November 17, 2010
Election 2010
With some races still too close to call it appears that the Democrats will keep control of the U.S. Senate but may have to fall back on Vice President Joe Biden, the Senate's official president, to break ties in the Democrats' favor. The Republicans regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the State level Republicans now have control of the governorship, 30-20 seats in the Senate and at least 111-92 seats in the House which could grow, when likely recounts are completed, by three or more members.
The unofficial winners in selected Pennsylvania races impacting Montgomery County are as follows:
United States Senate
Pat Toomey (R)
United States House of Representatives
Chaka Fattah (D)* 2nd Congressional District
Jim Gerlach (R)* 6th Congressional District
Patrick Meehan (R) 7th Congressional District
Michael J. Fitzpatrick (R) 8th Congressional District
Allyson Y. Schwartz (D)* 13th Congressional District
Charles W. Dent (R)* 15th Congressional District
Pennsylvania Governor
Tom Corbett (R)
Pennsylvania Senate
Leanna Washington (D)* 4th Senatorial District
Chuck McIlhinney (R)* 10th Senatorial District
Stewart J. Greenleaf (R)* 12th Senatorial District
Bob Mensch (R)* 24th Senatorial District
John C. Rafferty, Jr. (R)* 44th Senatorial
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Robert W. Godshall (R)* 53rd Legislative District
Kate M. Harper (R)* 61st Legislative District
Matt Bradford (D)* 70th Legislative District
Thomas J. Quigley (R)* 146th Legislative District
Marcy Toepel (R)* 147th Legislative District
Mike Gerber (D)* 148th Legislative District
Tim Briggs (D)* 149th Legislative District
Mike Vereb (R)* 150th Legislative District
Todd Stephens (R) 151st Legislative District
Thomas P. Murt (R)* 152nd Legislative District
Josh Shapiro (D)* 153rd Legislative District
Lawrence H. Curry (D)* 154th Legislative District
Warren Kampf (R) 157th Legislative District
Brendan F. Boyle (D)* 170th Legislative District
Pamela A. DeLissio (D) 194th Legislative District
*incumbent
STATE NEWS
Corbett’s Agenda for Excellence
Prior to being elected as Governor, Tom Corbett laid out his vision for education. The full plan is attached but the highlights encompass five general components:
1) Funding schools and students – funding should be aligned to directly support students and follow the students
2) Enhancing educational opportunities – strengthen support for charter schools, improve dual enrollment, and support innovated approaches to learning
3) Ensuring effective teachers and leaders – supports merit pay and expanding alternative pathways to teaching
4) Embracing accountability for results – develop a school grading system and focus on the lowest performing schools
5) Creating safe learning environments – strengthen cooperation between schools and law enforcement and ensure accurate reporting of school violence
State Board of Education
The Senate confirmed four new members for a six-year term to the State Board of Education to replace Esther Bush, Shelia Dow-Ford, Dr. Corrinne Caldwell and Dr. Arnold Hillman whose terms had expired. The new members are:
Wendy Beetlestone was general counsel to the School District of Philadelphia from 2002 to 2005 where she provided legal advice, guidance and counsel to the district and its governing body, the School Reform Commission. She currently is a commercial litigation practice but continues to serve education clients including public school districts, private schools and government educational entities.
Edward Kirk Hallett is the founder and director of The Joshua Group, an at-risk youth-mentoring organization located and working with low-income youth in Harrisburg. Hallett was formerly affiliated with The Nativity School, a private, faith-based middle school for low-income students.
Dr. Ivory Nelson is the president of the Lincoln University located in Chester County.
Jonathan Peri is the vice president and general counsel for Neumann University, a Catholic university in Delaware County.
Common Core Standards
The Common Core Standards for English/Language Arts and Mathematics were published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on October 16, 2010, and are now final and effective. The three-year transition begins during the 2010-2011 school year with full implementation by July 1, 2013.
Senate Education Committee
The Senate Education Committee held a public-hearing on Student Data Privacy (Higher Education) and Senate Bill 1449 that prohibits PDE from obtaining any education identifying information concerning students from institutions of higher education. Representatives from higher education institutions expressed concerns over security of the data, scope of the data collection and its use of the data collected as part of the Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMSS).
The Senate Education Committee held a hearing on Senate Bill 1405 that would provide Opportunity Scholarships to low-income children living in a school district with at least one chronically failing school.
