
STAFF WRITER
A survey of Pennsylvania
Two hundred and
eighty-one of the state’s 500 districts — 56 percent — participated in the late
April survey by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA)
and the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO).
PASA/PASBO Survey Press
Release May 22,
2012 2:30 PM
Student Learning Opportunities Slashed Across State
As Financial Condition of School Districts
Continues to Deteriorate
New survey
provides insight on impact of state education policy choices
consecutive year,
school districts’ are again forced to consider
cuts to instructional
programs and school
personnel actions as they anticipate continued worsening of their
financial condition,
unless state and local funding improves. Having already made cuts
this fiscal year as a
result of steep state budget cuts and declining local revenues, school
districts will be
forced to implement even deeper cuts, further limiting students’
opportunities to
learn.
Two hundred and
eighty-one, or 56 percent, of the state’s 500 districts participated in
the third annual
school budget survey conducted in late April by the PA Association of
School Administrators
(PASA) and the PA Association of School Business Officials
(PASBO). The survey
asked school districts to answer questions related to their financial
health and the impact
of the enacted FY 2011-12 and proposed
FY 2012-13 state
budgets.
- Class sizes will increase in about 60 percent
of the districts surveyed.
- Students in 58 percent of districts will face
reduced instruction in art and music, reduced physical education classes,
and fewer elective and advanced placement course offerings.
- Nearly half of the districts are delaying
textbook purchases.
- Forty-six percent are trimming or eliminating
field trips and extra-curricular programs, including sports.
- Thirty-seven percent are cutting tutoring
programs and 34 percent are eliminating summer school.
- Research-proven early childhood education
programs such as full-day kindergarten will be reduced or eliminated in 19
percent of responding districts.
District
raises property taxes 2.2 percent under $133.4 million spending plan.
By Adam Clark,
Of The Morning Call 11:04 p.m.
EDT, May 22, 2012
Easton Area School Board approved its second
major staff cut in three years Tuesday night, adopting a final budget that
eliminates 102 jobs, including 49 teaching positions.
The number of cuts was higher than originally presented because it includes a number of part-time positions that the district had combined when it initially released details about the budget, Chief Operating Officer Mike Simonetta said. In all, the district will cut 49 teachers, a security guard, 31 full-time support positions and 21 part-time support positions.
The number of cuts was higher than originally presented because it includes a number of part-time positions that the district had combined when it initially released details about the budget, Chief Operating Officer Mike Simonetta said. In all, the district will cut 49 teachers, a security guard, 31 full-time support positions and 21 part-time support positions.
SAVE UPPER DARBY ARTS 2012
Published on May
21, 2012 by SaveUDArts
Sign the
Petition http://ow.ly/b3rR2
This isn't just about theUpper
Darby School District Pennsylvania
We will be inHarrisburg
Please visit www.saveudarts.org to learn more and join the fight.
This isn't just about the
We will be in
Please visit www.saveudarts.org to learn more and join the fight.
Youtube video (runtime
7:32) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8RNhMo4Ks&feature=plcp
Help me out with a reality
check here , folks; can anyone cite any evidence of any state takeovers
actually (a) improving student achievement or (b) straightening out distressed
district’s finances?
“Under the proposal, a
state-appointed receiver ultimately would have the power to undo labor
contracts and convert schools into charters.”
Pennsylvania
Pa.
By Karen Langley / Post-Gazette Harrisburg
The legislation,
sponsored by Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, chairman of the Education
Committee, borrows from laws addressing distressed municipalities and the Philadelphia York and Harrisburg
Press Release Senate
Education Committee Chairman Jeff Piccola, May 22, 2012
Senate Panel Approves Legislation to Assist Fiscally Distressed
Schools
Providing a Lifeline & Recovery Process for
Struggling Districts
House Bill 1307, as
amended today to include the provisions of Senate Bill 1450 which I introduced,
creates a program for monitoring and assisting school districts showing signs
of financial distress. Under the bill, a district could enter financial
recovery status upon declaration by the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education if
it meets certain criteria, such as receiving an advance on state funding or
entering litigation against the Commonwealth seeking financial assistance to
allow the school district to continue operating. A Chief Recovery Officer
would be named to develop and implement a financial recovery plan, which could
include renegotiation of contracts or the conversion to a charter school.
Districts adopting and implementing a financial recovery plan would also be
eligible for a long-term interest-free loan.
Dueling Rallies
Yinzercation Blog — MAY 22, 2012
Oh the irony. It just
so happens that when our public education advocates get off their buses in
Harrisburg this morning, they will be greeted by another group rallying at the
capitol for cyber charter schools. While our colleagues are meeting with
legislators today urging them to restore public funding for public schools,
the PA Families for Public Cyber Schools group
will be meeting with legislators asking them to instead send more public money
to largely private corporations.
EITC: Public Money Finds Back Door to Private Schools
New York Times By STEPHANIE
SAUL Published: May 21, 2012
Spreading at a time of deep
cutbacks in public schools, the programs are operating in eight states and
represent one of the fastest-growing components of the school choice movement.
