Pennsylvania Legislative Update - National Council of Teachers of English

Reports

Pennsylvania Legislative Update


State: Pennsylvania
Level: P12
Analyst: Hower, Aileen

Highlights from the Pennsylvania House of Representatives:

  1. Representative Gordon Denlinger (serving the Ephrata area and eastern Lancaster County) plans to propose legislation to repeal PA Core Standards (Common Core). He writes “I continue to hear concerns with the academic quality of the Common Core Standards from teachers, school administrators, parents and students. While Pennsylvania made some minor adjustments to the Common Core Standards, those adjustments were clearly not enough to salvage what will be a disaster for the quality of education in our state. I believe Pennsylvania must lead the way in rejecting this continuous push toward the federalization of our educational system. For the sake of our children, we need to regain control of our education process by re-empowering our local school districts in order to restore the richness of the American education experience”.
  1. Representative Patty Kim (Dauphin County) plans to introduce legislation to lower the compulsory school age from 8 years old to 5 years old. Currently, Pennsylvania’s minimum compulsory attendance age is higher than every other state in the nation except Washington. Pennsylvania and Washington are the only states that set their minimum compulsory attendance ages at eight. Kim states that“early education has been proven to be very valuable to students. A high-quality early education can help to provide children with the tools they will need to succeed in life”.
  1. Representative Thomas Murt (Montgomery County) is preparing to introduce legislation that will require 80% of teachers working in a charter school or cyber charter school to hold state certification.The Charter School Law currently requires only 75% of the professional staff members employed by a charter school or cyber charter school to hold state certification. Murt believes that “requiring a higher percentage of charter and cyber charter school professional staff to hold state certification will help ensure that students attending such schools receive a quality education”. His bill will require that 80% of teachers working in a charter school or cyber charter school hold state certification.