PA. House Repubs Block Dem Efforts to Increase School Funding & Slow Down Business Tax Cuts

[JPZenger]

Last edited Wed Jun 12, 2013, 08:38 PM - Edit history (1)

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=484033

Budget update. The Repubs have a large majority in the PA. House because of gerrymandering. They were able to beat back efforts by Democratic legislators to increase spending for public schools and to slow the rate of the $300 million of new business tax cuts in this year's budget.

The Repubs also beat back Dem efforts to have PA. participate in an expansion of the number of persons served by medical assistance. The expansion would be funded by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act. Many hospitals have been seeking that PA. accept the billions of dollars of federal money that is being offered to PA, but Corbett and the Repub controlled legislators keep rejecting the money. Many other Republican controlled states have accepted that funding.

99% of the House Republican budget is the same as was proposed by Corbett.




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Excerpt from article:

"Rep. Dan Frankel sought unsuccessfully to suspend House rules and allow consideration of his amendment that would ensure Pennsylvania's participation in a federally funded Medicaid expansion.

The Allegheny County Democrat said the expansion would provide health care to about 500,000 uninsured Pennsylvanians, save more than $50 million in state welfare spending, reduce uncompensated hospital care and create badly needed jobs.

"We believe that now is the time to accept and position these federal dollars so that, in six months, low-income uninsured Pennsylvanians will have access to the same quality of life-sustaining and sometimes life-saving health care that those of us in this very chamber enjoy," he said."

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http://yinzercation.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/more-or-less/

Excerpt:

"- Fight for $270 million in funding to be restored. If they can cut almost $1 billion in one year, then restoring a third of that shouldn’t be impossible. In addition, they should help identify resources for Special Education – which has been flat funded for 5 years – and they should fix the charter pension double dip.

- Adopt provisions to improve the funding allocation formula to make it fairer and to get to adequate funding levels for all students.

- Ask them NOT give away hundreds of millions this year by eliminating the state corporate assets tax (the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax). Tell them to delay this phase out so we can so we can invest in children instead of providing another corporate tax break."

[JPZenger]

2. PA. Spending $400 million to build new prison projects at Graterford

Meanwhile, PA. right now is spending $400 million to build two new prison projects at Graterford. It will replace existing space and add a limited amount of new space, at an average of $100,000 per inmate.

http://articles.philly.com/2013-06-02/news/39692959_1_michael-wenerowicz-new-prison-state-prison

This is the second most expensive project that has ever been built by the state, after the Phila. Convention Center.

[JPZenger]

3. Speech by Rep. Schlossberg on Public School Funding

"I’d like to start by discussing my friend Fred Montgomery. For the past eleven years, Fred has taught gym at Harrison-Morton Middle School in Allentown, devoting his career to teaching kids at a school where over 90% of the student population is so poor that they qualify for free or reduced breakfast and lunches. Fred is phenomenal at what he does and cares deeply about the kids he teaches. His wrestling teams have won championships for the past seven years. Fred is so good that last year, he won an “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” award.

But in Governor Corbett’s world, Fred Montgomery is just a name – just a number. To the Governor, Fred isn’t a beating heart that has taught and inspired hundreds of inner city children. Because of the Governor’s failure to adequately fund public education, Fred received a furlough notice last week, becoming one of 99 teachers who were laid off this year in Allentown, on top of another 33 positions that were eliminated. Those layoffs are in addition to 80 positions eliminated last year. And they are on top of the 142 jobs lost the year before that. That’s more than 350 positions in three years in Allentown, the state’s third-largest and third-poorest school district. This year, among other programs, Allentown will be cutting out gym and recess.

Of course, what’s happened in Allentown is a drop in the bucket compared to state-wide teacher layoffs. We’ve seen nearly 20,000 of them in Pennsylvania under the Corbett regime. Not coincidentally, we’ve had a massive drop in test scores; a drop that is related, according to the Governor’s office, to a crack-down on teacher cheating. If you believe that, then I have a bridge to sell you. We’re in Pennsylvania, so the bridge is probably falling apart, but that’s beside the point.

We all know what the Governor’s approach to education has done. In addition to tanking test scores, 70% of classes state-wide have seen size increases; this year alone, Allentown’s average class size will jump from 29 to 32. Property taxes have increased thousands of mills throughout the state; in Allentown, they’ve shot up nearly 20% in three years. All of this has occurred, according to the Governor, in the name of fiscal responsibility.

Can someone please tell me why students in Allentown don’t deserve a quality education? Can someone please explain this to the children of Allentown? Or Easton, or Bethlehem, or York, Chester-Upland, Reading, Harrisburg, Scranton, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, or any of the school districts that Pennsylvania is failing so badly? What did these children do wrong? What crime did they commit besides being born and raised in a poor city?

We can do better, and it’s not hard. We need real charter and cyber-charter school reform. We can and should freeze the phase out of the Capital Stock Franchise Tax. We should enact a reasonable fee on Marcellus Shale extraction. We should close the Delaware Loophole, and I mean really close it, by implementing combined reporting. All of these changes would generate almost an extra billion dollars for education without raising taxes on the overwhelming majority of Pennsylvania taxpayers."

[JPZenger]

4. Some school districts delaying layoffs with multi-million dollar loans for operating expenses

Additional school districts would be announcing large-scale layoffs, except for one fact. The state is offering them multi-million dollar loans to pay for operating expenses. These include Harrisburg, York City and Chester-Upland. That may sound nice, but it will actually put them in a worse financial condition in future years, as they have to pay off old operating expenses with new current tax revenues.

[blue neen]

5. I guess they haven't received the memo that Tom Corbett is immensely unpopular.

The House Republicans keep pushing all of Corbett's ALEC politics. Why don't they wise up?

Strange.

[JPZenger]

6. And the cuts in teachers just keep on coming

York City School District:

"In 2010, the District furloughed 23 teachers. In 2011, the District furloughed another 90 teachers, counselors and librarians (including six teachers who had been recalled after the 2010 furloughs). In 2012, the District furloughed another 90 teachers, counselors and librarians (including 26 recalled after the 2011 furloughs). Two principals were also laid off.

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http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=479762

Reading City School District:

"The proposal closes a gap that was revealed recently to be as large as $12 million, but does so with some rough cuts.

"There's a train wreck ready to happen, and the school district and the public need to hear it," Robert Peters, chief financial officer, said before presenting the proposal.

The budget includes the elimination of 90 total positions. However, because 34 employees will be retiring and not replaced, the number of potential layoffs is 56, Peters said."

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http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-east/preliminary-plum-budget-would-lay-off-23-teachers-688835/

Plum School District to lay off 23 teachers

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http://www.goerie.com/article/20130609/NEWS02/306099933/Times-In-Depth%3A-Millcreek-schools-chief-looks-to-Erie-for-advice

Erie School District

Erie "has overseen the closing of three elementary schools, the sale of Glenwood Elementary School and the former Hamilton School and the layoff or retirements of 243 teachers since the end of the 2010-11 school year -- moves meant to shrink a deficit that had ballooned to $26.2 million heading into 2011-12."