Pottstown school officials demand more education funding – The Mercury News – July 23, 2015

Pottstown educators stepped into the state budget battle Thursday, calling on local legislators to adopt a budget that significantly increases funding for public education.

In a press conference staged on the front steps of Rupert Elementary School, Superintendent Jeff Sparagana was joined by school board member Kim Stillwell and teachers’ union president Beth Yoder in supporting the budget initiatives that Gov. Tom Wolf first proposed this spring.

“The budget that the Legislature passed calls for a $300 million decrease, or 75 percent less, than the basic education funding proposed by the governor, resulting in a loss of over $365,000 of the projected increase for the Pottstown School District,” Sparagana said.

Sparagana’s math jibes with a Mercury analysis published Sunday that found a $3 million difference in basic education funding for nine area school districts between Wolf’s proposed budget and the one passed by the Legislature — enough to pay 45 teachers the average salary in the area.

He further criticized the budget passed by the Republican-controlled legislature, and vetoed by the Democratic governor, by noting that after eight years of flat special education funding, the increase in Wolf’s budget is 80 percent higher than that proposed by the legislature — a difference of $243,000 for the Pottstown School District.

Sparagana said shortfalls in state funding over the last six years have resulted in the elimination of 14 classroom teacher positions and 11 administrative positions, resulting in “higher class sizes, which impact the ability of our staff to maintain a high quality learning environment for our students.”

“In Pottstown we’ve done our best not to cut programs and shortchange our students,” said Yoder. “We need to offer Pottstown’s children the same educational opportunities that children in wealthier districts receive if we want them to thrive in a competitive world.”

“The recession is over, and while other states are restoring state funding for their schools, our legislators are trying to fill a bathtub with a teaspoon,” she said.

“Pennsylvania voters made it clear last November: We want fully funded schools, a tax on Marcellus shale drillers and property tax relief, particularly for our senior citizens,” said Yoder.

Sparagana said the winnowing of state funding has left the district with the choice between cutting programs and raising local property taxes.

“This has caused Pottstown to consistently rank as one of the top 10 tax-burdened communities in the state with maybe the lowest tax base,” he said.

This has the doubly damaging effect of scaring away potential developers, said Sparagana.

“We have consistently heard from potential home owners, developers and businesses that the taxes are too high to consider coming to Pottstown,” said Sparagana. “This is a significant road block to economic development and has a negative effect on student success.”

He also mentioned that the school board passed a budget in June that does not raise taxes in the current school year. But that budget depends heavily in receiving at last part of the additional funding called for in Wolf’s budget plan.

Sparagana said the legislature could increase available funding for public schools simply by reforming “wasteful cyber-charter school funding” so it is “based on their actual expenditures.”

Doing so would keep $712,280 in the Pottstown School District; $17.5 million in Montgomery County public schools and $160 million state wide “all with no funding coming from the state.”

Republicans have responded to Wolf’s budget-lobbying efforts by pointing out that the property tax relief inherent in Wolf’s plan comes a year later than the personal income tax hike and the higher sales tax on more items.

“Two permanent tax increases this year for a potential reduction in my property tax next year? That is just not a fair trade to me,” state Sen. Bob Mensch, R-24th Dist., said in an address on the Senate floor.

“Really what this comes down to is the increased sales tax, which raises $1.5 billion, which goes into the general fund, and $2.3 billion from the increased personal income tax, which is where the property tax relief is coming from,” said State Rep. Tom Quigley, R-146th Dist.

“This whole Marcellus shale tax is serving as a lightning rod, but the sales and personal taxes is where the bulk of the money is coming from and the more people hear about that, the less they like it,” said Quigley.

The Republicans are also arguing that increased education funding without pension reform for state employees and Pennsylvania educators is not addressing the full range of fiscal challenges the Keystone state faces.

Stillwell, a mother of four as well as a Pottstown School Board member, said the fiscal challenges faced by districts like Pottstown need to be addressed now.

“I am a taxpayer who lives on a block that has three, soon to be four, abandoned homes, which is becoming the norm in Pottstown,” she said. “My neighbors cannot take on any additional taxes, they just can not.”

“We need help from our legislators now more than ever, to approve a budget that provides fair and adequate funding which is so important to economically disadvantaged school districts,” she said. “The students in these communities deserve the same opportunities as any other child in Pennsylvania.”

Roxy Barneby, associate director of education for Public Citizens for Children and Youth, which helped to organize the press conference, called on Pennsylvania Legislators to “complete their final assignment for the year” and pass a budget that provides the $500 million increase for public education that Wolf has proposed.

“We are at a tipping point. We cannot continue this way because the next steps involve significant program cuts that will hurt our children,” said Sparagana. “Fair and adequate funding for all public schools in the commonwealth is a moral responsibility for our legislators.”


The Mercury News – July 23, 2015 – Read article online