Senate Education Committee Votes to Stop Keystone Exam Funding

In a bi-partisan effort to stop the Governor from unilaterally implementing the Keystone Exam/GCAs, the Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to block the contract that was awarded to the company that was designing the tests.

From the Pittsburgh Trib:

Senate Education Committee votes to block contract with testing company

HARRISBURG — A high school graduation exam drew fierce opposition Tuesday from members of the Senate Education Committee, who voted unanimously to block a $201 million contract with a Minnesota testing company.

For almost two hours, senators from both parties skewered Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak for proceeding with a seven-year contract without legislative approval at a time when Pennsylvania faces a $3.2 billion deficit.

Even members of Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's party, especially Sen. Anthony Williams of Philadelphia, criticized the contract.

"The reason why we're having the hearing today is because every time we ask a question, the response is sort of condescending," Williams told Zahorchak. "You sort of act like, 'What right do you have to ask a question?' I'm concerned about how we arrive at moments like this, which are embarrassing to all of us."

The committee approved a bill by Senate Majority Whip Jane Orie, R-McCandless, requiring that any graduation exam be approved by the General Assembly. Orie, calling the Rendell administration's action "unconscionable," predicted the bill would move through both chambers with a veto-proof majority.

Orie said the bill would negate the contract signed last month with Data Recognition Corp. for the tests. She said the contract is flexible enough that the state would not owe the company money for canceling.

Rendell fired back hours later: "If it becomes law, I will veto it." He said states surrounding Pennsylvania have such exams.

"Do you think all the states have it wrong and we have it right?" Rendell said business leaders across the state back the exams. The opposition was driven by a "special interest," the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, the governor said.

"The fact other states might be doing it doesn't mean Pennsylvania should do it," PSEA spokesman Wythe Keever said. He said 23 organizations across the state oppose the exams, ranging from the NAACP to the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania.

The opposition had less to do with the tests than a perception by senators that Rendell's office was dictating education policy without legislative input.

Deeming the situation a "corruption of the legislative process," Sen. Mary Jo White, R-Venango, said, "It is not the Department of Education's job to determine education policy for the entire state."

Zahorchak said the $8 million included in this budget and $20 million next year for the contract are a fraction of the $10 billion the state spends on education. He said it is important to measure students' competency before they go out in the work force.

Committee Chair Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin, supports the idea behind graduation tests but said he is disappointed by the Education Department's "absolutely miserable job" of communicating with the Legislature.

"You're asking us to kill a mosquito with a sledgehammer," Piccola said.

"You can use the sledgehammer, but its not me who will be punished by it," Zahorchak said. "It's generations of kids."

Michael Hauser, principal at Moon Area Senior High School, supports the idea behind the so-called Keystone exams but believes Rendell rushed the issue.

"Ultimately, having some type of standardized assessment of what kids are learning across the commonwealth is not a bad thing, but we need to move forward at a reasonable pace," Hauser said.

Erin Vecchio, a Democratic committeewoman and school board member with two children at Penn Hills High School, does not support the standardized exams. She fears the tests would cause teachers to change the way they teach students.

"It doesn't mean that anyone is going to be educated unless you're going to teach them the test," Vecchio said. "You're teaching the kids how to do the test instead of teaching them how to learn. What good does that do?"

Thank you Senator Orie for stepping up and getting this done.

Thanks for reading.

James