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Keystone State Education Coalition
PA Ed Policy Roundup February 1, 2016:
…highest negative rating in Harrisburg in
21 years Terry Madonna has been doing the survey
PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATION POLICY FORUM
"Southeastern
Region Forum Series" Wednesday,
February 17, 2016
Networking and Coffee - 9:30 a.m. Program - 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Networking and Coffee - 9:30 a.m. Program - 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
SUBJECT: Governor Wolf's
Proposed Education Budget for 2016-2017
RSVP
for Southeastern Forum on-line at
EPLC PENNSYLVANIA EDUCATION POLICY FORUM
"Capital
Region Forum Series" Thursday,
February 11, 2016
Continental Breakfast - 8:00
a.m. Program - 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Harrisburg Hilton Hotel -
Two North Second Street Harrisburg, PA 17101
SUBJECT: Governor Wolf's
Proposed Education Budget for 2016-2017
RSVP for Harrisburg
Forum on-line at
NPE Will Release a
National Report Card on How Much States Support Public Schools
Diane Ravitch's Blog
By dianeravitch January
31, 2016 //
Good news! The
Network for Public Education will soon issue our first national report card. What is your state
doing to keep public education vibrant and strong? Do students have a good
chance to succeed in schools that are funded adequately with appropriate class
sizes? Does your state support teacher professionalism? Has your state repelled
the forces of privatization? These are some of the questions the report will
address. Our first national report
card, Valuing Public Education: A 50 State Report Card, evaluates
states on their support for public schools. It will be released
February 2 at the National Press Club in D.C.
"Republicans say voters
elected them to reject higher taxes and reduce state spending, Treadway said,
and Wolf just as fervently believes he was elected statewide to boost education
spending and raise taxes on natural gas extraction to pay for it."
Governor
Wolf's budget options limited
Trib Live BY BRAD
BUMSTED | Sunday,
Jan. 31, 2016, 11:10 p.m.
HARRISBURG —
Legislative staffers and the governor's office considered scheduling Democratic
Gov. Tom Wolf to deliver his 2016-17 state budget on Tuesday, Groundhog Day,
until the realization hit. It was too
reminiscent of the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” in which actor Bill Murray plays
a TV weatherman in an unending day in which he relives events leading to
coverage of the Punxsutawney ceremony of winter-forecasting “Phil,” the
groundhog. Wolf's 2015 budget proposal
was still unfinished, and House Republicans in December rejected a so-called
compromise that included higher taxes and more spending. After all, the
reception among House Republicans for Wolf's second state budget promises to be
much like his first, if he again proposes higher spending and taxes, as he has
indicated, analysts say. Over and over and over, they say. Stephen Miskin, House Republican spokesman,
even called Murray to see if he would come to Pennsylvania to recognize
Groundhog Day, before Wolf chose Feb. 9 as the day for his budget address. Murray did not call back.
As Pa.
By Kate Giammarise/
Post-Gazette Harrisburg
Bureau February 1, 2016 12:00 AM
HARRISBURG — One of
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s top staffers is headed to work for a group that has
ties to an organization that for months has been running attack ads against
Republican legislators. The Democratic
Governors Association has hired Joe Shafer, Mr. Wolf’s former deputy chief of
staff, as director of independent expenditures, according to an announcement
from the group. The DGA has ties to
America Works USA, which has advertised heavily in support of the governor’s
budget proposals and against Republican state legislators. America Works USA is
a 501(c)(4) group, also known as a “dark money” organization, because it does
not have to disclose its donors. A
number of outside groups, on the right and left, have spent heavily on
television and radio ads, as well as campaign-style mailings, targeting
individual legislators during the state’s lengthy budget stalemate. Mr. Wolf and the Republican-dominated
Legislature have not been able to agree on a final budget for the fiscal year
that began July 1.
In budget battles,
compromise has become taboo
Inquirer by Angela Couloumbis and Chris Palmer, HARRISBURG BUREAU. Updated: FEBRUARY 1, 2016 — 3:01
AM EST
"This week’s Franklin
& Marshall Poll is the latest indication that the public has had enough.
