I failed to quote Dr. Don Bell as my source for that figure. Dr. Bell, a guest on the program and superintendent of the Northern Lebanon School District, derived the one-third figure from the Pennsylvania Department of Education website. He wrote, "... this list was what was sent to the feds by PDE which garnered Pennsylvania $141 million to turn around its persistently lowest-achieving schools through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program. This is the PDE application page to the feds that identifies persistently low-achieving schools. Appendix A: provides a comprehensive list of the Tier I, II and III schools the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) has identified. Tier I and II schools on this list, along with the approved definition for persistently lowest-achieving schools, is posted at the link above. Tier I and II schools were identified and placed on this list using the approved definition for persistently lowest-achieving schools."

However, Sen. Piccola's office this morning furnished the official listing of failing public schools that will be eligible to participate in the opportunity-grant program under his school-choice proposal, and indeed, not a single public charter or cyber-charter school is listed.

Sen. Piccola's spokesperson, Colleen Greer, explained why failing charters and cyber-charters are not on the list. "Of course, they are not, primarily because children are not trapped in charter schools, but also because they have no attendance boundary," she wrote.

I regret the error.

In addition, Sen. Piccola on Friday issued a press release about the Smart Talk program and assailed the opposition of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and some public school administrators to school choice. He wrote, ""Once again, the Pennsylvania School Boards Association and some individual school board members and superintendents have demonstrated their willingness to defend the indefensible. Like those who attempted to prop up the Berlin Wall before it finally came crashing down, PSBA and their allies refuse to tear down the walls of failure, trapping school children and their families."

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