Senate+GOP+impatient+with+House+progress+on+education+reform

= Senate GOP impatient with House progress on education reform. = =By Peter L. DeCoursey= =Published by Capitolwire= =6/19/12= = = = = = = =HARRISBURG (June 19) – After this morning’s budget meeting, House GOP leaders and Gov. Tom Corbett’s staff intensified negotiations and work on a proposed education reform plan.= = = =The hope is to have the language of that plan at least in an advanced draft form, for review by key groups and Senate Republicans within a day or two, negotiators said.= = = =But a top Senate leader expressed a growing level of frustration with the House and the governor’s office and the progress of the talks.= = = =“I would anticipate that if we don’t have a revenue figure in the next 24 hours, the prospects of getting legislation and the budget done by June 30 are going to fade a bit,” said Senate Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson. “We need a spend number soon.”= = = =“There’s really not a goddamn thing we agreed on. Everything’s the same as earlier,” he added.= = = =As negotiations continue toward a resolution of the more than $250 million gap on state spending between GOP legislative leaders and the governor, a number of legislative issues figure in that resolution, negotiators said.= = = =So the agreement by House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, to actively negotiate a plan on charter school reform, teacher evaluation and perhaps EITC 2.0 vouchers, which could pass the House, finally took place a week after several negotiators thought it should have, several negotiators said.= = = =“With all of these things, the education reform plan, the [ethane cracker] tax credit, we need to know what it is, what’s in it, before we can commit to passing this piece of legislation or that piece of legislation,” said State Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre. “So the groups responsible for writing both of those obviously have to get that done so we can move along on all of these issues.= = = =“Because at this stage, everything you talk about is linked to you doing one thing and somebody else doing something,” Corman said.= = = =Another negotiator said: “If they can agree on an education reform bill with charters and teacher evaluation that the House can pass and the governor can live with, we can get a lot closer on the spend number.”= = = =“Everything is still part of the mix. … Nothing is really forming all on it’s own,” said Scarnati. “The Senate has been far out in front on education issues for sometime and we continue to be. We passed many reforms out of the Senate. I think it boils down into what can the House do and what can we agree to.”= = = =“Look, I think we’re still clearly trying to define what we can all agree on. That’s the problem,” he added.= = = =Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said the education reform provisions could be finalized in the next two weeks.= = = =“We talked about that all today at some length. I think some of those provisions are in position to I think be finalized in the next two weeks. Others need a lot more work. None of them are finally agreed upon,” he said.= = = =A House negotiator said there was no point of contention between the House and Senate on any education reforms, and said the two chambers were lockstep.= = = =The agreement to have Turzai’s team and Corbett’s work on a bill ended an impasse on education reform that has lasted most of a year. Turzai had repeatedly called upon the governor “to lead on this issue” to define the issue and drum up House votes for it. The governor and state Senate GOP leaders, particularly after the Senate passed its voucher bill last year, Senate Bill 100, have asked Turzai to figure out what could pass the House and get it passed in that chamber.= = = =Corbett has made it clear in almost every meeting with budget negotiators that the ethane cracker bill, charter school reform and a teacher evaluation bill are among the top items he wants on his desk before he signs the state budget by or before the end of June.= = = =The governor was not present at the afternoon meeting. Corbett spokesman Kevin Harley said that he had a prior commitment, but that Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley, Budget Secretary Charles Zogby and Legislative Secretary Annmarie Kaiser had stepped in.= = = =The teacher evaluation bill and charter reform and EITC 2.0 could all pass as separate bills, or more likely, be folded into the education code bill to be passed this month.= = = =Each has issues. Corbett still wants his teacher evaluation bill, with its mandate that 50 percent of teacher evaluations be based on student achievement, as measured by tests or other objective measures. But his administration has also signaled that if that cannot pass, they would accept an Education Code amendment. It would replace the words now in the code that state that evaluations can take into account “pupil reaction” and replace them with “student evaluations.” Then the Education Department would write regulations to put its bill into regulatory language.= = = =Charter school reform also has several issues that need to be resolved. The governor would like the state to authorize charter schools. The House GOP wants to have that only happen for the worst-performing 10-15 percent of school districts. There is also discussion about phasing in more state oversight or speeding up charter appeals to the state over disputed district decisions.= = = =EITC 2.0 is also part of the discussions, negotiators said, and could be part of the final package, but is less likely than charter reform and teacher evaluation, three sources said.= = = =One of them said: “It could be very hard to get the House to do three. And the governor wants evaluations and charters most and first. But if the House decided they could do three, and did it, it has a strong chance of happening.”= = = =Other than the willingness of the House GOP to take on three kinds of major school reform at once, the main problem for the voucher proposal is funding it.= = = =Various funding levels have been proposed, ranging from $25 million to $75 million. That higher level would be $25 million for the current EITC program and $50 million for EITC 2.0.= = = =“In a budget where we haven’t fully restored the cuts to counties for the intellectual disabilities program, where we barely restored colleges and the block grant program for early education, and the governor wants us to cut $50 million or $100 million from our ask, $25 million is a lot of money, and $75 million? We don’t have it,” a Senate negotiator said.= = = =Legislative leaders have suggested they could consider EITC 2.0 and more funding for EITC in the fall if revenues continue to rise.= = = = = =News= =home=