Two out of three voters said the state “is on the wrong track.” A stunning 67
percent of those surveyed said they have lost faith in their state
government. It’s the highest negative
rating rung up in Harrisburg in the 21 years that veteran political pollster G.
Terry Madonna has been doing the survey."
Editorial: Pa. dysfunction
hits new heights
Delco Times
Editorial POSTED: 01/31/16, 5:17 AM EST | UPDATED: 2 HRS AGO
Here’s a stunner. Pennsylvanians are fed up with their state
government, and the politicians responsible for this embarrassing mess. You’re shocked, we know.
That’s what happens
when you allow a budget standoff to drag on for six months, actually flirting
with the notion of having Gov. Tom Wolf roll out his second budget plan without
an agreement on the first one. That’s
what happens when both sides – in this instance the Democrat Wolf and
Republican leaders in the House and Senate – dig in their heels, rejecting any
number of compromises or deals that would end the impasse. Republican leaders
actually had to wipe egg off their face when they were forced to renege on
several seeming breakthroughs when it became apparent they did not have the
votes among the rank-and-file to pass them.
WHAT PENNSYLVANIA VOTERS THINK
Disgusted as never before
Nearly 70 percent of voters have had it with Harrisburg,
a record-high level
BY STEVE ESACK MORNING CALL HARRISBURG BUREAU
January 29, 2016
HARRISBURG — Voters’
disdain for state government and the politicians who inhabit it has hit an
all-time high, a new poll has found. Two
out of three voters think the state is “on the wrong track,” according to a
Franklin & Marshall College Poll released Thursday. That means a
whopping 67 percent of those surveyed said they have lost faith in state
government. “We are in historic
territory,” said G. Terry Madonna, pollster and political science professor at
F&M in Lancaster. “This is about the dysfunction in Harrisburg.” It’s the highest dissatisfaction rate in the
21 years the poll has been conducted, according to an analysis by the
Times-Tribune newspaper of Scranton. As
a result, the approval ratings for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the
Republican-controlled Legislature are sinking deeper. Wolf is at 33 percent.
The Legislature is at 15 percent, and more respondents blame the Legislature
than Wolf for the lack of a full budget.
“It’s easy to blame the faceless Legislature,” said Steve Miskin,
spokesman for the House majority leader. “But Pennsylvania only has one leader,
and that is Wolf.” The poll results
won’t change Wolf’s priorities, said Jeff Sheridan, his spokesman. The results
show that voters understand why the budget impasse has dragged on, he said. After months of gridlock, Sheridan said, the
governor and Republican leaders in the Senate and House reached a budget deal
that had Wolf making big concessions on liquor and pension reform while
dropping his plan for a natural gas severance tax. But House GOP leaders killed
the deal before Christmas. “The
Republican leaders in the House went on vacation, and I think the people of
Pennsylvania can see that,” Sheridan said.
Editorial: Total failure
in Harrisburg
Citizen's Voice by THE EDITORIAL BOARD Published: February 1, 2016
Lawmakers in a
representative democracy, such as that in Pennsylvania , should not be held hostage to
opinion polling. They are not parrots, regurgitating what they have been told.
Rather, they are elected to exercise their judgment based on what they learn in
the legislative process, rather than to simply adhere to popular opinion. As the great parliamentarian Edmund Burke put
it in 1774, when he rejected his Bristol
constituents’ broad opposition to free trade: “Your representative owes you,
not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving
you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
Pennsylvania
lawmakers don’t have to listen to opinion polling for a different reason. They
have rigged their elections by gerrymandering, eliminating any risk that
constituents will react to their judgment by voting them out of office in a
general election. The result is the
political paralysis on display in the ongoing budget travesty, especially on
the Republican side of the aisle in both houses. Rather than exercising their
own judgment for the good of the commonwealth — the honorable practice
advocated by Burke — too many lawmakers agree to bad policy for fear of facing
a primary election challenge from their far right.
"About 14,000 Philadelphia
Kenney's push for pre-K
for all: How to pay for it?
