Category: Education

Unemployment Benefits For Filthy Rich

Unemployment Benefits For Filthy Rich — The headlines last week were filled with outrage over the revelation that former Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has filed for $573 a week in unemployment compensation, the maximum amount in Pennsylvania.

Ms. Ackerman, who was contracted to receive a $348,000 salary through 2014, was bought out of it for a $905,000 lump-sum payment plus $83,000 for unused vacation and personal days.

In other words, her job performance was not exactly satisfactory.

Leaving aside the point that the buyout means that Ms. Ackerman is being employed to basically sit on her butt and watch TV for the next three years, why should anyone be able to get $573 a week in unemployment comp?

Is it to allow our dainty betters to live in the style to which they have become accustomed?

Sorry, that’s not the way most of us think the social safety net is supposed to work.

The idea of an unemployment safety net is that a working stiff with a run of bad luck can still feed his kids and keep a roof over their heads until he finds another job. Nobody is against that.

But if you’ve been pulling down a good income and lose your job you presumably have assets that you can start selling off before you come to the rest of us — or at least to those business owners still trying to save their existing employees — with your hand out.

My proposal — cap the benefits at $150 per week; and  add  a $50-per month SNAP (food stamp) card, along with  an exemption from the residential property tax.

Also, cut the time for receiving them from 99 weeks to 16 weeks.

The cost of unemployment insurance would drop drastically for employers. This means it will cost them less to hire people which means they will start hiring people and very likely increase their pay.

What could possibly be the objection?

Government would lose power?

Unemployment Benefits For Filthy Rich

Anti-Taxpayer Write-In Campaign Fizzles In Pa.

An attempt by the teachers’ union  for a guerrilla victory in the West Chester Area School Board race was found to have fizzled when the dust cleared and the votes were counted.

When conservative Republicans running on a platform that put concern for elderly or unemployed property taxpayers  ahead of teacher-union interests won in the spring primary,  union supporters launched an unconventional and expensive write-in campaign to take the board.

The West Chester Area is a strong Republican area and winning on the GOP ballot is considered  a shoo-in for a municipal election.

In fact, three of the candidates — Karen Miller,Linda Raileanu and Maureen Snook — also won on the Democrat ticket as cross-filing is allowed in Pennsylvania school board races.

There were two others on the Democrat ballot — Wayne Burton, who was endorsed by the Democrat Party, and Ted Diehl, who called himself an independent and was not endorsed. Neither was part of the write-in campaign.

On Election Day, Nov. 8, 43,665 write-in votes were cast divided among six candidates, including one in a race to fill the remaining two years of the term originally won by John Wingerter, who resigned, and now held by Ms. Miller, who was running for a four-year term.

It was very likely the largest write-in campaign ever held for a school board election in Pennsylvania.

When the results were certified, however, only one of the insurgents, Sue Tiernan, managed to win sneaking in fifth for the final four-year seat.

The final count for the four-year seats is:Ms.  Miller, 9,206; Maureen Snook, 8,958; Linda Raileanu, 8,505; Vince
Murphy, 7,945; Ms. Tiernan, 7,690; Gary Bevilacqua, 7,550; Galen Plona,
7,497; Rick Swalm, 7,453; Spencer Virta, 6,979; Antonia Keg, 6,785;  Burton, 3,568;  Diehl, 3,253.

The other write-in candidates were Bevilacqua; Swalm, who is  incumbent board president; Virta;  and Ms. Keg.  Bevilacqua and Virta were the ones who did not have teaching backgrounds.

Plona was the taxpayer candidate who did not make the cut.

In the two-year race, conservative Ed Coyle easily beat Jim Smith, an incumbent who changed his mind about stepping down,  9,658 votes to the
6,413 write-in votes.

The election has resulted in at least five pro-taxpayer directors on the nine-person board.

Do Vouchers Right Or Not At All



There is an age-old adage: if you’re going to do something, do it right – or don’t do it at all.

