Monday, December 23, 2013

Pa. Lawmaker Renews Push to Arm Teachers

Pa. lawmaker renews push to arm teachers
Posted: Monday, December 23, 2013 2:30 pm | Updated: 6:12 pm, Mon Dec 23, 2013.

HARRISBURG — As a Colorado community mourns a school shooting victim who died Saturday, a Pennsylvania lawmaker is reviving a push to let teachers bring guns to work.
Senate Bill 1193, by Indiana County Sen. Don White, would allow school boards to decide whether administrators, teachers and staff members could carry guns on school property. The armed school officials would have to obtain concealed firearm licenses and meet training requirements.“As we weigh our options, I believe we need to consider providing school employees with more choices than just locking a door, hiding in a closet or diving in front of bullets to protect students,” White said in the memo seeking support for the bill. “With the legal authority, licensing and proper training, I believe allowing school administrators, teachers or other staff to carry firearms on the school premises is an option worth exploring.”
Five co-sponsors have signed onto White’s bill: Sen. Elder Vogel Jr. of Beaver County; Sen. Randy Vulakovich of Allegheny County; Sen. John Rafferty Jr. of Montgomery County; Sen. Bob Robbins of Mercer County; and Sen. Michael Waugh of York County. Last year, state Rep. Greg Lucas, a former teacher who represents parts of Erie and Crawford counties, pitched a similar proposal with House Bill 122.
The concept of arming teachers goes against recommendations made in a report released last month by the House Select Committee for School Safety. The committee based its findings on input from school officials, state agencies, law enforcement, mental health specialists, students and parents following four public hearings.
“A number of testifiers noted that carrying firearms falls outside of the professional roles of school personnel,” the report states. “Other testifiers pointed to the potential dangers in placing in school's individuals, who have not been properly and thoroughly trained to handle firearms, with one law enforcement professional noting that approximately six months of dedicated training is required in order to become a police officer in the Commonwealth.”
Locally, Centennial School Board President Jane Schrader Lynch and Vice President Mark B. Miller each said they oppose the legislation.
"I would not want to have any weapon in our buildings that is not under the control of our local partners in law enforcement," said Miller, who's also vice president of the Pennsylvania School Board Association. "At present, we have a school policy that would prohibit weapons on our campuses or property, including our Administration Building and Transportation Center. I would oppose any change."
At the federal level, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said he wouldn’t support arming teachers and faculty as a means to curb school shootings.
“If someone has a right to carry a weapon, then that is their right, and it is certainly part of our legal system and a part of our culture, but I don’t think arming teachers is the answer,” Casey said during a news conference Monday. “We have to figure out more and better ways to protect our schools.”
The push to arm teachers gained some legislative momentum nationally in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last December, when a gunman killed 20 children and six adults.
Following that, lawmakers in 34 states introduced bills related to arming school staff members or hiring armed guards for schools. Six other states have enacted such laws, starting with South Dakota in March, the National Conference of State Legislatures reports. Recent news reports show similar efforts continuing in several states, including Florida, Nebraska and South Carolina. A Missouri bill now under consideration would arm teachers with pepper spray instead of guns.
The latest victim of a school shooting, 17-year-old Claire Davis, died in the hospital Saturday. Reportedly a random target, she was shot at point-blank range inside Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Col., on Dec. 13 -- one day before the one-year anniversary of the Newtown massacre.
“Because time is a critical element in responding to a school shooting, the faster someone stops a gunman, the more lives will be saved,” White stated in his co-sponsorship memo. “As the dynamics of school shootings are studied, it is becoming clear that we have to look at a line of first defense in stopping these tragedies.”
That notion fits into a larger shift in thinking about school safety, with some schools taking an interest in training and policies that go beyond lock-down norms, such as training teachers and students to flee and even fight back under certain scenarios.
Arming teachers was the only one of eight gun-related proposals that didn’t win public support in the aftermath of Newtown, according to some surveys, with 57 percent of Americans opposed to more teachers and school officials with guns in a January poll by the Pew Research Center. The most popular proposals in that poll involved expanding background checks and preventing people with mental illness from purchasing guns, with more than 80 percent of people surveyed favoring those efforts.
In Pennsylvania, 56 percent of registered voters opposed arming teachers in a poll conducted in February 2013 by Mercyhurst University's Center for Applied Politics. Those who owned guns in their households were more likely to support the idea, while 76 percent of respondents who didn’t own a gun opposed it.
White’s bill to arm school officials has been referred to the Senate Education Committee.

