Positions & Testimony

 2017-18 Legislative Session

Assessments, Graduation Exams, Standardized Testing

• Joint letter regarding SB 1095, graduation requirements, request support for SB 1095 and Amendment A09320 (Sept. 23, 2018)
• Letter: Senate Bill 1095, reform State graduation requirements (June 18, 2018)
• Letter opposing  SB 756 changes to standardized testing, educator evaluations (June 16, 2017)
• Letter: Requesting opposition to SB 756, standardized assessments, graduation requirements and educator evaluation system (June 16, 2017)
• Letter to House Education Committee — HB 178, regarding annual fire drills; and HB 202, which would provide students of vocational education programs with flexibility in fulfilling graduation requirements  (Feb. 2, 2017)

Certification, Teacher

• Letter: HB 1386, teacher certification – urging support of amendment that permits consolidating special education certifications, allowing school districts the flexibility to be more efficient in deploying special educators in schools (Sept. 24, 2018)

Charter Schools

• Letter to the House Education Committee – HB 97 makes extensive changes to the Charter School Law (April 17, 2107)

Community Schools

• Testimony on Community Schools (Sept. 19, 2018)
  • PSBA CEO Nathan G. Mains before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, Workforce, Community and Economic Development
  • The Story Behind the Success of a Community School, presented by Rick Amato, principal, Broughal Middle School, Bethlehem Area School District

Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA)

• PSBA comments on Pennsylvania's ESSA plan (Aug. 25, 2017)

Furloughs, Collective Bargaining, Employment/Personnel Issues

• HB 2571 and HB 2593, commonsense approaches to the administration of contracts in Pennsylvania (Sept. 21, 2018)
• Testimony: HB 2571, P.N. 3883, public employee “fair share” representation fees (Sept. 5, 2018)
• Letter supporting HB 1495, flexibility in employee decisions (June 21, 2017)
• Letter: Opposing SB 168, collective bargaining notice (June 12, 2017)
• Senate Bill 227 (Senator John Eichelberger) — Providing for notification and approval of assistant superintendent and superintendent contracts (Jan. 6, 2017)
• Senate Bill 229 (Senator John Eichelberger) — Provides flexibility for school districts when managing professional staff (Jan. 6, 2017)
• Letter: Urging support for HB 1479, exempting financially struggling school districts from prevailing wage (June 12, 2017)

Health: CPR, Mental Health Screenings

• SB 780, supporting the role of telemedicine (Sept. 23, 2018)
• Letter: House Bill 1097 CPR (June 18, 2018)
• Letter: SB 1181 Mental Health Screenings (June 11, 2018)

Homeschooling

• Letter to the Senate Education Committee – SB 93 permits students who are home-schooled to access additional programs, such as vocational or technical education programs, established by a school district. SB 383 permits school board to adopt policies allowing school personnel to have access to firearms on school grounds. (April 14, 2017)

Opioid Awareness, Issues

• Position paper: Support for HB 121, opioid awareness education curriculum (June 23, 2017)

Pension, Pension Reform

• Letter: Urging support for SB 1 P.N. 902, pension reform (June 5, 2017)
• Letter: Urging support for Senate Bill 1, pension reform (June 5, 2017)
• Letter to the House State Government Committee in support of HB 205 that removes future PSBA employees from participation in the Public School Employees Retirement System (April 24, 2017)
• Pension Reform Plans (January 2017)

Property Taxes, Taxes

• Letter: SB 1099, collection of earned income tax (June 18, 2018)
• SB 653, which simplifies the administration and collection of earned income tax (March 26, 2018)
• A Closer Look: PA Supreme Court Addresses Main Concern of HB 1213 (January 2018) — Last summer, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a very important decision related to school district initiated property assessment appeals, commonly referred to assessment appeals.
• A Closer Look: Proposed constitutional amendment (August 2017) — Proposed constitutional
  amendment would enable future tax reform legislation
• A Closer Look: Property tax elimination plan doesn’t work for taxpayers or schools (January 2017) — The truth is that it is not a panacea for taxpayers or school districts. Instead, the elimination of the property tax merely serves to create additional, higher tax burdens for other taxpayers and destabilize funding for public education.
• Letter: Requesting support of SB 653, collection of taxes (June 12, 2017)
• Position paper: HB 1213, restricting rights to conduct appeals of under-assessed property (June 5, 2017)
• Position paper: SB 586, restricting rights to conduct appeals of under-assessed property (June 5, 2017)
• Joint letter to the House of Representatives requesting their opposition to HB 1213 (allowing dark store theory of valuation)
• Letter: Urging support for HB 641, senior property tax freeze program (June 5, 2017)
• Senate Bill 406, P.N. 403: A letter to the Senate Education Committee — Legislation to require that millage tax increases be approved by a two-thirds majority vote of the members elected to the board of school directors (March 28, 2017) 

School Boards

• Letter: House Bill 638 and House Bill 1531 — House Bill 638 would prohibit cross-filing of school board candidates. House Bill 1531 would mandate school boards to post a public meeting agenda no later than 24 hours prior to a meeting and prohibits boards from taking official action on a matter that is not included on the agenda. (March 13, 2018)

School Safety

• Joint letter from PSEA and PSBA regarding school safety (June 11, 2018)
• Letter: Safe2Say, Senate Bill 1142 (June 18, 2018)
• Letter: Support for SB 1142, Safe2Say program (May 21, 2018)
• SB 1078, which permits school boards to discuss to security plans in executive session (March 26, 2018)
• Testimony to the House Education Committee on School Safety Issues, presented by Michael Faccinetto, PSBA president and Bethlehem Area school director (March 15, 2018)
• Letter: Requesting support of HB 178, regarding security drills in schools (June 13, 2017)
• Letter to the Senate Education Committee – SB 93 permits students who are home-schooled to access additional programs, such as vocational or technical education programs, established by a school district. SB 383 permits school board to adopt policies allowing school personnel to have access to firearms on school grounds. (April 14, 2017)
• Letter to House Education Committee — HB 178, regarding annual fire drills; and HB 202, which would provide students of vocational education programs with flexibility in fulfilling graduation requirements  (Feb. 2, 2017)

Special Education

• Letter: Opposing SB 541, burden of proof in special education hearings (June 12, 2017)
• A Closer Look: PA’s School-Based ACCESS Program is jeopardized under proposed federal cuts to Medicaid (March 2017) — Pennsylvania public schools are currently at risk of losing millions of dollars in federal funding to help pay for mandated services for students with special needs.

Textbooks

• Letter: House Bill 2432 dealing with textbooks (June 18, 2018)

Transportation

• Group letter: Opposing cuts to transportation funding (June 12, 2017)
• Testimony to the Senate Education Committee, Subcommittee on Support Services and Transportation, presented by Joanne Yarnall, West Chester Area SD transportation manager, on behalf of PSBA (May 15, 2017)

Truancy

• A Closer Look: School truancy, dropout concerns call for legislative, policy changes (February 2016)

Vouchers, Education Savings Accounts

• A Closer Look: ESA vouchers give public money to private schools — Education Savings Accounts (ESA) are vouchers that take state tax money out of neighborhood public schools for use at private schools.
• Letter: Senate Education Committee on SB 2, ESA voucher proposal (Oct. 23, 2017)