School takeovers don't raise achievement but Senate Bill 6, which passed the Senate Education
Committee, is pushing that failed experiment anyway.
Senate Bill 6 -- the so-called "Educational Opportunity and Accountability Act" -- would put academically struggling schools into a statewide Achievement School District, which would be run by an executive director and a board of political appointees in Harrisburg.
This politically run "district" would have sweeping authority to shut down neighborhood schools and turn neighborhood public schools over to private charter school managers.
And concerned parents, taxpayers, educators and community will be shut out of the decision-making process entirely, with one exception -- they'd still have to pay charter school tuition and other bills run up by the achievement district.
SB 6 requires the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, ranked by the School Performance Profile, transform themselves within two to three years, either by contract with outside contractors or converting to charters.
The bill by Sen. Lloyd Smucker, R-Lancaster, passed the Senate Education Committee on June 9 and is headed for a vote by the full Senate.