Morrisville Council Members Seek to Oust Manager

Morrisville council members seek to oust manager
       
Before her last day as a Morrisville councilwoman, Eileen Dreisbach wants to accomplish one more thing: get rid of the current borough manager.Dreisbach, who didn’t run for re-election and whose last day on council is Dec. 31, made a motion at last week’s council meeting to advertise for a new manager.The current part-time position has been filled by Tom Bates since 2010. In 2011, the position was changed from being an employee of the borough to a contractor — a move pushed by Bates for “personal financial reasons.” His salary is $32,000.
Council members Debbie Smith and Todd Sanford supported Dreisbach’s motion. But the other five council members didn’t, so Bates’ job is safe.
It’s not the first time Dreisbach took a swing at Bates.
In October, she made the motion to replace Bates and begin the process of selecting a full-time manager.
After some discussion, the impending budget season pushed the motion to the side as Bates was needed to prepare the 2014 spending plan. Now with the budget season over, Dreisbach has brought the issue back.
Dreisbach said Bates has signed contracts without the knowledge of council and signing contracts is the responsibility of the council president, she said citing a borough ordinance.
“I know (Bates) is allowed to approve certain expenditures, which I can understand, but (council) should still be made aware of what is being purchased ... I wish we were more informed,” Dreisbach told the newspaper.
What has frustrated Dreisbach, Smith and Sanford is that Bates “has refused” to give council copies of the bids on a capital improvement project to upgrade borough hall, the library and the borough’s public works department. The project was awarded to consulting firm Johnson Controls. In addition, Dreisbach argues Bates signed the contract with Johnson Controls without keeping council in the loop.
That project is now on hold because Mayor Rita Ledger vetoed it. However, the borough runs the risk of getting sued, because contracts have been signed to contractors, officials have said. That can change come January with a new council and mayor, if it comes up for a vote again.
In August, Dreisbach submitted two Right-To-Know requests for bid contracts and job descriptions for the project. The borough responded “no such documents” to both requests, according Dreisbach’s copies of her requests.
“This has to do with him signing contracts with Johnson Control when the president of council is supposed to sign contracts and other things that (Bates) has done that he is not authorized to do,” she said.
In 2011, a resolution was passed by council allowing the borough manager to have authority to sign contracts, solicitor James Downey said during the October meeting. Bates was delegated by council on a contract-to-contract basis, he added.
Dreisbach submitted yet another Right-To-Know request in September for a copy of the resolution. The borough responded “no such documents found,” according to reply dated Oct. 7. The newspaper also submitted the same Right-To-Know and also received the same response in October.
Council President Nancy Sherlock told the newspaper that Dreisbach’s motions are a personal attack against Bates.
“I believe this is a long time coming,” she said. “I think (certain council members) have had an issue with Tom for a long time now and I don’t really think it’s warranted. I think Tom does a fine job, I really do.”

