Legislation
ALERT: Reject “Lifeline Scholarships,” Fund Public Schools
From our friends at Education Voters of PA Senate Republicans in Harrisburg just announced that implementing a new school voucher program is their top priority in the 2023-2024 state budget. They are fast tracking a “Lifeline Scholarship” bill (Senate Bill 795) that would create a brand new voucher program IN ADDITION TO the current $340 million/year…
Read MoreBack the Budget Surplus to Work for Public Schools
CALL TO ACTION Governor Wolf’s proposed budget would fully implement the Fair Funding Formula and provide additional support so that no district ends up worse off. This would mean nearly $176 million more in state Basic Education Funding support, and over $11 million more in state Special Education Funding, for…
Read MoreJoin for a quick update on Harrisburg’s plans for public education
From Education Voters of PA, don’t miss out on this opportunity today. Over the next month, PA lawmakers and Governor Wolf will be negotiating a budget that is supposed to be signed into law by June 30th. What happens over the next month could have a profound impact on Pennsylvania’s educational landscape. And lawmakers appear to…
Read MoreALERT: Tell PA lawmakers—Choose public schools, not DeVos vouchers
Dear BASD Proud Parents, From our friends at Education Voters of PA Pennsylvania lawmakers are preparing to join Betsy DeVos in attempting to exploit the COVID-19 crisis to advance their school privatization agenda. The House Education Committee has announced that on Thursday, October 1st, its members will vote on House Bill 2696, legislation that would use $500…
Read MoreFair Funding for Public Education (Presentation)
This presentation is a brief overview of how Basic Education Funding is allocated in Pennsylvania and how little of it goes through the “Fair Funding Formula,” which was enacted in 2016. This negatively impacts most public school students, and the vast majority of Black and Hispanic public school students, across the commonwealth. The Bethlehem Area…
Read MoreWolf Administration Takes Next Step in Updating Charter School Regulations
Gantdaily.com posted an article today outlining how the reform to Pennsylvania’s “flawed and outdated” charter school law is moving forward with the process of developing regulations by opening a public comment period to gather information on the need for charter school reform, Gov. Tom Wolf announced Monday. Read the full article here: https://gantdaily.com/2019/08/27/wolf-administration-takes-next-step-in-updating-charter-school-regulations/ BASD Proud Parents is…
Read MoreSupport Governor Wolf’s Executive Order to Clean Up Charter Schools
Straight from Network for Public Education Action, take a moment to thank Governor Wolf for his recent initiatives to tackle charter reform. https://npeaction.org/urgent-support-pa-governors-fight-to-reform-charter-schools/
Read MoreICYMI: PA’s 2019-2020 state budget is a wrap. Here is what is in it for public schools
A summary from our allies at Education Voters of PA The state budget is done and a last-ditch effort made by anti-public education lawmakers to include harmful charter school legislation in the school code bill was defeated. Governor Wolf stood strong with our public schools and House Bill 357, which would have stripped control from…
Read MoreICYMI – PA Republicans pass massive charter school & school voucher expansion
Form our friends at Education Voters of PA: Last week in the House, Republicans passed four charter school bills. One bill in the package, HB 357, is the Holy Grail expansion bill that the charter industry has been seeking for years. If HB 357 becomes law, charter school expansion will be turbocharged throughout the commonwealth.…
Read MoreICYMI- New report shows overwhelmingly negative results for PA’s cyber charter students
From Education Voters of PA: MEMO To: Interested Parties From: Susan Spicka, Executive Director, Education Voters of PA Date: June 4, 2019 Re: CREDO’s Charter School Performance in Pennsylvania (2019) report finds overwhelmingly negative results for students in cyber charter schools and mixed results for brick-and-mortar charter schools. Read the full report here. A recent study released…
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