A Tribute to Dan Truitt A Pennsylvania Legislator in West Chester

Dan Truitt was not re-elected to his position representing the people of the 156th District in Pennsylvania this year. As a stalwart supporter of educational choice during his tenure as a State Representative, Dan fought hard to protect the funding of charter and cyber charter schools. It is not surprising to learn that he volunteered to serve on the education committee.

Dan was always happy to provide students with learning opportunities as he went about his legislative responsibilities. He spoke at our virtual town hall meetings and welcomed students to his office as well as to the House floor.  Our Student Government Organization was able to work closely with his office to develop a guidance bill to provide the next step after high school called The Stepping Into Careers Act. His wisdom and mentorship will be sorely missed in this project, but he has left a legacy of student involvement in legislative affairs.

While Dan is a strong believer in educational innovation, he is not just an advocate. His two gifted sons have attended the University Scholars' Program at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. This is an out-of-the-box educational program blends virtual and experiential learning. He and his family are helping to pioneer a new way of learning that combines virtual education with real life and classroom experiences. PA Leadership Charter School and its many programs wish him success as he takes his next step on his career journey.

If other legislators read this post, please consider continuing Dan's great work of inclusive representation, innovation, and optimism in education.

Cyber School and Online learning! (Stop PA HB 530)

Jamie Santora & The PA House of Representatives,

It is my understanding that House Bill 530 may be reconsidered this legislative session. As you know, Cyber Charter Schools already operate with approximately 75-80% of the money that the home school district receives for that same student.  Here is some information for you to consider about this bill:

·        Cyber Charter schools cannot sustain any cut to tuition funding to cyber charter schools as required in HB 530.

·        I support the provision in HB 530 for the creation of a bipartisan Commission that will have the opportunity to take an independent review of the actual costs of funding cyber education and recommend a tuition formula for charters and cyber charters.

·        I support the transparency & accountability recommendations in HB 530.

I commend the legislature for their commitment to reforming charter law, addressing accountability, operational efficiency, and financial stewardship for all charter schools. However, cutting cyber charter school funding now when more and more universities are developing Online learning platforms will not prepare our students to be on the cutting edge of learning. There is a learning gap when students transition from one platform of learning to another. Pennsylvania and the other states cannot afford this time loss due to transition as our students compete for jobs in a global economy. Recently, the State Universities Teacher Union went on strike. They were concerned about benefit reductions and pay increases, but they were also concerned about Online learning, and how this new platform will change the way they teach. Online learning is coming and there is no way to stop it. Pennsylvania has taken a leadership position in this area, and should not back off when the gap between high school and college is close to being bridged. The price of leadership is often uncomfortable change, and if funding is cut, the outcome may be reflected in our students paying the price with lower paying jobs.

Respectfully,

Pat Parris

2016 PA Leadership Families for Cyber Charter Schools Day on the Hill.

My students and I went to Harrisburg yesterday to advocate for Cyber Education.

We had 14 students and two teachers participated in the Day on the Hill this year.

Half of these students distributed over 10 packs of 100 letters to representatives and senators on the importance of Cyber Education as an educational choice.  A highlight of the trip was lunch, when a clergyman started a rap to promote public education right at the table where our students were sitting. I  enjoyed watching the awkward faces of my students during this impromptu serenade. 

The other half of the students were members of our SLIC committee. SLIC stands for Student Legislative Initiative Committee. We had been working with Senator Smucker for two years to develop legislation that would help students decide the next step after high school. We had recently finished this legislation and titled it “The Stepping into Careers Act of 2016”. Yesterday we were introducing the bill for sponsorship. Unfortunately, since Senator Smucker will become Congressman Smucker he is no longer able to introduce the bill. However, at the end of the day the SLIC committee was able to get on the hearing schedule with another House bill that is similar to our act. This bill is being introduced by representative Seth Grove, and we are scheduled on June 15th to speak at a hearing in Harrisburg. 

Congratulations to the SLIC committee members and our Student Government Senators for making a difference at 2016 PA Families for Cyber Day on the Hill.