Friday, December 20, 2013

Pennsylvania Wins $51.7M Grant for Early Childhood Education

Pennsylvania wins $51.7M grant for early childhood education
 
Posted: Thursday, December 19, 2013 8:17 pm | Updated: 1:03 am, Fri Dec 20, 2013.
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania is getting a $51.7 million boost for early childhood education programs, Gov. Tom Corbett announced Thursday.It’s the largest federal grant the state has ever received to spend on programs for early learning, and reflects the state’s commitment to strengthening and increasing programs that help prevent students from falling too far behind by the time they reach third grade, Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said.
“This is actually the next evolution,” Dumaresq said on a conference call with reporters. “This is where Pennsylvanians need to go.”
Pennsylvania is one of six states to win an award this year through the federal Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge grant program. Sixteen states had applied for a share of $280 million. The Obama administration has doled out about $1 billion in similar early learning grants over the past several years.
The state Department of Education has not yet decided which schools will benefit from the cash infusion.
The department will spend the next few months developing the requirements schools must meet to be eligible for the grants, with plans to put out a request for proposals from interested schools over the summer, department spokesman Tim Eller said. The money will be disbursed over four years, starting in January 2015.
“What the department will look for is engaging local communities, increasing parental involvement and, most importantly, a high-quality program being offered,” Eller said.
The lowest-achieving schools with the greatest need for early childhood education resources will be eligible to compete for a share of the federal money. Fifty schools will be chosen as recipients, and deemed Early Childhood Education Community Innovation Zones. Those 50 schools will work with community organizations such as the YMCA or Boys and Girls’ Club to increase access to programs for young students, Eller said.
The state will judge which schools are lowest-achieving based on the newly unveiled School Performance Profiles, an accountability system that rates schools on a 100-point scale. State officials haven’t yet determined the cut-off score for grant eligibility, though Dumaresq said it was fair to say the competition will probably apply to schools scoring in the 30- to 40-point range.
The nearly $52 million will also fund related initiatives, such as so-called Governor’s Institutes, week-long events to allow preschool through third-grade teachers to share best practices. The state also plans to make available to schools a free kindergarten assessment template, called Kindergarten Entry Inventory, to help teachers determine the individual needs and abilities of students as they begin the school year.
“High-quality early learning programs are known to improve student achievement and prepare students to enter kindergarten,” Corbett said in a statement. “As a national leader, Pennsylvania offers early education opportunities to our youngest citizens and this investment will help us to further improve and expand our existing quality programs.”
The federal early learning grant program is a joint effort by the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It fits into President Barack Obama’s goal to implement universal preschool nationwide, with U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., among the federal lawmakers championing proposed legislation that would do so at a press conference last month.
Pennsylvania already offers subsidized preschool for some children who come from low-income households or have special needs, with the state’s Pre-K Counts program serving 11,380 children in 62 counties in 2011-12.
The Pennsbury School District in Bucks County is one of the newest participants in Pre-K Counts, having launched its program in late August. The district has 102 slots for young students, with 4-year-olds at Walt Disney and Eleanor Roosevelt elementary schools and 3-year-olds at the Morrisville YMCA. Walt Disney Elementary School Principal Laurie Ruffing said the district is eligible to continue getting the funds for five years, and noted the preschool classes would be scrapped if the state stopped providing the money.
“I would be shocked to see that go away,” Eller said. “That is a very beneficial program. It’s a high-quality program and it has actually been receiving increases from year to year.”
For more information on the federal Race to the Top early learning grants, visit www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-earlylearningchallenge/.

Morrisville Adopts 2014 $5.99-million Budget; Police Line Item Includes Police Chief, Nine Full-timers and Four Part-timers

Morrisville adopts 2014 $5.99-million budget; Police line item includes police chief, nine full-timers and four part-timers

By Petra Chesner Schlatter
pschlatter@buckslocalnews.com


MORRISVILLE BOROUGH – In a unanimous vote, borough council adopted the 2014 budget with a $73 tax increase for homeowners with the average property assessment.

The $73 increase translates to 3.65 mills, bringing the total millage to 44.56.

Borough Manager Tom Bates said the budget is balanced, but explained that the total revenues ($5,993,931) are slightly higher than the expenditures ($5,954,271) because police radios have not yet been purchased.

The biggest increase in the budget is in the line item for the police department, according to Bates. Most of the police department expenditures increased, Bates said, because of increased workmen’s compensation, insurance stipend and salaries. Salaries for the department rose three percent.

“Even though we did not get a new police car this year, the overall increase for police expenditures is $239,794,” Bates said. “The police department only has seven full-time officers because two guys retired and the chief is gone. They have part-timers manning their schedules.” He noted that one full-time officer is out sick.

Bates said there will be “a full-force” once a police chief and two full-time officers are hired.

“I put it in the budget that they would have the exact same thing they have always had -- 10 full-timers and four part-timers as backup,” he said.

“Right now, they have seven [full-timers] working and probably six - eight [part-timers] to man all the shifts,” Bates said.

He also allowed for two corporals because the officer in charge said the police department needs shift supervisors.

