Pa.+Education+Secretary+Ron+Tomalis+Outlines+Plans+for+Future+of+Education+-+Choice,+Cuts

= = ==By Mary Niederberger= =//Published by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette//= =//9/23/11//= === = = = = = = =The competition that charter schools create for traditional public school systems is good and should help to improve educational quality, according to state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis.= =Mr. Tomalis, meeting Thursday with Post-Gazette editorial board members, said he supports the choices that charter schools, cyber charter schools and school vouchers, if legislators approve them, offer to parents and students.= =He said now is the time to offer alternatives because a new generation of parents will be seeking choices in their children's education. He added that leaders of traditional public schools care more about the money they lose in tuition to charter schools than the students they lose.= = "They don't care about the child leaving, they just want the money to stay," Mr. Tomalis said. "You would think they would want their program to be so compelling that [students] want to stay." = = Tuition is paid to charter schools by the home school districts of each student. Until this year, districts were reimbursed for about a third of the cost of the lost tuition. = = But the current state education budget cut out those reimbursements, leaving huge holes in some districts' budgets. = =The secretary said charter schools are becoming such a popular choice that if all of the students were in one district, it would be the second-largest in the state.= =He said he was pleased that some local school districts have started their own cyber programs in an effort to attract students back to the districts. He said school districts should create more innovative programs to keep or bring back students.= ="That's competition. That's exactly the way you want it to work," Mr. Tomalis said.= =Thomas Gentzel, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said he disagrees with Mr. Tomalis' contention that public school officials worry more about money than about losing students.= ="In Allegheny County, districts have started programs aimed at keeping students in the district, so I don't think they want to lose students," Mr, Gentzel said.= = "We are not opposed to charter schools and have never been. Our concerns are about the funding formula. We've seen from experience in a number of districts that charter schools have created significant cost burdens on districts and taxpayers."= =On other topics, Mr. Tomalis said his administration would be working on various pieces of legislation, including bills to allow teacher evaluations and the voluntary merging or combining of school districts. He said some small, struggling school districts should realize that they likely won't be able to survive. = =The federal No Child Left Behind Law, which Mr. Tomalis was in charge of implementing when he worked with the U.S. Department of Education, "needs to be rewritten," he said, because no district will hit the targets of 100 percent student proficiency by 2014, as the law currently requires.= =The Obama administration is expected to announce today the details of a system that would allow states to apply for a waiver of the law because Congress has been unable to change it.= =Mr. Tomalis said he wanted to hear details of that system before deciding whether Pennsylvania will apply for a waiver.= = As for future state education budgets, Mr. Tomalis recommended that public school officials "budget very, very conservatively over the next couple of years" because the state is not anticipating any significant revenue growth. = =Read more: [|http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11266/1176904-298-0.stm#ixzz1YpNdGpyv] = = = = = =News= =home=