(HARRISBURG, Mar. 9, 2012) – A toxic mixture of state special education and charter school laws and more than $23 million in funding cuts are violating the civil rights of Chester Upland School District’s 700 special needs students, according to a federal complaint Pennsylvania’s largest school employee union and two other public interest groups have filed with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Mike Crossey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, explained that PSEA, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed a civil rights complaint with the federal Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights in order to protect the interests of Chester Upland’s special needs students.
“The crisis in Chester Upland is so severe that it could become a full-blown tragedy for students with special needs,” Crossey said. “The civil rights of these students are at stake and we need to stand up for them.”
Crossey explained that state laws forcing Chester Upland to make artificially inflated payments to charter schools are draining the district’s resources.
Chester Upland is forced to pay $24,528 for each special education student who attends local charter schools, an amount nearly twice the $13,458 per student special education subsidy the district receives for its own students. Enrollment numbers in at least one local charter school indicate that the charter school is identifying an unusually high number of students with mild disabilities and experiencing a payment windfall.
“These laws are fundamentally unfair, they favor charter schools over traditional public schools, and they are draining Chester Upland’s resources,” Crossey said. “This bizarre payment scheme is among the root causes of the district’s financial distress.”
The school district is on the brink of closing its doors because of these crushing payments to charter schools and unprecedented state funding cuts, which have hit poorer school districts even harder than their wealthier neighbors.
Even though Gov. Tom Corbett publicly committed to providing the school district with funding to keep its doors open for the rest of the school year, only a fraction of the crucial state funds the district needs have arrived.
“This is a legal issue, but it’s also a moral issue. The Commonwealth can’t allow students with special needs to lose their education because of funding cuts,” Crossey said. “Promises don’t pay for the services these students have a right to receive.”
The complaint cites four specific problems with the state special education subsidy and the charter school law:
(1) Under the state charter school law, the per student special education payment Chester Upland
is required to make to charter schools is nearly twice as high as the per student special education reimbursement the district receives from the Commonwealth.
(2) The Commonwealth’s special education formula caps state support at 16 percent of the school district’s students. As a result, the school district receives $13,458 per student through the state formula, even though Chester Upland is required to pay $24,528 for 100 percent of special education students charter schools identify. No cap applies to the payments Chester Upland is required to make to the charter schools.
(3) The state charter school reimbursement program was eliminated in 2011. It was enacted in 2001 to help school districts cover at least a portion of these extraordinary charter school costs.
(4) The Commonwealth is not carefully monitoring charter schools to ensure they are not over-identifying special education students with mild disabilities and experiencing a windfall in per student payments from the school district, at the expense of other special education students in the district.
“This is unfair on its face,” Crossey said. “In Chester Upland, these long-standing inequities are a huge part of the problem. Add this to unprecedented state budget cuts to the district, and you understand why this school district is having a hard time keeping the doors open.
“Someone needs to speak out for the special needs students who will suffer if this school district is forced to close its doors. We are proud to join with parents, educators, and advocates in Chester Upland and say enough is enough.”
Crossey is a special education teacher in the Keystone Oaks School District. An affiliate of the National Education Association, PSEA represents more than 193,000 future, active and retired teachers and school employees, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.
(03/12/12) HARRISBURG, Pa. - New television ads you may be seeing in Pennsylvania aim to shed light on the health effects of industrial carbon pollution, especially on children.
Two environmental groups are rolling out a large-scale advertising campaign to bring problems connected to industrial carbon pollution to light. The Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club say emissions from power plants hurt health, the economy and potentially, the future.
NRDC Senior Scientist Kim Knowlton says the ads take into account growing evidence that warming temperatures are making smog pollution from industrial sources worse, which in turn causes asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.
"For the people of Pennsylvania, this is a set of issues that really hits home, around air pollution, extreme heat, flooding and the health risks attendant on that."
William Kramer, field organizer for the Sierra Club's "Beyond Coal" campaign in Pennsylvania, says asthma rates in some communities around Philadelphia are running at 20 percent, even 30 percent in lower-income and African-American neighborhoods.
