tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53304641383811836702024-03-14T04:57:54.743-04:00Ed's BlogPARSSMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07637947714930066870noreply@blogger.comBlogger148125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-10616289603292729162017-01-03T13:30:00.001-05:002017-01-03T13:30:31.221-05:00Annual conferenceInformation regarding our annual conference is now available on our website.Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-34027878253496056132016-09-13T22:12:00.001-04:002016-09-13T22:12:34.413-04:00Lawsuit<blockquote type="cite"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dear Colleagues,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This morning the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard the oral argument regarding the fair education-funding lawsuit.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The courtroom, hallways and an additional overflow courtroom were filled with individuals who believed in our cause. I was extremely proud to be there to represent our organization. Some individuals drove from Erie to show their support.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The question before the court was simple in nature: do Pennsylvania schools and families get their day in court to prove that education funding in PA is inequitable and inadequate? This question was posed to the seven Supreme Court justices who were engaged in the argument. The presentation of the argument was organized, concise and very informative and was supported with valid facts.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Folks, today was a good step forward to helping ALL kids in Pennsylvania. As a result of PARRS supporting this, you can feel very confident we are doing the RIGHT thing. By doing the right thing we are not going to be welcomed by the general assembly with open arms. But as I said, this cause is for KIDS.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I assume we will get some decision perhaps in February and or March. If the result is positive then we are off to court to make our case. The timing of the courts decision could come at the same time of the release of the budget…perhaps a perfect storm in the making.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I will keep you posted and feel free to contact me if you have any questions.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ed Albert</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: start; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Assistant Executive Director</span></p></blockquote>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-46558261020616411662016-05-24T08:57:00.001-04:002016-09-09T18:00:39.213-04:00You can bet on this????<div aria-label="Compose body"><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pension reform and Internet gambling rolled into budget talks</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Morning Call by <a class="Object" href="http://www.mcall.com/about/mc-bio-steve-esack-staff.html#nt=byline" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.mcall.com/about/mc-bio-steve-esack-staff.html#nt=byline" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Steve Esack</a> Contact Reporter Call Harrisburg Bureau May 23, 2016</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pension reform and Internet gambling rolled into PA budget and tax talks</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">HARRISBURG — With Memorial Day just days away, half of the state Legislature is expected to act this week on a series of bills that could become bargaining chips in final budget talks that will heat up next month. The House's voting calendar, always subject to change, says lawmakers are scheduled to take up a bill changing the state pension system for new hires. Another bill on the docket would legalize fantasy sports and online gambling while putting slot machines in airports.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The governor will consider the pension and gambling bills as part of broader budget talks, specifically pertaining to new sources of revenue, said <a class="Object" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/tom-wolf-PEPLT0009139-topic.html" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/tom-wolf-PEPLT0009139-topic.html" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Wolf</a>'s spokesman, Jeff Sheridan. The <a class="Object" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Republicans</a> who control the House and <a class="Object" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/u.s.-senate-ORGOV0000134-topic.html" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/u.s.-senate-ORGOV0000134-topic.html" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Senate</a> want Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf to enact the pension changes to limit taxpayer risk over time by reducing the percentage of the guaranteed retirement payments workers get. Under the bill, state employees and school teachers would have their retirement savings invested in a guaranteed pension plan if they earn below $50,000. Retirement savings for income above $50,000 would be put in a 401(k)-style plan.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-gaming-pension-budget-taxes-20160523-story.html" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-gaming-pension-budget-taxes-20160523-story.html" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-gaming-pension-budget-taxes-20160523-story.html</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Badams: 'You deserve to know'</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By MADELEINE O'NEILL madeleine.o'neill@timesnews.com24 May 2016 — Erie Times-News</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Erie schools Superintendent Jay Badams on Monday spoke to those who will be most affected by potential cuts to the district's budget: the students. Badams traveled to the Erie School District's four high schools to explain why he has asked the Erie School Board to consider major budget cuts to make up for an expected $4.3 million shortfall in 2016-17. He has also proposed closing the district's high schools and busing those students to other area schools as soon as 2017-18 to make up for the educational inequities a slashed budget would create. "It's kind of scary to hear about," said Alina Bovkun, a senior at Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy, who said that rumors have been flying in the days since news broke of Badams' proposals. "We've just been hearing they're going to be closing down the schools." Badams spoke to a full house in Collegiate Academy's auditorium, his first stop on a one-day tour that also included Central Career and Technical School, East High School and Strong Vincent High School. </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://new.mynewsonthego.com/erie/reader/story.aspx?id=58a6ba18-0ed3-4605-b342-b7939928de4d" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://new.mynewsonthego.com/erie/reader/story.aspx?id=58a6ba18-0ed3-4605-b342-b7939928de4d" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://new.mynewsonthego.com/erie/reader/story.aspx?id=58a6ba18-0ed3-4605-b342-b7939928de4d</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">W-B Area approves plan to cut programs, jobs</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Citizens Voice BY MICHAEL BUFFER Published: May 24, 2016</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">WILKES-BARRE — The Wilkes-Barre Area School Board voted <a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://8" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="8">8-1 Monday night</a> to proceed with a plan to cut programs and lay off dozens of teachers. Ned Evans was the sole dissenting vote. More than 200 people packed the meeting to witness the fate of a plan to suspend library services and education courses in technology, family/consumer science and art. Monday’s regular board meeting at GAR Junior Senior High School began <a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://10" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="10">at 7 p.m.</a> The public comment portion of the meeting included more than 40 speakers and continued late into the night. The school board was considering a “horrible idea” to lay off 37 teachers and not replace 12 retiring teachers, said Jeff Ney, president of the Wilkes-Barre Area teachers’ union. “It’s not about myself,” said Deborah Pride, a family/consumer sciences teacher at Meyers Junior Senior High School. “I implore you to reconsider. It’s about the kids.” The layoffs and the cuts to programs and services would take effect after the current school year.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://m.citizensvoice.com/news/w-b-area-approves-plan-to-cut-programs-jobs-1.2045917#.V0Q2GO7vlS4.twitter" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://m.citizensvoice.com/news/w-b-area-approves-plan-to-cut-programs-jobs-1.2045917#.V0Q2GO7vlS4.twitter" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://m.citizensvoice.com/news/w-b-area-approves-plan-to-cut-programs-jobs-1.2045917#.V0Q2GO7vlS4.twitter</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Letter to the Editor: Inadequate school funding jeopardizes Wilkes-Barre schools and state’s future</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Letter by Russell A. Carpenella MAY 23RD, 2016 11:22 AM</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Wilkes-Barre Area School District is expected to cut its budget by $11 million over four years. At least two high schools will be combined, class sizes will be larger, and there will be fewer teachers. The population of Wilkes-Barre isn’t going down significantly. Most kids in Wilkes-Barre schools don’t have the economic choice of moving. These facts make me fear for the future of this city – and the state as a whole. It’s well-known that poor education is a precursor to poverty, and poverty is a precursor to crime. Unless Republican leadership in the state Legislature steps up and starts funding our schools, many cities such as Wilkes-Barre across the Keystone State will suffer. We can raise property taxes only so high. We need a state budget that funds our schools.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://timesleader.com/opinion/letters/545679/letter-to-the-editor-inadequate-school-funding-jeopardizes-wilkes-barre-schools-and-states-future" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://timesleader.com/opinion/letters/545679/letter-to-the-editor-inadequate-school-funding-jeopardizes-wilkes-barre-schools-and-states-future" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://timesleader.com/opinion/letters/545679/letter-to-the-editor-inadequate-school-funding-jeopardizes-wilkes-barre-schools-and-states-future</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0in; margin: 0px;" style="text-indent: 0in; margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Leechburg Area School District projects real estate tax increase but tries to pare budget</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Trib Live BY MARY ANN THOMAS | Monday, May 23, 2016, 11:40 p.m.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Leechburg Area School District residents' real estate taxes could increase by about 4 percent in Armstrong County and 6 percent in Westmoreland County for next school year.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The school board gave preliminary approval to a $13.9 million budget that is about $700,000 more than this year's. Leechburg and Gilpin residents can expect an average annual increase in property taxes of $76, while in West Leechburg, the district's lone Westmoreland County community, residents will pay about $132 more. The preliminary budget is a “work in progress,” said school board member Anthony Shea and Bill McNamee, the district's interim business manager. The state Department of Education approved the district's request to raise taxes beyond the state-set limit of 3.5 percent because the money is needed for increased pension and special education costs. Shea said the preliminary budget is a “placeholder.” “No one wants to raise taxes,” he said. “We will try to get the budget closer to a zero tax increase. That may not happen, but that is our goal.” The uptick in the 2016-17 budget mainly is because of increases in contracted salaries and contributions to the Public School Employees' Retirement System, McNamee said.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://triblive.com/news/valleynewsdispatch/10499499-74/tax-budget-leechburg" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://triblive.com/news/valleynewsdispatch/10499499-74/tax-budget-leechburg" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://triblive.com/news/valleynewsdispatch/10499499-74/tax-budget-leechburg</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No hike planned for Apollo-Ridge taxpayers</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Trib Live BY GEORGE GUIDO | Monday, May 23, 2016, 11:40 p.m.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Real estate taxes will remain the same in the Apollo-Ridge School District next year.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The school board on Monday approved a $24.1 million preliminary budget for the 2016-17 school year that keeps the tax rate at 62.9 mills for residents of Apollo, North Apollo and Kiski Township. Real estate taxes in the Indiana County portion of the school district will remain at 14.9 mills.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Through an equalization process mandated by the state, residents in different counties pay about the same in real estate taxes even though the counties have different assessments.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://triblive.com/news/valleynewsdispatch/10517746-74/budget-apollo-board" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://triblive.com/news/valleynewsdispatch/10517746-74/budget-apollo-board" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://triblive.com/news/valleynewsdispatch/10517746-74/budget-apollo-board</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Millcreek district passes budget</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By ERICA ERWIN erica.erwin@timesnews.com24 May 2016 — Erie Times-News</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Millcreek Township residents will pay more in property taxes to their school district as part of a budget that also eliminates some programs but largely retains staff. The Millcreek School Board on Monday passed a $95 million final budget for 2016-17 that includes a nearly 0.20 mill tax increase, bringing the millage rate to 13.7788. The increase translates into a roughly $20 increase in annual property taxes for the owner of a $100,000 home or, put another way, an additional $2 in taxes for every $10,000 of a home's assessed value. Board members Lou Aliota and Mike Kobylka were the only "no" votes. "I cannot vote for a tax increase," Aliota said.