Reform Special Education Funding » Rep. Roebuck

House Education Committee passes HB 704

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:09:58 +0000

State Reps. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster; Barbara McIlvaine Smith, D-Chester; James Roebuck, D-Philadelphia; and Keith McCall (D-Carbon) were among the 65 co-sponsors of legislation approved today making the state’s special education funding formula more equitable and strengthening accountability for effective investment of new funding.

Representatives Roebuck and McIlvaine Smith were among the 22 Education Committee members approving the legislation. House Bill 704 aims to close the state’s share of the $380 million adequacy gap over a period of six years and to base state funding to school districts on a district’s five-year average of actual students enrolled in special education.

“I am proud to see the House Education Committee today approve House Bill 704,” Rep. Sturla said. “We are one step closer to providing comprehensive accountability and equitable funding for all special education students.”

UPDATE: Special Education Hearing on May 6

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:50:14 +0000

UPDATE: Hearing date changed. Wednesday, May 6 is the new date.

Please make plans to attend a legislative hearing on our special education funding reform bill. Send out the word to your entire network. We need huge attendance! This is the turning point we have been waiting for.

The hearing is being held by the House Education Committee. It will take place in Harrisburg at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 6, 2009 in Room 50 (ground floor) of the Irvis Office Building (attached to the rear east corner of the Capitol).

The bill is sponsored by Representatives Sturla, McCall, McIlvaine-Smith, Roebuck, and more than 50 others. It will be officially introduced on April 29. PLEASE KEEP UP YOUR CALLS AND E-MAILS TO REPRESENTATIVES, ASKING THEM TO CO-SPONSOR THE BILL. We need more co-sponsors to ensure passage of the bill.

Witnesses at the May 6 hearing will include the Education Law Center, the Disability Rights Network of PA, the Arc of PA, and others.

We will also hold a rally and an action strategy meeting immediately following the Committee hearing on May 6 in Harrisburg. Please plan on staying for these events. Details to follow soon.

Good News

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:19:32 +0000

Representative Mike Sturla (Majority Policy Chair) will introduce our funding reform bill during the last week in April. He is currently seeking co-sponsors, and issued a recent memo to his colleagues for this purpose. Representatives James Roebuck (Education Committee Chair) and Barbara McIlvaine Smith (Special Education Subcommittee Chair) are also sponsors and will hold Education Committee hearings in early May.

HOW CAN YOU HELP TO GET THIS BILL PASSED?

Your immediate help is needed in two ways:

1. Schedule a meeting for yourself in the district office of one or two key legislators. Ask them to be champions for special education funding reform.

2. Issue a strong alert throughout your entire network for all individuals to call or e-mail their own state representative, asking the legislator to call Representative Sturla’s office ASAP and co-sponsor the special education bill.
You can use the following talking points:

Talking Points

(Put this in your own words and give personal examples.)

Please support reform of the state funding system for special education.

The current funding system is broken, is unfair, and does not provide enough resources for special education in the right places. It sets the number of students eligible for state funding for special education at 16% regardless of whether the district has fewer or more students receiving special education. It also does not focus the funding on strategies that have a track record for improving student performance.

I have personal experience with how this broken system hurts children with disabilities and all students.

Please take action before June to adopt a bill fixing this problem, based on the November 2007 Costing-out Study that was used to fix the regular education funding formula. The Study was updated for special education in February 2009.

I know many families and educators who feel the same way. We will be doing our part to support your leadership on this issue.