"We're really talking about a public health cost that industry is not paying, and they need to clean up their act so that other people don't suffer as a result of their dirty business."
Kramer says the goal of the ad campaign is to grab the attention of Pennsylvanians while they're in their chairs, with a message that can spring them into action.
"Make phone calls, write letters, do all the basic stuff with democracy, to make sure that our elected officials work for us and not for the polluters. And we'll accomplish our job."
The groups say they're hopeful for change, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected as early as this week to propose the first-ever safeguards against industrial carbon pollution from new power plants.
(03/12/12) HARRISBURG, Pa. - As Governor Tom Corbett pushes the idea of privatizing health-care services in Pennsylvania prisons, those who work behind bars say it could compromise security, jeopardize public health, and invite more inmate lawsuits.
Frank Smith, a national expert on for-profit prison privatization, says this situation has already played out in many other states, where a private company promises quality management and big savings, and delivers on neither.
"If I were to describe their business model in one word, I'd say it was larcenous; corporations that hire people at the lowest possible rate, high turnover. They have gotten their business through campaign contributions, through bogus research. It's extremely disturbing."
Michele Harker is a registered nurse who works in the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon. She says proper medical treatment keeps inmates from spreading diseases behind bars and to the public after they're released. She adds prisoners are quick to threaten legal action when they don't feel they're getting adequate care.
"If you have somebody coming in there that isn't aware of how this all works, and they're not providing that health care, I think that the amount of lawsuits that we're going to see is going to keep going up and up."
Neal Bisno, president of the labor union SEIU Healthcare PA, predicts hundreds of jobs around the state will be at risk, unless Governor Corbett comes to terms with what Bisno says many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle already realize.
"There really is a very strong, bipartisan consensus that, when it comes to corrections and it comes to security, we can't risk putting those services out to the lowest bidder, and to entities whose fundamental obligation is not the people of Pennsylvania, but to their bottom lines."
One of the biggest players in prison privatization, Corizon Health, says it offers staff expertise, cutting-edge technology and safeguards to optimize performance and accountability. Still, in 2010, the company's contracts weren't renewed in neighboring Delaware or Maryland.
Later this week a state House Majority Policy Committee has a hearing on the issue, spearheaded by Republican state Representative Mike Fleck. He is the sponsor of House Bill 1985, which would ban privatizing nursing services in state prisons.
Despite massive expenditures from far-right
Catholic and anti-abortion super PACs, Santorum
loses the Catholic vote by wide margins in
bellwether states
Washington,
DC – Although it will take months to completely
sort out the implications of Super Tuesday, one
thing is immediately clear: Rick Santorum failed
to win the trust of Catholics.
Despite receiving hundreds of thousands of
dollars in support from far-right special
interests dedicated to shoring up the ‘Catholic
vote,’ Santorum’s campaign utterly failed to
solidify support within the Catholic community.
These outside groups, such as the Susan B.
Anthony List, poured hundreds of thousands of
dollars into targeted media markets in Ohio. The
conservative PAC CatholicVote.org, funded in
large part by billionaire pizza magnate Tom
Monaghan, worked relentlessly to promote
Santorum’s ideological message within Catholic
circles.
In addition to his overstated positions on
social issues, Santorum recently inflamed the
culture war by making outlandish comments on
John F. Kennedy’s landmark speech on the role of
religion in public life and mocking the role of
higher education in America.
“The results from Tuesday demonstrate what we've
known for a long time: Catholic voters care more
about economic issues that affect their families
than they do about socially divisive wedge
issues like contraception,” said James Salt,
executive director of Catholics United.
“Mainstream Catholics want leaders who can
address the moral challenges of our day like
income inequality, underwater mortgages and
poverty, not leaders who perpetuate a
never-ending culture war that divides our
community.”