Photos.

https://goo.gl/photos/PHddVu5S888522UdA

An open letter to Pennsylvania Legislators

It looks like we are going to get hit. I got this last night from our CEO. Please write / call the leaders in the Senate and House to let them know that you oppose cuts that have been proposed by the governor (as much as 30%), House Bill 530 (4-8%) and other proposals that attempt to treat charter schools as second class public schools. Here is my sample letter.

 

 

 

 

Dear Senator, State Legislator, and Governor,

The current plan to cut charter school funding to the lowest common denominator will hurt charter schools severely. Our school, PA Leadership Charter School has 2500 students. We do not advertise, and we do not have an economy of scale to operate at just under $6000 per student. We will be forced to increase class size, lay off teachers, and move to turn-key solutions that will eliminate teacher and student interaction. How can this be helping students? I oppose cuts that have been proposed by the governor (as much as 30%), House Bill 530 (4-8%) and other proposals that attempt to treat charter schools as second class public schools. Raising the Education budget from $350-$400 million at the expense of charter school is a mistake. I am aware of the efforts in Harrisburg by my elected state legislators, House Representatives, and Senators to undermine the support for PA public-charter schools and to cut funding to the charter-education model that serves individual Pennsylvanians who cannot thrive or succeed in their local school district. Charter students are public-school students, too, and their education and successes are just as important as their district counterparts.

I am asking that you please give your support to equality and fairness in the allocation of public-school state funding and, in doing so, provide the freedom of educational choice to all Pennsylvania parents and students.

Creating legislation against charter schools makes PA’s educational communities feel like second-class citizens when they do not deserve to be treated or served as such. Please do not cast a vote that will further distance or delay our state’s need for the school choice and individual-student accommodations provided by PA charter schools.

Please update me on how you plan to support Pennsylvania charter and cyber-charter schools so that my family and I can feel confident about the future of school choice. I look forward to your response.,

Can you please get back to me on this?

Please consider writing your legislator about this. Some of the most innovative public charter schools are the smallest. Governor Wolf's budget cuts target these schools, and will punish them severely for innovation. You can send a template email at this site in 5 minutes. 

If you are feeling more ambitious, then you can find your legislator by typing in your address here. Please consider sending a quick email to him. Also send a note to the governor, and your state senator at these links. 

• the governor
• state senator

Pat Parris

The PA Budget cutters should read this first before cutting the education budget.

Dear Legislator, 


I have been a distance-learning educator for over ten years. During this time, I have seen many students who have been genuinely helped by this form of education. 
One thing that makes our learning platform different is access to quick responses from a teacher. Our students benefit most from this individual attention that we are able to reassure them with. They use the Open Source Moodle platform, and we communicate with many of them each day.  Our Moodle Platform is equipped with an instant messenger to help students at formative times when they begin to struggle. This access to a learning coach will be greatly diminished by a funding cut. 
I meet with students in groups every day in a multi-media classroom. My students have formed life long friendship with other students through this setting as well as looking to their teachers as mentors. I have been able to conduct these classroom sessions while in Panama, China and Quebec. The opportunity to tutor students in this setting will be greatly diminished. Teachers will have less time for synchronous instruction if funding is cut. 
Over time we get to know our students through their writing and responses in the classroom. We can access their group interaction, as well as their knowledge and skill in academics with the technological tools of multi-media classrooms, internal email, instant messaging and highly interactive lessons.  
If our students use distance education as a form of correspondence school, then they could have been doing this in the early 20th century. While it is true that we could still develop a relationship with them through their writing, it is not a reason to spend this kind of money on learning though the Internet. There is nothing new about correspondence based learning. The Cyber Charter Schools of today use technology to rapidly reach students at critical times of learning. We can catch them at thresholds of learning to ease the transition from one concept to another. We can foster a mentoring relationship with them when we celebrate milestones of accomplishment together, and can correct or redirect them when they need it. Most importantly, we can prepare them for the 21st century in a way that could have never been accomplished in the 1900’s. 
Our students are learning to reason with technological change. This is quite different from traditional education that clings to a process that is based upon rewarding compliant behavior. In a global world of change, someone needs to be testing new methods of learning that will eventually become mainstream. As other countries catch up with our standard of living, the process of preparation for the real world of work must change with it. 
Will we regret the cuts in this funding when other countries do a better job of preparing students to interact in a world where computers are the universal language? Pennsylvania will be rewarded for their leadership in connecting real world change with the skills necessary to face it. Our legislators in Pennsylvania should follow in the footsteps of our forefathers and do the right thing. Our Commonwealth has a stellar record of advocating for woman’s suffrage, homeschooling, equal rights, and family values when they were not popular. Over time our citizens will embrace the principles of educational choice and funding which follow the student instead of the system. Who is to say that this is not the next great revolution in education, and Pennsylvania is leading the way. 
For another point of view, please read this article.http://www.dailylocal.com/opinion/20150226/another-view-defending-cyber-charter-schools

