May 16, 2013
Legislative Report
More Info
The Senate and House of Representatives were session this week and have now adjourned until June 3.
This week:
* Education Secretary Tomalis to leave post
* PSBA presents testimony on Right-to-Know Law
* House, Senate Committees discuss Common Core standards
* Special education funding commission meets
* Senate action this week
* House action this week
* On the Hill: Upcoming meetings
* Proposals for PSBA’s 2014 Legislative Platform now being accepted
Education Secretary Tomalis to leave post
Gov. Tom Corbett announced that Ronald J. Tomalis will leave his post as secretary of education on May
31 to become Special Adviser to the Governor on Higher Education. Tomalis, who has been with the
administration since January 2011, will be responsible for overseeing, implementing and reviewing the
recommendations made by the Governor’s Postsecondary Advisory Commission. Corbett has nominated Dr.
William E. Harner, superintendent of the Cumberland Valley School District in Mechanicsburg,
Cumberland County, as the new secretary of education. Harner will begin as acting secretary on June 1. His
nomination must be confirmed by the Senate.
PSBA presents testimony on Right-to-Know Law
PSBA presented testimony to the Senate State Government Committee on SB 444, which amends the Rightto-Know Law (Open Records) to make a number of amendments to the act, including clarifying and
technical changes. Representing PSBA at the hearing was Acting Chief Counsel Emily Leader, who said
that the public interest to consider is the balance between what the General Assembly believes the public
should be able to access regarding governmental activities and the degree to which all taxpayers should
subsidize those who use the RTKL. In this regard, PSBA supports efforts in SB 444 to address commercial
use of the law, use of the law to circumvent discovery rules for litigation and unduly burdensome requests.
Leader suggested, however, that the proposed amendments do not adequately resolve some problems
experienced by agencies struggling to comply with extensive, complex, confusing or frequent requests by
those who see no reason to consider the cost to all taxpayers connected to the manner in which they use the
Right-to-Know Law. She urged legislators to adopt the approach taken by many states, to permit agencies to
charge reasonable fees for staff time expended in fulfilling requests and to provide recourse when requesters
fail to pay for prior requests and seek to make new requests. She also offered PSBA’s support for
distinguishing commercial from noncommercial requests.
House, Senate Committees discuss Common Core standards
This week the Senate and House Education Committees held separate hearings to discuss the Common Core
academic standards that the State Board of Education adopted in 2010 and will be finalized under the
proposed Chapter 4 regulations that were approved by the State Board in March. The Chapter 4 proposal is
expected to be transmitted to the two committees and the Independent Regulatory Review Commission for
consideration. The committees may hold additional hearings specific to Chapter 4 at a later date. The
hearings conducted this week focused on the implementation of Common Core standards and included
comments from the Department of Education as well as supporters and opponents of the new standards and
assessment requirements. Some legislators raised concerns regarding the cost of implementation and have
suggested that further movement of the proposal be paused until additional consideration can be made.
Supporters urged continuation of the implementation of the standards that began three years ago.
Special education funding commission meets
This week the Special Education Funding Formula Commission created under Act 3 of 2013 held its
organizational meeting, and will meet again on June 13 for its first public hearing on the issue. The
commission is charged with developing the components for a new special education funding formula for
distributing state money to local school districts. Act 3 calls for the commission to issue a report and
recommendations by Sept. 30, 2013, but the new special education funding formula will not go into effect
until approved by the General Assembly. Serving as co-chairs of the commission are Sen. Pat Browne and
Rep.Bernie O’Neill. Members of the Senate serving on the commission include Senators Mike Folmer,
Andrew Dinniman, James Brewster, Ted Erickson and Judith Schwank. House members on the panel include
Representatives Paul Clymer, James Roebuck, Mark Longietti, Michael Peifer and Mike Sturla.
Representing the Corbett Administration on the commission are the Secretary of Education; Charles Zogby,
Secretary of the Budget; and, Carolyn Dumaresq, Deputy Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary
Education.
Senate action this week:
The Senate Appropriations Committee approved:
SB 34, which amends the Professional Educator Discipline Act. Among the changes, SB 34: expands the
jurisdiction of the Professional Standards and Practices Commission to include educators holding Private
Academic School certification and educators working for independent contractors in public schools; expands
the bases for discipline to include founded and indicated reports of child abuse as well as “grooming”
behaviors such as sending a student sexually explicit text messages; shortens the time period for mandatory
reporting to PDE; requires an educator arrested or indicted for or convicted of certain enumerated crimes to
report the indictment, arrest or conviction to the employing school entity within 72 hours; prohibits school
entities from entering into confidential settlement agreements that interfere with a school entity’s mandatory
reporting; and eliminates the current statute of limitations for the filing of misconduct complaints.