There were 11 applicants for three full-time police officer openings, according to council member Eileen Dreisbach, who added that eight recently passed the written and agility tests. They were scheduled to complete the oral portion of the test on Thursday, Dec. 19. 
Council member Debbie Smith said people want more full-time police officers and the approved budget does not include enough of them. She said they would have more of a vested interest in the police department. Smith noted that it was a difficult budget to do “to balance what everyone wants”.

Borough Council President Nancy Sherlock does not like the budget that was adopted.

“I don’t think it’s responsible enough,” she said. “It’s definitely a skeleton budget. Think about the challenges we’re going to have next year, the year after that and the year after that.”

Former Council President Jane Burger, a critic of the majority on the board, thanked the council for posting the preliminary budget on the website.

She noted that one of the borough manager’s three budgets that he presented called for an 18-mill increase.

“There was a lot of work on the budget,” she said, noting that the council and she agreed that an 18-mill increase was out of the question.

She thanked council for bringing down the tax millage rate and maintaining a full police department.

Former Council Vice President Kathryn Panzitta said the borough’s part-time police officers make less than a clerk at Home Depot.

“I really think the budget is a disgrace,” she said, noting that she is concerned whether standard services will continue to be provided.

She called for council to rethink about the budget.  

“In good conscious,” she said, “I think this budget stinks.”

In other budget matters, people’s trash bills will not increase and have not for three years, according to Bates, despite the borough being contractually obligated to pay the trash company $43,440 more.

There is a 3.5-percent increase for all non-uniformed union employees per the AFSCME contract. Also included in the new budget are increases for salaried employees.    

Monday, December 16, 2013

Updated School Performance Profile Info



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 11, 2013

Acting Secretary of Education Announces Updates to School Performance Profile

Harrisburg – Acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq today announced that the School Performance Profile website has been updated to include scores for the more than 620 schools that had their information suppressed in October.
In addition, the data used to calculate the profile scores as well as federal accountability reports for public schools, local education agencies and the state are available.
“Today’s update completes the School Performance Profile for the 2012-13 school year,” Dumaresq said. “Students, parents, educators and the general public can now view academic performance of all Pennsylvania public schools as well as compare results to neighboring schools and schools across the state.”
The results indicate that 2,181, or nearly 73 percent, of public schools received a 70 or higher.
“The majority of public schools across the commonwealth are doing well and preparing their students to be successful adults,” Dumaresq said. “I am confident that we will see schools improving year after year now that a new educator effectiveness system and meaningful academic standards and assessments are in place.”
Released in October, the School Performance Profile serves many purposes: to provide the public with detailed information of the academic performance of public schools; to satisfy requirements of Pennsylvania’s approved federal No Child Left Behind waiver; and to be used as part of the state’s new educator evaluation system.
The profile does not only rely on results of the statewide assessments but it also incorporates other measures of student achievement, such as student academic growth from year to year; graduation rate; attendance rate; promotion rate; and increasing the achievement of all students, including historically underperforming students, such as English language learners and economically disadvantaged students.
“The results are promising and, at the same, demonstrate the continuing need for improvement and innovation,” Dumaresq said, noting that the Corbett administration has put into place policies and improved upon existing programs to increase student achievement.
The new educator evaluation system, signed into law last year by Governor Tom Corbett, assesses educators on multiple measures of student achievement, provides schools with resources to improve classroom instruction; and makes available information for schools to target resources for educator professional development.
Under the Governor’s direction, the department has developed and implemented new and expanded existing resources and support systems for voluntary use by all public schools.
The Standards Aligned System (SAS), accessible by visiting www.pdesas.org, is a comprehensive resource developed to assist schools in improving student achievement. This web-based system identifies six components that impact student success: standards, assessments, curriculum framework, instruction, materials and resources, and safe and supportive schools.
To date, more than 168,000 users have registered to access the site with a total of more than 34.8 million visits.
Available on SAS is a Classroom Diagnostic Tool, which is a voluntary online assessment, designed to provide classroom teachers with information about student performance in reading, math and science in grades 3 to 12. Results are used by educators to guide classroom instruction, remediation and enrichment.
The department will deploy Academic Recovery Liaisons to federally designated “Priority” schools in an effort to improve education in Pennsylvania’s lowest-performing schools.
School improvement strategies will focus on implementing college- and career-ready standards through alignment of curriculum and assessments, effectively using data, employing educator effectiveness protocols, improving school climate and increasing family involvement.
In partnership with First Lady Susan Corbett, the department has developed an Opening Doors Early Warning System to be used by schools to assist in identifying students at risk for dropping out of school.
This voluntary system will analyze three key indicators that may indicate a student is at risk for dropping out: attendance, behavior and academic record.
The important component of the system is a catalog of school- and community-based intervention resources that schools can direct students to in order to remain on track to graduate.
The Early Warning System is expected to be available to all Pennsylvania public schools in the 2014-15 school year.
“Governor Corbett remains committed to ensuring that Pennsylvania’s students have access to the best public education system across the nation,” Dumaresq said. “Over the last three years, the Governor has worked to put in place new accountability systems that will make certain the significant financial investments of state taxpayers are being used to put students first.”
To access the School Performance Profile, visit www.paschoolperformance.org. Data that was used to calculate profile scores can be accessed by clicking on the “Data Files” link on the bottom right side of the home page.
Federal accountability reports are available by visiting www.eseafedreport.com.
Media contact: Tim Eller, 717-783-9802
###