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham and Julia Terruso, STAFF WRITERS.: JANUARY 31, 2016 — 1:08 AM EST
The mayor who ran on
an education platform says he wants to bring pre-kindergarten to "as many
children as we can reach" - an ambitious objective that advocates say
could be a game-changer for the city and its beleaguered school system. Quality pre-K is more than day care, experts
explain - it's an early-learning program focused on a 3- or 4-year-old's
emotional, social, and cognitive development. If done right, the science says,
it's well worth the investment. But can
it be done? The price tag will be hefty
- Kenney's estimate figures $60 million from the city in each of the next three
years. There's hope of crucial buy-in from the state, business, and
philanthropic communities to cover many millions more. "The idea is great," said Mary
Graham, who is the longtime director of Children's Village, an early-childhood
center in Center City, and is an ardent supporter of pre-K for all. "But
how do you pay for it?"
"It's
worth every penny. Graham is rooting for Mayor Kenney's ambitious plan of
making pre-kindergarten available to every child in Philadelphia. "It's about long-term public
education," Graham said. "Our parents are scraping by. Our children
will be engineers."
A quality pre-K program
dedicated to its mission
Inquirer by Kristen A. Graham and Julia Terruso, STAFF
WRITERS. Updated: JANUARY
31, 2016 — 1:08 AM EST
Call it a unicorn of
pre-K. Children's Village, on Eighth
Street at the edge of Chinatown, is better equipped than many Philadelphia
public schools, with a full-time psychologist, a fully stocked library and
librarian, a roof-deck playground, and a kitchen that serves up everything from
tilapia to Indian chickpea stew. When
the center opened in 1976, the goal was to serve the children whose parents
worked in the garment industry that surrounded it then. The neighborhood has changed, but the mission
has not - providing the highest-quality care for children who need it. Today,
many of the 450 pupils are poor, and many are learning English. While the school still relies heavily on
grants - it has two development directors responsible for attracting dollars
and running events - it has won both national accreditation and the state's
highest quality rating. There is little
staff turnover; many workers earned degrees largely paid for by a now-defunct
state program that covered 80 percent of their tuition. They stay despite the
temptation of a shorter year and better pay if they worked for a school
district.
Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160131_A_quality_pre-K_program_dedicated_to_its_mission.html#rx6gqmh2YqdqO5WK.99
Philly councilwoman wants
food program for school students on snow days
WHYY Newsworks BY TOM MACDONALD February 1, 2016
For some kids in Philadelphia , a snow day
can mean going hungry.
City Councilwoman
Jannie Blackwell says children depend on the public schools for vital
nourishment and being away from class four days in a row caused major problems. "So kids that get breakfast, kids that
get lunch, kids that get snacks at school if schools are closed they won't get
food," Blackwell said. "So we want to create some program, in other
cities they open schools even if they are formally closed." Blackwell said that where there's a will,
there's a way — even if the streets are clogged with snow and the schools are
closed because administrators don't think everyone can get to class safely.
The Notebook has a new editor
and publisher
She will succeed co-founder
Paul Socolar beginning in March.
by the Notebook
January 29, 2016 — 8:29am
After a national
search, Philadelphia
native Maria Archangelo has been hired as publisher and executive director of
the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, the Notebook’s
board of directors announced today. Archangelo succeeds Paul Socolar, who
co-founded the Notebook nearly 22 years ago. The Notebook is an
independent, nonprofit news service that focuses on issues of public education
that are of vital importance to the city of Philadelphia . Established first as a
quarterly newspaper, the Notebook is now updated daily online
and a print edition is published six times per year, providing news and
commentary. It serves as an information source for educators, parents and
students, and a voice for those working for quality and equity in Philadelphia 's public
education system.
Lawmaker
seeks oversight for financially ailing Penn Hills School District
Trib Live BY KELSEY
SHEA AND KIMBERLY PALMIERO | Friday, Jan. 29, 2016, 2:03 p.m.
A state legislator
asked the Department of Education to place Penn Hills School District under
state oversight days after the district adopted a preliminary budget with a tax
increase of more than 50 percent. Rep.