SB 46, which requires an employment history review for all prospective school employees as it relates to any
investigation concerning sexual misconduct. The bill applies to all prospective employees of public and
private schools, nonpublic schools, intermediate units and area vocational-technical schools, including, but
not limited to, teachers, substitutes, janitors, cafeteria workers, independent contractors and their employees,
except those employees and independent contractors and their employees who have no direct contact with
children. The committee amended SB 46 to remove provisions requiring applicants to provide a listing of all
former employers subsequent to the applicant’s 18th birthday and within the previous 10 years where the job
did not involve direct contact with children. The amendment also deleted duplicative language.
In House action this week:
The House passed:
HB 1172, which amends the Local Tax Enabling Act to revise provisions under Act 130 of 2008 regarding
taxies levied by merging political subdivisions, including school districts. Under Act 130, any political
subdivision that currently levies a mercantile/business privilege tax may continue to do so when it merges to
form a new political subdivision. At the time, this language was instrumental in implementing the merger
between the Center Area and Monaca school districts in western Pennsylvania. Act 130 includes a revenue
neutral provision which limits the political subdivision from collecting any funds in excess of the amount
generated in the last fiscal year the tax was levied before the merger. HB 1172 removes the restrictions and
allows political subdivisions, after the first year, to tap into the revenues generated from the
mercantile/business privilege tax. The tax rate will be locked in at the revenue neutral rate but if the rate
generates more revenues, the political subdivision will be permitted to collect those revenues.
House Resolution 139, which directs the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to conduct a study of
the status of special education for gifted students in the Commonwealth.
The House State Government Committee approved:
HB 1020, which removes the ability of candidates for school board to cross-file nomination. The bill was
amended to clarify that the elimination of cross-filing for school board candidates applies to all
elections. Another amendment replaces references to “justice of the peace” with “magisterial district judge”
throughout the Election Code.
The House Finance Committee approved:
HB 1359, which amends the Forest Reserves Municipal Financial Relief Law, to allow counties,
municipalities, and school districts to receive a fixed payment for tax exempt forest lands. The bill decreases
the number of eligible parcels that must be leased to receive payment from the state from 75 or more parcels
to 30 or more parcels. The parcels must be leased from the Commonwealth at 90% or more of their fair
market value and used for residential or commercial purposes, excluding agricultural operations.
The House Health Committee approved:
House Resolution 243, which directs the Joint State Government Commission to study the issue of
childhood obesity, to establish an advisory committee to conduct a comprehensive study of the issue, to
propose strategies for healthier eating and physical activity for children and to report its findings and
recommendations to the House of Representatives.
On the Hill: Upcoming meetings
Upcoming events currently scheduled include:
Thursday, May 23
* The House Education Committee will conduct a public hearing on HB 983, which requires the PA
Department of Education to establish a clearinghouse of online courses for students enrolled in grades 3-12,
and to require school entities to offer their students the opportunity to participate in the online courses
approved by the PDE and made available through the clearinghouse.
Proposals for PSBA’s 2014 Legislative Platform now being accepted
Your school board is invited to submit proposals for consideration for PSBA’s 2014 Legislative Platform.
The association is accepting proposals now until Friday, June 28, 2013. Guidelines for platform
submissions and submission forms were mailed to PSBA liaisons and board secretaries and are posted
on PSBA’s Web site.
Boards may submit new proposals as well as revisions to the current platform and should include a brief
statement (about 50 words) of rationale for each proposal submitted. The rationale should include a
summary of the reasons why your board believes this issue should be addressed in the platform, any specific
problems your district has encountered, and how your board believes the problem could be resolved. In
addition, your board is encouraged to submit any data related to the issue as it affects your district, or any
draft language that could be crafted into proposed legislation. This information will be shared with the PSBA
Platform Committee and will be helpful to the association’s governmental and member relations staff in their
advocacy efforts.
All submissions should be directed to PSBA’s Office of Governmental and Member Relations. All items
submitted by your board must be verified by the board secretary.
The PSBA Platform Committee will review proposals and rationale submitted for the platform on Aug. 10.