News Headlines
Public education is always changing and keeping up with these changes is a challenge. PSBA helps keep our members informed and keeps you current with the issues facing public education.
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PSBA News
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PSBA Insurance Trust adds voluntary life, disability programs from Assurant Employee Benefits:
The PSBA Insurance Trust announced the addition of Voluntary Life and Voluntary Disability Plans from Assurant Employee Benefits. These plans allow school districts to offer additional benefits to attract and retain quality employees, but not at district expense.
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2008-09 Planning Guide available soon:
Don't miss an important date or deadline again! The 37th annual PSBA Planning Guide serves as a daily and monthly planning tool for board members, chief school administrators, principals and other members of the school leadership team.
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PSBA Now Accepting Publications Contest Entries:
The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is pleased once again to sponsor the Educational Publications Contest. Beginning in 1969, the contest has recognized achievements by hundreds of local public educational agencies.
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Districts Adopt Effective Governance Standards:
Thanks are extended to these districts statewide that adopted PSBA Standards for Effective School Governance
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Come see the 2008 Schools of Excellence in Technology:
On May 15, May 21 and May 22 Council Rock SD, Riverside SD and Central York SD respectively, will host events that will afford visitors the chance to experience first hand what is becoming possible in school districts in the state.
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Members Only Login and Your Member ID:
Your PSBA member ID belongs only to you! Please don't use someone else's ID to log in to Members' Only.
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Register NOW for Symposium on Educational Issues, Gettysburg:
The second annual PSBA Symposium on Educational Issues for School Board Members, Wyndham Hotel in Gettysburg, July 13-14, provides opportunities to learn and talk about educational issues affecting students and student achievement.
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Pennsylvania school board member named president of NSBA:
Barbara Bolas, a school board member from Upper St. Clair Township and former past PSBA president, was elected the 61st president of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) at the association's annual conference in Orlando. Bolas, a former teacher, is currently serving her second three-year term on the NSBA board of directors and served as president-elect last year.
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Proposals for PSBA's 2009 Legislative Platform now accepted:
Your school board is invited to submit proposals for consideration for PSBA's 2009 Legislative Platform. The association is accepting proposals now until Friday, July 18.
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How to Log In to the New Site:
Visitors to PSBA’s new Web site will notice an enhanced Members Only area which will allow more people to participate. Logging in is easy!
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Education News
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New round to begin in property tax fight:
Past attempts to replace school property taxes with an expanded sales tax have failed, but supporters believe the latest version of the plan has a better chance to succeed this year.
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Rendell's school aid plan outlined:
Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed permanent school funding formula would provide another $2.6 billion to Pennsylvania districts during the next six years.
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Proposal would aid schools:
Gov. Ed Rendell, in his 2008-09 basic education budget proposal, calls for the state to commit at least $2.6 billion in additional funds to schools over the next six years.
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Presidential Candidates Have Little Opportunity to Talk About Education:
Education activists thought that the 2008 presidential campaign would be their opportunity to make progress on the multitude of troubles besieging the nation's schools: low test scores, high dropout rates, teen violence, skyrocketing college costs. Then along came the tumbling economy, climbing gas prices, continued problems in Iraq, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
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To Curb Truancy, Dallas Tries Electronic Monitoring:
Educators are struggling to meet stricter state and federal mandates, including those of the No Child Left Behind Act, on attendance and graduation rates. The Dallas school system, which, like other large districts, has found it difficult to manage the large numbers of truant students, is among the first in the nation to experiment with the electronic monitoring.
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Rising Gas Prices: How school districts are trying to cope:
Ever-rising fuel prices have forced some area school districts, faced with budget deadlines next month, to reduce field trips, reconfigure bus routes and even change driving patterns as they brace for even more back-breaking increases in the next year.
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Teachers agree: Bad teachers with tenure too tough to fire:
Think it's hard for schools to get bad teachers out of the classroom? Turns out teachers agree.