Tony DeLuca, D-Penn Hills, wrote this week to Education Secretary Pedro Rivera,
Gov. Tom Wolf and Penn Hills school officials, asking Rivera to intervene on
behalf of taxpayers. The letter suggests Rivera consider putting the district
under state control as part of the Financial Recovery Status program of Act 141
of 2012. The state can place districts
on its financial watch list or declare districts to be in financial recovery
status. Schools placed on financial recovery status are offered technical
assistance. Of the 500 school districts in Pennsylvania, four were on the watch
list as of August and four in recovery status.
The Penn Hills board on Monday adopted a $94 million preliminary budget
with a proposed property tax increase from 24.8061 mills to 37.7655 mills, or
52 percent. School leaders have said the preliminary budget is a starting point
that does not include program cuts.
By Rudy Miller
| For lehighvalleylive.com Email the author | Follow on Twitter on
January 31, 2016 at 8:31 AM, updated January 31, 2016 at 12:51 PM
Easton
Area School District teacher contract negotiations will get a belated
start in a month.
The teachers will
sit down with a committee of school board members and administrators on Feb.
24, according to teachers union President Julia Miles. The current contract
expires Aug. 31. Both sides planned
to meet three
months ago. They hoped to get a head start on a new deal to avoid teacher
furloughs and asking teachers to reopen their contract to stave off staff
cuts. The Easton Area
School District
The Manheim Township School District Pennsylvania 's Right to Know Law, through a Right-to-Know request this
week. The agreement cites health and
medical challenges as the reason for Nodecker's departure, but his resignation
followed a six-month-long investigation of an undisclosed "personnel issue" in
the district, which cost taxpayers at least $71,000. The special counsel hired to conduct the
investigation said Thursday that it was among most costly one he has ever
performed for a school district. No wrongdoing was found.
Students, school officials
talk state's decision to re-examine Keystones
Republican Herald BY STEPHEN J. PYTAK Published: January 29, 2016
Since it was
introduced in 2013, the Keystone Exam — one of the state’s responses to the
federal No Child Left Behind initiative — cast a bit of a shadow over Morgan
Murphy’s future.
The Pottsville Area
junior was told the strenuous exercise in algebra, biology and literature would
be a graduation requirement starting with the Class of 2017, of which she is
part. “It worried me. It’s more of an
annoyance than anything else. You always have to worry about passing them. And
if you don’t, you have to take remediation classes. And I’m just not a good
test-taker in general,” Murphy, 16, said Wednesday. Last week, state legislators approved a bill
that will let Murphy and her class off the hook. The governor is expected to
sign Senate Bill 880, which will delay the use of these exams as graduation
requirements until the 2018-19 school year. Once the ink is dry, the state
Department of Education will review the Keystone Exam and everything that goes
into it.
Murphy and a few of
her classmates thought that was a good idea.
Sen. Hughes outraged at
crumbling city schools
Inquirer by Jack Tomczuk, Staff Writer. Updated: JANUARY 30, 2016 — 1:07
AM EST
State lawmakers want
to hold hearings on the physical condition of Pennsylvania's schools, State
Sen. Vincent J. Hughes announced Friday at Locke Elementary, which lost heat
last week, sending students home for the day.
The legislator also asked the state Education Department to audit the Philadelphia
School District. Hughes' announcement
was, in part, a response to a boiler explosion this month at Edmonds Elementary
School in East Mount Airy, which left a maintenance employee critically
injured. "That was a very serious
situation, and it could have been a whole lot worse," said Hughes, the
Democratic Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He said he'd like for
hearings to be held next week. Hughes
said the budget impasse in Harrisburg is hampering efforts to maintain
conditions in public schools across the state. The School District estimated
several years ago that it would cost $4 billion to repair all of the structural
problems at the city's more than 200 public schools.
Can Technology Help
Community Schools Go To Scale?
