Corbett's Philly School "Rescue" Plan avoids spending state dollars

[JPZenger]

Last edited Wed Jul 3, 2013, 11:01 PM - Edit history (2)

http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/213865271.html

Excerpt:

"Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed public school "rescue package," currently making its way through the legislature, is a destructive joke with troubling long-term implications. The $140 million, pledged just before the governor signed the state budget last night, falls far short of both the $304 million budget gap and the $180 million the School Reform Commission requested from city and state government.

It's also a shell game, so make sure to watch closely: the plan shifts the burden for funding city schools onto those who can least afford it. Much of the funding comes from optimistic projections of increased collections from city tax delinquents, and from an extension of the city's "temporary" 1-percent sales tax hike. The latter is simply the state giving the city the power to further tax its own disproportionately low-income population. This is patently regressive taxation, meaning that it takes disproportionately from the poor — in a city that already has a regressive wage tax, and in a state that has one of the most regressive tax structures in the nation.

There is only $47 million in new state funding for city schools (less than half of what adds up to just $127 million in new funding, according to this Notebook/NewsWorks analysis, since $13 million Corbett had proposed previously was already included in the school district budget). Critically, $45 million of that is a one-time-only expenditure — and it actually comes not from Corbett but from the Obama administration."


Maybe if they had more Republicans in Phila, he might give a *&&^%.

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http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20130703_Pa__finds_____for_lots_of_things__just_not_Philly_schools.html

"IF YOU DON'T fully get why Gov. Corbett and the Legislature found only $15 million in new funds for Philly's fiscally failing schools, allow me to explain. See, the state has no more money for Philly schools.

Oh, it has more money than expected. Revenue reports released Monday show it has $57 million more than estimated. And it has more money for itself.

Each of our three government branches shows that money grows on trees. Executive offices under the governor (his Budget Office, Office of General Counsel, etc.) got more in the new state budget. They got $16 million more, no doubt for the fine job done in not finding more for Philly schools and in losing that case against the NCAA's Penn State sanctions."