We have a Tentative Contract Agreement. Information meetings will be held at the following times and locations:

CAT-Pickering March 4 4PM
CAT Brandywine March 6 4PM
Educational Support Center (ESC)-Boot Road March 10 4:30 PM

We will vote on the contract on March 12 at ESC.
You may vote anytime between 2 and 7 PM.

The November release of a report finding that Pennsylvania is under-funding public schools by $4.38 billion was the catalyst for collective action on the part of a large number of education and advocacy groups, including PSEA.  More...

NEA partners with National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to teach web safety

West Virginia's CBS affiliate WOWK-TV (12/5, Long) reports, "To help combat the online threats facing young Internet users, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the National Education Association and Sprint are partnering up in a new initiative called 4NetSafety." The program "offers free tools and information to parents through several websites." One, found here, is designed to keep parents informed. Another, found here, is for teens. At a news conference to announce the effort, NCMEC President Eric Allen encouraged parents to "keep those lines of communication open so if your child is encountering" cyberbullying or other web-based threats, "they'll come to you." He added, "don't assume that your child can deal with these kinds of challenges without help."

Chapter 14 Regulation Changes

The process in Pennsylvania to bring regulations from draft into final form has taken more than a year. Once it was announced that Pennsylvania would undertake the task of updating regulations to comply with federal special education regulations, your organization put together a Chapter 14 Work Group. The Work Group addressed recommendations to the State Board, testimony, input for members and the Special Education Board and recruitment of members to speak at Roundtables and Hearings. Staff worked in collaboration with other groups to convey ideas and positions and communicated with the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the State Board directly. Click here to read the final draft.

ESEA/NCLB Update
Statement from House Education Chair George Miller on ESEA Reauthorization:

On Wednesday, Nov. 7, U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, issued the following statement about the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law and the President’s threat to veto the 2008 spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. This statement by the House Education Chair is a very encouraging sign as we gear up to keep pressure on Congress to override President Bush’s expected veto next week of the education funding bill. Most notable in the chairman's statement are the following comments: "It has become clear to me, however, that without real Presidential leadership, this reauthorization process is unlikely to succeed. And with this week’s veto threat of the education appropriations bill, this President has demonstrated a complete failure of leadership. President Bush’s only real involvement this year in developing a new education bill has been to make an occasional speech urging Congress to stay the course. That has been counterproductive given how clearly unfair and inflexible the law is. Now the President is saying that he wants to stay the course on inadequate education funding as well. It is difficult to see how we get a reauthorization bill done in this Congress as long as the President continues to oppose both common-sense improvements to the law and additional education funding."

Changes to PDE’s Evaluation of Master’s Equivalency Applications

The Pennsylvania Department of Education recently finalized the changes it is making to its review of Master’s Equivalency (MEQ) applications. (More...)

Teachers urged to avoid using social networking websites

Ohio's Columbus Dispatch reported that the Ohio Education Association "has 'strongly' encouraged teachers against using MySpace, Facebook and other online social-networking sites." A recent union memo to its members said "the dangers of participating in these two sites outweigh the benefits." (More…)