LEGISLATIVE VICTORY

2019-20 PSBA

R E P O R T

ADVOCACY ENGAGINGMEMBERS IMPACT

PSBA’S EXPERT ADVOCACY WORK MEANS: • Building relationships with legislators.• Shaping policy debates.• Crafting legislative proposals and amendments and having them

introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives.• Building and leading stakeholder coalitions to support or oppose critical

issues and move conversations.• Asking the right questions and negotiating effectively. • Providing the information to build support.• Tracking hundreds of bills and monitoring their activity in order to take

action. During the 2019-20 session, PSBA tracked 614 bills.

INFLUENCING THE DISCUSSION• Initiating critical discussions on issues affecting public schools and

students. • Providing comments, analyses and testimonies on a variety of topics. • Providing valuable research. PSBA’s 2019 and 2020 State of Education reports

highlight the successes and challenges facing public education and school district operations. PSBA’s updated report on school mandates reflects the work of a special member task force and explains some of the costli-est mandates and demonstrates the need for mandate relief.

• Drafting proposals and amendments and negotiating for their inclusion in key bills.

• Targeting efforts on key issues including calls for charter school reforms, mandate relief, continued work on issues related to school and student safety, and assistance with numerous issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DURING THE 2019-20

SESSION OF THE GENERAL

ASSEMBLY, PSBA WORKED

TO CREATE SUPPORT FOR

THE ISSUES OF GREATEST

IMPORTANCE TO LOCAL SCHOOL

OFFICIALS, AND TO

DEFEAT THOSE THAT WERE BAD PUBLIC

POLICY.

PSBA WORKED TO PROTECT PUBLIC EDUCATION by blocking harmful legislation that included these proposals:

• Education savings accounts/vouchers pro-grams benefiting private schools that would have hindered funding of public schools.

• Property tax freeze legislation that would take away local school board decision- making.

• Suspensions on the use of the amusement tax that would impede local taxing authority.

• Restrictions on the ability of school districts to seek appeals of underassessed proper-ties, including large commercial properties.

• Implementation of expensive and unnecessary OSHA requirements.

PSBA KEPT MEMBERS UPDATED on legislative issues and bills moving in the General Assembly. We issued over 95 Legislative Reports and Legislative Alerts over the course of the two-year session. PSBA also presented issue webinars, meetings and our 2020 Advocacy Guide to assist members in reaching out to their legislators and becoming engaged advocates.

Over 150 school officials and administrators joined us at the Capitol for Advocacy Day in 2019. The pandemic did not deter our efforts in 2020, with 224 school leaders joining us for a virtual Advocacy Day event in May, and 174 for a fall virtual event. In addition, as part of PSBA’s Show Them What It Takes program, legislators were invited to visit schools within their legislative district in-person or virtually through Zoom meetings. There were 150 visits in fall 2018/spring 2019, and 13 visits in fall 2019/spring 2020 until the visits were halted by the pandemic.

In addition, through the virtually conducted Weekly Buzz meetings held in 2020, PSBA provided updates and addressed members’ con-cerns and questions on a wide variety of legis-lative and operational/funding topics related to the pandemic, the state budget and other issues.

PROTECTING PUBLIC EDUCATION

INFORMING AND ENGAGING MEMBERS

SHOW THEM WHAT IT TAKES Project

Now is the time to

P R O U D L E A D E R S H I P F O R P E N N S Y L V A N I A S C H O O L S

FIGHTING FOR GREATER STATE FUNDING

• 2019-20 budget: PSBA advocated for continued and increased funding for public schools. The final budget for education included a $160 million increase for the basic education subsidy, $50 million more for special education, a $10 million increase for career and technical education and $60 million for school safety and security grants.

• 2020-21 two-part budget: Due to the state revenue losses in the billions as a consequence of the pandemic, the General Assembly adopted a lean state budget in two separate packages. While most funding provided in the stop-gap plan adopted in May 2020 kept most areas of the budget underfunded for just five months, the plan included PSBA’s request for full-year level funding for basic education fund-ing, special education, and career and technical education subsidies. During the fall negotiations, PSBA pushed for the appropriate funding of the property tax relief fund, resulting in the inclusion of $200 million owed to school districts. PSBA also asked legislators at a minimum to sustain the level of funding for early intervention programs; the line item received a slight increase.

