East Penn School Board Blasts Governor's Education Cuts

The East Penn School Board last night slammed Governor Tom Corbett’s proposed state budget saying cuts to local schools will make it harder for East Penn to balance its own budget this coming school year.

School officials also expressed anger at the Governors’ intention to continue mandating that local districts fund charter schools, which board members decried as a waste of taxpayers money, calling those schools “educational rat holes.”

Director Alan Earnshaw said the governor is not saving money, but just passing the costs onto local taxpayers.

"It’s just criminal,” he said. “Let’s not kid ourselves that the Governor is saving us any costs.”

Board member Francee Fuller said the proposed cuts were “totally shocking to me,”’ especially the proposed cuts to the intermediate units that provide special educational services to physically and socially handicapped students.

She urged parents to “take up the cause” in support of state educational funding.

“I am really very concerned about public education,” she said.

 Director Julian Stoltz said he wondered if the Governor has read the state constitution which obligates the state to fund public education.

“We need a new funding system,” he said. “This is not working for the children or the taxpayers.”

District Superintendent Dr. Thomas Seidenberger described numerous possible district budget cuts for the upcoming school year that would $1 million. But the state will simulataneously cut $700,000 in funding to East Penn, he said, resulting in only a $300,000 savings.

Combined with declining  local tax revenues, “It will be hard to balance our budget,” Seidenberger told the board. “I’ve changed my philosophy, and its now survival.”

Particularly galling to some board members was that the Governor wants to cut $545,000 in reimbursement to the district for subsidizing charter schools, but still require the district to subsidize them.

Board Chairman Charles Ballard repeated his complaints that charter and voucher schools get favored treatment from the state.

He said they don’t have to account for the money they get and are held to lesser testing standards than public schools, and parents are not able to adequately oversee the performance of charter schools, which he called “educational rat holes.” He described the proposed state budget cuts as “shafting local taxpayers.”

Director Terry Richwine said East Penn’s $3 million annual subsidy to charter schools, which is worth two mills of tax, is “the biggest waste of money in our budget.”

He said the notion that charter schools are superior “is a total fairy tale.”

Seidenberger said that charter and voucher schools, also known as “schools of choice” are not feeling the Governor’s budget pain

“For the life of me I can’t see our shared sacrifices for schools of choice.” He also took a swipe at the effectiveness of charter and voucher schools, saying that research on these types of schools clearly indicates “that money following the student does not work.”

Because the state created charter schools, Seidenberger said the states should pay for them.

In other business, the board honored the state championship girls field hockey team and also gave national energy saving award to the principles and head custodians of Jefferson, Lincoln and Macungie elementary schools for having energy consumption at least 35 percent below the average of similar schools.