More PA school superintendents are men but women earn more money/Providing musical instruments to kids

What to look for on Smart Talk Tuesday, November 27, 2018:

Walk into a Pennsylvania public school classroom and you’ll probably see a woman teaching the class.  In fact, 73% of teachers in Pennsylvania schools are female.  However, the number of women teachers hasn’t translated into females becoming principals or school superintendents.  Only 28% of superintendents are women and there are Pennsylvania counties where there are no women superintendents at all.

On the other hand, women superintendents are paid more than their male counterparts on average probably because more women superintendents have their doctoral degrees.

The online PA Post researched and reported on Pennsylvania school superintendents and reporter Ed Mahon joins us on Tuesday’s Smart Talk with more of what he found.

 

Also, the number of schools offering music education in Pennsylvania, and the nation, is in a steady decline and has been for more than a decade. Reduced budgets and shifting priorities are often to blame. Music programs are expensive, and many school districts have made the difficult decision to cut extracurricular programs, in order to save money. 

Music for Everyone is a Lancaster-based non-profit working to raise awareness and resources to strengthen the role that music plays in schools and the community, in the face of declining music programs.

Music for Everyone provided over 6,000 instruments to Lancaster County schools since 2006, but they soon realized there is little money in school budgets for repair of the instruments. MFE recognized the need and began a program to repair and catalogue every instrument of every public school in Lancaster County.

Joining us on Smart Talk to discuss the program is Dr. John Gerdy, founder and executive director of Music for Everyone and Lisa Sempsey, music teacher and K-12 art and music curriculum coordinator, Columbia Borough school district.