Based
on poll results exclusively obtained first by Freindly Fire, nowhere is
that more applicable than in the fight for school vouchers in
Pennsylvania. According to the Pulse Opinion Research poll conducted on
behalf of UNITE PA, which surveyed 500 likely voters across the state,
the majority of Pennsylvanians prefer that any school choice program be
open to all students (or at least most of the middle class), as opposed
to just low income, predominantly inner city students. This result is
not surprising on any level, and, undeniably, leads to five rock solid
conclusions:

1) The middle class realizes that ALL schools need
improvement, and competition through choice is the best way to achieve
that objective;

2) Pennsylvanians, by a whopping 78 to 9 margin, favor a broad-based choice program;

3)
If a comprehensive choice program isn’t offered, citizens would prefer
an expansion of the EITC educational tax credit — by a 3 to 1 ratio;

4)
The reason voucher legislation failed in the spring, and in all
likelihood won’t pass now, isn’t due to opposition to school choice, but
because the senate refuses to consider a broader, more inclusive bill,
and therefore:

5) If a suburban or rural legislator supports
vouchers only for low income families, while their constituents would be
left out in the cold without receiving a penny, they do so at their own
peril. A full 40 percent of likely voters stated that they will be
“less likely” to support that lawmaker in his or her next election based
on that vote.

The message of this poll is clear: do vouchers the
right way, or don’t do them at all. And since the senate has already
passed a low income version by the slimmest of margins, with its leaders
stating that’s all they will do, expect the voucher bill to die what
may be its final political death, and look for the EITC expansion to
pass as a stand-alone bill (which it did in the Spring by a virtually
unanimous 190-7 bipartisan vote on Rep. Tom Quigley’s House Bill 1330).

Failure
to act responsibly will leave the GOP politically vulnerable, and,
infinitely more important, abandon yet another generation of
Pennsylvania’s future.

Since last January, Republican Senator
Jeff Piccola has been trying to pass legislation offering school
vouchers only to students in underperforming schools who meet low income
requirements. Despite crafting Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) during the Rendell
Administration (when there was a Democratic State House and an
anti-choice governor), Piccola never bothered to broaden the bill to
reflect the new ten-seat Republican majority in the House, and
pro-school choice Governor Tom Corbett.

Piccola, along with
Democratic co-sponsor Senator Tony Williams, ran the bus over anyone who
dared question why SB 1 was being treated as hallowed legislation,
scoffing at — but not answering — queries as to why no attempt was
made to broaden the bill, given the favorable legislative climate. In
the process, many SB 1 proponents demonized long-time political allies
for their “brazen” attempt to improve a badly flawed education reform
bill that would neither educate nor reform.

That intransigence
directly led to vouchers dying on the vine in June. Despite repeated
assurances that it would pass the Senate, it was never brought to the
floor for a vote. Piccola’s excuse for not running the bill was that the
House wasn’t embracing SB 1 with the same fervor, yet the truth is that
he didn’t even have the votes in his own chamber.

Last month, a
watered-down version of SB 1 finally passed the senate after much
arm-twisting, but as the poll shows, it’s back to Square One, meaning
that SB 1 faces a tough road ahead. Many folks in Pennsylvania view
vouchers favorably, but when they learn that the only voucher bill being
considered is one that will never impact them, their support plummets.

Many
traditional supporters of school choice have had SB 1 sold to them as
the be-all-and-end-all. But the huge irony is that these people in turn
become the biggest detractors of SB 1 upon learning what the legislation
does, and, more importantly, doesn’t do. From Catholic school advocates
to Tea Partiers to everyday parents, the majority of those who favor
school choice become irritated, if not downright angry, after
discovering that in SB 1, a full seven years after enactment, middle
income students would still be excluded. Because of this, many look at
SB 1 as nothing more than yet another targeted entitlement program for
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The results of the Pulse Opinion
Poll are so clear cut that it’s a good bet many House members on the
fence will now be moved to oppose the voucher aspect, instead calling
for other educational reform measures to be considered individually
rather than part of an SB 1 package. Charter school reforms, teacher
evaluations, and the EITC should be debated on their merits and not held
hostage by certain senators hell-bent on ramming an ineffectual voucher
bill down the House’s throat — or all-else be damned.

And if
the House decides to eliminate the voucher and significantly expand the
EITC, what then? Will Piccola once again call that legislation “dead on
arrival” and kill it upon its return to the senate?