Education Week
Digital Education Blog By Benjamin Herold on January 30, 2016
8:53 AM
Like (almost)
everyone else in K-12 education, proponents of community schools want easier
access to more and better data. It's not
hard to understand why, given that the reform model is predicated on turning
schools into neighborhood hubs in which multiple partners deliver a wide range
of services and supports to students, families and community members. "We want to be able to paint a more
complete picture of students," said Reuben Jacobsen, the deputy director
of the Coalition for Community Schools, a national alliance of
organizations in the fields of education, youth and community development,
health, family support, and more. "Wouldn't
it be great if an afterschool coordinator knew something about students'
attendance, and teachers knew which of their students were getting tutoring or
mental health services?" Jacobsen said. But the technology
tools that would allow such information sharing to happen smoothly, securely,
and at scale are still in their infancy. The coalition counts more than 100
community-schools sites in roughly three-dozen states. Jacobsen said the more
established among those have started to develop web tools, data-sharing
infrastructures, and dashboards that allow for mapping community assets,
targeting specific services to the students and families who need them most,
reporting on program impact, and even doing some predictive analytics (around
identifying potential dropouts, for example.)
The Coalition for Community Schools Website
The Coalition for
Community Schools, housed at the Institute for Educational Leadership, is an
alliance of national, state and local organizations in education K-16, youth
development, community planning and development, family support, health and
human services, government and philanthropy as well as national, state and
local community school networks. Community schools are both a place and a set
of partnerships between the school and other community resources. There are a
number of national models and local community school initiatives that share a
common set of principles: fostering strong partnerships, sharing accountability
for results, setting high expectations, building on the community’s strengths,
and embracing diversity and innovative solutions. For more information on
community schools, contact us. Work of the Coalition for Community Schools
is made possible through the generous supported of The Atlantic Philanthropies,
the Annie E. Casey Foundation, JP Morgan Chase Foundation, The Charles Stewart
Mott Foundation, the Stuart Foundation, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation,
and the United Way of The National Capital Area.
The testing opt-out movement is growing, despite
government efforts to kill it
The
U.S. Education Department is warning states that they could be sanctioned if
their public schools can’t force at least 95 percent of their students to take
mandated standardized tests for “accountability” purposes. The warnings became
necessary because of a growing testing “opt out” movement around the country
that stemmed from the Obama administration’s push to use standardized test
scores to evaluate students and teachers in unprecedented ways, using methods
that assessment experts say are not valid for that purpose. The movement was strongest in New York , where some 20
percent of students last spring refused to take the state’s “accountability”
test, but it was just one of more than a dozen states that received letters
from the Education Department warning them of trouble over the 95 percent
threshold. All states received a letter in December from the department
reminding them of the 95 percent rule and warning that funds could be withheld
from states that don’t comply. The letter offered suggestions for how the
states could sanction local school districts for failure to succeed, including
withholding funds and/or lowering a local education agency or school’s rating
in the state’s accountability system.
Education officials
say that parents can’t pick and choose the exams that their children take and
that these tests are important for “accountability” purposes. Education
activists say parents have the right to allow their children to refuse to take
a test that they believe is poorly designed and whose scores are being misused.
And they say that threats from the government or schools won’t stop them. Here’s a post on the current state of the
movement by Carol Burris, a former New
York high school principal who is now executive
director of the nonprofit Network for Public Education Fund. A frequent
contributor to The Answer Sheet, she was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by
the School Administrators Association of New York State, and in 2013, the same
organization named her the New York State High School Principal of the Year.
“We’re not anti-charter
school at the Lawyers’ Committee,” said Matthew Cregor, education project
director of the lawyers’ committee for civil rights and economic justice. “But
we have to wonder what would happen to students of color, English language
learners, and students with disabilities who are not being served by schools if
the cap was lifted. We need to hear from students who attend traditional public
schools in this case.”
Citing harm that charter schools cause, NAACP and
Mass. Lawyers’ Committee will intervene in charter cap lawsuit
They say the schools
disadvantage students of color, English language learners and those with
disabilities.
By Allison Pohle @AllisonPohle Boston.com Staff | 01.28.16 | 3:21 PM
The New England Area
Conference of the NAACP and the Massachusetts Lawyers’ Committee, as well as
seven Boston Public School students, announced Thursday that they have moved to
intervene with a pending lawsuit that looks to lift the state cap on the number
of charter schools. A motion to
intervene is filed by a party other than the plaintiffs or defendants who has a
vested interest in the subject matter of the case. In this scenario, the groups
are getting involved because they say charter schools divert millions of
dollars from traditional public schools each year, but serve far fewer students
with disabilities and who are English language learners, as well as impose harsher discipline on students of color.