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Millcreek schools Superintendent William Hall called the increase a good compromise. It is below the 0.39 mill increase, or index, permitted under Act 1, the state's property tax relief law.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://new.mynewsonthego.com/erie/reader/story.aspx?id=b78b5284-7577-4aaa-b951-5e69fed5aef5" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://new.mynewsonthego.com/erie/reader/story.aspx?id=b78b5284-7577-4aaa-b951-5e69fed5aef5" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://new.mynewsonthego.com/erie/reader/story.aspx?id=b78b5284-7577-4aaa-b951-5e69fed5aef5</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Penn Hills School Board Trying To Move Forward After District Audit</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">KDKA May 24, 2016 12:17 AM By Ralph Iannotti</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">PENN HILLS (KDKA) — The Penn Hills School Board met <a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://34" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="34">Monday night</a> in the first meeting since last week’s bombshell audit report from the state auditor general, which strongly criticized <a class="Object" href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/tag/penn-hills-school-district/" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/tag/penn-hills-school-district/" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">the district’s financial mismanagement</a>. Virginia Dougherty, of Penn Hills, said, “We feel we are caged animals, and in frustration, we turn on one another.” Former School Director Carolyn Faggioli admitted when she was on the board, members knew they were faced with a worsening financial situation. Faggioli said part of the problem, she believed, was due to outside influence.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“We need to get our heads out of the sand,” Faggioli said. “We need to take politics out of the school board; we will be much better off.”</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/05/24/penn-hills-school-board-trying-to-move-forward-after-district-audit/#.V0QtKbtKZ2x.twitter" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/05/24/penn-hills-school-board-trying-to-move-forward-after-district-audit/#.V0QtKbtKZ2x.twitter" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/05/24/penn-hills-school-board-trying-to-move-forward-after-district-audit/#.V0QtKbtKZ2x.twitter</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Demand for Pre-K is high, but availability varies across neighborhoods</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The notebook by Fabiola Cineas May 23, 2016 — 4:38pm</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The School District is making its spring push to enroll as many of the city’s 3- and 4-year-olds as possible in pre-kindergarten for the fall. Although the District wants more families to sign up, this year the challenge is less about pre-K awareness among families and more about access.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That’s because in certain neighborhoods, there just aren’t enough pre-K seats to match demand.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In Kensington and the Lower Northeast, for example, enrollment has already outpaced the available seats. And when this happens, the enrollment process becomes a game and Philadelphia is “like a big chess board,” said Diane Castelbuono, deputy chief of the Office of Early Education, who leads the enrollment effort.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://thenotebook.org/articles/2016/05/23/demand-for-pre-k-is-high-but-availability-varies-across-neighborhoods" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://thenotebook.org/articles/2016/05/23/demand-for-pre-k-is-high-but-availability-varies-across-neighborhoods" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://thenotebook.org/articles/2016/05/23/demand-for-pre-k-is-high-but-availability-varies-across-neighborhoods</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">School District may miss out on ride-sharing revenue</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Inquirer by Jason Laughlin, Staff Writer <a class="Object" href="http://twitter.com/@jasmlaughlin" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://twitter.com/@jasmlaughlin" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;"> @jasmlaughlin</a> Updated: MAY 24, 2016 — 1:07 AM EDT</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">An agreement between Philadelphia, the Parking Authority, and ride-share businesses virtually guarantees that the School District will not see a financial benefit if a bill to regulate such services as UberX and Lyft is passed as written. Under the tax structure proposed by the bill, ride-share businesses would likely have to generate much more money than anticipated to create enough taxable income for the schools to benefit. The structure is primarily designed to ensure that the Parking Authority will recover the cost - as much as $4 million - expected to be spent on regulating an estimated 15,000 vehicles used in ride sharing, a PPA spokesman said. The point of the bill was to ensure that ride sharing had a legal framework in the city, said Brian Abernathy, a deputy managing director and a mediator in negotiations. Money to the district would have been a nice side benefit, but wasn't the goal. "The city would love to see the School District get additional revenue, but this isn't a School District revenue bill," he said.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160524_School_district_may_miss_out_on_ride-sharing_revenue.html#GuiJ4ZrJQmLmFZGt.99" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160524_School_district_may_miss_out_on_ride-sharing_revenue.html#GuiJ4ZrJQmLmFZGt.99" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160524_School_district_may_miss_out_on_ride-sharing_revenue.html#GuiJ4ZrJQmLmFZGt.99</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Tax” on Uber and Lyft Would Actually Be a $4 Million Windfall to the PPA</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And guarantee nothing for Philadelphia schools. At least that’s how the bill is written right now.</i></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">PhillyMag BY <a class="Object" href="http://www.phillymag.com/author/jbrey/" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.phillymag.com/author/jbrey/" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">JARED BREY</a> | MAY 23, 2016 AT 7:30 AM</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">First it looked like it was for the kids, and now it looks like it’s for the Parking Authority.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A bill in the state Senate that would allow alternative taxi services like Uber and Lyft to operate legally was initially written so that the tax revenue the services generated in Philly would be split between the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the Philadelphia School District, with two thirds of the money going to education. But the bill, which was <a class="Object" href="http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2016/05/04/harrisburg-bill-uber-rideshare-committee-phily-tax.html" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2016/05/04/harrisburg-bill-uber-rideshare-committee-phily-tax.html" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">approved by the state House Committee on Consumer Affairs</a> earlier this month, has undergone an obscure but meaningful change. In the current version, PPA is guaranteed $4 million in revenue from Uber and Lyft before the schools can collect a dime. The <a class="Object" href="http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2015&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0984&pn=1440" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2015&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0984&pn=1440" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">first version of the bill</a> levied a 1 percent tax on the total revenue from all fares in Philadelphia. Two thirds of that was to be given to the School District, with one third given to the Philadelphia Parking Authority, which would be charged with regulating the services in the city. But the <a class="Object" href="http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2015&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0984&pn=1753" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2015&sessInd=0&billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=0984&pn=1753" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">latest version of the bill</a> approved by the House committee lays out a different scheme.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Read more at <a class="Object" href="http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2016/05/23/uber-lyft-tax-philadelphia-school-district/#F6JBzWygJpLA7KTX.99" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2016/05/23/uber-lyft-tax-philadelphia-school-district/#F6JBzWygJpLA7KTX.99" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">http://www.phillymag.com/citified/2016/05/23/uber-lyft-tax-philadelphia-school-district/#F6JBzWygJpLA7KTX.99</a></span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">DN Editorial: Charter Schools Office rightly exercising its power</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Philly Daily News Updated: MAY 23, 2016 — 3:01 AM EDT</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">IMAGINE A FEW students whose year-end report cards show so many failing grades that the teacher recommends that they not graduate. Now suppose the principal intervened and said, "Not so fast, let's give them another chance." This would not be good for the students, or for teachers, or for the school system, and it would be bad for education overall. In a way, that's what happened last week during the process of renewing a handful of charter schools, during a meeting of the School Reform Commission. The district's Charter Schools Office recommended nonrenewals for four schools; Vare and Audenreid, run by Kenny Gamble's Universal Companies, and Stetson and Olney High School, run by Aspira. The SRC essentially passed on voting to support these nonrenewals, and gave Aspira a week to prove it can fix the many financial and governance problems that were brought to light in the charter office's renewal reports, which evaluates schools on academic success, organizational viability, and financial health and sustainability.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20160523_Exercising_its_power.html#DKgJIFWM8Ys0lhgS.99" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20160523_Exercising_its_power.html#DKgJIFWM8Ys0lhgS.99" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20160523_Exercising_its_power.html#DKgJIFWM8Ys0lhgS.99</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What Are Massachusetts Public Schools Doing Right?</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Widely seen as the best public-school system in the U.S., the Massachusetts school system’s success can offer lessons to other states.</i></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Atlantic by <a class="Object" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/author/alia-wong/" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.theatlantic.com/author/alia-wong/" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">ALIA WONG</a> MAY 23, 2016</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When it comes to the story of Massachusetts’s public schools, the takeaway, according to the state’s former education secretary, Paul Reville, is that “doing well isn’t good enough.” Massachusetts is widely seen as having the best school system in the country: Just 2 percent of its high-schoolers drop out, for example, and its students’ math and reading scores rank No. 1 nationally. It even performs toward the top on international education indices. But as Reville and others intimately familiar with the Bay State’s school-improvement efforts emphasized in a panel at the Education Writers Association National Seminar earlier this month, the “Massachusetts story” is complicated. The Bay State’s famous successes are juxtaposed with stubborn achievement gaps and concentrations of poverty that have made across-the-board strides all but impossible. Income-based disparities in academic performance have actually grown over the last decade or so, and last year the state’s achievement gap was the third highest in the nation.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/05/what-are-massachusetts-public-schools-doing-right/483935/" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/05/what-are-massachusetts-public-schools-doing-right/483935/" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/05/what-are-massachusetts-public-schools-doing-right/483935/</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Opt Out 2.0: Snapshot of Spring Testing Season</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Education Writers Association BLOG: THE EDUCATED REPORTER MAY 20, 2016 by <a class="Object" href="http://www.ewa.org/profile/erik-robelen" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.ewa.org/profile/erik-robelen" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">ERIK ROBELEN</a></span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With state testing season wrapping up, the decision by some families to skip the K-12 exams in protest this spring has once again sparked widespread discussion – and news coverage around the country. In San Diego, for example, teachers handed out fliers to parents earlier this month informing them of the right to keep their children from taking state tests, the <a class="Object" href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/may/04/standardized-testing-cindy-marten-san-diego/" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/may/04/standardized-testing-cindy-marten-san-diego/" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">San Diego Union-Tribune</a> reported. A local teachers’ union official cited worries about the amount of testing, as well as its relevance and accuracy for gauging student learning. In Tennessee, where the opt-out movement <a class="Object" href="http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2016/03/16/opt-out-movement-gains-foothold-in-tennessee-as-more-parents-and-students-refuse-state-assessment/#.VzoLUZErKM8" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2016/03/16/opt-out-movement-gains-foothold-in-tennessee-as-more-parents-and-students-refuse-state-assessment/#.VzoLUZErKM8" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">appeared to be gaining steam</a> this spring, as reported by Chalkbeat Tennessee and other outlets, it became a moot point after the bulk of state testing for grades 3-8 was canceled altogether in April. That decision followed a series of problems with the administration of the assessments for English language arts and math. The actions come as concerns have risen about the volume of standardized testing at the K-12 level, its perceived impact on instruction, and its use in evaluating schools, students and teachers.