Pa. State Police Issue Report on School Safety

Pa. State Police issue report on school safety
 
Posted: Monday, December 16, 2013 10:05 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Drawing on security evaluations of more than 300 schools since 2004, Pennsylvania State Police have released a report aimed at helping public and private schools boost security.The report, available on the state police website, sounded a note of caution about the schools' vulnerability to attack.
"Many schools are vulnerable to violent intruders entering the building with a weapon and causing harm to the occupants. A secondary threat to the school is the introduction of a portable explosive device into the building to cause mass casualties," the report said.
The report recommended that schools maintain a security force, install closed-circuit TVs, upgrade locks, hold regular drills and take other safety measures aimed at reducing the threat. It also provided guidance for lockdown and evacuation procedures.
"There may never be perfection, as no security measure is perfect; however, risks can be significantly reduced," the report said.
The report said the presence of security forces varies widely across the state and depends on factors like cost and public perception.
"An unarmed security officer is less effective in dealing with a more serious security incident, such as a violent intruder," it noted.
Donald Smith, emergency planning and response coordinator for the nonprofit Center for Safe Schools in Camp Hill, said most schools are already following some of the recommendations. He said the number of security staff in schools has increased "exponentially" since last year's Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre and more are looking into using armed personnel.
The state Legislature passed a quadrupled $8.5 million school safety bill in response to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., while in northeastern Pennsylvania, many schools have beefed up security over the past year, according to the Pocono Record.
At Delaware Valley School District, for example, Superintendent John Bell said officials made $500,000 in security improvements in response to Newtown.
"It totally changed our whole perspective on school security," he said.
The state police report used FBI statistics to show that 17 percent of the 154 active shooter incidents in the United States from 2002 to 2012 took place at schools.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on the recommendations in Monday editions.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Morrisville Residents May Face Tax Increase in 2014

 

Morrisville residents may face tax increase in 2014


Morrisville residents may have to set aside additional money to cover their borough taxes in 2014.The council is proposing an increase of 3.63 mills, or $72.60, to help balance the $5.9 million budget. This year, Morrisville is running with a slightly lower budget of $5.6 million.
If the preliminary budget passes on Monday, the owners of an average home assessed at $20,000 will pay $891.20 to the borough.
Next year’s budget includes about 10 full-time and four part-time police officers, and a police chief, which the borough needs to hire.
Borough Manager Tom Bates provided the council with three budgets, each with different options for the police department. His plans are the result of requests from residents that more cops be put on the streets.
The first option would have kept four full-time officers who would have been promoted to corporal and thus become supervisors. Then, the rest of the force would have been filled with about 12 part-time officers. This option included a police chief and would have put one full-timer and two part-timers per shift on the streets.
This option also would have cut benefits such as longevity and holiday pay, health care, saving more than $500,000, Bates said, adding it would have balanced the budget but reduced the police budget to about $1.3 million.
The second option was similar to this year’s budget that includes 10 full-timers and a chief totaling $1.8 million. This option puts two full-time officers on patrol.
The third proposal was to have three full-timers on patrol around the clock and would raise taxes by 18 mills, or $360, putting the police budget at about $2.3 million.

