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EDITORIAL |
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CONTACT:
Lauren Rooney |
State Rep. Barb
McIlvaine Smith |
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To: E. William March, Managing Editor
Daily Local News
Subject: Improving funding for education (response to May 29 editorial)
Please publish the following response from Rep. Barbara McIlvaine Smith to the Daily Local News’ May 29 editorial “Now for Act 2.” If you have any questions, please contact Lauren Rooney at 717-787-7895 or by email at lrooney@pahouse.net.
Regarding the “Now for Act 2” editorial (Daily Local News, May 29), I want to state that I am in total agreement that “educational funding reform is needed in Pennsylvania.”
While the editorial stated that many legislators are unaware of the school funding problem, I would have to disagree. We in the state Legislature are in the process of gathering facts and figures so we can create an educational funding formula that is fair and gives taxpayers the most bang for their bucks.
As we embark on this important journey, I wish to share with you the words of one of Pennsylvania’s most famous child advocates, Mister Fred Rogers. When he was accepted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, he said in his acceptance speech:
“Please think of the children first. If you ever have anything to do with their entertainment, their food, their toys, their custody, their day or night care, their health care, their education – listen to the children, learn about them, learn from them. Think of the children first.”
“Think of the children first” should be our mantra as we move forward to fix education funding in Pennsylvania.
Our state constitution affirms, “The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.” The challenge is just what does “thorough and efficient” mean and how much should it cost.
The General Assembly is on its way to finding that out.
In the summer of 2006, the General Assembly appropriated $650,000 to fund a comprehensive study of the educational resources and associated costs of providing each student an education that is line with the state academic standards. This is the very first time in the history of the Commonwealth that we are actually conducting a statewide “costing out” study for our system of public education.
Through this study, we will learn what our children need to succeed. The report will address how student population growth and decline affect a district’s bottom line. It will try to find out why some districts that are considered “low-spending” have achieved “high-performing” status. It will investigate additional funding that may be necessary to meet needs unique to schools and students including poverty, limited English proficiency and students with disabilities.
If we truly “think of the children first,” then we will have to find a way for state funding of education to be more equitable. Some districts spend as low as $6,000 per pupil while others spend more than $16,000 per student. In an average elementary school classroom, that disparity translates into about a quarter of a million dollars per class per year. That’s more than just a few extra crayons or laptops. It’s a moral outrage.
When we educate people, we give them opportunities and skills, we help build their self-esteem, and we give them hope for the future. Every child, rich and poor, deserves that hope for the future.
Another idea being considered at the state Capitol, that I think is well worth investigating, is to put public school employees on the state’s health insurance program. The state is one of the biggest purchasers of health insurance, and because of that we can negotiate a very attractive rate for quality coverage.
Taking health benefits off the table would free up money school boards could then spend on students.
According to a 2004 Pennsylvania Legislative Budget and Finance Report on the matter, a statewide health plan for public school employees could have saved approximately $585 million in 2003 in health-care costs out of an estimated total expenditure of $2.4 billion.
Solving the state’s education funding problem won’t be a simple task. It will take cooperation between Democrats and Republicans, and it will require some tough, and perhaps unpopular, choices be made. But it is an issue that is too important to let fall by the wayside.
I challenge my fellow lawmakers to think of the children first and make education our top priority so that Pennsylvania’s public schools can be the best funded and best performing schools in the nation.
State Rep. Barbara McIlvaine Smith represents the 156th Legislative District.
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