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://www.ewa.org/blog-educated-reporter/opt-out-20-snapshot-spring-testing-season" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.ewa.org/blog-educated-reporter/opt-out-20-snapshot-spring-testing-season" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.ewa.org/blog-educated-reporter/opt-out-20-snapshot-spring-testing-season</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; text-indent: 0in; margin: 0px;" style="text-indent: 0in; margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Supreme Court rules Virginia lawmakers didn't have the right to appeal redistricting</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Vox Updated by <a class="Object" href="http://www.vox.com/authors/libby-nelson" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.vox.com/authors/libby-nelson" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Libby Nelson</a> on May 23, 2016, 10:23 a.m. ET <a class="Object" href="http://twitter.com/libbyanelson" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://twitter.com/libbyanelson" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">@libbyanelson</a></span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The <a class="Object" href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/19/11713770/supreme-court-cases-decisions-rulings-2016" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/19/11713770/supreme-court-cases-decisions-rulings-2016" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Supreme Court</a> ruled unanimously on Monday that a group of Virginia Republican lawmakers appealing over a court-ordered redistricting plan didn't have the legal standing to bring their case. This ends a long argument over redrawing Virginia's third congressional district without implying that incumbent lawmakers have the right to a fair shot at reelection. The case, <a class="Object" href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-1504_6khn.pdf" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/14-1504_6khn.pdf" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;"><i>Wittman v. Personhuballah</i></a>, dealt with the argument around Virginia's 3rd congressional district, redrawn as part of the state's redistricting in 2012. The new boundaries drawn by the state legislature slightly increased the share of black voters in the district, which is heavily Democratic, from 53 percent to 56 percent. A federal trial court ruled that this was racial gerrymandering — that the Republican-dominated state legislature was drawing boundaries based on voters' races, which isn't allowed, rather than for other, permitted purposes, such as protecting incumbents. And after the Virginia legislature couldn't agree on how to redraw the district, the court did it for them.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11644160/wittman-personhuballah-redistricting-supreme-court" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11644160/wittman-personhuballah-redistricting-supreme-court" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11644160/wittman-personhuballah-redistricting-supreme-court</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><b><span data-mce-style="font-size: 12pt;" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Why a social media fight between Campbell Brown and her critics matters</span></b></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Washington Post Answer Sheet By <a class="Object" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/valerie-strauss" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/valerie-strauss" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Valerie Strauss</a> May 23 at 12:01 PM</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Another day, another fight in the education world. This one is worth delving into because it is really not about who said what but about fundamental understandings — and misunderstandings — of standardized testing data and how it drives policy. This one started when education activist Campbell Brown said that two-thirds of U.S. eighth graders are below grade level in reading and math. Tom Loveless, a former Harvard professor and teacher who researches student achievement, then tweeted that he has never seen data showing that, and asked Brown to explain her sourcing. She said that she was referring to proficiency rates on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. NAEP, as the test is known, is sometimes referred to as “the nation’s report card” because it is seen as the most consistent measure of U.S. student achievement since the 1990s. It is administered every two years to groups of U.S. students in the fourth and eighth grades, and less frequently to high school students. When Loveless told her that NAEP proficiency scores do not refer to grade level, a social media fight ensued between Campbell and her critics. In this post, Carol Burris, a former award-winning high school principal who got involved in the Twitter exchange, explains why the substance of this debate matters.</span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><a class="Object" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/23/why-a-social-media-fight-between-campbell-brown-and-her-critics-matters/" target="_blank" aria-haspopup="true" data-mce-href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/23/why-a-social-media-fight-between-campbell-brown-and-her-critics-matters/" data-mce-style="color: #336699; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/05/23/why-a-social-media-fight-between-campbell-brown-and-her-critics-matters/</font></a></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p data-mce-style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px;" style="margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span name="x"></span>Dr. Richard D. Nilsen<br>PASCD Executive Director<br><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://61/1" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="address" x-apple-data-detectors-result="61/1">101 Foxfire Lane</a><br><a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://61/1" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="address" x-apple-data-detectors-result="61/1">Lewisberry Pa. 17339</a><br><a dir="ltr" href="tel:717-766-0898" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors-result="21/0">717-766-0898</a><br><a dir="ltr" href="mailto:rnilsen_pascd@comcast.net" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="61/3">rnilsen_pascd@comcast.net</a></span></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-75551354571860520482016-05-18T10:25:00.001-04:002016-05-18T10:25:13.411-04:00Furlough bill update<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br><br>Capitolwire: Republicans appear to link teacher furlough bill to increased education spending.<br><br>The article text follows:<br><br>Capitolwire: Republicans appear to link teacher furlough bill to increased education spending.<br><br>By /cwMailForm.asp?<a dir="ltr" href="mailto:recipient=csmith@capitolwire.com" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1">recipient=csmith@capitolwire.com</a> Christen Smith <br>Staff Reporter<br>Capitolwire<br><br><br>HARRISBURG (May 17) - No budget season at the state Capitol would be complete without some horse trading behind the scenes - a tradition that's appeared to be absent from this year's negotiations, in their infancy, thus far. <br><br><br>That was, until, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, offered a thinly-veiled threat Tuesday should Gov. Tom Wolf veto House Bill 805, as he's promised. <br><br><br>"I don't advocate for the status-quo, but I can tell you this: If he does veto the bill - and we're going to have a budget done very soon I hope - and the governor is going to want more dollars for education, well guess what we're going to want, we're going to want this piece of legislation to go along with any new dollars in education," Corman told reporters during a press conference with Republican caucus leaders on the fate of the controversial teacher furlough bill.<br><br><br>Republican leaders have been pressuring Wolf to change his mind about HB 805 cwArticle.asp?articleId=<a dir="ltr" href="tel:2400518" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors-result="1">2400518</a> since it passed the Senate last week. <br><br><br>The bill, which would base teacher furloughs more on performance, not just seniority, has been characterized by the administration as a misguided attempt to meddle in local-level school board decisions and encourage "mass layoffs."<br><br><br>"This is not the type of policy we should be discussing," said Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan via email Tuesday. "We should all be focused on ensuring schools are appropriately funded and students are learning the skills they need to be successful in the 21st century."<br><br><br>The administration's tunnel vision, Republican leaders say, stands in the way of improving school performance. <br><br><br>"At the end of the day, the discussion on education does not begin and end just with more money," said House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana. "It's part of the discussion, but the discussion cannot just be about the quantity of the dollars provided. We've also got to focus on the quality of the product produced with those dollars and this bill moves us forward in that direction."<br><br><br>Steve Miskin, Reed's spokesman, said it's the same position leadership has held since the bill was introduced last year - increased spending without accountability won't produce the results Wolf and his allies seek.<br><br><br>Jenn Kocher, Corman's spokeswoman, agreed, saying "this is nothing different than what we have been saying for a long time."<br><br><br>But <a dir="ltr" href="x-apple-data-detectors://8" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors-result="8">until Tuesday</a>, leaders had not tied that idea to budget negotiations. Now, it appears, HB 805 could be a part of any deal brokered between the administration and the General Assembly, much in the same way pension reform and liquor modernization factored into the failed "framework" of last year's budget. <br><br><br>Corman stopped short of declaring HB 805 a linchpin, however.<br><br><br>"Look if we get into a budget discussion soon, which we all hope we will, and he doesn't sign this, we're not going to walk away from this," he said. "It's too important to walk away from. It will be like every other piece of the budgetary process negotiation. We do education as part of the budget. This is something we think is very, very important."<br><br><br>"I'm telling you this is something we will be advocating strongly for," he added.<br><br><br>Kocher further clarified Corman's position in an email after the press conference.<br><br><br>"The Senator never said we would not be doing a budget without this measure to protect excellent teachers," she said. "It is not a line in the sand. It's simply a very important issue that can provide reform to a system to ensure that our schools continue to have excellent teachers working with our children."<br><br><br>The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teacher's union, chided Republicans for politicizing the bill.<br><br><br>"After a nearly $1 billion school funding cut and 27,000 K-12 jobs lost in the last four years, the Republican leadership in the General Assembly ought to be focusing on how to adequately fund schools and bring class sizes back down instead of trying to get rid of more teachers and making threats to hold Pennsylvania children's education hostage," said PSEA spokesman Wythe Keever.<br><br><br>The criticism doesn't appear to phase the leaders.<br><br><br>"We shouldn't be preserving the job of a low performing teacher and furloughing a high performing teacher merely because one has more seniority over the other," Reed said. "It's a pretty basic concept that I'm pretty sure almost every single parent across this state would agree with."<br><br><br>"The solution for continuing to ensure that we have excellent schools is not simply putting more and more taxpayer dollars into the system," Kocher said. "We must also take a close look at how we can use reforms to improve the system. This bill is a commonsense way to achieve that. We just provided $200 million in additional money for education and throughout that - we were not the ones who were using children as hostages. Far from it."<br><br><br>-30- <br><br>------------------------------------------------------------<br>Copyright 2006 GovNetPA, Inc.<br><br><a dir="ltr" href="http://capitolwire.com/" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="12">Capitolwire.com</a>, a service of GovNetPA, Inc., provides a comprehensive news and information service to subscribers with a need to monitor or influence the actions of state government and to track key issues such as Healthcare, Transportation, Education and the Environment. Our customization platform allows relevant news and information to automatically flow directly to subscribers creating an awareness and speed-of-response advantage.<br><br>If you liked this story, sign up for a trial subscription.<br><a dir="ltr" href="http://www.capitolwire.com/" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="13">http://www.capitolwire.com</a><br>For more information on <a dir="ltr" href="http://capitolwire.com/" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="14">capitolwire.com</a>, write to <a dir="ltr" href="mailto:info@capitolwire.com" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="link" x-apple-data-detectors-result="15">info@capitolwire.com</a> or call us at <a dir="ltr" href="tel:(717)%20986-0225" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors-result="6">(717) 986-0225</a>.