State Panel: Change Special Education Funding Formula

State panel: Change special education funding formula
Posted: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 7:09 pm | Updated: 1:20 am, Thu Dec 12, 2013.

HARRISBURG — It’s been six years since the state Legislature gave school districts more money to cover special education costs.
The state’s special education funding to 500 school districts has been capped at about $1 billion since 2008-09, while the number of special education students has risen about 3 percent to 268,466 — one in every seven public students in the state.
“It doesn’t take a mathematician to prove that’s really a loss,” East Penn School District Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger said.
More money could flow to districts via a new special education funding formula unveiled by a bipartisan group of lawmakers Wednesday if the Legislature does decide to lift the cap in the 2014-15 budget. The 15-member panel, called the Special Education Funding Commission, was chaired by Leigh County Sen. Pat Browne and Bucks County Rep. Bernie O’Neill.
“It is my sincere belief as member and a co-chair of this commission that adoption of these recommendations by the General Assembly will greatly improve the accuracy, transparency and effectiveness of Pennsylvania’s funding for special education programming for the benefit of all our special education students and the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a whole in the future,” Browne said at a hearing in which the commission presented its 75-page funding report.
The proposed formula would distribute new money based on the severity of a student’s disability, as opposed to the existing formula that dispenses money under the assumption that 16 percent of all students in all districts have at least one of a dozen legally recognized disabilities.
“We’re no longer going to pay for special education based on an archaic formula that every school district has the same number, or percentage, of special education students in their district,” said O’Neill, R-29, who has been working toward developing a new special education funding formula for eight years. “Moving forward, every school district is going to be required to count and provide to the Department of Education the number of special education students they have total, and how they’re broken down into the three categories.”
But Seidenberger said the commission’s report does not go far enough. All the report will do is reshuffle money, creating winners and losers among districts, he said. It does not address the fundamental problem of stagnant special education funds coming from Harrisburg, he said.
“Level funding, especially in the case of special education funding, doesn’t work,” Seidenberger said.
The commission was precluded by law from developing a new funding formula for existing money or recommending more funding, Browne said. But that does not mean the commission’s work was for naught. Over time, he said, the new funding formula would work to more fairly distribute funds based on real special education costs.
“It’s going to be based on true cost and true number of students,” O’Neill said.
The General Assembly could add more money to special education in the coming fiscal year, Browne said. It could also decide to use the commission’s recommended funding formula to alter the existing funding formula as part of future budgets, he said.
The average cost to provide extra learning or physical support to special education students in Pennsylvania is $13,028. But costs can easily exceed $25,000 per child depending on the severity of need, as happened at East Penn this year when an unexpected influx of 15 disabled students, including several autistic children, increased its special education costs by more than $840,000.
Under the commission’s plan, special education money increases would be based on a three-tiered formula tied to individual students’ needs in each district and publicly funded charter schools. The state would differentiate special education services among least intensive to most intensive at costs ranging from $25,000 or less, $35,000 to $50,000, to $50,000 or more.
The report does not recommend which disabilities fall into each cost category.
But in theory, districts and publicly funded charter schools and cyber charter schools would get less money to provide students with a relatively cheap service such as speech therapy. They would get more for an expensive service such as autism education as opposed to districts’ and charter schools’ getting the same amounts for each category.
The formula also would be weighted to take into account a local district’s poverty level and property tax base to ensure districts can cover the costs of providing services to all special education. A special weighted protection would be given to small rural districts.
“Ultimately this formula, or the proposal for this formula that’s recommended in this report, I think does more for special-needs students than has been done in the last 23 years,” Lancaster County Rep. Mike Sturla said at the hearing.
The state’s overall special education budget includes a small contingency fund to help districts defray a portion of their costs of special education costs for individual students whose needs exceed $75,000. The commission recommended separating the “extraordinary cost fund” from the overall superficial education budget to increase transparency.
But shuffling the money will not help school districts if lawmakers are not willing to cover the full cost of care, Seidenberger said.
“We got about $150,000 in the contingency and we qualified for $900,000 (this year),” he said. “You can ask any school in (the Lehigh Valley), what did we send the state and what did we get, it’s going to be a low percentage.”
No special education funding formula will be perfect, acting Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq said. But the commission’s recommended formula comes close to achieving fairness to all parties and Gov. Tom Corbett endorses it, she said.
The new formula would only go into effect if the Legislature and Corbett adopt the formula into law and direct extra money into special education in 2014-15 or future years.
The commission will hold another public hearing in 2014 to present its report to the House and Senate.
The full report can be found on Browne’s website: www.senatorbrowne.com/.
Calkins Media staff writer Natasha Lindstrom contributed to this report.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Price Tag of Keystone Exams Debated at House Hearing

