|
|
|
|
April 1, 2022
The General Assembly was in session this week. The Senate will return on Monday, April 4, and the House of Representatives will reconvene on Monday, April 11.
|
|
PSBA opposes House Bill 2169, latest voucher plan moved by House Education Committee
|
|
|
This week the House Education Committee on a party-line vote pushed out House Bill 2169 (Rep. Owlett, R- Tioga), a voucher plan similar to legislation considered in previous sessions that would have established education savings accounts. This latest iteration of vouchers creates “Lifeline Scholarships,” a program that will siphon taxpayer resources away from public schools, and send those resources to parents to use at private schools, higher education institutions and entities that are not accountable to the public for their decisions or results.
PSBA’s member-developed legislative platform directs the association to oppose vouchers. The association, as a member of Pennsylvanians Opposed to Vouchers, sent a letter to all House members opposing the bill, making these points among others:
- The tuition voucher program for students costing taxpayers and the schools that need resources the most almost $170 million.
- There are no guarantees HB 2169 will help or even prioritize children from economically disadvantaged families. There are no income limits for families to receive the voucher, which means the voucher can subsidize a wealthier family’s private school tuition.
- Under the bill, the state is not allowed to set any new requirements on nonpublic schools, including requirements to comply with federal law and state regulations governing special education.
- The bill contains minimal financial and academic accountability provisions to guard against fraud and abuse. There is no requirement for students to be assessed by state assessments, or even alternative assessments, and no academic data reporting is required to allow objective evaluation of the success of the program. In fact, the only source of academic accountability is a parent satisfaction survey administered by the Pennsylvania Treasury.
Thank you to those school leaders who reached out to their House members this week. We need to keep the pressure up to stop this bill from receiving further action in the House of Representatives. Tell your legislators to reject this significantly disruptive and expensive mandated voucher program.
|
|
PSBA opposes bill to restrict school district assessment appeals
Senate Bill 297 would force homeowners to subsidize under-assessed properties
|
|
|
This week PSBA sent a letter, also signed by the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials (PASBO), to the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee opposing Senate Bill 297 (Sen. Argall, R-Schuylkill), which greatly restricts the ability of school districts to seek appeals of under-assessed properties, including apartment buildings and large commercial properties. While described as a way to protect citizens from higher property taxes, the bill has far greater implications. Unfortunately, the bill was approved by the Senate committee and will now move to the full Senate.
By limiting the right to initiate appeals, school districts across the state would experience significant and financially damaging losses in revenue. Our members are very much aware that all property taxpayers deserve a uniform property tax assessment system that ensures they and their neighbors are paying a fair share of the tax. What is being lost in these discussions is that all other property owners in a school district must bear the tax burden of the under-assessed properties. Any property that is under-assessed, for whatever reason, inherently shifts the tax burden over to those property owners who are properly assessed. Senate Bill 297 would effectively take away the only voice school districts currently have to speak up on behalf of other homeowners and businesses being forced to subsidize under-assessed properties.
|
|
Sen. Dush introduces PSBA legislation to help rural school districts
Senate Bill 1143 will reduce the burden on homeowners by ensuring that local governments are more fairly compensated for the state-owned lands which are exempt from taxation.
|
|
|
This week Senator Cris Dush (R-Jefferson) introduced Senate Bill 1143 that would increase the amount that the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources (DCNR), the Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Fish and Board Commission pays to school districts, counties and townships for land they own as payment in lieu of tax (PILT). The bill was introduced at the request of PSBA; the association worked with Sen. Dush to draft the language and thanks him for his leadership on this issue.
The primary source of local revenue for school districts is the property tax. However, state-owned forest, game and recreation lands are exempt from local property taxation. To make up for the exemption of this land for taxation, the state makes a payment to local governments for this land. These PILT payments are set at a flat rate per acre by state law that was last updated in 2016. Senate Bill 1143 increases the base amounts and calls for the amount of the payments to be adjusted annually based on the Consumer Price Index.
