The battle has been joined and the Dybbuk has emerged; to be provided is the complete-version of a letter distributed

by the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition [funded by Federation] that comprehensibly CORRUPTS the database. It reflects the infamous disease-state of NIH [which doesnt denote the National Institutes of Health, but which does connote a concept that is manifest as an individual taps his head and admits Not Invented Here; essentially, those who dont own a potentially-successful idea are, tragically, wont to diss it, thereby attempting to drag defeat from the jaws of victory. BTW, it is not surprising that my effort to send a letter-to-the-editor to the Jewish Exponent has failed for, not only was it not chosen for publication, but it has yet to be posted on the Internet on the Kvetch blog-site [http://www.jewishexponent.com/a-first-step-on-holocaust-education]. To recall, this is what I wrote: Your editorial prematurely ceded defeat regarding efforts to mandate Holocaust education for all Pennsylvania Students. You incorrectly concluded that the bill sponsored by Rep. Brendan Boyle had gained no traction, in part due to petty politics; rather, it and that of fellow-Democrat Sen. Anthony Williams were blocked because they contained an unfunded mandate, which Republicans do not wish to foist upon the 501 local School Boards in the Commonwealth. Also, Mr. Hank Butler of the Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition was wrong when he claimed there was no history for mandating curriculum of any sort on the part of legislators, for the Academic Standards for Science and Technology and Environment and Ecology statute is replete with topics that must be taught in all schools, a process that the Common Core initiative is enhancing. [See http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/022/chapter4/s4.83.html.] Personal lobbying efforts have led to adoption, on December 9, of an amendment to this bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee that replaces the discretionary word may with the absolute term shall; absent are any accoutrements [such as teacher certification] thatregardless of how attractive they may be to advocateswere anathema to the GOP legislators, who are in leadership. Efforts to achieve an attitudinal readjustment were amplified when staff notes composed for the House Education Committee (which suggested the existing Pennsylvania Code afforded cursory education) were discounted by a simple-reading of current law; staff notes composed for the House Appropriations Committee (which suggested the mandatory phraseology would not carry an appreciable fiscal impact upon the government) simplified matters further. HB-1424 [lines 13-16] now reads: Section 1554. Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Violations Instruction.--(a) (1) Beginning with school year 2015-2016, each school entity SHALL offer instruction in the Holocaust, genocide and human rights violations to students.

The hearts of the Democrats were in the correct place, as evidenced by the earnestness of their staffs, but the goal was to fight global ignorance not only regarding the Shoah, but also regarding other mass-killings during the past century [Armenia, Ukraine, Cambodia]; students must recognize that History is news that stays news! Entities such as the Holocaust Awareness Museum will eagerly provide a curriculum and dispatch a volunteer [which costs ~$125 per appearance], although subsequent efforts to acquire state-funding [or from other granting institutions] could be pursued after this fundamental law has been signed. In addition to the aforementioned legislators, accolades are due to Senators Stewart Greenleaf, John Eichelberger, and Mike Folmer, whose staffsin various ways facilitated this process; it is now extremely likely the Senate Bill will fulfill the essence of what is sorely needed, after which time (for reasons aforementioned) it is highly likely the House will concur, through the efforts of Rep. Mike Vereb. Thus, it appears Jews who worry that this manifestation of anti-Semitism will be ignoredare not-so-sadly mistaken. As Senator John Rafferty said this past Friday, Lets get this thing done! Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D. Abington, PA Note how intuitively wrong-headed key-arguments in the PJC-letter [emphasis added] are debunked; essentially, stripping-away the rhetoric, opposing a mandate is advocated because: [1]Restoration of funding for Holocaust Education is preferable (presumably to enrich Federationrelated entities) { It is time to return to consistent and effective Holocaust education to our schools and our students.}; [2]Mandating use of a particular curriculum by certified teachers is preferable (presumably to ensure those who compose the former and approve the latter are appropriately funded to do so) { teachers who will be teaching the Holocaust will be provided curriculum from the state and trained in the best manner to teach this time in our history. Since the removal of the Ethnic Heritage Line Item in 2009, Pennsylvania has lost over $300,000 in educational support towards teaching the Holocaust in the Commonwealth} [3]Mandating course curriculum on locally elected school boards is allegedly inconsistent with the policy of the Pennsylvania Department of Education (presumably, as per information allegedly gleaned from staff, perhaps conjured by the PJC but contradicted by statute). {PJC has learned that there has not been a course curriculum mandate imposed by the legislature in over 50 years (if not longer). There have been mandates on graduation qualifications (three years of mathematics, three years of science, etc.), but not an actual course mandate. Course curriculum mandates can come from the Pennsylvania Board of Education, though their general policy is to enable the local School Boards to develop their own course curriculum.}

