Sen.+Piccola+says+leadership+from+Corbett+administration+needed+for+fiscally+distressed+schools

=By Kevin Zwick= =Published by Capitolwire= =1/24/12= = =

=HARRISBURG (Jan. 24) – The chairman of the Senate Education Committee said “bold executive leadership” is needed to address the state’s fiscally distressed school districts.= = = =“If the governor and the General Assembly fail to structurally reform our school districts and provide families with more choices, then we have no choice but to assist our fiscally distressed school districts that, for a variety of reasons, are struggling to provide a good education to Pennsylvania students,” said Chairman Jeff Piccola, R-Dauphin. “And that will likely mean additional resources – money.”= = = = **The financial problems at the Chester-Upland School District in Delaware County have become a flashpoint for debate on how to approach fiscally troubled school districts in Pennsylvania.** = = = =Piccola said fiscally distressed school districts are facing “the perfect storm,” a combination of less funding from the commonwealth coupled with district budgets that have not adjusted to declining enrollments and transitions to charter schools.= = = = **“What must immediately happen is an end to finger-pointing and the blame game, and bold executive leadership to stop the unthinkable – certain school districts closing their buildings and/or going bankrupt, leaving parents and child in chaos and panic,” he said.** = = = =Democratic Chairman Andy Dinniman, D-Chester, said Democratic supporters of charters and vouchers “feel that we’ve been had… when [the Corbett administration] won’t share the plans and only send them to two Republicans and not to the rest of us, when for 6 months we’ve struggled to get this information, it’s hard for us to reach out and cooperate with the administration when our hands get slapped and nothing is shared with us.”= = = =Department of Education Secretary Ron Tomalis testified during Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate Education Committee that some school districts have reached a “funding cliff.”= = = =“If the current structure that we have under law is not sustainable, fiscally or educationally, then we must bring a new model to the table,” he said.= = = =“And that new model would be?” Piccola asked.= = = =“It would be anything from a new charter school, a charter school district, it could be anything from allowing a school district to put a dollar figure on the child and having that child go to any school that they want,” Tomalis responded.= = = =“I may agree with any of those proposals, but you can’t give the General Assembly a range of options that broad because you’ll have 25 percent for that one, and 25 percent for this one, and 25 percent, and you’ll never get anything passed,” Piccola said. “We need a bold plan backed by bold leadership from the executive. What do you want? We’ve been asking that question for almost a year.”= = = =Tomalis said the Chester-Upland district had first asked for assistance last spring, and the department gave them a $5 million grant so they wouldn’t default on a bond and could pay employees.= = = =“We did some steps in the spring and said, ‘this is a one-time fix, this isn’t gonna happen again next year, it can’t happen again next year,’” Tomalis said the administration told the district last spring.= = = =Piccola responded: “But here we are, 10 months later, and we’re still in the same situation. We haven’t done anything, you haven’t proposed anything, we don’t know where we’re going. We have about five weeks until we’re back in the same boat again.= = = =“I don’t see any alternative than for the commonwealth to come up with a chunk of money to get this particular school district out of the jam that it’s in, and probably some chunks for some districts in the pipeline for becoming distressed. And by delaying this for at least 10 months, that chunk of money maybe even larger,” Piccola said.= = = =“Sen. Dinniman and I may have different views on what plan you come up with … but please give us a plan. Give some guidance on how we get out of this problem. And not just the Chester-Upland problem,” Piccola said. “We need your leadership and guidance, and the governor’s leadership and guidance.”= = = =The Senate passed SB 1 in the fall, but the measure stalled in the House because of disagreements over the size of the pilot voucher program included in the bill.= = = =House leaders floated a trial balloon to cut that plan to around 50 schools, and end the program after three to five years, and require legislative reauthorization then to continue it.= = = =But that plan drew criticism from Corbett and vouchers advocates like Piccola and Democratic Whip Sen. Anthony Williams, D-Philadelphia.= = = =On Tuesday, House and Senate Democratic leadership held a press conference and said they filed an amicus brief supporting a pending lawsuit, which says the state Department of Education and the school district violated the state constitution and the law by not providing education for the students of the district.= = = =“The budget crisis in the Chester-Upland School District is a direct result of last year’s budget, and there are more funding cuts pending from the administration,” said Democratic House Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny. “We need commitment for funding public education in this commonwealth from the administration.”= = = =“Students, teachers and staff need to know for sure that there will be no more threatened shutdown or interruption in teacher pay during this school year,” Dermody said. “This is an immediate crisis for the students of Chester-Upland.”= = = =“While today it’s the issue with respect to the Chester-Upland School District, tomorrow the issues going to be with a number of other school districts across this commonwealth that are going to be facing the same situation,” said Senate Democratic Leader Jay Costa, D-Allegheny.= = = =A recent report by The Philadelphia Inquirer said a federal judge ordered the state Department of Education to pay the Chester-Upland district $3.2 million so the district can operate until the end of February.= = = =“There are other schools that are just behind Chester Upland in their economic problems. What is the incentive for them to do it right if you keep rewarding Chester Upland?” Gov. Tom Corbett said in the Inquirer report.= = = =But Tomalis said the administration is committed to “do what is necessary to keep those schools open through the end of the year.”= = = =“What the final path is, is not 100 percent clear just yet, we have to work on that. It may involve some legislation; it may involve some budget issues or fiscal issues,” he said. “Although the $20 million the district says it needs to operate until the end of the year is not something we have lying around. Or it may involve some litigation issues. We don’t know, we’ll see.”= = = =Mike Crossey, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the largest teacher union in the state, testified that Chester Upland is “merely the first domino to fall in this education funding crisis.= = = = **“Forcing public education employees to work payless paydays, poverty stricken families to purchase school supplies they can ill afford, while government turns a blind eye is not a viable solution,” he testified.** = = = =Lawrence Jones, president of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools, said charter schools are not the reason for financial distress.= = = =“Years of neglect, mis-management and delay not only caused parents to leave these very districts in the first place but the lack of fortitude to address that shift is why we sit here today,” according to his submitted testimony.= = = =Baruch Kintisch, director of policy for the Education Law Center, testified that most distressed districts have very high poverty, high property taxes and historically under-funded schools, while businesses and homeowners are leaving many of the areas.= = = =“Given the community circumstances in distressed school districts, local revenue sources are not enough to provide quality opportunities to learn in the local schools to meet state academic standards for all children,” he testified. “Unless the state ensures that adequate funding and other resources are available in all schools, the nearly inevitable results will be low academic outcomes, fiscal instability, unemployment, poor family health, high crime rates and dependence on public benefits.= = = = = = = =News= =home=