FOCUSING ON SCHOOL AND STUDENT SAFETY PSBA was part of key discussions to continue the work done in 2017-18 on school and student safety issues.

• Negotiated multiple amendments to legislation regarding trauma-informed education and training, security training changes, school threat assessment teams, changes to the school safety grant program, changes to the Safe2Say Something program, and access of records deemed neces-sary for the health and safety of students (Act 18 of 2019).

• Successfully negotiated a school director seat on the PCCD School Safety and Security Committee (Act 18 of 2019).

• Negotiated multiple amendments to language concerning school security personnel and training requirements, and provisions on who is authorized to carry firearms. (Act 67 of 2019).

• Led efforts to successfully authorize necessary fixes to pro-visions regarding school safety personnel, including giving additional time for school police officers and school resource officers to receive mandated training. (Act 91 of 2019).

PSBA WORKING FOR OUR

MEMBERS IN THE 2019-20

LEGISLATIVE SESSION

In 2020, PSBA’s advocacy work quickly pivoted to open discus-sions with the General Assembly and Governor’s Office to priori-tize the needs of schools during the pandemic.

• Fought for the passage of emergency legislation that addressed many of the immediate concerns related to the mandated closure of schools (Act 13 of 2020).

• Provided input to the PA Department of Education on numerous pieces of guidance for school health and safety operations and shared information with members.

• Formed a Back to School task force with seven other edu-cation associations to develop a Reopening Insights Report to assist school leaders as they planned for the new coming academic year.

• Worked successfully in partnership with other stakeholders to seek improved broadband access in rural and under-served areas of the state (Act 98 and Act 132 of 2020).

• Worked with partners to educate legislative leaders and staff regarding the financial impact on districts from cyber charter flight created by the pandemic.

• Supported legislation providing an extension for back-ground checks for current school employees experiencing scheduling difficulties (Act 18 of 2020).

• Supported legislation making numerous changes to the School Code, most of which are applicable to the 2020-21 school year regarding graduation requirements, testing, nonpublic student transportation and certification flexibilities to current and future teachers and paraprofessionals. (Act 136 of 2020).

• Urged the U.S. Congress to fund school nutrition programs through the end of the 2020-21 school year and to provide flexibility and stimulus funding to schools.

• Worked at both federal and state levels to seek legislation to provide temporary, limited liability protections to public schools. At the state level, PSBA supported and worked with the Senate to amend and pass legislation to provide COVID-19 liability protections for school districts (House Bill 1737).

PRIORITIZING THE IMPACT OF

COVID-19 ON SCHOOLS AND

STUDENTS

PRIORITY: CHARTER REFORM

PSBA PUSHES FOR MANDATE RELIEF

PSBA HEIGHTENED ITS CALL for meaningful charter school reforms and was actively involved in discussions at the Capitol on various bills introduced. PSBA raised concerns and drafted amendments to a four-bill charter package in the House (House Bill 355, House Bill 356, House Bill 357, House Bill 358), offered support to proposals that would require parents to pay for their child’s education in a cyber charter school if the school district offers its own full-time cyber education program (Senate Bill 34, House Bill 526), and provided testimony on a proposal to require all school districts to provide cyber education programs (House Bill 1897). PSBA also created a new website to provide the most recent data concerning charter school costs (www.PACharterChange.org). PSBA members were highly engaged as well, responding to PSBA legislative alerts and submitting editorials to news outlets across the state. By the end of 2020, nearly 340 school boards adopted PSBA’s resolution calling for charter school funding reforms, representing the majority of districts in Pennsylvania.

