And asking for more money is not an answer. Taxpayers have the right to expect responsibility and accountability. Public employees who are not willing to be part of a solution will remain part of the problem. Taxpayers have done their part.Taxpayers have the right to expect responsibility and accountability from you too, School Board Directors. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. That goes for you too, Timmy and Jan.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Dear School Board
Before you vote for increases tonight and in the following months, please read this article from Allegheny Institute for Public Policy. Teachers' Union Head Claims State Shortchanging Education.
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The failure of Congress to agree on a budget that would reduce the federal deficit by March 1, 2013 set in motion the sequestration, the automatic across-the-board funding cuts proposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011. These spending cuts which will total approximately $85 billion for the fiscal year 2013 and which are scheduled to continue through 2021, will significantly impact federal funding provided to states for elementary and secondary education. The federal sequester cuts several key educational line items including Title-I-Education for the Disadvantaged, Title-ll-School Improvement Programs and IDEA Part B- Special Education cuts that will begin the 2013-2014 school year and be taken from the appropriations available to the states beginning in July 2013. The U. S. Department of Education has estimated the funding for these programs will be cut by 5.1%, with only school nutrition immune to these mandatory reductions.
In Pennsylvania, these across-the-board funding cuts will translate to an over $40 million cut in Title I and Title ll funding for the next fiscal year, and based on the 2010 -2011 allocations, a nearly $1 million cut in School Improvement Funding. Additionally local education agencies will lose approximately $21.4 million in IDEA Part B funding based upon estimates from 2012 allocations.
Unfortunately, these cuts funding cuts will disproportionately impact Pennsylvania's poorest districts as these federal programs target disadvantaged and special education students. As a result many districts will be forced to engage in further employee furloughs and will have to shoulder the burden of the absent federal funds, both of which will impose significant challenges to school districts already facing years of flat special education funding.
According to the Allegheny Institute, “To no one's surprise the head of the state's largest teachers' union is again complaining about the unwillingness of the state to replace the Federal stimulus spending that ended in 2011. Moreover, the union head is unhappy that a large fraction of the $1.25 billion increase in funding since Governor Corbett took office is going to pensions and social security.
The union president is also upset that state law limits the ability of school districts to raise property taxes. And he wants one of the most important pro-business policies adopted by the Legislature-the phasing out of the Capital Stock and Franchise Tax-curtailed to produce more tax revenue. Presumably the union wants most of any such increase to be allocated to education.
This preposterous and one sided view came from the Pennsylvania State Education Association's (PSEA) recently released Sounding the Alarm 2 report.
Take a look at the absurd high school project, the staffing bloat such as it now takes two assistant superintendents for 5,000 + students as compared to one super and one assistant managing a student population of over 8,000 in the seventies.
Look at computer projectors sitting in boxes for a year because a college educated teacher can't pull it out of the box and read a manual. Something employees in the private sector are expected to tackle. But in the public sector things wait for the union authorized IT person to one day get around to it.
The "preposterous and one sided view came from" Mike Crossey, PSEA pres who hails from Lebo and was a special ed teacher at Keystone Oaks. He was also a County Council member and briefly a Lebo Commissioner.
Get elected and take dumb pills with Kool-Aid chasers ! Think and act progressive and be a big D(eal).
Oh my god, run for your lives sequestration is coming, chordal will have no shoes, teachers will be peddling apples on street corners, school buildings will be falling down around our ears... right Mr. Crossey?
It's the end of public education in the Commonwealth, Mike?
Hmmm, wouldn't the wise, prudent course of action in a looming disaster to be to hunker down, stock pile the necessities to help yourself weather the approaching drought?
No, the administration is going to raise salaries, the teachers union is going to grieve for wages/benies it thinks it was entitled to ten years ago.
It's funny, for all this fear mongering about money cuts, our school district seems to be on a spending spree. Handing out raises for employees that reached the position cap... Ha, ha that was a joke... A cap!
When does the PSEA come to gripes with the real world?
Despite the severe financial pressures of the FEDERAL government's educational cuts this year 34% of Pennsylvania districts indicated they will not increase real estate taxes this year while only 19% indicated they plan to raise taxes above the Act 1 Index. Mount Lebanon raised taxes above the Act 1 Index and now school board candidates are lying about FEDERAL budget cuts being the State’s fault. What some people won’t do to get elected.
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