And if so,
will the House leaders do the right thing and relegate Piccola to the
dustbin of irrelevancy by simply mandating that the EITC expansion be
part of the 2012 budget?

It’s time to stop playing games.
Pennsylvania students are 42nd in SAT scores, ranking low in literacy,
graduation rates and those attending college. Their performance on the
National Assessment of Education Progress exam has not improved. And
most startling, nearly HALF of all 11th graders are not proficient in
math and reading. This cannot be attributed to just the poor-performing
urban schools pulling down scores, but is testament to an
across-the-board educational failure.

Advocating school choice
for only low-income students results in the default perception that
education is adequate everywhere else, which is not remotely accurate.
We cannot afford to waste another decade, forsaking our children — our
future — because some choose to ignore the widespread failure
occurring on a daily basis.

The poll clearly shows what common
sense already dictates: only competition can begin to reverse decades of
educational failure. Comprehensive school choice provides that
free-market solution, and, if passed, would be a model for the nation.
But since stubbornness, personal agendas and lack of political will are
still prevalent in the Senate, let’s hope the House of Representatives
acts responsibly and does the right thing for our children.

As Voltaire said, “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”

And jettisoning a bad voucher program while passing other meaningful reforms is a very good start.

Pa. Senate Passes School Choice Bill

The Pennsylvania State Senate, yesterday, Oct. 26, passed SB 1, 27-22 sending it to the State House.

The vote was mostly along party-lines in the Republican-controlled institution with Democrat Daylin Leach (D-17) leading the opposition with claims that the bill will take money from poor school districts. He failed to note, however, that the money taken will then been given to the families of the poor children. He attempted to add an amendment prohibiting private schools from discriminating due to sexual orientation. It failed.

Democrat Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams, however, who represents the 8th District which consists of a large section of southwest Philadelphia and a large section of southeast Delaware County, made an impassioned defense of the bill

Republicans who voted against the bill were Stewart Greenleaf of the 12th District; Lisa Baker of the 20th District;  John Gordner of the 27th District; Pat Vance of the 31st District; and Elder Vogel of the 47th District.

Democrats who voted for the bill were Williams; LeAnna Washington of the 4th District; and Andy Dinniman of the 19th District.

Not voting was Republican John Pippy of the 37th District.

The bill offers vouchers ranging from $5,765 to $13,905 to families with incomes of $29,000 whose children attend the 5 percent worst performing schools in the state that would allow them to  transfer their children to private or parochial schools. In the second year, the vouchers would also be offered to low-income students already attending private schools.

The bill also raises of the limit on the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (E.I.T.C.) from $75 million to $100 million for next two school years to $125 million for  2014-2015. Children from middle class families in all school districts are eligible for  E.I.T.C. scholarships.

Gov. Tom Corbett will almost certainly sign the bill if the House should pass it.

 

School Choice Can Save Pa.’s Education System


As we all know, weather forecasters are wrong much of the time. But you can’t hold them responsible for that wholly unpredictable icy blast felt this week. After all, it was hell freezing over. That’s right. Seems Dante’s Inferno took a dip in the cold, not coincidentally, at the exact same time that former Philadelphia School District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman–a 43-year fixture in the public education establishment–called for comprehensive school choice as the primary means to improve education.

Calling access to a quality education “the civil rights battle of our generation,” Ackerman penned a column in the Inquirer in which she lamented that it took her entire career to realize that true reforms would never originate from inside the system. Her words describe the problem perfectly:

“Real reform will never come from within the system because too many powers that be (the teachers’ union, politicians, consultants, vendors, etc.) have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo that is failing our children.”

Ackerman then offered the solution that, while obvious to anyone with common sense, has been thus far impossible to achieve.

“Meaningful education reform must be forced upon the system from outside by giving parents of all income levels real choices about where their children go to school. That requires giving parents comprehensive school choice … ”

Ackerman also advocates the expansion of charter schools, which, while a good idea, is but a small part of the overall solution, since the waiting list for these successful institutions is 30,000 strong.

The major reason charters are light years ahead of regular public schools, as Ackerman correctly points out, is two-fold. They are not required to follow many of the burdensome and counterproductive regulations imposed upon public schools, and, more important, teachers are hired–and fired–based on merit.

