There is good news and bad news for local school administrators in the Pennsylvania budget plan announced by Gov. Ed Rendell Wednesday.
The good news is that he wants more money for education. Rendell is calling for a boost of $265.3 million. The 2.8 percent hike would bring education expenditures in the state to $9.9 billion.
This comes on the heels of his last budget, in which the governor won a big boost in education funding and a new method of allocating the funds, with poorer districts getting more money than their well-to-do neighbors.
So what’s the bad news?
Rendell thinks the state could do with a whole lot fewer administrators. He’s not talking a few here and there. Rendell is looking at radical surgery.
He’d like to take the 501 school districts in the state and whittle them down to about 100. There are 15 districts in Delaware County.
Rendell believes the current system, with 501 superintendents, business managers and a slew of other high-paid staff, wastes too much money that would be better spent in classrooms.
But at least for now, he’s looking to add 12 more bureaucrats to the system. Rendell wants a 12-member commission to develop a plan to consolidate the state’s school districts.
Rendell means business. He said that if the Legislature does not go along with the plan, he’d like to see the Department of Education be given the power to institute the plan.
“Almost everyone agrees that Pennsylvania has far too many school districts,” Rendell said in his budget address to the Legislature.
Then he got to his point – taxpayers’ wallets. “This means there is an ever-increasing pressure to raise local property taxes.”
Ah, the magic words. It was skyrocketing property taxes – and his push to institute slots gambling in Pennsylvania as a way of lowering them – that led the former Philadelphia mayor to Harrisburg.
He’s already on board with a new expansion of gambling, pushing for legalization of video poker in taverns and clubs and taxing the proceeds. He’d use that booty to provide a huge boost in college aid to students attending a state university of community college.
Do I see the maze of school districts thinning out anytime soon? Not really. Of course, not a lot of people gave all those slot machines much of a chance either.
Rendell also has something else going for him. The public. You’d be hard-pressed to find a home owner in this state who does not complain about rising property taxes, and more than willing to point a finger at bloated school staffs as a primary reason why.
It’s a tall order. Then again Rendell is nothing if not a salesman. And he’s not running for re-election.
This one could get real interesting.
The good news is that he wants more money for education. Rendell is calling for a boost of $265.3 million. The 2.8 percent hike would bring education expenditures in the state to $9.9 billion.
This comes on the heels of his last budget, in which the governor won a big boost in education funding and a new method of allocating the funds, with poorer districts getting more money than their well-to-do neighbors.
So what’s the bad news?
Rendell thinks the state could do with a whole lot fewer administrators. He’s not talking a few here and there. Rendell is looking at radical surgery.
He’d like to take the 501 school districts in the state and whittle them down to about 100. There are 15 districts in Delaware County.
Rendell believes the current system, with 501 superintendents, business managers and a slew of other high-paid staff, wastes too much money that would be better spent in classrooms.
But at least for now, he’s looking to add 12 more bureaucrats to the system. Rendell wants a 12-member commission to develop a plan to consolidate the state’s school districts.
Rendell means business. He said that if the Legislature does not go along with the plan, he’d like to see the Department of Education be given the power to institute the plan.
“Almost everyone agrees that Pennsylvania has far too many school districts,” Rendell said in his budget address to the Legislature.
Then he got to his point – taxpayers’ wallets. “This means there is an ever-increasing pressure to raise local property taxes.”
Ah, the magic words. It was skyrocketing property taxes – and his push to institute slots gambling in Pennsylvania as a way of lowering them – that led the former Philadelphia mayor to Harrisburg.
He’s already on board with a new expansion of gambling, pushing for legalization of video poker in taverns and clubs and taxing the proceeds. He’d use that booty to provide a huge boost in college aid to students attending a state university of community college.
Do I see the maze of school districts thinning out anytime soon? Not really. Of course, not a lot of people gave all those slot machines much of a chance either.
Rendell also has something else going for him. The public. You’d be hard-pressed to find a home owner in this state who does not complain about rising property taxes, and more than willing to point a finger at bloated school staffs as a primary reason why.
It’s a tall order. Then again Rendell is nothing if not a salesman. And he’s not running for re-election.
This one could get real interesting.
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