Obama’s
Budget Urges a Deeper Commitment to Computer Education
New York Times By MICHAEL D. SHEAR JAN. 30, 2016
TB Furman Blog Friday,
January 29, 2016 Video Runtime 3:12
This is how you talk
about the Gulen-linked charters at a school board meeting.
(The man speaking is Steve Zeltzer, who appears to be a well-known labor activist in California, addressing the elected board of the Fremont Unified School District in Fremont, California. They voted to reject a proposal by an aggressive Gulen-linked chain, Magnolia "Public" Schools.) I'm trying to think of a place where he got it wrong, but I can't. He's basically right. We are now at a point where the conflict between Erdogan and Gulen is playing out in the board meetings of American public school districts. It seems pretty likely to me that when Gulenists move on a community in the future, the Turkish government is going to send in lawyers. While I don't care for the Turkish government, and I don't wish it success in its clampdown on Turkish society general and the Gulen Movement in particular, I'm okay with the exposure here in the States. I frankly think we'd be lucky if this conflict plays out in boardrooms rather than on the street; Erdogan and Gulen are powerful men with many enemies. I think you can legitimately critique some of the details of Mr. Zeltzer's short speech; for example, I don't think Gulen is personally running the various charter school networks. It doesn't work that way. But he's definitely surrounded by the men who are, and he's absolutely the center of gravity for the universe in which these men operate, and their basic objective is to increase the power, wealth, and influence of the Movement.
(The man speaking is Steve Zeltzer, who appears to be a well-known labor activist in California, addressing the elected board of the Fremont Unified School District in Fremont, California. They voted to reject a proposal by an aggressive Gulen-linked chain, Magnolia "Public" Schools.) I'm trying to think of a place where he got it wrong, but I can't. He's basically right. We are now at a point where the conflict between Erdogan and Gulen is playing out in the board meetings of American public school districts. It seems pretty likely to me that when Gulenists move on a community in the future, the Turkish government is going to send in lawyers. While I don't care for the Turkish government, and I don't wish it success in its clampdown on Turkish society general and the Gulen Movement in particular, I'm okay with the exposure here in the States. I frankly think we'd be lucky if this conflict plays out in boardrooms rather than on the street; Erdogan and Gulen are powerful men with many enemies. I think you can legitimately critique some of the details of Mr. Zeltzer's short speech; for example, I don't think Gulen is personally running the various charter school networks. It doesn't work that way. But he's definitely surrounded by the men who are, and he's absolutely the center of gravity for the universe in which these men operate, and their basic objective is to increase the power, wealth, and influence of the Movement.
"Gulen's followers run a
loosely affiliated global network of charitable foundations, professional
associations, businesses and other projects, including about 150
taxpayer-funded charter schools throughout the U.S.
In Poconos, mysterious Turkish cleric shrouded in
mystery
AP State Wire By
MICHAEL RUBINKAM and JULIE CARR SMYTH January 31, 2016
SAYLORSBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) - The influential Muslim cleric lives quietly on a gated 26-acre compound in the Pocono Mountains, where he prays, works, meets admirers and watches from afar as terrorism accusations that have landed him on Turkey's most-wanted list unfold in court. Rarely seen in public, Fethullah Gulen has long been one ofTurkey 's most
important scholars, with multitudes of followers in his native country and
around the world. More recently, Turkey 's
increasingly autocratic president, Recip Erdogan, has accused Gulen of plotting
to overthrow the officially secular government from his Pennsylvania idyll some 5,000 miles away.
SAYLORSBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) - The influential Muslim cleric lives quietly on a gated 26-acre compound in the Pocono Mountains, where he prays, works, meets admirers and watches from afar as terrorism accusations that have landed him on Turkey's most-wanted list unfold in court. Rarely seen in public, Fethullah Gulen has long been one of
Gulen's supporters
call the charge baseless and, so far, the U.S.
has shown little inclination to send him back to Turkey to face a trial that began
without him Jan. 6 and is expected to last several months.