This school year alone, the programs redirected nearly $350 million that would
have gone into public budgets to pay for private school scholarships for
129,000 students, according to the Alliance
….Some of the programs have
also become enmeshed in politics, including in Pennsylvania, where more than
200 organizations distribute more than $40 million a year donated by
corporations. Two of the state’s largest scholarship organizations are
controlled by lobbyists, and they frequently ask lawmakers to help decide which
schools get the money, according to interviews. The arrangement provides a
potential opportunity for corporate donors seeking to influence legislators and
also gives the lobbying firms access to both lawmakers and potential new
clients….. Pennsylvania
TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2012
How fracking fortunes are undermining public education in Pa.
The New York Times
lifted up a large rock over Pennsylvania this morning, and the slime they found
underneath was remarkable even by the low muck standards of the Keystone State.
Under the headline "Public Money Finds Backdoor to Private Schools,"
a remarkable expose by reporter Stephanie Saul (whom I worked with at Newsday
many years ago) reveals a tangled web involving the Corbett administration, fracking
money, and the ongoing crusade to favor private schools at the expense of
public education.
The focus of the
article is private-school scholarship programs now operated in Pennsylvania and
seven other states (around these parts it is better known by the bureaucratically
benign name of EITC, for Educational Improvement Tax Credit, launched here in
2001). Instead of the government providing direct help for parents to send kids
to private or religious schools through vouchers, EITC provides tax credits to
private donors for scholarship money that does essentially the same thing.
The Times article
quotes experts calling this "a shell game" and it's not hard to
understand why: The tax credits that finance the scholarships mean there's less
revenue coming into to Pennsylvania's coffers -- at a time when the Corbett
administration has been slashing spending for public schools.
But it gets better.
Frankly, this looks like the Iran-Contra of the Corbett administration -- one
unifying theory that ties together our governor's ridiculously close ties to
the fracking industry with his jihad against public schools while benefiting
people with close ties to his administration.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/How-fracking-money-is-undermining-public-education-in-Pa.html
What is Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
Department
of Community and Economic Development
General program information and FAQ's on Pennsylvania
http://www.newpa.com/find-and-apply-for-funding/funding-and-program-finder/educational-improvement-tax-credit-program-eitc
Top
100 EITC Contributions Received by DCED for FY 2011
For the full list alphabetically by recipient
organization name see these 3 links:
EITC
Contributions Received by DCED for FY 2011 Part 1 of 3
EITC
Contributions Received by DCED for FY 2011 Part 2 of 3
EITC
Contributions Received by DCED for FY 2011 Part 3 of 3
EITC - No
Accountability: Pennsylvania 's Track Record
Using Taxpayer Dollars to Pay for Private and Religious School
This briefing paper reviews the experience of the EITC
program, including its size and growth over time, the areas of the state it
primarily serves, and the accountability mechanisms that oversee schools that
receive taxpayer dollars to educate Pennsylvania
http://keystoneresearch.org/EITC-accountability
East Penn issues call to action over education funding
As part of the
campaign, voters are being asked to call the governor's office, as well as
local state representatives and senators on Wednesday, May 23, to urge
legislators not to allow more cuts to public education. Across the state, funding cuts have led to
larger class sizes, shuttered school buildings, reduction and elimination of
programs, including full day kindergarten and tutoring sessions, and job
losses, including instructional and support staff.
Government links and
phone numbers are available at http://www.educationvoterspa.org
Do Our Public Schools Threaten National Security?
US Education Reform and National Security
by Joel I. Klein, Condoleezza Rice, and others
Council on Foreign Relations, 103 pp., available at www.cfr.org
by Joel I. Klein, Condoleezza Rice, and others
Council on Foreign Relations, 103 pp., available at www.cfr.org
Rules on Way for District Race to Top Contest
School districts that want a slice of the
latest, nearly $400 million in Race to the Top competitive grants will have to
put a major focus on helping schools tailor instruction to the needs of
individual students—and agree to evaluate school board members and
superintendents—under draft regulations slated to be released by the U.S.
Department of Education today.
The department anticipates giving out about 15
to 20 four-year grants, of up to $25 million each. Districts will be able to
apply for the funds individually, or as part of consortia with other districts,
even those in other states. And charter schools—as well as other organizations that
are defined as a "local education agency" by their states—can
compete, too.
Now if we
could just get President Obama to name some education advisors……
Romney Names Education Policy Advisers
From guest blogger Christina A. Samuels
Presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign has released a list of people who are advising the campaign on education issues, including a former U.S. Secretary of Education and a current state schools chief.
Presumed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign has released a list of people who are advising the campaign on education issues, including a former U.S. Secretary of Education and a current state schools chief.
STATEWIDE PRESS COVERAGE OF SCHOOL DISTRICT
BUDGETS
Here are more than 700 articles since
January 23rd detailing budget cuts, program cuts, staffing cuts and
tax increases being discussed by local school districts
The PA House Democratic Caucus has been tracking daily press coverage on
school district budgets statewide:
Education Funding Advocacy Week is not a single event but a series of
activities sponsored by individuals and organizations that oppose the
Governor’s proposed Budget for 2012-2013 because it reduces learning
opportunities for students in Pennsylvania
·
Education Voters of PA “Call to Action for Public Education”
Day on May 23rd. Get
involved! Learn how, click here.
·
Harrisburg 10:00
AM .
·
The Media Area NAACP and CU Keystone
Honors Program is hosting 2012 Conference on the State of
Education in Pennsylvania “Calling for a Trauma-Informed Education
System” on Friday, May 25. Click here for
registration details.
More info at: http://www.paschoolfunding.org/
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