According to CNN’s exit polls from Ohio,
non-Catholic former Massachusetts governor Mitt
Romney decisively won the Catholic vote in Ohio
by more than 13 percent. Catholics in Ohio, a
state considered by many a bellwether in
determining the eventual Republican nominee,
seemed to be relatively unaffected by efforts to
sway their vote rightward.
“It’s striking to me Catholics are more willing
to vote for a Mormon than this right-wing
Catholic ideologue,” said Salt. “Despite the
Catholic far-right’s attempt to buy the Catholic
vote in Ohio, those voters want candidates who
care about the poor and marginalized, not those
interested in driving us apart as a country.”
Founded in 2004, Catholics United is a
non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated
to promoting the message of justice and the
common good found at the heart of the Catholic
Social Tradition. For more information about
Catholics United, follow us on our Facebook page
(www.facebook.com/CatholicsUnited)
or on our
blog at www.OurDailyThread.org
HARRISBURG (Mar. 5, 2012) – The president of the state’s largest school employee union said that Education Secretary Ron Tomalis’ testimony before the House Appropriations Committee today ignored the fact that school districts across Pennsylvania are cutting programs that work for their students because of nearly $1 billion in state funding cuts.
Mike Crossey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, pointed out that school districts across the state are increasing class sizes and cutting programs that work for students in response to Gov. Tom Corbett’s unprecedented public school funding cuts, a reality that stands in stark contrast to the Corbett administration’s claim that these cuts are really historic increases.
“It is time to stop ignoring the problem and start fixing it,” Crossey said. “How can you say that the state increased funding for Pennsylvania’s students when school districts are being forced to eliminate programs left and right? It just doesn’t add up.
“Pennsylvanians are seeing through the rhetoric. They know what’s happening in their schools and they know why.”
To help Pennsylvanians understand how these cuts impact the school districts where they live, PSEA launched an online School Funding Cuts Calculator on Feb. 15. The calculator is available at www.savepaschools.org andwww.psea.org/schoolcuts.
“Instead of admitting that there is a funding crisis in the public schools, the secretary seems to want to cover it up,” Crossey said. “His shell game isn’t working. All you need to do to find out the truth is pick up your local newspaper. I read about more cuts every day.”
Crossey pointed out that Gov. Corbett has eliminated a menu of long-standing state programs to support the public schools, including the charter school reimbursement program, accountability block grant program, education assistance tutoring program, and dual enrollment program.
“These programs were created to help students learn,” Crossey said. “They’re gone now, and students are the ones paying the price. This budget is a shell game for public education. We can do better.”
Crossey pointed out how critical it is to focus on providing the funding schools need to pay for programs that are proven to work for their students, like those outlined in PSEA’s Solutions That Work proposal. These Solutions That Work include early childhood education, smaller class sizes, additional learning time for struggling students, and parental involvement.
“These program cuts are real, and the impact they are having on students is real,” Crossey said. “Pennsylvania can do better. We can resolve this crisis if we all work together as the adults in the room.”
Crossey is a special education teacher in the Keystone Oaks School District. An affiliate of the National Education Association, PSEA represents more than 193,000 future, active and retired teachers and school employees, and health care workers in Pennsylvania.
The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania
(DRN) has put the Pennsylvania Department of State on notice that it is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act (see entire letter below), especially in terms of complying with the rights of persons with disabilities.
The Commonwealth has a poor record of complying with the NVRA. This appears to be one more component of a system which tries to limit voter eligibility, either by design or neglect.
===============
February 22, 2012
BY FAX AND FIRST CLASS MAIL
Carol Aichele
Secretary of the
Commonwealth
Pennsylvania
Department of State
302 North Office
Building
401 North Street
Harrisburg, PA17120-0500
Fax:717-787-1734
Re:Notice of Non-Compliance with Section 7 of
the
National Voter Registration Act
Dear Secretary
Aichele:
On behalf of the
Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania (DRN), the organization designated by
the Commonwealth under federal law to protect the rights of and advocate for people
with disabilities, I am submitting this notice pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §
1973gg-9(b)(1) to advise the Department of State (DOS) that it is in violation
of Section 7 of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).As detailed below, DOS has violated the
NVRA by failing to:(1) designate
as mandatory voter registration agencies (VRAs) all disability services offices
in the Commonwealth, and (2) assure that disability services offices that are
designated as VRAs fully comply with the requirements of the NVRA.
