Signs of support for SB 1, the school choice bill pending in Harrisburg, have been popping up in Springfield and throughout Delaware County.
The bill has not been changed since April 11.
Many Tea Party activist feel it goes nowhere near far enough.
Category: Education
‘PTO Parents’ To Sponsor Hectoring Of Reps
A group of “PTO parents” interested in getting more state tax dollars for public schools will hold a forum featuring all Delaware County legislators at which they are expected to hector them until they agree to further indebt the state.
The forum is 7 -10 p.m., Oct. 13 at the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center.
“I am writing today to ask you to help us
fill up that room (it seats 1650) with public education stakeholders and
advocates who are willing to express their concerns and their support
for public education,” said Larry Feinberg, in an email. Feinberg is a staunch Democrat who sits on the Haverford School Board and who chairs the Delaware County School Boards Legislative Council.
Organizers have asked anyone planning to attend to please RSVP in advance at delcolegislativeforum.eventbrite.com.
It should be noted that the puppeteers of these PTO parents are not interested in educating children. They are interested in getting more money for those who have a practical monopoly on providing the service of education.
If they were really interested in the children they would be pushing to end school strikes and giving school boards the power to remove under-performing teachers.
Congress Printed First Bible For Schools
Cathy Craddock sent this great link to a video tour of the U.S. Capitol hosted by David Barton. Among the interesting things Barton points out was that the first Bible printed in the United States was done by Congress for use in public schools, and that the Capitol, itself, was used for large church services with the worship music provided by the Marine Corps Band.
Congress Printed First Bible For Schools
Poor Children Take Back Seat To Greedy Academics
Poor Children Take Back Seat To Greedy Academics
By Bob Guzzardi
UnitePa, an influential Tea Party organization, makes a valid point that the school choice bill SB 1 does not address the plight of those barely above the poverty line who are trapped in violent and educationally failed schools by leaving 30,000 children still trapped in them.
School choice vouchers of $5,000 as proposed by Rep. Curt Schroder’s HB 1678 and 1679 would save these children and cost $150 million if all took them.
The House Republicans, under the leadership of Majority Leader Mike Turzai and House Appropriations Chair Bill Adolph fully support transferring $593 million to certain billionaire liberal Democratic tax exempt private corporations namely the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh, Temple University and Penn State.
If this transfer of tax money was redirected from these extremely rich institutions to struggling parents via an expanded voucher program, the children would be saved and there would be money to spare.
In fact, vouchers could be offered to 60,000 children and there would still be money left to give to the rich limo liberals if so desired, although it is still not clear as why such a desire would exist.
We should ask Penn President Amy Gutmann, who is paid $1,367,000, if she deny poor and lower middle class kids an opportunity to escape violent and educationally failed schools many in Penn’s own neighborhood?
I don’t think she would be that selfish, do you?
Poor Children Take Back Seat To Greedy Academics
Never Ending Drip Of School Tax Water Torture
Springfield School District (Pa) residents will pay an average of $115 more in property taxes next year (2012) all of course without any kind of guarantee that their schools will improve or even simply stay at par.
The millage which went from 26.2910 to 27.223 last year goes to 28.017 this year.
A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed value. This means that the owner of a property assessed at $145,580, which is the district’s median assessed value, will now pay $4,079 in school taxes (28.017 x 145.58).
Regina Scheerer of the Delaware County Patriots attended Thursday’s budget meeting and notes the budget was approved with Donald L. Heller being the only dissenter.
Budget information can be found here at the school district’s website www.ssdcougars.org.
Never Ending Drip Of School Tax Water Torture
Make Teachers Filthy Rich
It was described here months ago how to make good teachers filthy rich and so it shall be reiterated.
Per pupil spending in Pennsylvania in 2009 was $14,420. Most school districts in Pennsylvania have a school year of about 190 days with the state mandate being 180 days.
To make Pennsylvania teachers filthy rich — and save taxpayers money:
End all local school spending so all the money comes from Harrisburg.
Give each person up to age 18 an educational voucher of $5,000 per school year to be spent on a standard, state-approved curriculum.
Cut the school year to 120 days which will allow teachers to reasonably teach two school years in a calendar year.
Allow a maximum class size of 30 pupils which those of us who grew up in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s experienced and which can easily be handled by a competent teacher.
So with $5,000 x 2 school years x 30 pupils per school year teachers would be guaranteed $300,000 revenue per year. Of course, just as other professionals such doctors and lawyers, they would have to bear the cost of insurance, building space and other expenses but it is very unlikely that that would exceed $50,000 per year.
So competent teachers could look forward to incomes of at least $250,000 per year under this plan and I for one would be quite happy for them.
Especially as it would mean more over all education –240 days vs 190 days — and an overall tax decrease –$10,000 per pupil vs $14,420 (2009).