</span><br style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 21px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-32532872906155830032016-05-17T09:43:00.001-04:002016-05-17T09:43:55.190-04:00Need more money<a href="http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/93769-study-calls-for-at-least-32-billion-in-added-pa-school-funding">http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/93769-study-calls-for-at-least-32-billion-in-added-pa-school-funding</a>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-24892769888686879792016-05-03T10:34:00.001-04:002016-05-03T10:34:40.765-04:00Funding Trick<table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="98%" style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody><tr><td valign="Top" width="100%"><table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="6"><tbody><tr><td valign="Top" align="left"><div style="font-weight: bold; border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(192, 192, 192); padding-top: 8pt; padding-bottom: 0pt; margin-bottom: 14pt;"><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Capitolwire: New budget season revives a familiar education bill.</span></font></div><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By <a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/cwMailForm.asp?recipient=csmith@capitolwire.com">Christen Smith</a><br>Staff Reporter<br>Capitolwire</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">HARRISBURG (May 2) — Lawmakers returned to the state Capitol Monday intent on averting last year's record-breaking budget stalemate — and the corresponding fiscal fallout — with an old trick in mind. </span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The House Education Committee advanced legislation Monday that would guarantee funding for schools during any future budget gridlock, much in the same way state employees and elected officials continue receiving paychecks during impasses.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://www.govnetpa.com/GOV/billinfo?b=HB+1159&s=20150&go=Go%21" target="_blank">House Bill 1159</a>, sponsored by Rep. David Hickernell, R-Lancaster, advanced out of committee on a vote of 18-8. </span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It's a pretty simple bill,” Hickernell said. “We'd never again have to risk schools closing or borrowing money when we have state dollars sitting in the Treasury.” </span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's an idea that's bounced around the Legislature for over a decade — ever since then-Gov. Ed Rendell vetoed the first iteration of HB 1159 in 2004 for violating his constitutional right to disapprove of or alter funding levels in the General Appropriations bill. The legislation made it to his desk in the months following a budget cycle that hit some familiar beats: a first-year Democratic governor at odds with the Legislature over education funding, resulting in a six-month stalemate and schools threatening to close their doors after the Christmas holiday.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hickernell had sponsored that bill, too, and said, at the time, the General Assembly discussed a possible veto override, but ultimately abandoned the idea. </span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think many of us wish we would have taken it a step further at that time because we wouldn't have had to endure what we endured the past few months,” he told the committee Monday.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration did not respond to questions Monday about the governor's position on HB 1159.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Education Committee Minority Chairman James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia, chided the bill for resolving “any urgency to reduce a state budget crisis.”</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It serves as a disincentive to increase basic education funding or restore cuts from a previous administration...,” he said. “We have a responsibility to look at what is needed for our school districts, our children and to debate it in good faith and to resolve our differences and pass a budget each year. I think this cuts that legislative process.”</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rep. Seth Grove, R-York, said he empathized with Roebuck's concern, but not enough to oppose the bill.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I think that boat sailed a long time ago,” he said of protecting the legislative process. “It's a reality we face ... school districts were left holding the bag.”</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Rep. Dan Truitt, R-Chester, was less forgiving in his remarks.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“It seems to me that the only purpose for not voting for this is to leave the option for either side, the Legislature or the governor, to use school children as hostages during budget negotiations,” he said. “There’s simply no excuse for that.”</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 2015-16 budget impasse forced districts statewide to borrow upwards of $1 billion. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale estimated last week those loans cost taxpayers $50 million in interest payments.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Education Committee Majority Chairman Stan Saylor, R-York, says “the money just isn't there” to replace the millions lost on borrowing costs, either.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“This is not about Gov. Wolf or Gov. Corbett or any governor,” he said. “This is simply about children. In the end, this is only one part of the budget but it's a part of the budget that is critical. This bill at least protects those children and makes sure our education system continues to work ... and more importantly, our taxpayers are not hurt paying interest payments while we squabble here in Harrisburg.”</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Steve Miskin, spokesman for House Majority Leader Dave Reed, R-Indiana, did not respond to questions about when or if the bill will be considered by the full House.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's not on the Senate Republican Caucus's priority list either, at the moment.</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“There are a number of similar bills that have been introduced in the Senate,” said Jenn Kocher, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre. “At this point, we haven’t discussed it recently as a caucus so it’s not clear what the direction will be.”</span></font></p><p></p><p><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">-30- </span></font></p></td></tr><tr><td valign="Top"></td></tr></tbody></table></td><td valign="Top" width="130"><table width="163" border="0" style="margin-top: 6pt;"><tbody><tr><td class="newsbriefs_cap_head" align="center" style="font-weight: bold;"><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Capitolwire - Exclusive</span></font></td></tr><tr><td class="newsbriefs_cap_articles"><div style="border: 1px solid rgb(192, 192, 192); padding: 6pt;"><ul style="list-style: square; margin: 0px; padding-left: 12pt; padding-bottom: 0pt;"><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2399586" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: PA hospital association endorses compromise on expanded practice by nurse practitioners. (5/3/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2399583" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: April PIT collections down from FY2014-15’s level, but PA still ahead of FY2015-16 General Fund revenue estimates. (5/3/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2399568" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: New budget season revives a familiar education bill. (5/3/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2399337" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: Revenue Department refutes corporate tax under-collections. (5/2/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2399336" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: Enrollment verification disparities highlighted on audit described as 'federal program yuck.' (5/2/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2399234" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire's Weekly Wrap for the week of April 25, 2016. (4/29/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2398783" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: The establishment strikes back against Sestak; Politicians, not prosecutors, tapped for Attorney General. (4/27/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2398782" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: Some old and new PA state legislators fail to win their primaries. (4/27/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2398781" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: Tobacco taxes could be a piece of budget revenue puzzle. (4/27/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2398778" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: Medical community moves cautiously ahead with research in wake of Senate Bill 3. 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(4/25/2016)</font></a></li><li style="margin-bottom: 3pt;"><a href="http://www.capitolwire.com/shared/cwArticle.asp?ArticleId=2398378" style="font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; text-decoration: none; font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000" face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Capitolwire: Primary could set stage for some new faces in Legislature. (4/25/2016)</font></a></li></ul></div></td></tr><tr><td class="newsbriefs_cap_foot" align="center"><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Updated 5/3/2016 10:23:15 AM</span></font></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td colspan="3" valign="Top" width="100%"><div style="border-top-width: 1px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(192, 192, 192); padding: 3pt; text-align: center;"><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 17px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Copyright © 1998-2012 Capitolwire.com / GovNetPA, Inc. All rights reserved. <font> 598</font></span></font></div></td></tr></tbody></table>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-44925433472976737462016-04-29T10:22:00.001-04:002016-04-29T10:22:22.598-04:00Dr. Terry Madonna<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VZFsoZ_kEuc/VyNuHdzqGrI/AAAAAAAABPs/Ej2ot-0eNrU/s640/blogger-image--1542034036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VZFsoZ_kEuc/VyNuHdzqGrI/AAAAAAAABPs/Ej2ot-0eNrU/s640/blogger-image--1542034036.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-55391647736971983372016-04-29T08:56:00.001-04:002016-04-29T08:56:38.154-04:00Friday at the PARSS Conference<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Michael Churchill of the Public Interest Law Center<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wLCwOmEEgQE/VyNaBPlxoAI/AAAAAAAABPc/nPkXz3Ln1JU/s640/blogger-image-1068244748.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wLCwOmEEgQE/VyNaBPlxoAI/AAAAAAAABPc/nPkXz3Ln1JU/s640/blogger-image-1068244748.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-48650866658023986542016-04-29T02:20:00.001-04:002016-04-29T02:20:30.184-04:00Ron Cowell speaks about school funding reform<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8Cyy9ckcpcA/VyL9LRNM7CI/AAAAAAAABPI/3Epx3r6WxSg/s640/blogger-image-435182876.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8Cyy9ckcpcA/VyL9LRNM7CI/AAAAAAAABPI/3Epx3r6WxSg/s640/blogger-image-435182876.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-20628673725376218332016-04-29T02:19:00.001-04:002016-04-29T02:19:35.826-04:00Education takes a step backwards with these individuals retiring<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0l2EuP_Fjw0/VyL898nR11I/AAAAAAAABPE/9dV3J2KpHZs/s640/blogger-image--918351329.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0l2EuP_Fjw0/VyL898nR11I/AAAAAAAABPE/9dV3J2KpHZs/s640/blogger-image--918351329.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-64462696748300164122016-04-28T13:45:00.001-04:002016-04-28T13:45:48.799-04:00Pm session<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e314Ik83qIU/VyJMTBXlghI/AAAAAAAABOg/yutzpxXrtdM/s640/blogger-image-1421061926.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e314Ik83qIU/VyJMTBXlghI/AAAAAAAABOg/yutzpxXrtdM/s640/blogger-image-1421061926.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-14364964608569871462016-04-28T11:30:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:30:20.783-04:00Conference schedule<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GGDmXXmH2cI/VyIsjORk19I/AAAAAAAABOM/2hjdfCpfHEc/s640/blogger-image--278476074.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GGDmXXmH2cI/VyIsjORk19I/AAAAAAAABOM/2hjdfCpfHEc/s640/blogger-image--278476074.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-16228498211017728842016-04-28T11:29:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:29:13.812-04:00$$$$$$$$As a result of the golf outing PARSS will be giving out 4000 in student scholarships at the banquet this eveningEdward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-70646172371054977672016-04-28T11:27:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:27:34.562-04:00Hannah Barrick<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-95w1V84ioow/VyIr5YYmkgI/AAAAAAAABOE/pwc__QF4wRs/s640/blogger-image--263659530.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-95w1V84ioow/VyIr5YYmkgI/AAAAAAAABOE/pwc__QF4wRs/s640/blogger-image--263659530.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-46071869965303822862016-04-28T11:26:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:26:37.845-04:00Special recognition<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">President Norm congratulates Joe Bard for his 19 years experience at Ex. Dir. Joe receives a standing ovation as he plans to step down as Executive Director in December . <a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Kbc6p9pP9SU/VyIrrDQy03I/AAAAAAAABOA/J7Nd0C0rnds/s640/blogger-image--2146679162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Kbc6p9pP9SU/VyIrrDQy03I/AAAAAAAABOA/J7Nd0C0rnds/s640/blogger-image--2146679162.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-24299304238257986602016-04-28T11:22:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:22:40.804-04:00Secretary of Ed starts our PARSS CONF.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gpMflv-SVvA/VyIqv6GsZVI/AAAAAAAABN0/YTX1fVAXEj8/s640/blogger-image-536627611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gpMflv-SVvA/VyIqv6GsZVI/AAAAAAAABN0/YTX1fVAXEj8/s640/blogger-image-536627611.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-85018952347782681362016-04-28T11:20:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:20:35.071-04:00PARSS REGISTRATION<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FSH5Tq2wdSc/VyIqQalBbVI/AAAAAAAABNs/B0GC_qkF3og/s640/blogger-image-62422507.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FSH5Tq2wdSc/VyIqQalBbVI/AAAAAAAABNs/B0GC_qkF3og/s640/blogger-image-62422507.