FEDERAL NEWS
US Department of Education
Secretary Arne Duncan posted an advisory to school officials warning that certain types of harassment/bullying focused on race, sexual orientation, religious differences or disability could constitute a violation of an individual’s civil rights under federal law and need to be addressed accordingly by districts.
The letter advises certain actions in consideration of possible civil rights violations including:
- A school is responsible for addressing harassment incidents about which it knows or reasonably should have known.
- When responding to harassment, a school must take immediate and appropriate action to investigate or otherwise determine what occurred.
- If an investigation reveals that discriminatory harassment has occurred, a school must take prompt and effective steps reasonably calculated to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from recurring.
- The school may need to provide training or other interventions not only for the perpetrators, but also for the larger school community, to ensure that all students, their families, and school staff can recognize harassment if it recurs and know how to respond. This could include providing additional services to the student victim and/or the issuance of new policies against harassment and new procedures by which students, parents and employees may report allegations of harassment.
- A school should take steps to stop further harassment and prevent any retaliation against the person who made the complaint (or was the subject of the harassment) or against those who provided information as witnesses. This means eliminating the hostile environment created by the harassment, addressing its effects, and taking steps to ensure that harassment does not recur.
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October 20, 2010
STATE NEWS
Legislative Schedule: The House is not scheduled to come back to voting session until after the elections. The Senate is not scheduled to return to any voting session unless called back by the President Pro Temp should any compromises be reached on issues such as the pension bill or a Marcellus Shale tax.
State Revenues: Pennsylvania collected $2.3 billion in General Fund revenue in September, which was 3.1% more than anticipated. Fiscal year-to-date General Fund collections are 1.3% above estimate.
2010-11 State Budget: Auditor General Jack Wagner warned that the next administration will be faced with a potential $5 billion budget gap as a result of the loss of $2.5 billion in federal stimulus funding, $3 billion owed in unemployment payments to the federal government and at least $800 million for pension costs.
Education is a major issue with the two candidates for governor. Onorato has committed to major increases in K-12 basic education funding annually and the goals and direction of the costing-out-study. Corbett has said that the costing-out study is not affordable and has suggested cuts to the current level of basic education funding may be needed.
Right-to-Know: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by PSEA to prevent the state’s Office of Open Records from ordering the release of school employee addresses under the Right-to-Know laws. This means that should individuals seek addresses from school districts, PSEA must challenge each disclosure request in local courts on a case-by-case basis.
AYP Results: Eighty-two percent of Pennsylvania schools met the required academic goals for the federal “No Child Left Behind” law for 2010. A record number of students performed at grade level in reading and mathematics on the state’s PSSA tests. Governor Rendell announced, “Student achievement has increased in every subject, at all tested grade levels and for all ethnic, racial and economic subgroups of students since 2002 – the eight straight year of student performance gains.”
SAT Scores: High school students nationwide scored an average combined score of 1500 in the 2010 SAT, nearly identical to the 2009 level. Average scores were 501 in reading, 516 in math and 492 in writing. Pennsylvania students averaged 492 in reading, 501 in math and 480 in writing.
Keystone Exams: The State Board of Education approved a policy change in the use of the Keystone Exams. If a district chooses to use a Keystone Exam as part of the district’s local assessment system, in lieu of using the complete slate of Keystone Exams, and the district requires student to score “proficient” or above on the Keystone Exams used (as part of the local assessment system), then the district does not have to count the Keystone Exam score as one-third of the course grade.
Chapter 12 Regulations: The State Board of Education is planning on submitting its recommended changes in the Chapter 12 regulation in its current form that includes the school nutrition and physical activity/physical education provisions. In order to meet the requirements for approval in this legislative session it must be submitted by the first week of November. Once the regulations are submitted to the legislative education committees the regulatory review process begins. The regulatory review process involves accepting comments, a review by the legislative committees, return to the State Board for revision, and then resubmission as a final regulation subject to further review. If this deadline is missed the State Board must wait until next January to submit the regulation.
Charter Schools: Auditor General Jack Wagner has called for a statewide moratorium on the creation of new charter and cyber charter schools until the General Assembly fixes “a flawed funding system that bears no connection to the actual cost of educating children and is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year in additional questionable spending.”
HB 101- the Omnibus School Code is a compilation of a wide range of bills that have been passed by at least one chamber in the 2009-10 legislative session and are considered “non-controversial.” The House concurred to the Senate’s amendments and sent the bill to the Governor for his signature. The Governor has until Friday, October 22, 2010 to take action on it. He opposes one provision concerning a property exemption that would benefit one charter school operator in Delaware County. Provisions under the bill would: