Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania Governor, Unveils Education Reform Plan

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett unveiled a four-part education reform proposal Tuesday morning that has since received mixed reactions.

At a news conference Tuesday at the Lincoln Charter School in York, Pa., Corbett said acting on an education reform agenda is a state priority. The announced agenda focuses on improvements to the charter school system, offering vouchers, expanding a tax credit program for businesses and overhauling the teacher evaluation process.

"When we have failing schools, we know we have failing students," Corbett told The Delaware County Daily Times. "We can't continue down this same path and think we're going to get a different result."

A look at the four parts of Corbett's plan:

1. Vouchers: An "Opportunity Scholarship Program" that assists low-income students attending the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in Pennsylvania. The state Department of Education would, through this program, offer tuition assistance for eligible students to attend a public or private school of their choice.
2. Tax Credits: Expands the current Educational Improvement Tax Credit program, which gives businesses tax credits for sponsoring scholarships and educational improvement groups. This part of the proposal would also expand the scope of assisted students beyond the current 40,000 from middle- and low-income families.
3. Charter Schools: Creates a statewide entity to administer charter schools and makes it easier to convert buildings to charter educational facilities. The proposal also calls for charters to carry accountability for academic performance and mandates that charter officials comply with state ethics and financial responsibility laws.
4. Teacher Evaluations: Overhauls the current system of grading teacher performance of simply "satisfactory" or "unsatisfactory" to a more comprehensive method that incorporates classroom observations with student achievement. The rating scale would include four tiers instead of two: "distinguished," "proficient," "needs improvement" or "failing," and teachers, principals and education specialists will all be assessed on separate systems.

The reforms aim to foster competition among schools and motivate improved student performance.

"We can't guarantee their success, but we owe all students a fighting chance," Corbett said in a statement Tuesday. "We're talking about our children and we owe it to them to reform the system."

StudentsFirst issued a statement Tuesday supporting Corbett's proposal, noting that the plan would evaluate teachers in "meaningful ways" and help teachers improve. StudentsFirst is a grassroots education organization founded by former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee.

"The bipartisan support this proposal has received speaks to the need for the kind of transparent, rigorous and fair accountability system this would create in Pennsylvania," Rhee said in the statement. "Similarly, our grassroots members support the measure in that it expands educational opportunities for all children regardless of family income by allowing great charter schools to thrive and expand."

But the proposal lacks a clear path and timeline for how and when the reforms can be executed. Democratic state Rep. James R. Roebuck Jr. also told the Philadelphia Daily News that 60 to 65 percent of Pennsylvania residents are against vouchers.

"The critical problem in all of this is that it doesn't guarantee anyone anything," Roebuck, who chairs the House Education Committee, told the Philadelphia Daily News. "It's all a sham."

WNEP-TV reports that the state teachers' union voiced their concerns in a statement Tuesday, saying, "The $860 million in state funding cuts have forced the public schools to increase class sizes and cut programs. We need to restore those cuts, not spend more money on initiatives that don't work."

Comments

[Pat Bateman2000]

02:58 PM on 10/13/2011

Freedomworks is the Koch Brothers' organization whose goal is the privatization of public education. Students' First is Michelle Rhee, who was forced out of Washington, D C and is still dodging cheating accusations. These non-Pennsylvanians will be pouring money into this. Supporters of public schools have a battle on their hands here. It's a ruse.

[urbanlad]

05:54 PM on 10/12/2011

Not reform but destruction of public education

[jamovious]

12:58 AM on 10/13/2011

Wow....and you think doing the same old thing is improvement?? This is a perfect check and balance to improve teachers' abilities and cause a competition among the schools in the state to improve a childs education. We as a nation cannot afford to keep increasing the dollar amount while getting worse results. Congrats PA

[arkady967]

07:12 AM on 10/13/2011

Being intimately familiar with public education, and knowing what some employers say, and parents fear about the same, I couldn't agree more....

[carriedaway]

10:11 AM on 10/14/2011

We (PA teachers) are not doing the same old thing. We've felt the tremendous weight of PSSA testing and NCLB for most of the past decade, and have experienced equally heavy cuts in funding. There has NOT been an increase in dollar amounts, only cuts.

[eceresa]

05:33 PM on 10/12/2011

The headline reads "Pennsylvania Reform Plan Receives Mixed Response."

It shouldn't be mixed. There isn't a thing there that will improve schools, and there's quite a bit that will make them worse. This plan should be roundly condemned, and it probably will be, by the people who know something about education. But those people are increasingly marginalized and ignored.

If Michelle Rhee supports what you're doing, that's a sure sign it's time to re-evaluate it.

[arkady967]

07:10 AM on 10/13/2011

Maginalized and ignored because people have listened to them a long, long, time and have gotten little in return for their trust. Hence, charter schools, and vouchers. It long past due that parents had a real say in the direction and content of the children's education, and this is but a small step in the right direction. The competition should be a wake-up call for public education One size does not fit all. It doesn't even fit most.

[eceresa]

06:28 PM on 10/14/2011

Charter schools and vouchers are much more a reaction to propaganda and a desire by the rich to get a government payout than they are a reaction to any real failings of public schools, which are generally more than adequate to provide a good education, particularly in states where unions exist to give the people who understand education a voice in how they run.