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-70337633362366167302016-04-28T11:19:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:19:04.467-04:00Golf outing has a comedian<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rFl0SPMiHR0/VyIp5_1uIzI/AAAAAAAABNk/aMn8pc9NmIQ/s640/blogger-image-1076894902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rFl0SPMiHR0/VyIp5_1uIzI/AAAAAAAABNk/aMn8pc9NmIQ/s640/blogger-image-1076894902.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-85878546988028338772016-04-28T11:17:00.001-04:002016-04-28T11:17:57.809-04:00PARSS GOLF OUTING<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1bLb-8-xNCA/VyIppK_xxUI/AAAAAAAABNg/3Zo5CTRi8mY/s640/blogger-image-957367846.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1bLb-8-xNCA/VyIppK_xxUI/AAAAAAAABNg/3Zo5CTRi8mY/s640/blogger-image-957367846.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-19878471726408105102016-04-19T08:34:00.001-04:002016-04-19T08:34:05.314-04:00Funding/ Supreme Court????<header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; overflow: hidden;"><h1 class="entry-title" itemprop="headline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 22px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; font-variant-caps: inherit; float: none; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Look who supports the school funding lawsuit & learn how you can support it, too!</span></h1><div class="entry-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 10px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="posted-on" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Posted on <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/blog/2016/04/18/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 700ms; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;"><time class="entry-date published" itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2016-04-18T17:11:36+00:00" style="box-sizing: border-box;">April 18, 2016</time></a></span><span class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline;"> by <span class="author vcard" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/blog/author/edvopa/" class="url fn n author-link" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" itemprop="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 700ms; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">EDVOPA</a></span></span></span></div></header><div class="entry-content" itemprop="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 20px;"><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The PA Supreme Court will hear argument for the school funding lawsuit this year, perhaps as early as in May.</span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Throughout Pennsylvania, our schools have not received adequate and equitable funding to meet our children’s educational needs. But our Constitution says, “The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”</span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The state government is breaking its own law and our kids are suffering.</strong></span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Public education advocates have a very important role to play in demanding action and then holding state lawmakers accountable for ensuring that all schools receive adequate and equitable funding to meet our children’s educational needs.</strong></em></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We MUST raise awareness of the school funding problem in our communities and demand action from every branch of government. Write a letter to the editor, ask your school board or community organization to pass a resolution in support of the lawsuit and/or call your lawmaker to say that it is time for Harrisburg to meet its Constitutional obligation to Pennsylvania’s children.</span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Lawsuit-supporters.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-1022" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; transition: all 700ms; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); background-position: 0px 0px;"><font color="#000000"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1022" src="http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Lawsuit-supporters.jpg" alt="Lawsuit supporters" width="618" height="363" srcset="http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Lawsuit-supporters-300x176.jpg 300x, http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Lawsuit-supporters.jpg 618x" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; height: auto; max-width: 100%;"></font></a></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </strong>What You Can Do</span></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 3em; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; clear: left; padding-left: 0px !important;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Learn more by reading the <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Updated-2-26-16-Lawsuit-FAQs-from-ELC-and-PILCOP-1.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 700ms; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">Updated 2-26-16 Lawsuit FAQs from ELC and PILCOP</a><br style="box-sizing: border-box;">• <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Write a letter to the editor of your local newspapers.</strong> Visit our <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Updated-Write-a-Letter-to-the-Editor-to-Support-the-Lawsuit.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 700ms; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">Updated Write a Letter to the Editor to Support the Lawsuit</a> for talking points and a link that will allow you to email your letter to your local newspapers.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;">• <strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Attend to a school board meeting in your community and ask your school board to pass a resolution in support of the lawsuit.</strong> Download our <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sample-Resolution-in-Support-of-PA-School-Funding-Lawsuit.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 700ms; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">Sample Resolution in Support of PA School Funding Lawsuit</a> and our <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Frequently-Asked-Questions-about-Passing-a-Resolution-in-Support-of-the-School-Funding-Lawsuit-.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; transition: all 700ms; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">Frequently Asked Questions about Passing a Resolution in Support of the School Funding Lawsuit</a> for more information.</span></li></ul><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; font-variant-caps: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Read why organizations and school boards are supporting plaintiffs in the school funding lawsuit</span></h3><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission did great work putting together a funding formula. But without significant sustained additional state investment, kids who are in kindergarten now will graduate before there is adequate funding in our high poverty districts. The mission of public education is to create informed American citizens; our students are our future employees, coworkers and taxpayers. Our concern and responsibility for kids must not end at our township’s borders. That’s why I encouraged our school board, in a well-funded district, to pass a resolution in support of the lawsuit. </em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Lawrence Feinberg, Haverford Township School Board member.</strong></span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As an organization that fights for equality and justice, the ACLU of Pennsylvania supports efforts to make sure that every Pennsylvania student, rich or poor, has an equal shot at a quality education. The current funding system is fundamentally unfair and puts already disadvantaged students even further behind their wealthier peers. Our constitution demands better for Pennsylvania’s children.” </em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Reggie Shuford, Executive Director, ACLU of Pennsylvania</strong>.</span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The failure of Harrisburg to act appropriately to ensure that all Pennsylvania students receive an adequately funded education has created a system where the quality of education that a student receives is dependent upon her zip code. This is unacceptable. The League of Women Voters of PA commends the plaintiffs for their courage in fighting to hold Harrisburg accountable and re-enforce the constitutional right of every child to receive an education that will allow them to become productive members of society. </em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Suzanne Almeida, Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania</strong></span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">These resolutions of support from school districts across the state highlight the stark fact that public education affects us all<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. </strong>Like our clients, these districts are of all shapes and sizes, from all corners of the state. Now it is time for this case to be heard, so that the public will have clearly laid before them the facts we all know to be true: Pennsylvania’s system of funding education has been broken for generations, and if we are to prosper as a Commonwealth, it must be fixed. </em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jennifer Clarke, Executive Director of the Public Interest Law Center</strong></span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">We are pleased that so many school districts and organizations across the state are joining with us to ask the courts to take action on this important issue. In response to the Legislature’s continuing failure to adequately and equitably fund our schools, only the courts can ensure our students receive the educational opportunities to which they are constitutionally entitled. We are asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to recognize this duty and give parents, students, and school districts their day in court. </em><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Deborah Gordon Klehr, Executive Director of the Education Law Center</strong></span></p><p style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p></div><footer class="entry-footer" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">This entry was posted in <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/blog/category/blog/" rel="category tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">blog</a> and tagged <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/blog/tag/education-funding/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">Education Funding</a>, <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/blog/tag/school-funding-lawsuit/" rel="tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">School Funding Lawsuit</a>. Bookmark the <a href="http://educationvoterspa.org/blog/look-supports-school-funding-lawsuit-learn-can-support/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-transition: all 700ms; transition: all 700ms; background-position: 0px 0px;">permalink</a>.</span></footer>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-24589781675981644042016-04-07T08:45:00.001-04:002016-04-07T08:45:14.540-04:00Oh where oh where does the money go<header class="trb_ar_h" style="margin: 30px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border-top-style: none;"><div class="trb_ar_hl" style="clear: both; margin-bottom: 15px;"><h1 class="trb_ar_hl_t" itemprop="headline" style="display: inline; font-weight: 400; line-height: 40px; font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf angers GOP with funding formula that gives smaller hikes to most school districts</h1></div></header><div class="trb_ar_main"><div><div class="trb_ar_by" style="display: table; margin: 5px 0px 15px;"><figure class="trb_ar_by_i_f" style="display: table-cell; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px; width: 70px;"><img src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-53c9ee37/turbine/mc-bio-steve-esack/70/70x70" srcset="http://www.trbimg.com/img-53c9ee37/turbine/mc-bio-steve-esack/140/140x140 2x, http://www.trbimg.com/img-53c9ee37/turbine/mc-bio-steve-esack/210/210x210 3x" alt="Steve Esack" width="70" height="70" title="Steve Esack" class="trb_ar_by_i" style="display: block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; border-top-left-radius: 50%; border-top-right-radius: 50%; border-bottom-right-radius: 50%; border-bottom-left-radius: 50%;"></figure><span class="trb_ar_by_nm_pm" style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: middle;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span data-byline-withoutby="" class="trb_ar_by_nm_au" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1;"><a itemprop="author" href="http://www.mcall.com/about/mc-bio-steve-esack-staff.html#nt=byline" class="trb_ar_by_nm_au_a" style="display: inline; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none;">Steve Esack</a></span><span class="trb_ar_by_b" style="vertical-align: middle; display: inline-block; margin-top: -3px;"></span><a class="trb_ar_by_cl" href="mailto:sesack@mcall.com?subject=Regarding:%20%22Wolf%20angers%20GOP%20with%20funding%20formula%20that%20gives%20smaller%20hikes%20to%20most%20school%20districts%22" data-role="socialshare_sEmail" style="display: inline; font-weight: 700; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none;">Contact Reporter</a></span><span class="trb_ar_by_nm_pb" style="display: block; margin-top: 3px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Call Harrisburg Bureau</span></span></span></div><div class="trb_ar_sl" style="border-top-width: 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(30, 30, 30); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 17px -20px; padding: 18px 0px 15px;"><a class="trb_ar_sl_it" data-role="socialshare_information socialshare_container" data-socialshare-context="shareline" data-socialshare-url="/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-wolf-legislature-school-funding-20160406-story.html" data-socialshare-title="Wolf angers GOP with funding formula that gives smaller hikes to most school districts" data-socialshare-thumbnail="http://www.trbimg.com/img-57058287/turbine/mc-pa-wolf-legislature-school-funding-20160406" data-socialshare-description="Most Lehigh Valley school districts would get less of a financial boost from under Gov. Tom Wolf's formula th" data-socialshare-slug="mc-pa-wolf-legislature-school-funding-20160406" data-socialshare-content="story" data-socialshare-newspapername="The Morning Call" data-socialshare-content-id="86468081" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 3px; padding: 0px 9px 0px 20px; text-align: right;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="trb_ar_sl_it_item" data-role="socialshare_share" data-socialshare-type="facebook" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 22px; margin: -17px 0px 0px 13px; padding: 9px; width: 22px;"><div style="text-align: start;"><br></div></span><span class="trb_ar_sl_it_item" data-role="socialshare_share" data-socialshare-type="twitter" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 22px; margin: -17px 0px 0px 13px; padding: 9px; width: 22px;"><div style="text-align: start;"><br></div></span></span></a><div class="trb_ar_sl_text" style="line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 20px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Most Lehigh Valley school districts would get less of a financial boost from under Gov. Tom Wolf's formula th</span></div></div><div class="trb_ar_dateline" style="line-height: 13px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><time itemprop="datePublished" class="trb_ar_dateline_time" data-dt="April 6, 2016, 8:32 PM" datetime="2016-04-06T20:32:20EDT"></time></span></div></div><div itemprop="articleBody"><div class="trb_ar_page" data-role="pagination_page" data-content-page="1"><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px; margin-top: 13px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">HARRISBURG — Most Lehigh Valley school districts would get less of a financial boost from the state under a formula developed by Democratic Gov. <a title="Tom Wolf" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/tom-wolf-PEPLT0009139-topic.