Public Schooling in America: Measuring Each State’s Commitment to Democratically Governed Schools

America’s public schools, students, and families are under a near-constant attack from political special interests looking to privatize and profit at the expense of our children. Each state represents new profit streams and frontiers for education exploitation, and the Network for Public Education (NPE) has released its findings in its latest report Public Schooling in…

Read More

How (and why) to Run for School Board

From the good people at Education Voters of PA   This year school board elections will be on the ballot! Have you considered running for school board and would like to learn more? Join Education Voters of Pennsylvania and guests Sandra Miller and Larry Feinberg, current  Pennsylvania school board members, for a discussion on the…

Read More

PA Schools Work’s Webinar on Gov. Wolf’s Proposed Education Budget

If You Missed This Week’s PA Schools Work’s Webinar On Gov. Wolf’s Proposed Education Budget A link is provided below if you were not able to listen in. If you were not able to join us for our Lunch & Learn webinar this week with Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) and Education Voters of Pennsylvania about…

Read More

ALERT: 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 More

PSBA Charter Info

Interested in joining the call for charter change? In order to understand why charter schools have such a profound impact on public education funding in Pennsylvania, the first step is to learn more about charter schools and how they work. Check out this great site by the Pennsylvania School Board Association (PSBA)  pacharterchange.org It helps answer…

Read More

Wolf 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Gantdaily.com posted an article today outlining how the reform to Pennsylvania’s “flawed and outdated” charter school law is moving forward with the process of developing regulations by opening a public comment period to gather information on the need for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 More

ICYMI – 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 More

FYI – This is Not How Democracy Should Work – The Underlying Problem with the Charter Appeals Board

from a recent post on Diane Ravitch’s blog: Recently, the elected School Board of Pittsburgh unanimously rejected a charter school called Catalyst Academy because of concern about its proposed disciplinary policy and its ability to meet the needs of students with disabilities. The School Board’s decision was overturned by the state’s Charter Appeals Board, which was appointed…

Read More