Section 7 of the NVRA
requires, inter alia, that
Pennsylvania designate as mandatory VRAs "all offices in the State that
provide State-funded programs primarily engaged in providing services to
persons with disabilities."42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-5(2)(B).As VRAs, disability services offices must:(1) distribute voter registration forms; (2) assist
applicants to complete those forms; and (3) accept completed forms and forward
them to the appropriate election official.42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-5(a)(4)(A).These services must be provided in the person's home if the
VRA provides disability services in the person's home.42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-5(a)(4)(B).Voter registration applications must be
offered with each application for assistance, each recertification or renewal,
and each change of address unless the individual declines the opportunity to
register in writing.42 U.S.C. §
1973gg-5(a)(6)(A)(i).Finally,
disability services offices must provide individuals who want to register to
vote with the same assistance to complete the application as those offices provide
to complete their own forms, unless the applicant refuses assistance.42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-5(a)(6)(C).
A.Pennsylvania's
Failure to Designate All Disability
Services
Offices as Mandatory VRAs.
Many disability
services offices (i.e., agencies that
primarily provide services to people with disabilities that are funded by the
Commonwealth) are not considered by DOS to be mandatory VRAs and, therefore, do
not engage in any of the voter registration activities required by Section 7 of
the NVRA.Pennsylvania's
Department of Public Welfare (DPW), the state agency that funds most services
for people with disabilities, does not provide disability services directly other
than through a few state-operated institutions.Instead, DPW or its subcontractors pay private agencies to
provide almost all disability services.For instance:
§DPW provides
state funds to county MH/ID programs to provide community services to people
with mental illness and intellectual disabilities.The counties, in turn, pass on much of those funds to
private entities to provide a range of disability services.Many of these private entities not only
provide services, but also assist their clients to apply for services and to
pursue recertification and renewal. It is our understanding that these private entities
do not offer service recipients voter registration opportunities.
§DPW contracts
with a private entity, MAXIMUS, to take applications for five Medical
Assistance-funded home and community based waivers.MAXIMUS assists the individuals with those applications,
including submitting the necessary paperwork to the County Assistance Offices
for financial eligibility determinations.It is our understanding that MAXIMUS does not offer applicants voter
registration opportunities.
§DPW contracts
with many private agencies to provide Supports Coordination and direct care
services to people who receive services under the Medical Assistance Waivers
and Act 150 program administered by the Office of Long Term Living.With the exceptions of the Centers for
Independent Living, it is our understanding that these private agencies do not
offer service recipients voter registration opportunities.
Any dispute that these
DPW-funded disability services offices do not comply with the NVRA has been
laid to rest by DPW.In response
to a request submitted pursuant to the Right to Know Law, DPW confirmed that
its contracts with private agencies do not include "any provision that
commits the contractor to be a VRA."
The United States
Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed a lawsuit against Rhode Island,
alleging that it violated Section 7 of the NVRA.In a Consent Decree to resolve that lawsuit, Rhode Island
agreed that all offices that provide state-funded disability services,
"including those operated by private entities on the state's behalf, ...
must be designated as ‘voter registration agencies.’"United
States v. Rhode Island, Civil Action No. 1:11-cv-00113-S, Consent Decree at
5 (D.R.I. Mar. 18, 2011), available at
http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/nvra/ri_nvra_cd.pdf.The Consent Decree required Rhode
Island's Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities, and
Hospitals to amend its contracts with private entities who are engaged in providing
services to people with disabilities "to ensure that they provide voter
registration opportunities as required by Section 7 of the NVRA."Id.
at 11-12.
Pennsylvania cannot
avoid its obligations under the NVRA simply because the responsibility to provide
state-funded disability services is delegated to local or even private
entities.See United States v. New York, 700 F. Supp. 2d 186, 205 (N.D.N.Y.
