Pa.+Districts+urged+to+sue+over+cutbacks

= = =By Mike Wereschagin= =//Published by the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW//= =//9/24/11//= = = = = =Saying they are bristling at the injustice of cutbacks in funding to some school districts this year, two state House members are urging Mon Valley school districts to file a class-action lawsuit against the state to restore some of the millions of dollars lost.= =Poorer school districts took the brunt of the cuts in the state budget, say Reps. Bill Kortz and Marc Gergely, both Democrats. The two have no legal standing to initiate such a lawsuit, but are trying to persuade four school boards to do so. At least one district's school board has voted to support the effort but will allot no money to pay for it.= =A spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett's office called the prospective lawsuit "frivolous," and the chairman of the House Education Committee pointed out that the cuts were made because the state faced a $4 billion dollar shortfall.= =A similar lawsuit in New Jersey ended in success for the plaintiffs when the state Supreme Court in May ordered Republican Gov. Chris Christie to restore $500 million in education funding cuts.= ="(The budget is) a discriminatory budget. It hurts the kids in the poorest districts the most," said Kortz of Dravosburg, part of the McKeesport Area School District. The district is one that he and Gergely of White Oak, also part of McKeesport Area, are trying to recruit for the lawsuit. Kortz said the budget eliminates equity funding, which gives more money to districts in which property values are lower and less taxes are collected.= =South Allegheny School District's board voted 7-0 on Aug. 18 to support a class-action suit, though the support is conditioned on no taxpayer money being used to pay for it, said district spokeswoman Lauren Thomson.= ="We just said we wanted to go on record and support this," Thomson said.= =West Mifflin and Baldwin-Whitehall school districts are considering joining the suit as well, district officials said. A spokeswoman for McKeesport Area did not return calls.= =Kortz said they plan next to pitch the lawsuit to Steel Valley School District. It's unclear how the suit could go forward if the districts are not going to pay for it, he said.= ="First, if they do sue, it will be a frivolous lawsuit," said Kevin Harley, Corbett's spokesman. "Second, if they do file a lawsuit, (Reps. Kortz and Gergely) should name themselves as defendants because it is the state Legislature that voted and approved the budget."= =Gergely and Kortz both voted against the budget.= =Gergely said the prospect of paying legal fees should not deter districts from suing, because they could get more money back in return.= =Federal stimulus money, much of which went to school districts, dried up last year. Republicans, who control the Legislature as well as the governor's mansion, added $240 million in state money to the education budget, but because of the lost stimulus dollars, the budget included about $900 million less for schools this year than last.= ="Where are the dollars going to come from? It's not as though the state has a lot of excess dollars floating around," said Rep. Paul Clymer, R-Bucks County, chairman of the House Education Committee.= =Baldwin-Whitehall received about $1.3 million less in state and federal funding this year over last year, a gap the district closed in part with money from its construction fund, said Assistant Superintendent Randy Lutz.= ="Obviously, you can't do that every year," Lutz said.= =When Kortz and Gergely make their pitch to school boards, they note how much the cuts amount to per student -- more than $300 in Baldwin-Whitehall -- and how that compares to the funding cut for wealthier Upper St. Clair, which lost $79 per student.= ="That's discriminatory, and that hurts the kids," Kortz said. "They're born in a poor district. They had no control over that, yet they're being penalized. This is wrong."= =The budget crunch forced schools to focus more on being fiscally conservative, Clymer said.= ="If they go through with this lawsuit, it's back to business as usual," Clymer said. "We now have schools that are conscious of the fact that the money is not going to be there."= =Read more: [|Districts urged to sue over cutbacks - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [|http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/pittsburgh/s_758476.html#ixzz1YszbnU6S] = =News= =home=