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Tom Wolf</a> than they would under a method championed by a bipartisan coalition spearheaded by the Legislature.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">With the start of next fiscal year less than 21/2 months away, Wolf's plan is drawing heat from Republican lawmakers who accuse him of playing politics with students by forgoing the bipartisan formula he previously praised.</span></p><div class="trb_gptAd trb_ar_main_ad" data-role="adloader adloader_ad" data-withinviewport-options="bottomOffset=100&topOffset=1000000" data-adloader-position="articleCube" data-adloader-size="300x250" data-adloader-adtype="articlebottomcube" id="trb_ad_articleCube_1_2_/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-wolf-legislature-school-funding-20160406-story.html" data-state="adloader_loaded" style="position: relative; margin: 23px 0px 23px calc(50% - 150px); clear: both; width: 300px; height: 250px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/4011/trb.mcall/news/pennsylvania/state/_slot1_/_1__container__" style="border: 0pt none;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><iframe id="google_ads_iframe_/4011/trb.mcall/news/pennsylvania/state/_slot1_/_1" title="3rd party ad content" name="google_ads_iframe_/4011/trb.mcall/news/pennsylvania/state/_slot1_/_1" width="300" height="250" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" style="border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;"></iframe></span></div></div><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">On Tuesday, Wolf announced he will use his own mathematical formula to distribute the extra $208 million in education money to districts hardest hit by 2010-11 budget cuts. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It's not right to start a new funding method without first restoring $370 million in cuts districts endured five years ago, Wolf said.</span></p><span class="trb_ar_cont" data-ar-cont="Article continues below" style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 8px; padding-top: 4px;"></span><aside class="trb_ar_sponsoredmod" data-adloader-networktype="yieldmo" data-role="delayload_item" data-screen-size="mobile" data-withinviewport-options="bottomOffset=100&topOffset=1000000" data-load-method="trb.vendor.yieldmo.init" data-load-type="method" style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; padding: 0px; clear: both;"><div id="ym_1082622909218142474@3606175005" data-id="ym_1" class="ym ym_scroll ym_format10" rend="1" evs="1" style="margin: 0px auto; position: relative; width: 100% !important;"><iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="100%" src="about:blank" height="184" style="margin: 0px auto; width: 280px; display: block !important;"></iframe></div></aside><aside class="trb_ar_sponsoredmod trb_barker_mediaconductor" data-adloader-networktype="mediaconductor" data-role="delayload_item" data-screen-size="desktop" data-withinviewport-options="bottomOffset=100" data-load-method="trb.vendor.mediaconductor.init" data-load-type="method" data-vendor-mc="" style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; padding: 0px; clear: both;"></aside><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Since Day One, I have been fighting for historic investments in education at all levels," Wolf said in a statement. "The new fair funding formula, which I support, cannot truly be fair unless the cuts are fully restored."</span></p><aside class="trb_embed" data-content-id="86458372" data-content-size="small" data-content-type="story" data-content-slug="mc-pa-xgr--pennsylvania-budget99-20160405" data-content-subtype="story" data-role="socialshare_item imgsize_ratiosizecontainer " data-state="" style="margin: 11px 20px 35px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 175px; overflow: hidden; float: left; z-index: 1;"><div class="trb_embed_media"><span data-content-kicker="Related" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></span><a class="trb_embed_media_link" href="http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-xgr--pennsylvania-budget99-20160405-story.html" data-content-media-present="false" style="position: relative; display: block; float: left; width: 175px; text-decoration: none;"></a><div class="trb_embed_related" data-role="lightbox_metadata"><a class="trb_embed_media_link" href="http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-xgr--pennsylvania-budget99-20160405-story.html" style="text-decoration: none; position: relative; display: block; float: left; width: 175px;"><span class="trb_embed_related_title" style="display: block; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-top: 0px; line-height: 22px; word-wrap: break-word;"><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf outlines plans to distribute Pennsylvania school funds</span></font></span></a></div></div></aside><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a title="Republican Party" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Republicans</a>cried foul and threatened lawsuits. They claimed Wolf's plan would drive too much of the new money to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while the state's 498 other districts would get less than they would have under the bipartisan formula and because the budget proclaims none of the new money can be "expended until enabling legislation … is enacted."</span></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Today's announcement by Gov. Wolf that he will be distributing 2015-16 basic education funding without a legislative formula is a blatant attempt to disregard the General Assembly," said Senate President Pro Tempore <a title="Joseph B. Scarnati" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/joseph-b.-scarnati-PEPLT005810-topic.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Joe Scarnati</a>, R-Jefferson.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No district would get less money in the remainder of 2015-16 than it got in 2014-15. The fight is over how high a percentage increase districts would get for per-pupil expenditures and the Ready to Learn block grant.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the Lehigh Valley, the Bethlehem Area School District would be the only district to benefit from Wolf's formula, receiving an additional $370,483 — 1 percent — for a total of $31 million, according to House GOP and Department of Education records. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A dozen area districts, including Parkland and Whitehall-Coplay, would see increases 1 percent to 5 percent less than what the bipartisan plan calls for. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Allentown's funding increase would be 2 percent less than under the bipartisan plan. But it had received extra state money to weather the recession — funding that remains part of its overall allotment. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Four districts would statistically break even.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Still, the back-and-forth rhetoric is shaping up to become a classic constitutional fight between the legislative branch's right to approve, with conditions, how taxpayer money is spent and the executive branch's right to manage the flow of that money.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"It's far too simplistic for the Legislature to say exactly how each cent can be used and all the executive does is write the check," said Muhlenberg College political science professor and pollster Chris Borick. "It's always a question, and often a constitutional question, of how much discretion does a governor have in allocating and courts have been asked to intervene. And in this case, that's exactly how we are heading."</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the 2014 election, Wolf defeated incumbent Republican Gov. <a title="Tom Corbett" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/tom-corbett-PEPLT00007693-topic.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Tom Corbett</a>who never was able to live down voter anger over the education cuts he and the Legislature imposed when temporary federal stimulus money vanished in 2010-11. Wolf vowed to restore those cuts and fix the state deficit, which meant various tax increases he never spoke about on the campaign trail with the exception of a severance tax on natural gas drillers.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Legislature fought those tax plans when Wolf unveiled them last year. Republican lawmakers — with little to no Democratic support — then passed a series of policy and spending plans Wolf later vetoed, causing some state education money to be withheld from school districts for nine months.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">During that stalemate, the Legislature accepted a report outlining a new funding formula that sought to take politics out of how money is distributed to public schools. </span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The formula would send state tax dollars to local districts based on annual weighted measures that rely on U.S. Census records and data from the state Revenue and Education departments, among others. That formula gave more money to poorer districts and less to wealthier ones.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf wanted the new funding formula to start in the 2016-17 fiscal year. Republicans inserted language in the fiscal code — a separate budget document that dictates how money is spent — that the extra education money would be distributed using the new formula in 2015-16.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf vetoed the fiscal code in March, killing the formula. The final budget document Wolf allowed to become law in March did not include a specific language concerning the formula. But the budget did say the extra money could not be spent without the "enabling" fiscal code in place.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Without a full fiscal code in law, Wolf is allowed to spend the education money as he sees fit as long as he does not go over the allocated amounts in the budget, said the governor's spokesman, Jeff Sheridan.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We adopted the formula approved by the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission in order to bring more equity into how this money would be shared," said Senate Majority Leader <a title="Jake Corman" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/jake-corman-PEPLT001315-topic.html" style="text-decoration: none;">Jake Corman</a>, R-Centre. "At the time, the governor praised the commission, its findings and its formula — only then to turn around and ignore it."</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 2016-17 fiscal year begins July 1.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><i><a href="mailto:steve.esack@mcall.com" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">steve.esack@mcall.com</a></i></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><i style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Twitter @sesack</i></p><p style="margin-bottom: 18px; line-height: 24px;"><i><a href="tel:717-783-7305" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">717-783-7305</a></i></p></div></div><div class="trb_ar_cr" style="line-height: normal; clear: left; padding: 4px 0px 6px; margin-bottom: 14px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Copyright © 2016, <a class="trb_ar_cr_a" href="http://www.mcall.com/" style="line-height: normal; clear: left; padding: 4px 0px 6px; text-decoration: none; margin-bottom: 14px;">The Morning Call</a></span></div><ul class="trb_ar_rt" style="margin: 0px 0px 16px; line-height: 18px; padding: 6px 0px 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><li class="trb_ar_rt_li" style="display: inline;"><a class="trb_ar_rt_a" title="Tom Wolf" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/tom-wolf-PEPLT0009139-topic.html#nt=taxonomy-article" style="text-decoration: none;">Tom Wolf</a></li><li class="trb_ar_rt_li" style="display: inline;"><a class="trb_ar_rt_a" title="Republican Party" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/republican-party-ORGOV0000004-topic.html#nt=taxonomy-article" style="text-decoration: none;">Republican Party</a></li> <li class="trb_ar_rt_li" style="display: inline;"><a class="trb_ar_rt_a" title="Tom Corbett" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/tom-corbett-PEPLT00007693-topic.html#nt=taxonomy-article" style="text-decoration: none;">Tom Corbett</a></li> <li class="trb_ar_rt_li" style="display: inline;"><a class="trb_ar_rt_a" title="Joseph B. Scarnati" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/joseph-b.-scarnati-PEPLT005810-topic.html#nt=taxonomy-article" style="text-decoration: none;">Joseph B. Scarnati</a></li> </span><li class="trb_ar_rt_li" style="display: inline;"><a class="trb_ar_rt_a" title="Jake Corman" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/jake-corman-PEPLT001315-topic.html#nt=taxonomy-article" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">Jake Corm</font></a><a class="trb_ar_rt_a" title="Jake Corman" href="http://www.mcall.com/topic/politics-government/government/jake-corman-PEPLT001315-topic.html#nt=taxonomy-article" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">an</a></li></ul></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-19086698188277986752016-04-05T09:03:00.001-04:002016-04-05T09:03:47.424-04:00Say it ain't so.....