‘What passes for acceptable school choice rhetoric is
frightening’
This
past week was School Choice Week with no less than 16,140 events held across
all 50 states, according to the
School Choice Week websites. They took place in 13,224 schools,
with 1,012 chambers of commerce and 808 homeschooling groups staging events
too. Twenty seven governors and more than 200 mayors/county leaders issuing
proclamations to recognize School Choice Week, and, to top it off, there were
rallies and special events at 20 state house buildings. What is the purpose
of the week? According to the website, to shine “a positive spotlight on
effective education options for every child.” (Of course School Choice
Week wouldn’t want to shine a spotlight on the many problems with school
choice, including poorly operated charter schools and voucher programs that
allow kids to go to sub-par schools.) School
choice proponents say that charter schools (including ones run by for-profit
companies) offer parents important options for their children’s education and
that traditional public schools have failed in many places. School choice
opponents say that school choice is aimed at privatizing the public education
system and that many of the choices being offered are not well-regulated,
sometimes discriminatory and siphon funding away from local school districts.
"Southeastern Region Forum Series"Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Networking and Coffee - 9:30 a.m. Program - 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Networking and Coffee - 9:30 a.m. Program - 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
SUBJECT: Governor
Wolf's Proposed Education Budget for 2016-2017
SPEAKERS:
An Overview of
the Proposed 2016-2017 State Budget and Education Issues Will Be
Provided By:
Representative of
The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
Ron Cowell, President, The Education Policy andLeadership Center
Ron Cowell, President, The Education Policy and
Statewide and
Regional Perspectives Will Be Provided By:
Donna Cooper,
Executive Director, Public Citizens for Children and Youth
Deborah Gordon Klehr, Executive Director, Education Law Center
Dr. George Steinhoff, Superintendent, Penn Delco School District
Deborah Gordon Klehr, Executive Director, Education Law Center
Dr. George Steinhoff, Superintendent, Penn Delco School District
One or more
representatives of other statewide and regional organizations are still to
be confirmed.
RSVP
for Southeastern Forum on-line at
EPLC PENNSYLVANIA
EDUCATION POLICY FORUM
"Capital Region Forum Series" Thursday, February 11, 2016
Continental
Breakfast - 8:00 a.m. Program - 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Harrisburg
Hilton Hotel - Two North Second Street Harrisburg, PA 17101
SUBJECT: Governor
Wolf's Proposed Education Budget for 2016-2017
SPEAKERS:
An Overview of
the Proposed 2016-2017 State Budget and Education Issues Will Be
Provided By:
Representative of
The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center
Ron Cowell,
President, The Education Policy and Leadership
Center
Statewide and
Regional Perspectives Will Be Provided By:
Dr. Brian Barnhart,
Executive Director, Lancaster-Lebanon IU #13
Thomas Gluck,
Executive Director, Pennsylvania Association of Intermediate Units
Representatives of other statewide and regional organizations are still to be confirmed.
Representatives of other statewide and regional organizations are still to be confirmed.
While there is
no registration fee, seating is limited and an RSVP is required.
RSVP for
Harrisburg Forum on-line at
PSBA New School Director Training Remaining
Locations:
- Delaware Co. IU 25 — Feb. 1
- Scranton area — Feb. 6 Abington Heights SD, Clarks Summit
- North Central area —Feb. 13 Mansfield University, Mansfield
PSBA New School Director
Training
School boards who will welcome new directors after the election should
plan to attend PSBA training to help everyone feel more confident right from
the start. This one-day event is targeted to help members learn the basics of
their new roles and responsibilities. Meet the friendly, knowledgeable PSBA
team and bring everyone on your “team of 10” to get on the same page fast.
- $150 per
registrant (No charge if your district has a LEARN Pass. Note: All-Access
members also have LEARN Pass.)