[4]Mandating Holocaust/Genocide/Human-Rights education would be ineffective and efforts to achieve this status would invite opposition from statewide organizations and the PDE (presumably because such unnamed statewide entities would define effectiveness in a yet-to-be-specified fashion). {Pursing a mandate for all schools in Pennsylvania to teach the Holocaust through the legislative process will not be effective and will (due to the precedent it would set) create opposition from statewide organizations and possibly the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Any opposition from these organizations or the administration would hinder the success of passage.} [5]Legislation that would create an accreditation process by the PDE and enforced statewide would be cost-effective (presumably ignoring the fact that this would constitute creating an unfunded-mandate). { HB 1424, as written, is designed to remove the financial burden of the public schools and benefit our teachers. The schools who opt into teaching the Holocaust will have their teachers trained and provided curriculum on the Holocaust from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The teachers will also receive Continuing Education (CE) credit for their training.} [6]Politically, those aligned with the PJC would arise to oppose a bill that merely would ensure the topic-module (Holocaust/Genocide/Human-Rights) were taught to all students (presumably, invoking lobbying-pals of the PJC which have yet to have emerged). {Amending HB 1424 will hinder this effort and potentially stop the movement of this bill for this legislative session.} In counterdistinction to these claims: [1]The Amended HB-1424 would cost the PDE a grand-total of $7000 and would not require any further input from the PJC or any other entity (although everyone would be empowered to provide a consistent and effective Holocaust education to ALL Pennsylvania Students. [2]The Amended HB-1424 would not mandate use of a particular curriculum by certified teachers (requiring restoration of annual $300K funding for this endeavor) because entities such as the Holocaust Awareness Museum would be more-than-willing to provide resources directly to the 501 School Boards in Pennsylvania, contingent upon how the local entities would wish to cover this module (rather than having to comply with a top-down mandate, both of curriculum-content and certification), thereby precluding forever any effort to restore the $300K Ethnic Heritage Line Item. [3]The Amended HB-1424 would be consistent with existing statute, which explicitly contains many legislatively-imposed course curriculum mandates (including, as per staff-notes from the PA-House, cursory coverage of the Holocaust). [See http://www.pacode.com/secure/data/022/chapter4/s4.83.html.] [4]The Amended HB-1424 would be effective without the need to involve any statewide organizations or even the PDE (and opposition from other entities and/or the PDE has not materialized, despite the fact that this legislation has traversed the House and it poised to be approved (in an improved fashion) by the Senate, thereby setting a worthwhile precedent. [5]The Amended HB-1424 would not require creation of an accreditation process by the PDE to be enforced statewide, thereby avoiding burdening The Forgotten Taxpayer with an unfunded-mandate, even if other entities may not be able to invite provision of direct funding, such as public schools, and even if benefit may not inure to our teachers (precluding the need to create an infrastructure through which they may receive Continuing Education (CE) credit for their training.

[6]The Amended HB-1424 would be wildly-popular politically, as evidenced by the fact that there is bipartisan support for mandatory Holocaust/Genocide/Human-Rights education (as advocated on 12/10/12 by Governor Tom Corbett and MontCo Commissioner Josh Shapiro @ Temple Sinai), an endpoint that could only be achieved by Amending HB 1424 and expediting approval by the Senate (and then by the House) during this legislative session. Whats going on? The PJC appears more interested in creating a publicly-funded infrastructure that would be applicable [admittedly] to a subset of Pennsylvania students [by restoring $300K annually, probably to enrich the coffers of its lobbying-funders] than it is to ensure the unit be taught to all of the Pennsylvania students; it is vital that the amended version be approved, thereby precluding enactment of an unfunded-mandate that would be perceivable as an additional burden to local School Boards.
Thus, regarding the heavily-documented effort to mandate Holocaust/Genocide/Human-Rights education, its insufficient to quote those who attended Tuesday-nights Israel Solidarity rally [Corbett and Shapiro] when the facts-on-the-ground were palpably problematic; thats why I lobbied people whom I knew [and who knew me] to transcend what they had been told by the Federation-financed PA Jewish Coalition [which had spread falsehoods regarding the inability to mandate TOPICS be covered, perhaps because of innate antipathy stemming from having to deal with a GOP-controlled legislature] to perform the may shall flip [a change that was effectuated on Monday via the Appropriations Committee]. Therefore, the reader is invited to reinforce the above interventions by contacting each PA-Senator and conveying a simple-message to support the insertion of mandatory-lingo in the Holocaust-bill.