Price tag of Keystone Exams debated at House hearing
HARRISBURG — As Pennsylvania forges ahead with its first high school exit exams, House lawmakers squabbled Tuesday over the price tag to develop and score the new standardized assessments.A House Education Committee hearing focused on concerns over the Keystone Exams, a set of subject tests that students will have to pass to graduate starting with the Class of 2017, or this year’s ninth-graders. Last year was the first year the state administered Keystone Exams in three subjects: Algebra I, literature and biology.
Schuylkill County Rep. Mike Tobash, who is pushing a bill to prohibit the Department of Education from developing additional Keystone subject tests for another 10 years, blasted the assessments as a financial burden that cost some $200 million and have the potential to rack up “hundreds of millions more.”
Joan Benso, president of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, who supports the Keystone Exams as a way to better prepare students for jobs and higher education, told committee members she didn’t know the exact dollar figures, but that she thought the exams cost closer to just $3 million each.
So how much do the new high school exit exams really cost?
The state spent about $5 million per exam to develop the first three Keystone subject tests, and has budgeted an estimated $4 million to $5 million annually per exam to administer and score the tests, Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said.
The administration of the Keystone Exams cost a total of $19.5 million last school year and $12.5 million this school year, Eller said. Looking ahead, the department anticipates the cost will be $14 million to $15 million annually to administer the three exams.
The $200 million figure floating around likely stems from the state’s entire five-year purchase order with Data Recognition Corporation for testing at all grade levels — not just the Keystone Exams, Eller said. That amount includes the Pennsylvania System of School Assessments administered to third- through eighth-graders.
The department is set to go out to bid for a new testing provider contract in early spring, and could choose to go with another company, Eller said. The Keystone Exams are aligned with Pennsylvania’s slightly tweaked version of the national Common Core State Standards, a framework developed by the National Governors Association and Council of Chief State School Officers adopted by 45 states.
The state Legislature has not yet appropriated funding to roll out additional subject exams, with original plans calling for up to 10 tests. The next two Keystone Exams slated for development cover composition and civics and government.
The development and implementation costs don’t include the added financial burden some schools say they’ll be facing to remediate students who don’t pass the exam on the first try. Students may take the tests an unlimited number of times, and local school officials can grant students exemptions in extenuating circumstances.
The state Independent Regulatory Review Commission gave final approval to the implementation of the Keystone Exams as a graduation requirement on Nov. 21. The exit exam rules are included in the comprehensive set of education regulations known as Chapter 4.
The state Attorney General’s office still has to sign off for the Chapter 4 regulations to get adopted officially, a procedural approval that’s expected to happen in coming weeks.
House Education Committee Chairman Paul Clymer, R-145, said that while the Keystone Exam requirement is moving forward, he wants the education community to know that lawmakers will continue to address concerns raised by educators. Among some issues brought up Tuesday: whether a focus on testing leads to narrower curriculum and strapped staff resources, the need to value vocational and technical education and the extra burden placed on high-poverty school districts to remediate students.
“The teachers and administrators know that there’s an open door there, that we are listening and their concerns and frustrations are being heard,” said Clymer. “We can continue to move the dialogue and the conversation around the table, and we can work out solutions.”