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Artificial turf: Health hazard?:
Since the 1960s, artificial turf has been installed on sports fields across the nation, touted as a more durable and cost-effective alternative to grass. But there are increasing concerns that some synthetic fields -- particularly fraying AstroTurf surfaces that have been in place for years -- are contaminated with lead and could pose a health hazard to children, athletes and others who use them.
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School threats set off an avalanche of text messages - and absences:
In an age when schools are on alert for campus shooters, school officials nationwide say they're battling a new phenomenon: threats of violence that trigger a flurry of text messaging and drive up absenteeism among frightened students.
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State pension increase carries huge cost:
A looming battle over whether to increase pension benefits to retired state workers and public school teachers represents a classic clash of political favorites for legislators
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Rendell's graduate skills test in trouble:
Dozens of legislators and school boards statewide are objecting. They say local districts are the best judge.
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State estimates tax deductions:
Pennsylvania's bet on slots gambling is starting to pay off, and as expected the big winners are residents of the state's urban school districts.
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An Initiative on Reading Is Rated Ineffective:
President Bush’s $1 billion a year initiative to teach reading to low-income children has not helped improve their reading comprehension, according to a Department of Education report released on Thursday.
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Proposed GCA regulations, letter to Senator Rhoades:
On Friday, May 2, 2008, the State Board of Education delivered the proposed regulations providing for the GCAs to the House and Senate Education Committees.
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Slots-funded school property tax breaks announced:
Homeowners now have a better idea how much of a tax break they will receive from revenue generated by slots play in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Department of Education today released a district-by-district breakdown of the estimated deductions that will appear on 2008-09 school tax bills.
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Beef recall spotlights real cost of cheap school lunches:
When was the last time you spent 50 cents and got lunch? For millions of children who eat public school fare these days, it's just about every day.
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Statewide graduation exams draw fire:
The prospect of a single test determining whether John or Mary graduates from high school is "just a little more than scary," says David Saxe, a former member of the Pennsylvania State Board of Education.
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Monaca asks Center for merger meeting:
The Center Area school board is still not sure what it wants to do about merging with the neighboring Monaca School District, and appears content to wait for the issue to somehow resolve itself.
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Pa. House panel advances bill to boost government pensions:
A multibillion-dollar bill to increase pension benefits for some 250,000 retired state workers and teachers advanced out of a Pennsylvania House committee on Tuesday.
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'Nation at Risk': The best thing or the worst thing for education?:
Twenty-five years ago this week, Americans awoke to a forceful little report that, depending on your point of view, either ruined public education or saved it.
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Charter schools grow stronger in Pa.:
More than a decade after charter schools became legal in Pennsylvania, it is safe to say the schools, once considered experimental and still sometimes controversial, are here to stay.
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Standardized Formula For Graduation Rates May Soon Pair With Tests:
A Bush administration proposal to require that all states use the same formula to calculate high school graduation rates is winning applause from education experts who say it will shed light on the nation's dropout problem.
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23 states face budget gaps in '09:
Anemic revenue returns forced 16 states to patch nearly $12 billion holes in their current budgets, up from the seven that faced shortfalls last November, while in 23 states, budget gaps totaling at least $26 billion have emerged for their 2009 budgets, according to a new 50-state fiscal survey from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
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Searching for Science to Guide Good Teaching:
The Bush administration's chief of education research says teachers too often rely on "folk wisdom" instead of proven methods to help students learn reading and math. Just as doctors consider data from drug trials and clinical research when they treat patients, he wants educators to think more scientifically in their quest for the right textbooks, technology, teacher training and lesson plans to raise student achievement.
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Slots pay off for homeowners:
Homeowners will see a 10 percent reduction, on average, in their school property tax bills this year in the first state distribution of slots-funded tax relief.
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Editorial - Casino revenues won't eliminate property levies :
We'll have to wait until May 1 to find out how much of a break each of us will get on our property taxes, as revenues from the state's seven casinos are distributed to school districts to replace them.
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Both Clinton and Obama attack No Child Left Behind Act:
The No Child Left Behind Act has been a flash point in education circles for five years, with critics saying schools have become obsessed with testing math and reading and supporters saying the law has helped prevent some students from falling through the cracks.
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