Parents make their voices heard at education meeting
Centennial School District and the Board of School Directors host a county-wide PTO meeting on Thursday evening at William Tennent High School to discuss state education funding policy. Here Stephen Kunkel, Director of Palisades School District, comments about charter school funding in his district.
Posted: Friday, October 28, 2011 5:30 am | Updated: 9:55 am, Fri Oct 28, 2011.
A spirited exchange of ideas had people clapping, nodding and asking questions at a hearing Thursday evening about solving the challenges facing public education.
Issues ranging from charter schools to school vouchers and funding problems in the state education system raised emotions and spurred two hours of discussion in the William Tennent High School auditorium in Warminster.
The audience of about 100 people, made up mostly of parents, educators and other taxpayers, posed a stream of questions to a panel of State Education Committee representatives, school officials and education advocates. The League of Women Voters moderated the discussion.
At the center of the issue was the $900 million cut in the state education budget, as well as Senate Bill 1, which was passed in the state Senate on Wednesday. Among other issues, it deals with charter schools and school vouchers, but it doesn’t solve problems that are at the crux of the fiscal crisis, panel members said.
“It’s a crucial time. Contact your legislators to get them to invest in education and look at the issues,” said Susan Gobreski, a panel member and executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania, an advocacy group.
The way charter schools are funded is a problem that the bill doesn’t solve, said Auditor General Jack Wagner, introducing a hot button issue that occupied half of the conversation during the evening.
“The problem is that the funding formula is wrong. I would grade it as an F,” he said.
Home school districts have to contribute the average cost of supporting a student in their district to the charter school. But that amount swings from $6,000 in one district to $16,000 in another. On average, charter schools are getting much more money from taxpayers than it costs to actually educate the child, Wagner said. Cyber charter schools don’t even need a brick-and-mortar school, and can require even less money to run, he added.
Among 500 school districts in the state, there are 145 charter schools, and 15 of those are cyber charter schools. Assuming an average fund of $10,000 per student, taxpayers and school districts are giving about $900 million to charter schools, when some of that money can surely be kept in taxpayers’ pockets or in schools to fund education programs, Wagner said.
The audience was shocked when he presented these numbers.
Other problems exist with financing charter schools as well, said Jack A. Myers, director of business operations in Bensalem School District.
For example, charter schools don’t have to limit their claims for special education when they bill the state for subsidies, he said.
The negative emphasis on charter schools had at least one audience member smarting.
Heather Humienny, president of the board of trustees of Pennsbury’s Center for Student Learning, said she was very concerned about where taxpayer money is going and how to deal with stretched finances, but she thought Wagner’s presentation was one-sided.
“There are school districts that need help. Some don’t. It’s the same with charters. Not all are good, not all are bad. The premise of charter schools is to provide something the home school district was not able to provide,” she pointed out. For example, CSL is an alternative charter school that helps students who are having trouble in the traditional school environment succeed, she said.
“We shouldn’t demonize charter schools. I urge everyone to look at how money is being spent at all our public schools, including charter schools,” Humienny said.
Council Rock South High School seniors Aaron Feigen and Brendan Lloyd said they were learning more about what they were discussing in class — school vouchers, school funding and charter schools.
“We’re debating whether school vouchers really help test scores,” Aaron said.
Senate Bill 1 addresses the issues of school vouchers, but it doesn’t look at the real issues — why they are desirable to some families, said state Reps. Bernie O’Neill and Paul Clymer, also chairman of the House Education Committee. Both were panel members.
One audience member posed the question of whether or not studies show that students do better when they receive vouchers.
The answer from the panel was a resounding “no,” said Lawrence A. Feinberg, co-chairman and founder of the Keystone State Education Coalition. Applause rang through the auditorium.
Some teachers and schools deal with horrific conditions, said Feinberg, a panel member.
He told the story of a friend who was a teacher in Philadelphia, in an area plagued by economic problems.
“In her class, there were two pregnant 13-year-olds. One student’s mother was in prison. Another had been murdered. Many started out with no basic literacy, no health care. Fifty-three percent were classified as special education. ... A student who threatened to kill the teacher was back in the classroom in two days. ... The teacher was directed to focus on PSSA scores,” Feinberg said.
Amid the focus on standardized test performance preparation, the school experienced cuts in guidance counselors, art, library, music, electives, school nurses and recess. Class sizes ballooned.
“After this budget, vouchers will do nothing for the 90 percent of students who will be left behind after further cuts are made,” Feinberg said.
Now the teacher is in a suburban school, where she has resources galore and a more stable teaching environment. As a result, she’s considered successful, not a failing teacher anymore, he said.
The blame for poor schools extends to everyone, said O’Neill. It covers legislators, teachers and parents. Each party can work to make a difference, he said.