PSBA introduced the Campaign to Support Public Schools, an advocacy effort focusing on the need for relief from the effects of state-imposed unfunded and underfunded mandates and as well as the need for flexibility to weather the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign included a number of proposals addressing cost savings, planning and budget issues of concern to members. PSBA drafted legislation that would establish a mandate waiver program similar to the highly successful one which operated in Pennsylvania from 2000 to 2010 (Senate Bill 1286). PSBA’s updated report on school mandates was printed and sent to legislators.

PSBA SUCCESSFULLY DRAFTED DOZENS OF BILLS and amendments to reduce mandates, costs and add flexibility for school districts. Bills that were enacted and not previously mentioned include:

• Flexible Instruction Days: Act 64 of 2019 allows schools to use Flexible Instructional Days (FIDs) in the instance of a cancellation to fulfill instructional requirements.

• PlanCon: Act 70 of 2019 modernizes the state approval process for reimbursement for school construction and renovation projects, known as PlanCon.

• Omnibus CTE issues: Act 76 of 2019 amends the School Code to address numerous career and technical education (CTE) issues.

• Vaping prohibitions in schools: Act 93 and Act 111 of 2019 prohibit the use of electronic nicotine delivery systems by students on school grounds.

• Nominating petitions: Act 94 of 2019 amends the PA Election Code to require 10 signatures on a petition to run for school director.

• Educator evaluations: Act 13 of 2020 revises the state’s system the evaluation of teachers and other professional employees, and principals.

• Remote notarization: Act 15 of 2020 allows for remote notarization of documents.

• Background checks: Act 18 of 2020 grants an extension for background checks for current school employees.

• Senior tax relief: Act 20 of 2020 authorizes school districts to establish a program that allows older residents to volunteer in the district in exchange for a property tax credit.

• Omnibus School Code amendments: Act 30 of 2020 includes provisions regarding the school safety grants and other issues.

• Electrocardiogram testing: Act 73 of 2020 requires information on EKG testing to available for student athletes.

• Property tax payment discount period: Act 75 of 2020 allows school districts the option to extend their property tax discount periods.

• School director email: Act 84 of 2020 calls for school districts to publish on their websites an email address for each school director.

• Protections for student assault victims: Act 110 of 2020 protects student victims of sexual assault.

• Tax anticipation notes: Act 114 of 2020 helps school districts manage cash flow and short-term debt during the pandemic by allowing them to issue tax anticipation notes that mature after the end of the fiscal year.

• Student vision screening: Act 122 of 2020 revises state requirements for student vision screening.

NEW LAWS NEGOTIATED,

SUPPORTED BY PSBA

PSBA INCREASED ITS WORK IN WASHINGTON, DC by hosting its first membership-wide federal advocacy day in 2019. In 2020, the association met virtually with every congressional member and worked to support federal funding for school lunch programs, stimulus funding for schools, broadband deployment funding and to fight regulations that would have schools competing with hospitals for broadband funding. PSBA also hosted a member event focusing on funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

PSBA PRESENTED TESTIMONY ON THESE CRITICAL ISSUES:

• Charter school funding reform (Senate Education Committee, August 14, 2019)

• Special education funding (Special Education Funding Formula Commission, October 1, 2019)

• Educator evaluations/SB 751 (House Education Committee, October 28, 2019)

• Charter school reform/HB 1897 (House Education Commit-tee, January 21, 2020)

• Continuity of education during the pandemic (Senate Educa-tion Committee, May 11, 2020)

• Preparing for reopening schools in fall 2020 (House Educa-tion Committee, June 17, 2020)

• Challenges for schools in reopening in the upcoming academic year (House Democratic Policy Committee, June 30, 2020)

• Reopening schools during the pandemic (Senate Majority Policy Committee, July 28, 2020)

• Legislative support needed for schools during the pandemic (House Education Committee, August 5, 2020)

• Cost savings for school districts through improved efficiencies, including the need for mandate relief (House Democratic Policy Committee, August 31, 2020)

• Opposing “Back on Track” Education Savings Accounts/SB 1230 that would create a voucher program to direct funds to private schools and organizations (Senate Education Committee, October 5, 2020)

FEDERAL ADVOCACY

psba.org

TESTIMONIES