Band-aid+keeps+Chester+Upland+afloat+for+two+weeks,+state+budget+cuts+put+it+on+the+brink

=Published by Capital Wire= =1/18/12= = = = = = = =HARRISBURG (Jan. 18, 2012) -- A court-mediated settlement with the Corbett administration has given the Chester Upland School District two weeks of breathing room, but the president of Pennsylvania's largest school employee union urged Gov. Tom Corbett and his administration to remember that this is only a band-aid for the struggling district.= = = =PSEA President Mike Crossey said that a $3.2 million state funding advance will keep Chester Upland on life support for two weeks, but will not stave off a full-blown catastrophe, which could close the schoolhouse doors to 3,600 students. Crossey pointed to the school district as an example of the dire consequences Gov. Corbett's $860 million in public school funding cuts are having on the Commonwealth's school districts and the students who learn there.= = = ="This $3.2 million advance will keep the doors open for a few more weeks," Crossey said. "It's a band-aid. In two weeks, the school district will be back on the brink. This is what happens to Pennsylvania's public schools when you cut $860 million in state support."= = = =Crossey pointed out that the Corbett administration had denied Chester Upland's earlier requests for state help. As a result, the school district was so strapped that it would have been unable to pay its employees, its contractors, or any of its other bills. The school district filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth in federal district court on January 12. Without the court-mediated agreement to advance the school district $3.2 million, Chester Upland's staff would not have received their paychecks this week.= = = ="In June, the governor's budget cut $8.4 million in state funding from Chester Upland," Crossey said. "The school district took all kinds of steps to fill the funding gap, but it isn't enough. If these schools close, what will happen to the students? No one seems to know."= = = =The governor has remained silent so far on what Chester Upland's students would do if their schools were forced to shut down. But as a group of Pennsylvania state legislators recently pointed out in a letter to Gov. Corbett, there is no neighboring school district or charter school currently prepared to accept the district's 3,650 students.= = = ="This is not a time to assign blame or duck responsibility," Crossey said. "This is a time for the governor to step up and do the right thing for Chester Upland's students."= = = =According to Crossey, Chester Upland is one of the state's most financially challenged school districts. Despite this, the Corbett school funding cuts hit poor, urban school districts the hardest.= = = ="Districts like Chester Upland are the ones that need state help the most and they got cut the deepest," Crossey said. "We need a fundamental shift in education policy in this state. We need to put students first and not make excuses about why we can't invest in public education."= = = =Crossey encouraged lawmakers to consider the impact further school funding cuts will have on the public schools and asked that the public school funding that Corbett cut in FY 2011-2012 be restored in the FY 2012-2013 state budget.= = = ="With the governor's budget address just weeks away, we have a chance to solve this funding crisis and invest in Pennsylvania's public schools," Crossey said. "If we all make public school funding a priority, we can save Chester Upland, educate all of Pennsylvania's students, and invest in their futures.= = = ="The time to make that choice is now, before it is too late."= = = = = = = = = =News= =home=