Clymer said the state Legislature has to put money toward solving problems in failing districts, and most importantly, give all interested parties a chance to share their ideas. He said he would have the education committee hear Wagner testify about the fiscal problems he has observed, so that the committee can work from a better knowledge base. The room broke into applause.
Bart DeCorte, a parent in the Centennial School District, gave a statement on behalf of many parents that expressed their fundamental frustration with cuts to education.
“In a time of great fiscal challenges, everyone is forced to reassess their priorities. ... But cuts to public education have the potential to affect our state for decades. It can result in a reduced number of teachers and an increase in class sizes. Studies show large class sizes have a negative impact on student learning that carries over into higher grades and college. An investment in education makes sense not only for the sake of students, but from an economic perspective,” DeCorte said. An investment in education will make the quality of the workforce shine, he said.
7 comments:
Make your voices heard in the VOTING BOOTHS where it really truly counts!!!
Not just parents too; anyone who values public education.
Vouchers aren't going to save you tax money. They will hurt our local schools, and in turn lower home values.
Feb. 28, 2007. Wow, and he advocated selling public school properties to a private school too!
Ron Stout, 129 S. Delmor Ave.
Have you tried to sell the properties to a private school; you’d get a lot more for it. Give all the kids in town vouchers and let them choose where they want to go.
No surprise. Stout's a reliable stooge.
Stout is probably poring over the bill, analyzing it for Constitutionality and nuances that affect equity, fairness, and other issues that impact his responsibilities as a Public School Director.
Hello hello hello is there anybody in there?
Oct. 30, 2011
Karen Heller: Vouchers are not for the kids
Inquirer Columnist
Harrisburg is bankrupt in so many ways, and not just officially. When it comes to helping Philadelphia, funding public schools and social services, or banning assault weapons that have zip to do with hunting Bambi, state legislators barely look up from their BlackBerrys.
Then, lo and behold, lawmakers started wringing their hands over the plight of our city's neediest, suggestive of a massive conversion experience or, barring that, something hinky in the Capitol's drinking water.
The state Senate passed SB 1 last week, the voucher bill that appears to serve our poorest children attending Pennsylvania's worst public schools, the majority in Philadelphia, the very institutions whose funding the GOP-controlled legislature sliced and diced earlier this year.
But appearances can run contrary to the truth.
"This has nothing to do with helping the poor children of Philadelphia," said State Sen. Daylin Leach. "The organizations that are funding the pro-voucher movement are very open that they want to eliminate public schools."
Almost two-thirds of Pennsylvanians disapprove of vouchers, according to recent polling, and the bill requires passage in the House to become law. Said Democracy Rising PA's Tim Potts, "The legislators' interests trump the will of the voters."
To qualify for vouchers, students must be accepted by private or parochial schools, an achievement critics believe few children at low-performing institutions may accomplish. "Most of the money will go to kids already attending private and parochial schools," said the Education Law Center's Baruch Kintisch. "Whenever politics takes over the discussion of education policy, the neediest students always lose."
An earlier version would have helped families with incomes up to $78,225. Said Potts: "This is intended for middle-class kids who already attend private and parochial schools."
The voucher bill is merely "let's get the nose under the camel's tent," said public school advocate Larry Feinberg. "Once they get the voucher bill passed, they can expand who qualifies." When students leave a public school, state funding goes with them.
The state invests billions in education, and "there's an awful lot of money to be made," said Education Voters PA's Susan Gobreski. Voucher funding goes directly to the school, not the student or family. The bill doesn't demand the same level of accountability from recipient schools as from public school districts.
"Follow the money," Feinberg said. "This is like Marcellus Shale where you can see private money influencing public officials."
Considerable contributions and lobbying have been invested in pro-voucher candidates, and SB 1. Gov. Corbett was the keynote speaker at the spring national policy summit of the American Federation for Children, the ultraconservative advocacy organization, funded by the wealthy DeVos family (Amway, Blackwater), the Koch brothers of the pro-voucher movement. The gubernatorial campaign of Philadelphia Democratic State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, a longtime voucher champion, received $5 million from three conservative suburban investors who head Students First PA, a federation partner.
rest of the article.........
The Catholic Church and affiliated advocacy groups also campaigned for vouchers. "I follow that very closely and, of course, I've encouraged local politicians and the governor himself to be open to the possibility of vouchers," Philadelphia Archibishop Charles Chaput told The Inquirer's editorial board. In the last decade, Philadelphia Catholic elementary school enrollment plummeted 41 percent.
The bill appears to be in violation of Pennsylvania's constitution, which states, "No money raised for support of the public schools of the Commonwealth shall be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school."
You don't improve public schools by continually cutting funding, or undermining their mission.
"I would despair if this becomes law," Leach said. "This is not a one-year cut. This is a permanent policy shift that permanently drains on public education, a permanent anchor on the poorest schools that will never get better because of this."
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