Education is one of the hot topics this year. In Pennsylvania, we have wide disparities between low- and high-income school districts in per student education funding, and concern over local property tax burdens. In the Souderton School District in particular, the financial burden for the charter school funding model increases every year. There is also no accountability for charter schools to control or reduce costs. These are costs that are reflected on your property tax bill. Only legislators can fix this problem and that’s why you need to be aware of these important issues.

Children are not only our future, this generation is the generation that becomes our doctors and nurses, our engineers and teachers. Let’s learn about what is going wrong and how to fix it.

We are excited to have two experts coming to talk to us.

• David Lapp, attorney and Director of Policy Research at Research for Action.
• Kyle Longacre, Program Administrator for College and Career Readiness at Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

When: September 13, 2018 from 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Where: Peter-Becker-Community, Maplewood Estates, 815 Maplewood Drive, Harleysville, PA 19438 

David Lapp serves as the Director of Policy Research at Research for Action where he oversees a range of projects at the nexus of education research and policy. He joined RFA after seven years as a staff attorney at the Education Law Center – PA, where he litigated cases and conducted policy research on a wide variety of legal issues related to public education, including school funding, race and disability discrimination, student discipline, and charter school law. At ELC, David also worked to help districts and charter schools revise their Student Codes of Conduct in order to minimize reliance on exclusionary discipline. He also helped create, train, and advise a law student collaborative that provides pro bono assistance to students in Philadelphia public schools who are facing expulsion and disciplinary transfers. David recently taught education law at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. He received his JD from Temple Law School, which awarded him the post-graduate Conwell Community Corps Fellowship.  Prior to practicing law, David taught high school social studies for a total of nine years in two different Philadelphia charter schools.

Kyle Longacre is Program Administrator for College and Career Readiness at Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, where he heads the MontcoWorks NOW program for youth and youth adult workforce and career development services.  He works to connect schools and businesses to develop and enhance career readiness efforts, close the skills gap, and promote economic and community development through engaging work based learning opportunities.  Recently, Kyle was a collaborator in a national USDA food safety grant to promote education and workforce development efforts, by assisting schools in Kansas, Michigan, and western Pennsylvania.  He served for seven years as an assistant principal at Souderton Area High School and 14 years at Quakertown Community High School as an administrator and high school world cultures and world affairs teacher.