Hmmm. Holding people accountable for their job performance. What a novel idea. If only we did that in other jobs. Oh wait. We do. In the private sector.

That’s right. Despite the comedy routine of certain folks who have nothing to “Occupy” their time other than railing against the evils of competition and free enterprise, the private sector is in fact what built America into the greatest, most benevolent power the world has ever known.

Without question, though, the United States is slipping backwards, being dragged into malaise and misery. And that decline, more than anything, can be traced to one thing: the demise of education.

For decades, all efforts to improve public education have been squashed by teachers’ union bosses, whose loyalty was to their fiefdoms and the almighty paycheck–both funded entirely by taxpayers who were duped into believing their children were receiving the best education possible.

Whenever questions were raised about the lack of accountability and stagnant or declining standardized test scores, the blame game began. “Parents don’t put in the time with their kids’ homework … It’s society’s fault …There are too many students in each class.” And, of course, the most common one of all: “We need more money.”

Undoubtedly, some parents don’t put in as much time as they should, and we live in an ever more complex society, but these simply cannot be used as excuses for inadequate teaching. In the private sector, when your job becomes tougher, you either meet the challenge, or hit the door. Adapt, improvise, overcome–or go home. Nowhere should that be more applicable than when teachers are entrusted with our children, indeed, our future.

And the “not enough money, too many kids” excuse is a myth. That’s not opinion, but cold, hard fact. Pennsylvania spends $26 billion per year (that’s billion, with a “b”) on education–more per student than 39 other states–an amount that has doubled since 1996. Despite a drop of 27,000 students over the last 10 years, the public school system has added 33,000 employees in that time. Therefore, by definition, increased funding, more personnel and decreased class size have not improved student achievement.

The results for all that money and smaller class size? Pennsylvania students are 42nd in SAT scores, and rank low in literacy, graduation rates and those going to college. Their performance on the National Assessment of Education Progress exam has not improved. And most startling, nearly half of all 11th graders are not proficient in math and reading (per PSSA standardized test scores). This cannot be attributed to just the poor-performing urban schools pulling down scores, but is testament to an across-the-board educational failure.

Bottom line: It’s not just that the status quo isn’t working. It has completely failed. Based on that dismal picture, Ackerman’s advocacy of school choice–the “change that must come from outside the school system”–couldn’t have been offered at a better time.

*****

There are two elements of Ackerman’s revelations that are worth noting.

1) The implementation of school choice, more than any other reform, is imperative if we are not to lose another generation. The way we did things in the past hasn’t worked, and what we continue to do isn’t having an impact. Unless we treat education the same way as we do every other successful institution in America–business, sports, entertainment, the military–then we might as well raise the white flag of defeat.

Most western nations have a form of school choice, and the results speak volumes. Compared to our 30 biggest global competitors, America’s students rank near the bottom of the pack in every category.

2) Isn’t it a shame that no one in the public education establishment has the courage to speak the truth while they are still on the inside? Don’t get me wrong. It is wonderfully refreshing to hear Ackerman’s sentiments, and to see that she has finally seen the light on what must be done to improve public education.

But it is a sad note that revelations like hers must come after her departure. Just imagine how different things could have been had the Philadelphia School Superintendent come out of the gate advocating school choice. While certainly not a slam dunk, it would have infinitely increased the chances for the adoption of choice, particularly since a majority of the legislature and Governor Tom Corbett also favor it.

A school choice victory is still possible, as we are told it is a top legislative priority. While it won’t be easy, especially given the teachers’ unions’ huge political war chests generated by forced union dues, maybe, just maybe, the conversion of Arlene Ackerman from the Dark Side of Public Education might be the spark needed to push across the finish line.

Only then will the dream of so many, including Ackerman, begin to come true: “all children having access to a quality public school education.”

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems — A sparse crowd of about 200 heard a panel of Democrat state legislators from Delaware County, Oct. 13, at the Upper Darby Center For Performing Arts describe how public schools in Pennsylvania are doomed unless they get back in charge.

The event was sponsored by PA PASS, a public education advocacy group.

The initials stand for Parent Advocates for Public Education To Achieve Student Success.