Defending cyber charter schools

 

Another View: Defending cyber charter schools

By Dr. James Hanak

Posted: 02/26/15, 7:57 PM EST

Dr. Hanak is a mentor, friend and colleague of mine at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. :)

For years, Pennsylvania’s cyber charter schools have been criticized for under-performing on the state’s standardized tests (PSSAs). This is in part because cyber charter schools attract many students from struggling school districts that have failed to give these students a proper education.

So, this month, on their website, the PA Department of Education released the statewide SAT scores for 653 Pennsylvania high schools/charter high schools. Of the 189 charter schools in the state, three of the top six charter schools were cyber charter Schools. 

The top charter school was 21st Century Cyber Charter School in 63rd place with the next charter school placing at number 116! This happened even though there are only 14 cyber charter schools among the 189 statewide PA charter schools.

The most amazing part of this report is that all top eight charter schools accomplished their scores with 27 percent less money than their traditional counterparts!

 

So, what do cyber charter schools get as a reward?

Currently in Harrisburg, the House of Representatives is considering a bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Reese, (HB 530) that, if passed by the Senate and signed by the governor, would cut funding for cyber charter schools by more than 5 percent across the board and by as much as 8 percent for students from Philadelphia and as much as 15 percent from students from Chester.

The biggest problem with this bill is that it does not address the other inequities in the cyber charter school funding formula that punish the schools. All charter schools begin with only 75 cents on the dollar from the home sending school district. Along with this, charter schools are held to higher standards than traditional counterparts and cyber charter schools are graded with more stringent requirements than their equal brick-and-mortar counterparts.

The PA Association of School Business Officials, (PASBO.org) is the prime mover of this bill and has only one agenda. All the members of the PASBO board are top administrators in local school districts. They see students leaving their districts and taking tax dollars with them to the only charter schools that reach statewide – cyber charter schools. PASBO must do whatever it can to stop cyber charter schools from being successful. Forget the needs of the students. It is the needs of the budget that are paramount. 

Unfortunately, money talks and the little guy often gets crushed. Cyber schools were cut before because they were not making the grade. Now that they are successful, they most certainly must be cut. The education monopoly establishment must never allow a better innovative idea to catch hold. After all, it might force everyone else to rethink how they are delivering education. 

Cyber schools are utilizing tomorrow’s technology: iPads, video conferencing, multiple screens, touch screens, smart boards, interactive technology, educational gaming, avatars, MOODLE open source learning environments. Cyber schools can create virtual classrooms that pull students together from across the state and across cultural divides. Cyber schools provide state-of-the-art computers, a high-speed Internet and a full educational experience to all their students. A cyber school can provide a high school student any course he or she would ever want to take in a high school setting – including AP and honors courses and increasingly, university level courses.

This is why the education establishment must at all costs cut the funding to these already underfunded schools. The establishment fears the charter school movement, if left unfettered, will, in a couple of generations, take over as it already has in Washington, D.C. where now over 60 percent of the students attend a charter school.