This especially impacts rural Pennsylvania, where a significant portion of the real estate is state-owned forest, game, and recreation lands. When those school districts are forced to increase property taxes for increasing mandated costs such as pensions, special education and charter school tuition, the impact is largely on homeowners because they cannot increase the PILT they receive from the state. This proposal will reduce the burden on homeowners by ensuring that local governments are more fairly compensated for the state-owned lands which are exempt from taxation.
|
|
Amended on the House floor and sent to the Appropriations Committee:
Divestiture of Russian investments in public funds: House Bill 2447 (Rep. Benninghoff, R-Centre) was approved this week by the House State Government Committee and sent to the House floor. The bill directs the Office of the State Treasurer, the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS), the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS) and the Pennsylvania Municipal Retirement System (PMRS) to identify and divest from all direct, indirect and alternative investments and securities of sanctioned Russian companies, sanctioned Belarusian companies, scrutinized companies, and the governments of Russia and Belarus. The bill was amended on the House floor to make various technical changes that do not change the impact of the bill.
Clearinghouse of online courses: House Bill 1330 (Rep. Ortitay, R-Allegheny) as originally introduced required the PA Department of Education (PDE) to establish a central clearinghouse of free online courses related to content tested by the Keystone Exams. The bill was amended on the House floor to gut all the original language and replace it with new language creating an educational and professional development online course initiative, requiring PDE to establish a clearinghouse of online courses for students in grades K-12 as well as professional development courses that would be available for schools to purchase from PDE-approved providers. Schools and providers would negotiate the price for use of the courses. Schools are not required to use any of the courses; however, a school entity that does decide to offer the courses must adopt policies regarding their use and make parents and students aware of the opportunity. The bill also provides for an application development and approval process, parameters for purchasing courses, penalties, and the issuance of a report regarding the program.
Public works contracts: House Bill 1281 (Rep. Delozier, R-Cumberland) amends the Procurement Code (Title 62) to prohibit a government agency, which includes a school district, that intends to enter into a public works contract from preparing contract specifications that are exclusionary or discriminatory, to the extent that they either specify a particular brand name or otherwise limit consideration of other brand names. PSBA supported the amendment that was inserted on the House floor that provided some improvements to the bill by easing restrictions on the contract specifications.
Approved by the House Education Committee
Concurrent resolution to bar PDE’s charter regs: With a vote of 15-10, the committee approved a concurrent resolution disapproving the PA Department of Education’s proposed regulations for charter and cyber charter schools and barring promulgation of the rules. Although the regulations were approved last week by the Independent Regulatory Review Commission, the regulatory review process provides the House and Senate Education committees a 14-day window to report a concurrent resolution if they wish to disapprove a proposal. If this happens, the House and Senate each has 30 calendar days or 10 legislative days, whichever is longer, from the date on which the concurrent resolution has been reported, to adopt the concurrent resolution. If the General Assembly adopts the concurrent resolution by majority vote in both chambers, it is presented to the governor. If the governor vetoes the concurrent resolution, as is expected with the charter regulations, the General Assembly has 30 days, or 10 legislative days, whichever is longer, to attempt to override that veto by a two-thirds vote in each chamber.
Prohibitions in school sports for transgender students: House Bill 972 (Rep. Gleim, R-Cumberland) creates restrictions prohibiting transgender students from participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity. Under the bill, interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural or club athletic teams or sports that are sponsored by a public school entity, a public institution of higher education or any school or institution where students or teams compete against a public school or institution of higher education must be expressly designated based on sex (defined as the biological distinction between male and female based on reproductive biology and genetic make-up) as male, female or coed. The bill prohibits male students from participating in athletic teams or sports designated for females and creates causes of action for harms suffered by designation of athletic teams. If a part of this act is found invalid, all valid parts that are severable from the invalid part shall remain in effect.