<div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">THE ISSUE</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gov. Tom Wolf <a href="http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/state-s-budget-battle-ends-but-verbal-sparring-continues/article_adfc5c12-f140-11e5-8b19-17a0939e26ec.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">allowed the remaining portion of the state Legislature’s 2015-16 budget to become law</a> March 23, without his signature. The governor vetoed the accompanying fiscal code, because it “contains unconstitutional provisions, guts important environmental regulations and tries to establish legislative authority over issues that fall under executive jurisdiction,” according to <a href="https://www.governor.pa.gov/memo-governor-wolfs-fiscal-code-veto/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">a press release</a> from Wolf's spokesman, Jeff Sheridan.</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pennsylvania’s budget impasse has come to an end. A $30 billion spending plan is in place. So we can stop talking about it, right?</span></p></div><div class="custom-block tnt-ads-container text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px; text-align: center !important;"><div class="tnt-ads dfp-ad dfp-rendered dfp-creative-88654495682 dfp-line-item-238454642" data-dfp-adunit="/1004232/fixed-big-ad-top-asset" data-dfp-custom-pos="div-gpt-ad-1433428725598-2" id="ad-custom-instory-top" data-dfp-size="[300, 250]" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 20px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/1004232/fixed-big-ad-top-asset_0__container__" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; border: 0pt none;"><iframe id="google_ads_iframe_/1004232/fixed-big-ad-top-asset_0" title="3rd party ad content" name="google_ads_iframe_/1004232/fixed-big-ad-top-asset_0" width="300" height="250" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;"></iframe></div></div></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We’re afraid not.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The fiscal battle may be finished, but the war between Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican-controlled Legislature may have just begun.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">By choosing to let it become law without his signature, Wolf washed his hands of the budget, which he described as unbalanced. The murky conclusion was a microcosm of a messy nine-month tug of war.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Somebody needed to compromise. In the end, it was the governor — kind of. The exception: <a href="http://lancasteronline.com/news/pennsylvania/wolf-vetoes-fiscal-code-bill-related-to-pennsylvania-budget/article_b9d3baa6-7c28-56f0-b378-f5c4dcfda013.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">his decision to veto the fiscal code</a>.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The fiscal code is legislation that accompanies the appropriations bill (the budget) that indicates how portions of the budget will be distributed, including among K-12 schools. Call it a 101-page instructions packet.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Without the fiscal code — the instructions — those dollars cannot be legally appropriated, because there is no signed agreement on how new funds can be spent.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Republican view</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The money tied up in the fiscal code includes $150 million in education funding, dispersed through the school funding formula established by the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission. <a href="http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/the-budget-impasse-is-over-but-schools-are-still-in/article_2076d820-f66a-11e5-80e8-23c188a8f1b1.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">Those funds, instead, are essentially frozen</a>; and the formula, <a href="http://lancasteronline.com/opinion/editorials/school-funding-in-pennsylvania-we-have-a-plan-now-we/article_466a8814-d68b-11e5-beaa-2b6fd3c64cbe.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">which we have supported</a>, remains in limbo.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Consequently, there will be no increase in school funding from last year, and <a href="http://lancasteronline.com/opinion/columnists/even-with-full-budget-uncertainty-continues-for-school-districts/article_1bd4be74-f1f4-11e5-a4f6-d75c6e277bce.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">districts remain in the dark</a> as to how much they will receive.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“Once again, (Wolf) is manufacturing a crisis,” said state Sen. Lloyd Smucker, a Republican serving Lancaster and a member of the Basic Education Funding Commission. “There was absolutely no need to (veto fiscal code). It accomplished no goals.”</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf’s decision has also barred schools from receiving aid for construction projects through PlanCon, or the Planning and Construction Workbook, which enables schools to apply for reimbursement when undertaking major construction projects.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Smucker believes the budget was a fair spending plan that forced the government to “live within its means,” instead of raising taxes and budgeting for more money than what’s expected. He called Wolf’s unorthodox approach to signing off on the budget “a bizarre position to take.”</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Democratic view</strong></p></div><div class="custom-block tnt-ads-container text-center" style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px;"></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Democrats in Harrisburg are focused on rebounding from the drastic cuts to education made under Gov. Tom Corbett in 2010-11. During Corbett’s administration, $1 billion in school funding was cut — a figure often disputed by Republicans — with poorer districts more reliant on government support getting hit the hardest, according to Gov. Wolf’s spokesman, Jeff Sheridan. Wolf’s mission for this year was to restore this funding gap, and to implement the school funding formula once equitable funding was restored in 2016-17.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Instead, the GOP “tried to shove it down our throats,” Sheridan said. He called Republicans’ efforts to support schools “disingenuous.”</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">State Rep. Mike Sturla, a Lancaster Democrat and Basic Education Funding Commission member, shares the governor’s frustration, saying that, in some cases, wealthy school districts got cut less than $1,000 per classroom, while poorer districts got cut more than $25,000 per classroom. He said vetoing the fiscal code was necessary, because implementing the school formula now would “only dig the hole deeper.” Sturla said his goal would not be to take money away from wealthier districts, but to provide all districts adequate funding.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Now what?</strong></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In Wolf’s $33.3 billion budget proposal for 2016-17, he calls for a $200 million increase in school funding. Revenue increases would mean additional taxes on personal income, cigarettes and natural gas, plus new taxes on cable television and moviegoers.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We believe schools need to be funded fully and fairly, and that homeowners need some relief from the pressure of ever-higher property taxes that are imposed because the state keeps shifting the school funding burden to the school districts.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Coming up with a balanced budget that accomplishes all of that — and allows for the implementation of the Basic Education Commission’s school funding formula — must be the goal of everyone in the months ahead.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So this time around, we hope the governor and the Legislature somehow can manage to give us both <a href="http://lancasteronline.com/opinion/editorials/gov-tom-wolf-s-budget-for---contains-necessary/article_67e3101e-cf89-11e5-ab6b-f737b6d3c2ec.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">a full, balanced budget</a>, complete with fiscal code.</span></p></div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 10px; margin-left: 10px; line-height: 27px; margin-bottom: 12px !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And that it doesn’t take nine months of a nightmarish game of political chess to make it happen.</span></p></div><div class="custom-block tnt-ads-container text-center" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-height: 1px; text-align: center !important;"><div class="tnt-ads dfp-ad dfp-rendered dfp-creative-99062816762 dfp-line-item-206596202" data-dfp-adunit="/1004232/fixed-big-ad-bottom-asset" data-dfp-custom-pos="div-gpt-ad-1433428725598-0" id="ad-custom-instory-bottom" data-dfp-size="[300, 250]" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 20px;"><div id="google_ads_iframe_/1004232/fixed-big-ad-bottom-asset_0__container__" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; border: 0pt none;"><iframe id="google_ads_iframe_/1004232/fixed-big-ad-bottom-asset_0" title="3rd party ad content" name="google_ads_iframe_/1004232/fixed-big-ad-bottom-asset_0" width="300" height="250" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0" style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border-width: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;"></iframe></div></div></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-88654599617443497042016-03-24T08:30:00.001-04:002016-03-24T08:30:00.590-04:00Questions questions questions<div class="hero-block" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="hero" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><figure class="wide-hero" role="img" data-swiftype-type="enum" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><figcaption class="hero-caption" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.5em; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; top: -1em; background-color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span class="photocaption" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.75rem; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); display: block !important;"><font color="#000000"><span style="font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf says the budget package that will go into effect without his signature "means that schools will stay open through the end of the year, but unless Harrisburg changes its ways, they won't have adequate funds for next year." (AP photo/Matt Rourke)</span></font></span></figcaption></figure></div></div><div class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><section class="author-section" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="author-block" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="featured-story-author" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 30px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden; height: auto; max-height: 75px; text-align: center; perspective: 1000; -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); transition: max-height 0.5s ease-in-out; -webkit-transition: max-height 0.5s ease-in-out;"><div class="pull-left" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; float: left !important;"><img src="http://www.newsworks.org/images/stories/flexicontent/m_mccorry_kevin01_bw.jpg" alt="Kevin McCorry" class="author-avatar u-photo" style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(86, 85, 89); vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; max-height: 44px;"></div><div class="author-details" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; height: 70px;"><p class="uppercase pagination-centered story-author" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.5em 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px 5px 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="line-break" style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: block;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BY <span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span itemprop="name" class="author-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: italic; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">KEVIN MCCORRY</span></span></span></span></p><ul class="author-tabs nocontent" data-swiftype-index="false" style="text-align: start; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; clear: both;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><li class="tab first-tab" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; width: 92.796875px; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/92196-will-budget-deal-be-lifeline-or-loss-for-pennsylvania-schools-#author-bio-2" class="author-bio-link" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="data-icon icon-info" aria-hidden="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1; vertical-align: baseline; 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margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 1; vertical-align: baseline; speak: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-image: none; width: 45px; height: 45px; position: relative; top: 3px; left: 8px;"></span></a></li></span></ul></div><div class="bio-block" id="author-bio-2" data-swiftype-index="false" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em; padding: 0px 30px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.5em; vertical-align: baseline; max-height: 0px; clear: both; overflow: auto; text-align: left; -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch; perspective: 1000; -webkit-backface-visibility: hidden; transform: translate3d(0px, 0px, 0px); transition: max-height 0.5s ease-in-out; -webkit-transition: max-height 0.5s ease-in-out;"><span style="font-size: 17px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><h1 class="uppercase bio-block-heading" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; line-height: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"></h1></span><img src="http://www.newsworks.org/images/stories/flexicontent/l_outside-goreme.jpg" class="author-bioimage pull-right" alt="author's-bio-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(86, 85, 89); vertical-align: baseline; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; display: block; max-width: 100%; height: auto; max-height: 175px; float: right !