Teachers+union+chief+confident+block+grant+budget+objectives+will+be+reached

=By Kevin Zwick= =Published by Capitolwire= =6/13/12= = = = = = = =HARRISBURG (June 13) – The head of the state’s largest teachers union is confident two of his group's key budget objectives will be accomplished in the upcoming budget – refunding $100 million for accountability block grants and defeating Gov. Tom Corbett’s student achievement block grant proposal.= = = =Mike Crossey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said he believes the student achievement block grant proposal won’t be carried into the final budget and the accountability block grant restorations made by legislative budget proposals will stick.= = = =So far, House and Senate budget proposals have been in line with those objectives. And GOP legislative leaders confirmed the proposal to group most basic education funding into a block grant was no longer going to happen this year.= = = =“That’s up to negotiations with the governor and the General Assembly,” said Tim Eller, spokesman for the Department of Education.= = = =The governor’s student achievement education block grant would combine budget lines for basic education, pupil transportation, non-public and charter school transportation and federal Social Security taxes for public school employees.= = = =Crossey was critical of the student achievement block grant, saying the transportation and social security aspects "have nothing to do with educating our children."= = = =The Corbett administration has said the block grant would provide flexibility to local school districts.= = = =The Senate’s budget proposal unraveled Corbett’s student achievement block grant back into separate line items, and increased those line items by more than $100 million – with $50 million of that going to basic education funding for distressed schools, and $50 million for accountability block grants.= = = =Other changes include increases in pupil transportation, charter and non-public transportation, and federal Social Security taxes for public school employees.= = = =The House and Senate budgets also refunded Corbett’s proposed elimination of the accountability block grant program for the second year in a row. The Senate increased the funding by $50 million and the House also added another $50 million to the accountability block grants, for the $100 million total.= = = =Last week, Senate Appropriation Chairman Jake Corman, R-Centre, said the Senate is “uncomfortable” with Corbett’s proposed education block grant.= = = =“The school districts have made a case that it doesn’t work for them very well,” he said then.= = = =“On the transportation part, it takes the variable from the state and sends it to the schools. If we send it to the school districts, then when prices vary, they are on the hook if the" costs increase. "The Social Security payments issue is a big issue for them and it is a straight loss for them" under Corbett's proposal he said. Of block granting education subsidies, Corman said. "... in education, you can’t move most of those dollars and the dollars would be less, so it would have a negative impact on them,” Corman said.= = = =Rally-goers on Wednesday focused criticism on Corbett for cuts to public education and causing hundreds of public school employee furloughs.= = = =Corbett has repeatedly pointed to school district rainy day fund reserves totaling $3.2 billion, which are not spread evenly throughout each district in the state, as a source to quell furloughs in the current belt-tightening economy.= = = =Teachers unions and the Corbett administration differ on how to count funding for basic education. The governor includes public school employee benefit payments in its education funding total, while the union includes salary and not pension benefits while calculating funding totals.= = = = = = = = = =News= =home=