Tomalis,+lawmakers+debate+whether+state+is+cutting+or+hiking+education+funding

=By Peter L. DeCoursey= =Published by Capitolwire= =5/5/12= = = = = =HARRISBURG (March 5) – Rep. Matt Bradford, D-Montgomery, pressed state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis to admit the current and forthcoming state budget represent less state funding than the 2008-2009 state budget contained.= = = =Tomalis declined to agree during his testimony at his department’s annual budget hearing before the House Appropriations Committee. Committee chairman Bill Adolph, R-Delaware, agreed with Tomalis. Both Tomalis and Adolph cited a $300 million increase in the state pension payment for school districts as proof that Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget raised overall state funding for education.= = = =Bradford noted that the 2008-2009 state budget was the last one passed before stimulus funds began to flow. Adolph and Tomalis both said Gov. Ed Rendell used hundreds of millions of those federal dollars to replace previous state dollars, so that state funding fell sharply. Then, when the federal funds stopped, Corbett could only use about $350 million in those funds to help the current budget, and has none for this year. So that accounts for most of the cuts in funding, Adolph and Tomalis said.= = = = Bradford discussed the 2008-2009 state funding levels for K-12 education to illustrate, he said, the real cuts Corbett had made. = = = = In 2008-2009, and up until Corbett proposed and passed his first budget, the state provided $500 million or more in block grants, charter school reimbursement and tutoring, said Bradford and House Minority Appropriations Committee Chairman Joseph Markosek, D-Allegheny. = = = = Bradford asked if Tomalis agreed that the state, counting the $500 million in state funding that he and Markosek listed, provided $5.8 billion in 2008-2009 and $5.3 billion now. = = = = Tomalis responded: “You have to look at the $300 million in pension contributions,” which are also state funding for education. = = = = Bradford said the $5.8 billion figure does not include pension payments, nor does the $5.3 billion and again asked Tomalis if he agreed that “funding is down, from the pre-stimulus year to the post-stimulus year?” = = = = Tomalis insisted the $300 million for this year’s increase for pension contributions must be part of the calculation: “When you look at total support for instructional costs, for having a teacher in the classroom,” pension costs are part of that classroom funding total. = = = = But Tomalis lost Adolph when he stated the $100 million in block grant funding preserved for the current year should not count as a reduction even though it is out of next year’s budget. = = = =Adolph and Tomalis agreed it was inserted in June 2011 as an addition to that just-ending budget year’s school funding, but that it was to be spent in the current school year to end in June 2012.= = = =Adolph said that meant since “it is going to be spent this year,” it counts as a cut in this year’s school spending total. Markosek and Bradford agreed, but Tomalis said while he could understand their position, he disagreed. He said it was not in the current budget, and it was not in Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget.= = = =Rep. Steve Samuelson said: “We shouldn’t be pretending that funding didn’t exist.”= = = =Overall, while Markosek, Bradford and other Democrats said they did not count the pension contribution as part of an overall education funding increase, Adolph agreed with Tomalis. So did Rep. Glenn Grell, R-Cumberland, who has for years decried the underfunding of state pension contributions.= = = = Markosek said K-12 spending had been cut, making similar points to Bradford’s, and adding: “I am deeply concerned at the administration’s effort to cloud that picture. On the department of education’s website, the administration touts a $388 million education increase, when in fact the only real increase is in pension funding. = = = = “Support for classrooms remains stagnant or is less for schools after the [major cuts] in the current budget.” = = = = = = = = = = = = = =News= =home=