If this bill passes, who are the winners? The well-paid administrators who won’t have to give up their perks and benefits. Who will lose? The thousands of students that are stuck in schools from which they cannot escape. Reported in “Chalk and Talk” ... written by Philadelphia public school teachers, in the Philadelphia Schools: 2005-2010 there were 19,752 assaults. During that same time there were zero assaults in all the cyber charter schools combined. Safe education with high SAT scores. Hard combo to beat.

Dr. James Hanak is CEO of the PA Leadership Charter School.

Cyber School PA, The right choice!

 

Dear Legislator, 

I have been a distance-learning educator for over ten years. During this time, I have seen many students who have been genuinely helped by this form of education. 

One thing that makes our learning platform different is access to quick responses from a teacher. Our students benefit most from this individual attention that we are able to reassure them with. They use the Open Source Moodle platform, and we communicate with many of them each day.  Our Moodle Platform is equipped with an instant messenger to help students at formative times when they begin to struggle. This access to a learning coach will be greatly diminished by a funding cut. 

I meet with students in groups every day in a multi-media classroom. My students have formed life long friendship with other students through this setting as well as looking to their teachers as mentors. I have been able to conduct these classroom sessions while in Panama, China and Quebec. The opportunity to tutor students in this setting will be greatly diminished. Teachers will have less time for synchronous instruction if funding is cut. 

Over time we get to know our students through their writing and responses in the classroom. We can access their group interaction, as well as their knowledge and skill in academics with the technological tools of multi-media classrooms, internal email, instant messaging and highly interactive lessons.  

If our students use distance education as a form of correspondence school, then they could have been doing this in the early 20^th century. While it is true that we could still develop a relationship with them through their writing, it is not a reason to spend this kind of money on learning though the Internet. There is nothing new about correspondence based learning. The Cyber Charter Schools of today use technology to rapidly reach students at critical times of learning. We can catch them at thresholds of learning to ease the transition from one concept to another. We can foster a mentoring relationship with them when we celebrate milestones of accomplishment together, and can correct or redirect them when they need it. Most importantly, we can prepare them for the 21^st century in a way that could have never been accomplished in the 1900’s. 

Our students are learning to reason with technological change. This is quite different from traditional education that clings to a process that is based upon rewarding compliant behavior. In a global world of change, someone needs to be testing new methods of learning that will eventually become mainstream. As other countries catch up with our standard of living, the process of preparation for the real world of work must change with it. 

Will we regret the cuts in this funding when other countries do a better job of preparing students to interact in a world where computers are the universal language? Pennsylvania will be rewarded for their leadership in connecting real world change with the skills necessary to face it. Our legislators in Pennsylvania should follow in the footsteps of our forefathers and do the right thing. Our Commonwealth has a stellar record of advocating for woman’s suffrage, homeschooling, equal rights, and family values when they were not popular. Over time our citizens will embrace the principles of educational choice and funding which follow the student instead of the system. Who is to say that this is not the next great revolution in education, and Pennsylvania is leading the way. 

For another point of view, please read this article. http://www.dailylocal.com/opinion/20150226/another-view-defending-cyber-charter-schools

Is H.B. 530 a Conflict of Interest?

The thrust of H.B. 530 that just passed in the PA. House of Representatives today seems to be turning authorization over to residential school districts or intermediate units. Is this a conflict of interest? Cyber Charter Schools enroll students across many school districts and intermediate units through election by the student. Students are choosing cyber charter schools because they want and need options of flexibility and safety. This bill would limit these choices by creating new regulations that would strangle innovation for the benefit of individual affluent school districts. There is a problem of unequal funding per student across The Commonwealth. Cyber Charter schools currently serve many economically disadvantaged students by providing them with more equitable funding for education services across school district lines. The wording in H.B. 530 effectively gives funding to the district when the student should be empowered with that choice. Charter schools of choice are in the best position to help that student utilize that money to learn. Should we increase the funding of the research and development of education now that they have begun to show results?

For another point of view, please read this article. http://www.dailylocal.com/opinion/20150226/another-view-defending-cyber-charter-schools