- One-hour lunch
on your own — bring your lunch, go to lunch, or we’ll bring a box lunch to
you; coffee/tea provided all day
- Course
materials available online or we’ll bring a printed copy to you for an
additional $25
- Registrants
receive one month of 100-level online courses for each registrant, after the
live class
Register here: https://www.psba.org/2015/09/new-school-director-training/
Save
the Dates for These 2016 Annual EPLC Regional State Budget Education
Policy Forums
Sponsored
by The Education Policy and Leadership
Center
Thursday, February
11 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. - Harrisburg
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania )
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -Pittsburgh
Wednesday, February 17 - 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. -
Thursday, February 25 - 8:30-11:00 a.m. -
Invitation
and more details in January
Attend the
United Opt Out Conference in Philadelphia February 26-28
United
Opt Out: The Movement to End Corporate Reform will hold its annual conference
on Philadelphia from February 26-28.
Save the Date | PBPC Budget Summit March
3rd
Pennsylvania
Budget and Policy Center
The
2015-2016 budget remains in a state of limbo. But it's time to start thinking
about the 2016-17 budget. The Governor will propose his budget for next year in
early February.
The
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will hold our annual Budget Summit on
March 3rd. Save the date and join us for an in-depth look at
the Governor's 2016-17 budget proposal, including what it means for education,
health and human services, the environment and local communities. And, of
course, if the 2015-2016 budget is not complete by then, we will also be
talking about the various alternatives still under consideration.
As in
year's past, this year's summit will be at the Hilton Harrisburg. Register today!
PASBO 61st Annual
Conference and Exhibits March 8 - 11, 2016
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania
PenSPRA's Annual Symposium, Friday
April 8th in Shippensburg, PA
PenSPRA,
or the Pennsylvania School Public Relations Association, has developed a
powerhouse line-up of speakers and topics for a captivating day of professional
development in Shippensburg on April 8th. Learn to master data to
defeat your critics, use stories to clarify your district's brand and take
your social media efforts to the next level with a better understanding of
metrics and the newest trends. Join us the evening before the
Symposium for a “Conversation with Colleagues” from 5 – 6
pm followed by a Networking Social Cocktail Hour from 6 – 8 pm.
Both the Symposium Friday and the social events on Thursday evening
will be held at the Shippensburg University Conference Center. Snacks at the
social hour, and Friday’s breakfast and lunch is included in your
registration cost. $125 for PenSPRA members and $150 for non-members. Learn
more about our speakers and topics and register today at this link:
The Network for Public Education 3rd
Annual National Conference April 16-17, 2016 Raleigh , North Carolina
The
Network for Public Education is thrilled to announce the location for our 3rd
Annual National Conference. On April 16 and 17, 2016 public education advocates
from across the country will gather in Raleigh, North Carolina. We chose Raleigh to highlight the tremendous
activist movement that is flourishing in North Carolina. No one exemplifies
that movement better than the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who will be the
conference keynote speaker. Rev. Barber is the current president of
the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, the National NAACP chair of
the Legislative Political Action Committee, and the founder of Moral Mondays.
2016 PA Educational
Leadership Summit July 24-26 State College
Summit Sponsors:
PA Principals Association - PA Association of School Administrators
- PA Association of Middle Level Educators - PA Association of
Supervision and Curriculum Development
The 2016
Educational Leadership Summit, co-sponsored by four leading Pennsylvania education associations,
provides an excellent opportunity for school district administrative teams and
instructional leaders to learn, share and plan together at a quality venue in
"Happy Valley."
Featuring Grant
Lichtman, author of EdJourney: A Roadmap to the Future of Education,
Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera (invited), and Dana
Lightman, author of POWER Optimism: Enjoy the Life You Have...
Create the Success You Want, keynote speakers, high quality breakout
sessions, table talks on hot topics and district team planning and job alike
sessions provides practical ideas that can be immediately reviewed and
discussed at the summit before returning back to your district. Register and pay by April 30, 2016 for the
discounted "early bird" registration rate:
Interested in letting our
elected leadership know your thoughts on education funding, a severance tax,
property taxes and the budget?
Governor Tom Wolf,
(717) 787-2500
Speaker of the
House Rep. Mike Turzai, (717) 772-9943
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
House Majority Leader Rep. Dave Reed, (717) 705-7173
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Joe Scarnati, (717) 787-7084
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Jake Corman, (717) 787-1377
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