2010).Pennsylvania must assure
that local and private entities that provide state-funded disability services
implement the voter registration requirements mandated by Section 7 of the
NVRA.
B.Pennsylvania's
Failure to Assure that Disability Services
Offices
Identified as VRAs Comply with their Obligations
Aside from
Pennsylvania's failure to designate all disability services offices as
mandatory VRAs, Pennsylvania has also failed to assure that disability services
offices that are designated as VRAs comply with the requirements of Section 7
of the NVRA.
In Fiscal Year
2010-11, there were 534,000 persons receiving mental health services (including
nearly 124,500 using community mental health funds and nearly 380,400 using
Medical Assistance funds) and nearly 51,000 persons receiving services for
intellectual disabilities or autism.Governor's Executive Budget
2011-12 at E35.4335.44.Most of
these individuals must have their re-eligibility certified annually.Yet, DOS's Report to the General
Assembly on Voter Registration indicates that fewer than 45,000 individuals
were offered voter preference forms by the County MH/MR Programs.DOS, 2010 Administration of Voter Registration in Pennsylvania: Report to
the General Assembly App. G (June 2011).Plainly, there are a large
number of DPW clients who have disabilities who are not offered voter
registration opportunities in accordance with the NVRA. The data raise
additional questions about compliance.DOS's 2010 Report shows that about 40,500 of the approximately 45,000
persons offered voter registration by County MH/MR Programs declined the
offers.The same report indicates
that 22,350 of the 25,000 persons offered voter registration by
"Disability Agencies" declined the offers.This would suggest that County MH/MR Offices and the
Disability Agencies registered more than 7,000 voters in 2010.DOS's Voter Registration by County
breakdown, however, shows that only 670 individuals were registered by the
County MH/MR Programs and Disability Agencies.
Disability services
offices that receive funds from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE)
also appear not to comply with the NVRA.PDE funds local school districts to provide education and other services
to students with disabilities.PDE's Basic Education Circulars (BECs) indicate that schools should
discuss voter registration with students with disabilities who have an
Individualized Program Plan (IEP) under the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act or service agreements under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
and 22 Pa. Code Ch. 15.The BECs,
however, allow parents to decide whether to include voter registration as part
of the students' IEPs or service agreements.Moreover, the BECs do not require school districts to have
students or parents sign declinations forms or otherwise track whether registration
was offered unless the students agree to have voter registration included in
their IEPs and service agreements.Not surprising, the evidence suggests that few students with
disabilities are offered voter registration opportunities.In 2009, only 22 special education
students registered to vote according to DOS data.
C.DRN's Request to Remedy These Violations
In requiring
state-funded disability services offices to act as VRAs, Congress recognized
that people with disabilities are underrepresented among voters.Since these individuals frequently are
poor and lack access to many of the mainstream opportunities for voter
registration (such as driver registration), Congress required those agencies
with frequent, one-to-one contact with individuals with disabilities to offer
them the opportunity to register to vote.
For the past several
years, DRN and other advocacy groups have advocated that DOS take the steps
necessary to remedy the violations described in this letter.Despite meeting after meeting, our
advocacy efforts have yielded no concrete action.In the absence of any remedy from DOS, DRN has spent a great
deal of time, efforts, and resources to educate Pennsylvanians with
disabilities, their families, and advocates about their right to register to
vote and to encourage them to exercise that right.
Our efforts to educate
people with disabilities about voter registration are not a substitute for
enforcement of the NVRA.Accordingly, DRN requests that DOS develop a comprehensive plan to
remedy Pennsylvania's non-compliance with the NVRA.We are willing to work with you to develop such a plan.If DOS is unwilling to do so, DRN will
consider our other alternatives available under the NVRA.
You’ve probably
heard about the Virginia ultrasound bill that has been in the news.
But did you realize
Pennsylvania has a bill pending that’s even worse? The Pennsylvania House of
Representatives is poised to take up HB1077, the disingenuously titled “Women’s
Right to Know Act”.
