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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. James Roebuck |
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Education Committee holds northeast Pa. hearing on governor's budget proposal
BRODHEADSVILLE, April 29 – State Rep. James Roebuck, D-Phila., chairman of the House Education Committee, today held a public hearing on Gov. Ed Rendell's 2008-09 education budget proposal.
Roebuck and the committee is holding hearings across Pennsylvania in order to give school administrators, education groups and other interested groups ample opportunity to discuss the proposed education budget.
"The 'costing-out' study unveiled late last year finally confirmed what we have known and been saying for many years, that, while Pennsylvania spends nearly 40 percent of its budget -- almost $11 billion -- on education, we rank near the bottom nationally in the percentage of state education spending for public education," Roebuck said.
"Governor Rendell appropriately responded to the study's findings with another proposal to increase Pennsylvania's investment in its schools and students through next year's budget. Our hearings aim to gather input about the various components of this proposal and raise the level of discourse about how we ought to be investing in our students," Roebuck explained.
Today's hearing was held in the Pleasant Valley School District in Monroe County to gather input from the northeastern part of the state. State Secretary of Education Gerald Zahorchak presented testimony on the governor's budget proposal, followed by representatives from local school districts, including Pleasant Valley, Wyoming Valley West and Bangor Area.
The committee held its first hearing on the new budget proposal in March in Philadelphia. Roebuck intends to hold at least one more hearing, potentially in the western part of the state in the coming months.
On Wednesday the committee also will visit Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa., to learn more about the school's Keystone Innovation Zone Program. The state Department of Community and Economic Development runs the KIZ program, which provides grants that help foster partnerships between a university and its community to create jobs based on technology entrepreneurship such as the one at Misericordia University.
For details on the education budget and other components of the 2008-09 budget proposals, please visit www.hacd.net/budget/200809/overview.htm. For more information on the KIZ program, please visit www.newpa.com/programDetail.aspx?id=56.
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