Education funding and the cuts under the Rendell Asministration (Penn: budget, office)

[Don163]

Teachers deserve to be paid well. To remain competitive nationally and internationally we need a high quality educational system. That being said the financial burden of the retirement system for state government employees (police and teachers included) is not sustainable over the long term in its current form. A defined contribution plan for all government employees must be enacted by the legislature. You would think that with Republicans in control of the legislature and the governor's office that this would be accomplished. It's going to take a financial catastrophe to get it done.

[thecoalman]

Here's a clear example of the bias in my local paper about Districts raising taxes.

Education costs continue climb - News - Citizens' Voice

Some school board members, especially Democrats, expect more state funding next year with a new governor in charge. Tom Wolf, the Democratic nominee for governor, has proposed additional education funding from a 5-percent severance tax on natural gas drilling, which he says would generate $700 million in new revenue.


On Thursday, Gov. Tom Corbett, a Republican seeking a second term, signed a state budget and boasted about investing a record $12 billion in state funding for early, basic and postsecondary education. School boards had to approve a district budget by June 30 for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Corbett’s first budget, the 2011-2012 budget, cut almost $1 billion from education statewide, and those cuts were not restored for 2012-2013.

So you have Robin Hood coming in with 700 million, Corbett making "boasts" and an outright fabrication about the cuts becsue it wasn't a 1 billion dollar cut no matter which way you slice it. Now they are making **** up....

[TelecasterBlues]

Nah...I understand what is being said all too well, and I see the logic stated as valid. However, as somebody who's worked in education throughout the mess that has been Corbett...that man singlehandedly took our school system to he'll and back with his budgets and policies. There is nobody on the face of this earth who.can make an argument for Corbett being beneficial to education...it's been a disaster for everybody involved from the kids on up.

Corbett has a track record of lieing out of his @ss when it comes to tax talk and state funding cuts...every state employee in PA is basically going to be lined up on election day to vote him out, he's scrambling to do damage control and the propaganda is flying.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by TelecasterBlues

...that man singlehandedly took our school system

So you're saying that a return to the spending levels two years previous took out the school systems?

You realize we spend about $15k per student in PA when you combine both the state and local funding.

Are we doing any better than in 1980 to justify more than doubling spending per student?

[CarbonCountyLiving]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Here's a clear example of the bias in my local paper about Districts raising taxes.



So you have Robin Hood coming in with 700 million, Corbett making "boasts" and an outright fabrication about the cuts becsue it wasn't a 1 billion dollar cut no matter which way you slice it. Now they are making **** up....

Times Shamrock are a bunch of idiots though. They hate Corbett because of their owners' Irish Democrat leanings, yet they also hate public schools and consistently post test scores without delving into the reasons behind them.

But that's OT I guess.

Rendell did some shady stuff to public education, for sure. There were years when he waited until almost August to pass budgets. You aren't wrong in stating that he screwed things for the Corbett Administration, but Corbett hasn't done himself any favors either. There's a reason that he's the lowest rated governor in the entire nation, and has the lowest approval rating of any PA governor in recent history. I know you agree with some of his decisions, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.

[pman]

Originally Posted by TelecasterBlues

Nah...I understand what is being said all too well, and I see the logic stated as valid. However, as somebody who's worked in education throughout the mess that has been Corbett...that man singlehandedly took our school system to he'll and back with his budgets and policies. There is nobody on the face of this earth who.can make an argument for Corbett being beneficial to education...it's been a disaster for everybody involved from the kids on up.

Corbett has a track record of lieing out of his @ss when it comes to tax talk and state funding cuts...every state employee in PA is basically going to be lined up on election day to vote him out, he's scrambling to do damage control and the propaganda is flying.

