HARRISBURG – The Pennsylvania School Boards Association (PSBA) is sympathetic with the economic climate in the commonwealth and the difficult proposals Gov. Tom Corbett has made in his proposed 2011-12 state budget.
The budget includes $5.23 billion for Basic Education Funding, an increase, according to the administration, of $104.8 million or 2 percent.
“The devil, however, is in the details,” said PSBA Executive Director Thomas J. Gentzel. “Until we analyze the budget numbers to see how cuts in other programs will affect school districts, we remain cautious on the proposal.”
PSBA welcomes Corbett’s mention of “curbing” mandates that tie the hands of local school boards, including one that PSBA has been fighting for, for years – economic furlough, or the ability of districts to manage personnel costs through reductions in staff.
“Passing economic furlough does not level the playing field or completely reduce the financial impact inflicted upon schools by the hundreds of mandates they face,” Gentzel said. “If the governor and General Assembly are serious about reforming our current system of public education from both a fiscal and policy standpoint, they need to provide relief from the hundreds of existing state mandates that create unnecessary hurdles for the schools and the students they serve.”
He emphasized that such changes must address the broad scope of mandates and that a piecemeal attempt at mandate relief is not enough. Only exhaustive changes would provide school entities the assistance needed to be able to focus more on student success.
On average, 68 percent of a school entities’ budget goes toward personnel costs. Economic furlough is a welcome tool to help reduce these costs. School districts need their teacher unions to cooperate with them on holding the line on these costs and reduce the threat of deeper program cuts.
Additionally, Corbett has proposed the third year of flat-line funding to special education, even though costs for providing these services have continued to rise. This is an important service that school districts provide, but without proper funding is in reality yet another unfunded mandate.
PSBA bristles at Corbett’s portrayal of Pennsylvania’s education system being “broken.” Pennsylvania has made eight straight years of improvements in student achievement in math and reading, with 290,000 more students performing at grade level since 2003. Also, results in the 2009-10 state assessment scores (PSSA) show that 82 percent of Pennsylvania schools met the required academic goals for the federal No Child Left Behind Act – up from 78 percent of schools last year.
In his address, Corbett criticized school boards for raising property taxes – much of which are required to pay for mandates and other costs that have been passed onto local school districts by the state and federal government. School boards have been cutting costs for years in their budgets. Corbett, however, calls for any property increase beyond inflation to be put on the ballot for voters to decide. Act 1 of 2006 already establishes a voter referendum process for tax increases. PSBA needs more details from the Corbett administration to fully understand how his proposal differs from existing state law.
The governor also voiced his support of school choice without providing many details – something that concerns PSBA and its members. If Corbett’s definition of school choice mirrors that which is being proposed in Senate Bill 1, PSBA continues to object on the grounds that this legislation is unaccountable, unaffordable, unpopular, unproven and unconstitutional.
PSBA is a nonprofit statewide association of public school boards, pledged to the highest ideals of local lay leadership for the public schools of the commonwealth. Founded in 1895, PSBA was the first school boards association established in the United States.