Anaphylaxis policy and procedures: The committee rereferred House Bill 1259 (Rep. Warner, R-Fayette) to the House Children and Youth Committee. The bill requires the Department of Health to establish an anaphylactic policy for school districts and childcare centers stating guidelines, required procedures and training of appropriate personnel regarding medical emergencies resulting from anaphylaxis and for the prevention of anaphylaxis.
Approved by the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee
Whole, reduced fat milk in schools: House Bill 2397 (Rep. Lawrence, R- Chester) permits public schools to purchase with state or local dollars whole or reduced fat Pennsylvania milk, including flavored milk. This would conflict with current federal requirements for schools to offer only skim milk for federally approved school lunches.
Under the bill, the secretary of education must notify schools of the provisions of the act and, within two years, must issue a report to the General Assembly with information on the number of schools that elected to purchase the milk and the increase or decrease in milk consumption. House Bill 2397 also requires the Office of Attorney General to bring a civil action against the federal government to recover funds withheld or revoked because of purchasing the milk. The act would expire if amendments to or repeals of federal laws results in the availability of whole or reduced fat milk in schools.
Passed by the Senate
Purple Star Schools: Senate Bill 1028 (Sen. Stefano, R-Fayette) establishes the Purple Star School Program to identify schools with military-connected students. The Department of Education will designate a school a purple star school if the school applies and qualifies for the program by meeting established criteria. PSBA supports Senate Bill 1028.
Passed by the Senate Urban Affairs Committee
Taxing exemptions: House Bill 581 (Rep. Solomon, D-Philadelphia) Creates the Affordable Housing Unit Tax Exemption Act to allow local taxing authorities, which include school districts, the option of abating property taxes to encourage the development of affordable housing units. As amended by the committee this week, the bill requires all taxing authorities to agree upon a tax exemption or discount before it can be extended to a real estate developer.
Under the bill, each local taxing authority with mutual jurisdiction to levy real estate taxes on a subject property may approve an ordinance or resolution adopting the tax exemption or special tax provision. Upon adoption of an ordinance or resolution, each local taxing authority must post a notice of the approval on its website. Upon adoption of an ordinance or resolution by each local taxing authority with mutual jurisdiction to levy real estate taxes on a subject property, a joint notice of implementation of the tax exemption or special tax provision must be published in a newspaper of general circulation in the area.
|
|
PDE makes ESSER information reporting available
The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is reminding entities that provide educational programs to neglected, delinquent, and at-risk youth and received ESSER funding under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act (ARP ESSER) that they must submit the ESSER Funding Status Report to PDE by April 29, 2022.
This ESSER Funding Status Report is developed and required by the U.S. Department of Education. Submission is a condition of continued receipt of ESSER funds. More than $7 billion in ESSER funds was allocated to Pennsylvania to assist school communities in preventing, preparing for, and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ESSER Funding Status Report seeks to assess the expenditures of these funds, identify the interventions and activities implemented with ESSER funds, and understand planned uses of funds in upcoming fiscal years. Entities should complete this ESSER Funding Status Report based on ESSER-funded expenditures and activities that occurred during the 2020-21 fiscal year.
PDE offers virtual office hours each week to assist ESSER recipients in completing their ESSER Funding Status Report and to address questions about ESSER funds. The office hours are offered Mondays from 1-2 p.m. and Thursdays from 9-10 a.m. Join the PDE virtual office hours.
|
|
Advocacy Heroes in Action:
York County students meet with Rep. Grove
|
|
|
|
Rep. Seth Grove (R-York) recently engaged with students from Dover, Spring Grove and West York school districts. Students asked questions ranging from election integrity, property taxes and gas prices to mental health and staffing shortages. The event was organized through PSBA’s Show Them What It Takes program with the assistance of PSBA Advocacy Ambassador Lynn Kohler.
|
|
|
|
Are you an Advocacy Hero? Under PSBA's new Advocacy Engagement Program, there are many ways school directors can assist in educating legislators that have a positive impact on our public schools and students. This recognition program honors the advocacy work you are doing every day. Click here to learn more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
