Schools to receive $286 million in restored funds from the state - Daily Local News 06/29/2011

The Daily Local (dailylocal.com), Serving Chester County, PA

Schools to receive $286 million in restored funds from the state
Wednesday, June 29, 2011

By YASMIN TEDJDEH
PA Independent

HARRISBURG — School districts in Pennsylvania, which faced dramatic cuts in Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget in March, will see at least some restoration in the budget bill advanced by the state Senate on Tuesday.

All told, the state budget restored $286 million in cuts to school districts statewide. Still, the cuts will be difficult for many districts.

“I don’t want to diminish what our legislators did,” said West Chester Superintendent Jim Scanlon, who was pleased with his district’s increase of almost $1.8 million, but, “the reality is less money is coming in.”

Because of the $2 million difference from this past year’s budget, the school district has enacted a pay freeze and did not fill 33 vacant spots as well as other money saving measures, said Scanlon.

West Chester joins other school districts facing deep funding cuts despite the $286 million the state Senate Appropriations Committee restored in a measure Monday. Corbett’s original proposed budget cut public school spending by $1 billion, but because of the measure, funding for the state’s 500 school districts will be cut by around $800,000.

But the $286 million will not be split evenly among the districts. Thirty-four schools will receive at least $1 million in extra funds, with some schools receiving less than $100,000. But all schools will receive at least as much funding as they did in the 2008-09 school year, the last full year before the federal stimulus helped to boost education funding at the state level.

Urban and suburban school districts received some of the largest restorations in the state budget, but even those increases are bittersweet for many school officials.

For the Chester-Upland district, School Board President Wanda Mann said she and the district were happy with their increase of $10,580,000.

“We are most certainly pleased … (and) thankful that we have $10 million more (in our budget) than on Monday,” said Mann, whose school district will be taking a $10 million cut.

In the Altoona school district, spokeswoman Paula Foreman said while the increase of $1.9 million is helpful, “even with the money we receive, we will still be $2 million short.”

This school year’s budget was tough, said Foreman, but all the school districts in the state were in the same boat.

The state Senate is endorsing about 80 percent of the cuts by supporting the restoration of only $268 million, said state Rep. Steve Samuelson, D-Northampton.

“These cuts are devastating to all school districts across the state, to pre-K, to children in all grade levels,” said Samuelson.

“What some are calling ‘the restoration’ is just restoring a fraction…of the cuts,” said Samuelson. The cuts, said Samuelson, are leading to reduced programs offered by schools, layoffs of school employees, reduced opportunities for students and higher property taxes for Pennsylvania residents.

State Sen. Bob Mensch, R-Montgomery, said the state was more fiscally sound after the budget compromises and cuts.

“No one wants to disadvantage the children, or disadvantage education. What we are trying to do is deliver a fiscally responsible budget that is fair to everybody in the state, to education, as well as all the taxpayers. I think we’ve been able to do that,” Mensch said.

State Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Chester, said restoring funds to basic and higher education were among his priorities when the state Senate received the budget from the House in May.

URL: http://www.dailylocal.com/articles/2011/06/29/news/doc4e0a8768937b7183683914.prt

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