Make Teachers Filthy Rich
Daylin Leach Wants To Trap Kids In Violent Schools
This article is being reprinted with the permission of Bob Guzzardi
By Bob Guzzardi
The Republicans of Lower Merion and Narberth have done an excellent compare and contrast on the critical issue of a parents Freedom to Choose, and the need for poor kids to escape violent and educationally failing schools.
This piece by Party Chairman Lance Rogers takes aim at State Sen. Daylin Leach’s (D-17) attack on Students First, an education advocacy group started by Michelle Rhee, who was chancellor of the Washington D.C. public school system.
And here is the Students First response to Leach’s vicious piece.
Democrats want to trap kids in violent and educationally dysfunctional schools and Republicans want to free them. The Choice is Clear: Coercion or Freedom. Choice or Compulsion.
Abraham Lincoln would be proud. I am proud. And where does Senator Leach send his kids to school? And you? Where do you choose to send your kids to school?
Sen. Leach is, uncharacteristically, silent. Not a bad thing but I would like to know if he is as hypocritical as I think he is. Poor Sen. Daylin, the victim of Rich Right Wingers…oh wait, the proponents aren’t Republicans and aren’t getting rich from bad government as so many of Sen. Daylin’s colleagues.
Democrats cannot be trusted with educational policy. The Democratic agenda enriches the entrenched status quo bureaucracy at the expense of effective education and parental choice. To the Democrat, the state, the collectivist system, and the bureaucratic professionals know what is best for a child, better than a parent. More money being taken from citizens and given to a sclerotic system does not translate to better eduction.
Daylin Leach Wants To Trap Kids In Violent Schools
Pa. Should Follow Tenn. Lead On Teachers Union
Tennessee , June 1, ended collective bargaining for school teachers, a story pointedly ignored by the in-the-pocket-for-the-left news media.
The law signed by Gov. Bill Haslam allows for a process called “collaborative conferencing” but leaves the school boards with the final say — the teachers get no right to appeal; no right to ask for binding arbitration.
Further, there are certain things the teachers may not negotiate namely staffing decisions, the use of grant money, the employee evaluation process and whether or not payroll deductions can be made for
political purposes.
It sounds almost like what existed in Pennsylvania before 1970 when the teachers got their right to strike.
Pennsylvania, the state most tortured by child-hating teacher strikes and “work to rule” negotiating strategies, is pondering plans to replace teacher strikes with binding arbitration and allow for seniority-based economic furloughs.
That’s not the way to solve the problem.
What Tennessee did is the way to solve the problem.
Middle Class Parents Vs. Billionaire Corporations
Middle Class Parents Vs. Billionaire Corporations — The article is being published with the kind permission of Tea Party activist Bob Guzzardi.
The House Republicans are considering giving $ 603,543,000, in this year alone to billionaire private corporations. This is $181, 113,000 more than Governor Corbett proposed.
The entire cost of SB 1, Vouchers/EITC over four years, is: $ 734, 947, 772
SB 1 is designed to subsidize, as required by Article III, section 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the education of children, particularly the poor caught in violent and educationally dysfunctional schools and middle class struggling economically.
In comparison consider the how the state subsidizes education’s Princes and Princesses:
UPENN’s president Amy Gutmann’s compensation: $1,367,000 and Penn State’s Graham( $800, 592 according to Journal of Higher Education) flies in one of Penn State’s three airplanes from its own airport. UPITT’s Chancellor;$600,045, Temple U President Anne Weaver Hart; $602, 403) UPITT Chancellor Mark Nordenberg received a 5.7% increase in 2010, $26,500, for a total annual salary of $486,000. This is base salary and not total compensation.
A change in course directing money away from billionaire private corporations to those who need it most may be an idea worth considering. Misallocating taxpayer resources is not in the public interest or advance the general welfare.
Middle Class Parents Vs. Billionaire Corporations
House Vs Senate On Teacher Furloughs
The Pennsylvania House and the Pennsylvania Senate have competing bills to allow school districts to furlough teachers for economic reasons, an action the traditionally union-dominated state has long prohibited.
House Bill 855, introduced March 1 by Scott Boyd (R- 43) would allow the furlough decision to be guided by several factors including the teacher’s specialization and performance evaluations.
The good ol’ boys in the Senate Appropriations Committee, however, did not think of the children or the taxpayer but listened to the lobbyists and cut out all factors but seniority — with one minor caveat — from Senate Bill 612, which was introduced Feb. 18 by Mike Folmer (R-48).
The caveat is that tenured teachers who have been placed on an improvement plan due to poor evaluations would not be protected by seniority. This would only apply to very few teachers who are the worst of the worst and one wonders why such teachers are protected from anything now.
Think of the children.
SB 612 was referred to the House Education Committee, May 11, where HB 855 has remained stuck since it was introduced.