On the panel were Sen. Daylin Leach (D-17), Rep. Greg Vitali (D-166), Rep. Margo L. Davidson (D-164), Rep. Maria P. Donatucci (D-185), and Rep. Ronald G. Waters (D-191) along with Michael Stoll, who is communications coordinator for State Rep. Bill Adolph (R-165) and Jeffrey S. Miller who is the Republican budget analyst for the Appropriations Committee for the State House, which Adolph chairs.

Leach started things off by saying that there was a “severe and existential threat to public education”.

He cited state budget cuts, proposed voucher and charter school bills, and Act 25‘s  removal of exemptions  in which school boards can hike budgets without a referendum.

He said the referendums always lose since only 10 or 15 percent of voters have children in public schools.

Ms. Davidson, who had to leave early, said she agreed with Leach’s points.

“Ed Rendell would never have proposed such a thing,” she said.

Vitali echoed the despair.

“I truly believe it is a dire situation,” he said. He said the budget cuts were driven by “ideology not necessity.

“(Gov. Tom) Corbett put the interest of oil drillers over children,” he said referring to the reluctance of the governor to levy additional taxes on drilling in Marcellus Shale.

He also pined for the days of Gov. Rendell.

“Rendell was an aggressive fighter for public education,” he said.

He compared public schools to public libraries and said the 9.1 unemployment rate comes from layoffs in the public sector. Whatever it was he was smoking it would probably have been polite if he offered to share it.

Ms. Donatucci clearly feared for the children.

“It’s raining on our school children,” she said.  “. . .Our children aren’t going to get any money and they need to. . . An educational train wreck is going to happen and our children our tied to the tracks.”

Besides blaming Republicans she also blamed newspaper editors.

Waters was more philosophical.

“Elections have consequences,” he said. He noted Corbett said he was going to do the things he’s doing.

He claimed the state had a budget surplus and that money could have been used to keep education spending at the rates it had been the previous year.

Stoll pointed out, however, that there is no surplus and what Waters thought was a surplus is actually budgeted. He noted that 40 percent of state spending is for education. He explained that the reasons for the budget cuts were because federal stimulus money ran out.

After the comments by the panelists, parent representatives for the Radnor, Wallingford-Swarthmore, Interboro, Ridley, Southeast Delco, Haverford, Chichester, Springfield, Penn Delco, William Penn and Upper Darby school districts made presentations describing how excellent their districts were and how much harm the new changes in state policy are causing them.

A PA PASS moderator said that 173 teaching professionals, 148 para professionals, 11 security guards, 11 office support workers, nine maintenance workers, eight administrators and five social workers lost jobs in school districts in Delaware County due to budget cuts.

After parent presentations, PA PASS read to the panel questions submitted by the audience. The questions chosen by the moderator were generally along the lines of how can the vile Republicans  be stopped.

The unseen presence of the Tea Party was felt in the room most strongly it seems by Leach who made a Freudian slip of referring to legislative behavior as not being a “tea party” instead of a “garden party”.

He corrected himself.

Haverford School Director Larry Feinberg, who was one of the event’s organizers, ended things with some strange comments about the proposals for charter schools and vouchers being part of some conspiracy by “Main Line” millionaires looking to make money at the expense of innocent children.

Stoll several times during the night had to emphasize that 40 percent of the state money goes to public education and that there are no plans to end public schools.

The organizers of the event, the parents, and even the legislators all struck one as being sincere and even caring.

Leach and Ms. Donatucci both spoke out passionately against using the cruel residential property tax to fund schools as we now do.

The problem, however, was none of the Democrats or their supporters were able to face the big, fat grinning gorilla in the room, namely the 3 and 4 percent annual raises — which remember are on top of  automatic step raises — that the teachers always seem to get during contract negotiations because they have the right to strike and/or perform unsatisfactory work during their “work to rule” job actions.

The always growing salaries, of course, get the icing of very sweet pension and health plans.

And this is the reason why services are being cut, not because some greedy Republican hates children, as some implied.

Milk does not flow forever.

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

 

Pennsylvania Public Schools Doomed, Doomed, Doomed Say Dems

Signs Of Support For SB1

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.


‘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

 

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