From The Associated Press:

The state Senate could vote as early as Wednesday on a bill that is designed to meet Gov. Tom Corbett's desire to overhaul Pennsylvania's public schools by helping thousands more of those students afford private and parochial school tuition with taxpayer help and making it easier to open charter schools.

A rewritten version of legislation that had stalled in the Senate in the spring easily passed the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, just a day after the committee chairman released the new draft.

The rewritten bill adds a chapter on charter schools, but also it substantially scales back the scope of Piccola's earlier voucher program that would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars more and been available to children of the state's poorest families.

Under the new bill, vouchers would be limited to children in the worst-performing school districts, but income limits would be higher.

Let's be clear. The American Federation For Children spends significant sums of money to elect candidates who support educational options, and it usually does so in direct competition with teacher unions. But those who dismissed the AFC 2011 National Policy Summit as either politically or philosophically monolithic are playing some partisan games of their own.

Yes, as a Salon columnist readily noted on Monday while depicting the event as “right wing” and “religious right,” the two-day summit in Washington indeed featured speeches by two Republican governors, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania and Scott Walker of Wisconsin. Both governors have pushed education agendas that include private school options.

But let's also fill in the rest of this picture. The event was emceed by a black Democrat and former D.C. Council member, Kevin Chavous. Those sharing the stage over the two days included: Michelle Rhee, a Democrat and former D.C. school chancellor; Ann Duplessis, a black Democrat who served in the Louisiana Senate and is now New Orleans' deputy chief administrative officer; Alisha Morgan, a black Democrat and Georgia representative; Anthony Williams, a black Democrat and Pennsylvania senator; Kenneth Campbell, president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options BAEO; and Julio Fuentes, president of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options.

The federation's annual education advocacy award was handed to Howard Fuller, the former Milwaukee superintendent and BAEO founder who has called private options for poor black students the civil rights cause of this era. The conference closed with a rousing call to action by an African-American minister from New Jersey, Rev. Reginald Jackson, who invoked the memory of Malcolm X. “We must assure that our children get a quality education,” Jackson intoned, “and, as Malcolm X said, by any means necessary.” (more…)