More children in Pennsylvania are calling high-poverty areas home, according to a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Joan Benso, president and chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, says the KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot shows that nationally, the number of children living in those communities rose from 9 percent to 11 percent during the past decade.
"But Pennsylvania actually did worse. We also grew to 11 percent of our children living in a community with concentrated poverty, but 10 years ago we were doing better than the rest of the nation."
The change marks a 27 percent increase. In three out of four of those homes, Benso says, at least one parent is employed. She says it points to a need for Pennsylvania to prioritize programs that help families having a hard time making ends meet, such as subsidized child care and free health insurance for children through Medicaid.
Benso says the high-poverty communities, where an estimated 64,000 Pennsylvania children live, lack the infrastructure they need to thrive.
Changes implemented will likely weaken the ability for Pennsylvanians to obtain justice
HARRISBURG, PA – Yesterday, the First Judicial District Court of Pennsylvania announced several upcoming changes to the legal processes of the historically fair and nationally respected Complex Litigation Center (CLC).
The rule changes will limit consolidation of mass tort litigation at the courts' civil trial division. Thus it arbitrarily abolishes punitive damages and directs out of state victims to avoid Philadelphia courts. Mass tort litigation at the CLC has been praised for years by Philadelphia and Pennsylvania's own citizens to allow for fairness in the courtroom when trying to hold large corporations accountable for negligence.
“This move by the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania is nothing more than caving in to powerful corporate-funded lobbying groups,” said Michael Morrill, executive director of Keystone Progress. “Pennsylvanians lose and corporations win under this rule change.”
This decision may have a negative impact on current cases pending in the Philadelphia court system, including cases involving Bayer's birth control and acne drugs Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella. As of November 2011, there were 10,000 plus cases nation-wide pending in which thousands of women from across the country have claimed their health has been severely damaged by Bayer’s birth control drugs Yaz, Yasmin, and Ocella. The alleged health impacts have included death, increased risk of blood clots and gallbladder surgery. Since Bayer’s headquarters are located in Pennsylvania, many women have filed in Pennsylvania at Philadelphia’s CLC. The CLC has been nationally recognized to efficiently and fairly handle similar cases in the past.
At heart of the issue of this decision is that justice should be blind. The judicial system should not have to bend to the criticism of large, powerful lobbying groups like the American Tort Reform Association.
The American Tort Reform Association or ATRA, an extreme, conservative lobbying firm who has chipped away at consumers' rights for decades, hailed the decision as "very good news." ATRA’s mission is to limit an individual’s ability to hold corporations accountable, even when their products have caused serious physical, mental, or financial harm to consumers. Among ATRA's many supporters are tobacco and pharmaceutical companies, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the nation's largest lobbying firm, spending five times more money on lobbying efforts than its next closest competitor, Exxon Mobil.
Mitt Romney has attacked the Obama administration’s regulation requiring employers and insurers to provide reproductive health care services — including contraception — by arguing that the rule is undermining the religious liberties of Catholics and imposing “a secular vision on Americans who believe that they should not have their religious freedom taken away.” As ThinkProgress has reported, Romney’s new-found sensitivities contradict his record as governor of Massachusetts — where he accepted a very similar contraception equity law — and his previous public commitments to increasing public funding for birth control. In 2005, Romney even asked the Massachusetts Department of Health to issue regulations requiring all hospitals to issue emergency contraception to rape victims, without providing an exception for Catholic hospitals.
Now, an examination of Romney’s financial investments reveals that the very same GOP frontrunner who is now petitioning the White House to extend the regulation’s conscience clause and exclude more women from the benefits of birth control is himself invested in and profiting from pharmaceutical companies that produce the frequently prescribed and extremely common medication:
Romney’s Goldman Sachs 2002 Exchange Place Fund, valued at over a million dollars in 2010, brought in nearly $600,000 in gains in 2010 and is invested in:
- Watson Pharmaceuticals: manufacturer of nine forms of emergency contraception (which Romney incorrectly identifies as “abortifacients“). - Johnson & Johnson: launched the first U.S. prescription birth control product in 1931 and produces various forms of birth control. - Merck: produces various forms of birth control - Mylan: produces birth control medication and filed the first application for a generic birth control pill last year. - Pfizer: a contraception producer that recently had to recall about a million packs of birth-control pills that weren’t packaged correctly.