HTHE PENNSYLVANIA JEWISH COALITION

Date: To: From: Subject: December 9, 2013 Members of Pennsylvania Senate Hank Butler; Executive Director, Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition (PJC) Support for House Bill 1424 (Holocaust Education) Unamended

The Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition (PJC), representing Jewish Federations and communities throughout Pennsylvania, supports House Bill 1424 (HB 1424) currently in the Senate Appropriations Committee to be passed through the committee and Senate in its current form -- unamended. From the early 1990s to 2009, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) annually allocated funding to Holocaust education. It was assigned in the same line item along with two museums (one in Philadelphia and one in Pittsburgh) via the Ethnic Heritage line item. The allocation in this line item was of to educate teachers who voluntarily wanted to learn how to teach the Holocaust. In 2009, this line item was eliminated during the FY 09-10 budget process. Since that time, there has been no allocation for Holocaust education by the state. It is time to return to consistent and effective Holocaust education to our schools and our students. As the years continue to bring distance between the atrocities of the Holocaust and present day (almost 70 years), we need to emphasize the need for our society to remember the Holocaust. We must teach our children about the horrific actions of the Nazis, the need to fight against hate, and the importance of promoting tolerance. Time may obstruct the understanding of how the Holocaust came to be and the horrendous actions that took place throughout Europe during the Nazi regime. We can fight time by passing HB 1424. This legislation will help us to effectively teach new generations to never forget what happened and assure that actions of the Holocaust and genocidal activities never happen again. HB 1424 was created to require Holocaust education (development of curriculum and training) for the teachers whose schools choose to teach the Holocaust in their curriculum. This is a step above the previous efforts to teach the Holocaust whereby the teachers who will be teaching the Holocaust will be provided curriculum from the state and trained in the best manner to teach this time in our history . There are efforts to amend HB 1424 to create a mandate for all schools to teach the Holocaust. Unlike other states who have passed mandated Holocaust Education in their curriculum, it is the Pennsylvania Department of Educations policy to not impose course curriculum on locally elected school boards.

In our research and discussions with the Department of Education and Education experts in the Pennsylvania House and Senate on the issue of legislative course curriculum mandate, the PJC has learned that there has not been a course curriculum mandate imposed by the legislature in over 50 years (if not longer). There have been mandates on graduation qualifications (three years of mathematics, three years of science, etc.), but not an actual course mandate. Course curriculum mandates can come from the Pennsylvania Board of Education, though their general policy is to enable the local School Boards to develop their own course curriculum. While the PJC strongly supports the ideology that every school should teach the Holocaust in a thorough and effective manner, the reality is that unlike other states, pursing a mandate for all schools in Pennsylvania to teach the Holocaust through the legislative process will not be effective and will (due to the precedent it would set) create opposition from statewide organizations and possibly the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Any opposition from these organizations or the administration would hinder the success of passage. Since the removal of the Ethnic Heritage Line Item in 2009, Pennsylvania has lost over $300,000 in educational support towards teaching the Holocaust in the Commonwealth. As time moves on and the survivors of the Holocaust get fewer and fewer, there is a greater need for our schools to teach the Holocaust in a consistent and effective manner we need to move forward with our teachings and educational efforts sooner rather than later. House Bill 1424 is a significant step towards educating our students about the Holocaust. Training our teachers (who teach the Holocaust) how to teach this important time in our history in a consistently and effective manner is imperative and should not be delayed. HB 1424, as written, is designed to remove the financial burden of the public schools and benefit our teachers. The schools who opt into teaching the Holocaust will have their teachers trained and provided curriculum on the Holocaust from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The teachers will also receive Continuing Education (CE) credit for their training. The PJC will continue our efforts to assure that ALL students in the Commonwealth are learning about the Holocaust. The PJC plans to work with the Pennsylvania Board of Education, the Department of Education, and the School Districts around the state to assure that our public schools continue to teach this important event in our history. It is our goal to have ALL students learn about the Holocaust and taught about this time in our history in a consistent and effective manner. This being stated, THE CURRICULUM AND THE TRAINING HAS TO START NOW!!! HB 1424 is a strong step towards returning the state to supporting Holocaust education in our schools. Amending HB 1424 will hinder this effort and potentially stop the movement of this bill for this legislative session. The Pennsylvania Jewish Coalition (PJC) urges your support for passage of House Bill 1424 through the Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee and the Pennsylvania Senate without amendments. If you have any questions, please either call me at 717.330.4574 (cell) or e-mail me at hank@pajewishcoalition.org.