McKeesport+Rally,+Town+Hall+to+Address+Education+Funding

=By Patrick Cloonan= =//Published in the McKeesport Daily News//= =//5/5/11//= = = = = =On the eve of tonight`s town hall meeting on state budget issues at McKeesport Area High School, a teacher and mayoral candidate said public schools here may get even less in state subsidies than they received in 2008.= ="There are more affluent communities that are going to get more than they got in 2008," McKeesport council president Michael Cherepko told colleagues during Wednesday`s city council meeting. "In McKeesport, they are taking us back to 2006."= =Cherepko, a fifth-grade teacher at McKeesport Area`s Centennial Elementary School, said McKeesport Area School District would get $1 million less than its 2008 subsidy if Gov. Tom Corbett`s budget is passed.= =The council president quoted figures received in Harrisburg Tuesday, when the Coalition for Labor Engagement and Accountable Revenues held a "rally for a responsible budget."= =The union-backed organization contends that "Pennsylvania cannot afford a cuts-only approach to the budget. More cuts will slow the economic recovery and cost jobs."= =Cherepko was not more specific, but figures publicized at school district functions put the proposed basic subsidy for MASD in 2011-12 at $21.9 million, while Pennsylvania Department of Education figures put the 2008-09 figure at $22.9 million.= =Corbett proposed a budget that would allocate approximately $5.2 billion for the 500 public school districts, down from $5.8 billion in the 2010-11 state budget.= =Corbett said that takes total state allocations for public schools back to 2008-09, before an influx of federal stimulus funds approved in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.= =Thanks in part to grants provided through ARRA, MASD received $26.3 million for 2010-11.= =The town hall meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. following a 6:15 rally at the Renziehausen Park band shell.= ="We need as a community to be there," Cherepko said.= =Cherepko also announced that state Sen. James R. Brewster, D-McKeesport, would attend the town hall meeting, which is being hosted by Democratic state Reps. Marc J. Gergely of White Oak, Bill Kortz of Dravosburg and Harry Readshaw of Carrick.= =Brewster said Wednesday he will hold a news conference in Monroeville regarding a proposal to use a tax on Marcellus shale natural gas to fund education. Brewster announced the idea at the recent Twin Rivers Council of Governments annual meeting.= =During their respective comments at the council meeting, Cherepko and Tedesco expressed the hope that, regardless of the outcome May 17, officials would continue to work in the best interest of the city.= =Also Wednesday, council received a thank-you letter from Laura Bosnak Thompson for its support of efforts to keep McKeesport Family Center open. The center also faces a possible loss of state funding under the proposed budget.= = = = Read more: [|McKeesport rally, town hall to address education funding - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review] [] = = =

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