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"></p></div></div></div></section><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="col-sm-7" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; min-height: 1px;"><article itemprop="articleBody" class="main-content" role="article" data-swiftype-name="body" data-swiftype-type="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: 1.5rem; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Major questions remain about the details of Gov. Tom Wolf's decision Wednesday to end the state's historically protracted budget impasse — particularly when it comes to funding for public schools.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Almost nine months beyond last year's budget deadline, Wolf has agreed to allow a $6 billion supplemental spending plan passed by the Republican-held General Assembly to go into effect at the stroke of midnight Monday.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The plan includes $150 million in new basic education spending — far less than the governor had wished.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">At a press conference in the Capitol Wednesday, with many districts set to soon run out of cash, Wolf reversed a pledge he made last week to veto the latest budget bill approved by the House and Senate.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"This means that schools will stay open through the end of the year, but unless Harrisburg changes its ways, they won't have adequate funds for next year," he said.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In August, Wolf vetoed a similar budget. As the impasse persisted into late December — with schools starved for state aid — he agreed to OK a partial-year plan that included $50 million in new "Ready to Learn" block grant funding and $30 million in new special-education cash.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But he used his line-item veto power to cut school spending and other state priorities in the hopes of securing a larger education funding boost by leveraging Republican leaders back to the negotiating table.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That tactic did not work, and with Wednesday's action, the new K-12 spending in Wolf's first year is set to total $230 million.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Both sides, though, quibble with that number.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Both disputes are rooted in the fact that Wolf also signaled Wednesday that he will veto the fiscal code bill.</span></p><p class="NWsubheading" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 40px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Fiscal code in doubt</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Because the fiscal code acts as a roadmap for how education money is divided, Republicans say that if Wolf follows through on that veto, he will effectively keep new spending in limbo.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"You can't spend that $150 million without a fiscal code," said Jenn Kocher, spokeswoman for Senate Republicans.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Wolf administration disputes that, saying that it will unilaterally distribute funding "in the most appropriate manner possible."</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Just before the Christmas holiday, when the General Assembly left Wolf a budget without having passed a fiscal code, the governor decided how to divide block grant funding.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Then, he favored districts such as Philadelphia that were disproportionately hurt when the legislature in 2011 agreed to Gov. Tom Corbett's austerity plan that coincided with the expiration of federal stimulus dollars.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf has pushed to make these restorations before implementing the student-weighted funding formula as proposed by a bipartisan commission.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Republicans disagree with that philosophy, and could challenge Wolf in the courts if he now attempts to disperse cash without their consent.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"We would review our options," said Kocher.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As written, the fiscal code would undo Wolf's December restorations and mean that the School District of Philadelphia would actually lose money in the new deal.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">State Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, applauded the governor's decision to reject the code bill, and said he hopes Wolf divides funding in a way that acknowledges the "untenable" stress that he says state lawmakers have placed upon the district.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"At some point an injustice is an injustice, and it's got to be addressed," said Hughes.</span></p><p class="NWsubheading" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 40px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Bond issue</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf disputes the $230 million figure for an entirely different reason.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Inside the fiscal code, lawmakers had also included a plan to take on a $2.5 billion bond to reimburse some districts for nearly $300 million in capital upgrades this year.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf argues it's a bad idea to pursue borrowing while the state has a structural deficit. His preferred budget plan would have fixed this deficit through tax increases. The Republican-crafted plan, which he's now letting move forward, does not.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">So Wolf opposes the bond, arguing that districts will have to cut classroom spending in order to pay for building upgrades that are already underway.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Because of this, Wolf said, this budget would actually cut classroom spending by $45 million.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">John Callahan, the assistant executive director for public policy with Pennsylvania School Boards Association, disagreed with the governor's logic.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"That's a different way of looking at things," he said. "This is money where it's needed, and that is not a cut."</span></p><p class="NWsubheading" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 40px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Year one complete</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf campaigned for governor on the idea that he'd secure a major statewide funding boost for public education and bring the state's total share of school spending from about 35 percent to about 50 percent.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">To accomplish this, he needed to convince the Republican-held legislature to agree to some sort of tax increase.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In the weeks before the election in 2014, he spoke confidently about his ability to overcome the difficulties of divided government.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"I think I'm sensing that there are enough people in the legislature in both parties who recognize that we need to make some changes," he said in an October 2014 interview at WHYY. "And a Marcellus Shale tax is an easy one."</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">History, so far, hasn't vindicated this position.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A tax on natural gas drilling came off the table early in the protracted negotiation process.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And although Wolf nearly secured a grand bargain in December that would have raised taxes in order to boost school spending and fix the deficit — all while reforming the state employee pension system and overhauling the state liquor store system — that "framework" agreement collapsed without the support of enough rank-and-file lawmakers.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Reacting to Wednesday's news, education advocates sent messages of mixed emotions — happy that it seems schools will get enough money to finish the year, but disappointed they weren't delivered a bigger win.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Make no mistake, this budget does not solve the state's long-term school funding crisis," said Campaign for Fair Education spokesman Charlie Lyons. "The threshold for a successful school funding system should not be whether there is enough money for schools to keep their doors open and the lights on."</span></p></article></div></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-53903968305813567002016-03-23T14:12:00.001-04:002016-03-23T14:12:52.263-04:00Round 1 of the budget<p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Pennsylvania's long state budget nightmare is over.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Gov. Tom Wolf announced Wednesday that he will let a Republican-backed, $7 billion budget closure package take effect without his signature, effectively bringing a truce to a nine-month fiscal and policy war.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That truce will be short-lived, though.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The governor and state lawmakers will have to have a new budget - one in which the governor is seeking election-year tax increases to balance - in place by July 1 for fiscal 2016-17.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But today's action averts a number of potential crisis points around the state, from schools that have threatened to close their doors early to Penn State's planning for the closure of statewide agricultural extension services.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf said he would sign the bills because he is still not personally convinced they represent honest budgeting. But he said he can manage future shortfalls, should they occur, by imposing spending freezes in various line items.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Thursday's announcement was a significant about-face by Wolf, who last week threatened a full veto of the GOP-authored package that he criticized as continuing a pattern of "smoke and mirrors"budgeting.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf was left with dwindling options in recent days, however, as it was becoming increasingly unclear whether his Democratic allies in the House and Senate would be able to sustain such a veto.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Even public school leaders that Wolf has been woking to help have called in recent days for the governor to concentrate on fiscal 2016-17.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf sidestepped questions about the political pressure at his Capitol press conference, saying only that "I think, overwhelmingly, people wanted to do the right thing, and that's what I'm responding to."</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It was also becoming clear that, in late March, there was little practical effect to continuing the fight for new program funds that very likely couldn't be spent in this fiscal year.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Republicans, meanwhile, have argued that their plan, which would close out the current fiscal year at just over $30 billion, makes sense on a lot of levels.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It contains a $200 million increase in direct aid to public schools, albeit $175 million less than Wolf had wanted; it holds all taxes at current levels; and it increases state aid to Penn State, Pitt and Temple.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Democratic governor and the Republican-controlled General Assembly have been locked in Washington-style partisan gridlock for this entire budget year, which started July 1.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">State government has operated so far on a combination of Treasury waivers permitting the nuts and bolts state operations to continue without a budget, and, more recently, a partial budget that routed some dollars to cash-starved schools and human service providers.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The battle has pivoted primarily on two poles:</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">* Wolf's aggressive demands for school funding and other spending increases, much of which the governor argues is simply a matter of accounting fixes needed to put the state's fiscal house in order. Wolf has said he expects the current course to lead to a $2 billion gap between income and expenses in 2016-17.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">* Conservative Republicans' aversion to anything approaching the large tax increases that would be needed to achieve Wolf's goals.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf has proposed an increase in the state personal income tax from 3.07 percent to 3.4 percent retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016, as well as extending the state's 6 percent sales tax to cable television services and a $1-per-pack hike in cigarette taxes.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf was insisting, until today, on something closer to the $30.8 billion spending plan that he had agreed to with legislative leaders in December, before fiscal conservatives in the House effectively killed it.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Wolf has argued that's the honest number needed to fund a state government that's been running for too long on one-time transfers and other accounting maneuvers.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But the budget closure plan's supporters have called the current package as good as lawmakers and Wolf can get at this late point in the fiscal year.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">They have also argued it will help 2016-17 negotiations because all sides will start from a base spending number that's about $700 million lower.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.067em;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It now looks as if they've won this round.</span></p>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5330464138381183670.post-8867964097823426952016-03-15T09:36:00.001-04:002016-03-15T09:36:14.497-04:00March 2016 AASA<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Colleagues, some great articles in this addition of this magazine. <a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jmwiDbPNbbE/VugPzU5VPrI/AAAAAAAABL8/cxOqwfLY_Jo/s640/blogger-image-2107141176.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jmwiDbPNbbE/VugPzU5VPrI/AAAAAAAABL8/cxOqwfLY_Jo/s640/blogger-image-2107141176.jpg"></a></div>Edward Alberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08163801295236799670noreply@blogger.com0