DUBOIS – Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Gerald Zahorchak stopped by the DuBois Area High School as part of his bus tour across Pennsylvania this week.
In DuBois Zahorchak urged schools to use stimulus funds to boost education as intended instead of what the tabled Senate Bill 850 would have done by removing an equivalent amount of money to the stimulus funding from the budget.
“It is no accident that we come to DuBois today, because this is an out-performing school district that has utilized the state Department of Education and your own revenues to do things with early childhood education, to ensure that class sizes are small, kindergarten was appropriate, that the high school had technology, dual enrollment was accessed and more,” said Zahorchak.
In his speech, Zahorchak praised such programs as dual enrollment. The dual enrollment program allows for high school students to also attend college courses for credit. He had recently attended a high school graduation where one student was leaving with 41 college credits.
“Govenor Rendell’s education budget recognizes education at its core is probbaly the strongest tool we have in economic development for the individual and the collective we have,” said Zahorchak.
Returns on investing in education as the effects they will have in the area. Forty to fifty years working and putting money into the economy. He noted that the jobs that exist now require high skill and high cerebral activity for the next hundred years.
“We think it pound wise to do the right things even in very difficult economic times,” said Zahorchak.
He listed as outcomes of an education system suffering from a poor investment a higher need of remedial courses, incarceration and dependency on the government from income. That between the remedial education, prison and longer lifespans and fewer students being qualified for better jobs would cost the state more in the long term than the short term savings.
Zahorchak admitted that under Gov. Edward G. Rendell’s proposed budget there would be some spending cuts. Under this proposed budget there would be no programs cut.
The defeated Senate Bill 850 would have seen programs such as dual enrollment, furloughed teachers and other cuts across the state, possibly even an increase in property taxes to make up the difference.
Zahorchak also warned that after there is no stimulus funding in future years a funding gap would occur.
Another motivation listed by Zahorchak to use the education oriented stimulus money as intended is the $5 billion “Race to the Top” fund that is part of the stimulus funding. This $5 billion will be divided to states based on how they use the guaranteed stimulus funding.
“Simply put, if we use stimulus funds now in the way Governor Rendell has proposed – and as some federal officials intended – we could later reap hundreds of millions more to invest in student achievements,” said Zahorchak.
“Secretary Duncan said publicly, ‘States don’t invest efforts that drive reform and improve achievement just as well might as well tear up their application for ‘Race to the Top’,” said Zahorchak.