Romney often disclaims any responsibility for or knowledge of his own investments by claiming that they are held in a private trust. But since filing his legally-required public financial disclosure reports and certifying that the information is “true, complete, and correct” to the best of his knowledge, the trust ceased to be a “blind trust” as he knew what was in it. Romney signed such disclosure forms last August and during his unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid in August 2007.
HARRISBURG (Feb. 7, 2012)
– Using a complicated fiscal shell game to “redesign school and district” basic
education funding, the state budget proposal Gov. Tom Corbett unveiled today
represents an unwise experiment that will cause chaos in the public schools and
eliminate research-tested, classroom-proven programs, the president of
Pennsylvania’s largest school employee union said today.
Michael Crossey,
president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said that the
governor’s budget proposal would do nothing to avert the growing financial
crisis in Pennsylvania’s school districts.
“This proposal is an
unwise experiment with the education of 1.8 million public school students,”
Crossey said. “It leaves school officials and property taxpayers to figure out
how to close a two-year, nearly $1 billion funding gap.”
Crossey said the governor’s budget proposal uses an accounting gimmick,
combining line items for employee Social Security contributions and
transportation costs in an attempt to create the appearance of an increase in
the state’s main basic education subsidy to public schools. As a result,
school districts could receive $94 million less in state funding that will
actually go to support students in the classroom. (See chart below.)
“Public schools are
facing the second year of dramatic state funding cuts,” Crossey said. “Public
school students need state support for programs that work, not accounting
tricks.”
Gov. Corbett suggested
that school districts “adjust” to meet their own needs. Unfortunately his
budget once again leaves them with fewer resources, and the only “adjustments”
are likely to be even larger classes, elimination of additional programs, and
fewer opportunities for children, Crossey said.
Gov. Corbett’s budget
proposal did not even mention, much less address, the plight facing districts
in fiscal crisis like Chester Upland and York City – districts which may not be
able to pay their bills in the current academic year.
Crossey pointed out that
Gov. Corbett’s budget cuts have so far eliminated more than half a billion
dollars in state support for programs that have helped to increase student
achievement over the past decade. This does not include cuts to the basic
education subsidy. (See chart below.) As a result, school districts now have no
state help to cover growing charter school payments and will lose all accountability
block grant funds, which pay for full-day kindergarten and class size reduction
initiatives.
“For the second year in a
row, the governor wants to reverse course on smart public school investments
that work for our students,” Crossey said. “So far, his public education track
record is all about cutting effective programs.”
According to Crossey, school
districts across the state have already cut programs and staff. In the wake of
this proposal, public schools will be forced to raise taxes or cut even more. A
study released by the Pennsylvania School Administrators Association and the
Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials in September indicated
that:
·70 percent of school districts increased class
sizes.
·44 percent of school districts reduced course
offerings.
·35 percent of school districts reduced or
eliminated tutoring programs.
·14,159 school district positions were eliminated
or left vacant.
“Public school students
need their elected state officials to be the responsible adults who will
provide for their education, instead of hiding behind accounting tricks to
paper over that responsibility,” Crossey said. “Public school students deserve
a great education. It’s up to all of us – teachers, school administrators,
citizens, and elected state officials – to assume some responsibility, and make
sure they get a quality education.”
“Gov. Corbett’s massive
budget cuts are hurting students across the Commonwealth,” Crossey said. “The
students can’t afford another year of devastating cuts, especially when there
are better options to balance the budget.”
Crossey is a special
education teacher in the Keystone Oaks School District. An affiliate of the
National Education Association, PSEA represents more than 193,000 future,
active and retired teachers and school employees, and health care workers in
Pennsylvania.