I don't think he's been a good governor but to some extent we're at the end of the road we've been kicking the can down. worse, PA doesn't have a good business climate and hasn't in some time (probably longer than some posters have been alive). As I understand it the pension crisis has its roots in the early 1980's so I wonder what role it plays in that graph. in other words, there probably aren't going to be any popular magic bullets but corbett seems to be the kind of guy who could make people hate puppies rather than one who can sell tough decisions to the public. of course, it may not matter at all, rendell was good with the public but in harrisburg he still had to buy votes the old fashioned way. harrisburg only represents cronies and state workers, not residents

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by CarbonCountyLiving

Times Shamrock are a bunch of idiots though. They hate Corbett because of their owners' Irish Democrat leanings, yet they also hate public schools and consistently post test scores without delving into the reasons behind them.

I don't know about the rest of the newspapers they own but the Citzen's Voice is very pro union, I don't know if you know the History but there was a very nasty strike in the late 70's against the other local paper and the CV was the result. It's still the smallest two paper area in the country.

There's a reason that he's the lowest rated governor in the entire nation, and has the lowest approval rating of any PA governor in recent history.

A)I think he has made some very unpopular choices that had to be made instead of kicking the can down the road like Rendell and B)he's being stymied by "liberal" Republicans in his own party e.g. liqour privizitation.

[pman]

I'd argue that he wasted political capital on the wrong things (opposing the shale tax, giant tax credit for shell) and hasn't really recovered from that so when it came time to do pension reform and liquor privatization, his political capital was spent. he did get transportation funding which is nothing short of miraculous

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by pman

I'd argue that he wasted political capital on the wrong things (opposing the shale tax, giant tax credit for shell)

Right thing, wrong political decision. The gas tax is how Wolf says he'll pay for education budget increases but I have to wonder if that will pass and if it doesn't pass what is his plan B? Ultimately it's a loser becsue any tax on the gas will just be passed onto the consumer and if the gas industry is to believed will slow production in PA since the gas here is not as valuable as the gas in other states that already have the tax.

As far as the Shell deal goes you know as well as I do it's a game every state plays. Shell gets a break but how many taxes and jobs do you lose if they built it elsewhere?

[pman]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

Right thing, wrong political decision. The gas tax is how Wolf says he'll pay for education budget increases but I have to wonder if that will pass and if it doesn't pass what is his plan B? Ultimately it's a loser becsue any tax on the gas will just be passed onto the consumer and if the gas industry is to believed will slow production in PA since the gas here is not as valuable as the gas in other states that already have the tax.

As far as the Shell deal goes you know as well as I do it's a game every state plays. Shell gets a break but how many taxes and jobs do you lose if they built it elsewhere?

I'm not sure that just because other states play these games that makes it worth it or that a gas tax is necessarily a bad idea. I also think that one of the reason's corbett is unpopular are his cuts to pork. pork is likely what turdzai is referring to as the hard work of governing. he cut their pork, when he tried to eliminate it to lower the state's business taxes, they rebelled. pork is bipartisan hate. pork is the reason mayor nutter is despised by the establishment, he thinks projects should actually make sense and have a business plan.
here's an inside view, these things don't just happen in philadelphia, they happen all over the state.

IS A taxpayer-funded nonprofit tied to state Rep. Louise Bishop getting a secret bailout from the Laborers union?...the union quietly purchased the Louise Williams Bishop Retail and Commercial Center, a mostly vacant building...The building had been owned and operated by the Lancaster Avenue Redevelopment Corporation (LARC), a floundering nonprofit chaired by Anthony Lewis Jr., a member of the city's Board of Revision of Taxes and a regular contributor to Bishop's ...Something sounds real funny," said one of several Local 332 members who spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing retribution from union leaders for criticizing the purchase...Bishop, 80, who is being investigated by a grand jury for allegedly accepting cash payments from an undercover operative, has declined to comment on LARC...Financial records filed with the IRS show that LARC paid Bishop's daughter, Tamika Mezache, about $120,000 over three years, the Daily News reported last month...
Lewis declined to comment on the Local 332 deal, but said LARC went belly-up when Mayor Nutter's administration and Gov. Corbett's administration clamped down on grants.
"When Corbett came in, that all changed. Those kinds of dollars weren't available anymore," Lewis said. "We weren't able to go back to that trough to get it. That's what happened there."

Union bailout for state rep's nonprofit?