Delco educators fear effects of state budget standoff – Delaware County News Network – August 19, 2015

Representatives of five of Delaware County’s 15 school districts participated in a press conference staged Tuesday morning by Public Citizens for Children and Youth outside Ardmore Avenue Elementary School in Lansdowne to express concern over the budget standoff between Gov. Tom Wolf and the state Legislature if it is not resolved by the time school opens Sept. 8.

“Without the budget, we have no idea how much money we’ll receive or when we’ll receive it. Our bills won’t wait for this to be settled,” said Chichester School District Superintendent Kathleen Sherman of the new fiscal year budget which should have gone into effect July 1.

William Penn School District Board Member Rafi Cave said without the passage of a state budget, school officials have had to guess what funds they will have available for the upcoming school year and for pensions.

“It’s not fair to the kids and it’s not fair to the teachers,” said Cave who noted that William Penn School District with 700 employees, is the largest employer in the six municipalities covered by the district.

Interboro School Board Member Phyllis Floyd noted that if district officials are forced by the budget standoff to sustain the schools through the balance fund that is designated for emergencies and capital improvements, it will damage the district’s credit rating and inhibit the district from even borrowing money to survive.

“The fund balance isn’t a slush fund,” she noted.

The representatives of the five school districts also voiced support Tuesday for a fair funding formula and for the Democratic governor’s proposed $410 million increase for basic education as opposed to the Republican-controlled Legislature’s proposed $100 million increase vetoed by Wolf.

They said their school districts have already struggled to sustain themselves in the last four years because of drastic budget cuts endured during former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration.

“For the past four years, school districts and local communities like ours have been forced to make tough revenue decisions. It is of the utmost importance for our children that the state pass a budget that puts the $410 million in new state funds for schools in place before the school year begins,” said Upper Darby School District Superintendent Richard Dunlap.

Upper Darby resident Sonya Hill said she has seen the effects of education funding cuts on Pennsylvania children as a youth advocate and associate minister for Zion Baptist Church in the Ardmore section of Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County.

“Sadly enough I see our children being neglected in a way that severely affects them not just now, but in the future,” said the minister.

School board members noted that without the necessary funds, they will be compelled to continue cutting programs and staff and increasing class sizes and taxes on the local level.

“We’ve taxed all we can tax and we’ve cut all we can cut. There’s no more we can tax and cut,” said Cave.

Jennifer Off, another William Penn School Board member, noted that the district’s pre-kindergarten class size is already expected to be 32.

Part of the problem is the disproportionate school funding for communities with the greatest need, a dilemma that a state study showed could be remedied by a fair funding formula, said Haverford Township School Board member Lawrence Feinberg, co-chairman and founder of the Keystone State Education Coalition. Sherman noted that Pennsylvania is one of only three states in the nation without a fair funding formula for education.

Feinberg said members of his education coalition traveled to Harrisburg in June to make their case with Pennsylvania legislators including state Rep. Bill Adolph, R-165, of Springfield, the House appropriations chairman with whom they met for 45 minutes.

“There seems to be universal support for basic education but a difference on how to implement the new money going forward or some effort to backload the funding that was cut,” said Feinberg.

As he was driving to Harrisburg Tuesday afternoon, Adolph said in a telephone interview that he understands the points made by the educators and their advocates, but that the Legislature is paralyzed by Wolf’s refusal to pass even the portions of the budget with which he agrees.

“After many meetings and negotiations prior to June 30 the governor was not willing to lower his spending number of $33 billion. In order to pay for that $33 billion appropriation it calls for a $4.6 billion tax increase for fiscal year 2015-2016 which includes a state income tax increase, a Pennsylvania sales tax increase and expansion of what is taxable including nursing homes and day care services,” said Adolph.

Adolph said Wolf’s projection of $1 billion per year in revenue through a Marcellus Shale severance tax on natural gas drilling is inflated considering that the price of a barrel of oil is only about a third of what it was a year ago.

“We’d be lucky to bring in $110 million to $150 million a year,” said Adolph, who maintained that liquor store privatization proposed by the Legislature but vetoed by Wolf would have raised $220 million a year.

Yeadon Mayor Rohan Hepkins, whose borough is part of William Penn School District, believes Wolf’s budget would yield as much as $1,500 to $1,600 more a year in education funding per child and lower property taxes as much as 54 percent for residents of the district.

“Seniors can’t pay taxes. They move out or have house foreclosures which makes it unattractive for people to move in. It’s a systemic problem,” said Hepkins at Tuesday’s press conference.

While Wolf’s plan would raise the sales tax, it would lower the business tax, he noted.

“We’re calling for the Legislature to partner with the governor for a fair funding formula so we are not overburdened with double and triple the taxes to make up for the shortfall,” said the mayor.


Delaware County News Network – August 19, 2015 – Read article online