Letters to the Lynch Mob: Fight the Unfair Education Cuts

After hearing about the inequitable distribution of education funding cuts I've decided to contact every legislator in Pennsylvania by email and/or snail mail. I can do that because I have the time. If you do not have the time please take a minute to write your opinion to our local elected politicians or copy and paste mine, making it your own by adding your ideas or suggestions and then deleting my name. Pass this information along to your online friends. This is democracy in action. This is what the folks in other countries are hoping to achieve.
State Senator: Mary Jo White       State House Rep.: Scott Hutchinson
email:  mwhite@pasen.gov               shutchin@pahousegop.com
       169 Capitol Building                 152 Main Capitol Building
      Senate Box 203021                   PO Box 202064
      Harrisburg, PA 17120               Harrisburg, PA 17120-2064
         814-432-4345                          814-677-6363
 
March 30, 2011

Dear __________________________,

This letter is to make my opinion clear on the pending state budget cuts in education. I agree that a balanced budget is a worthy goal but not at the expense of the poorest school districts, of which the schools in the district you represent are included.

It is my understanding that a certain formula was used to determine the amount of money each school district would receive in 2011-2012 based on the 2010-2011 Basic Education Funding allocation of state dollars. During this time, 2010-2011, federal stimulus monies were divvied among the PA districts with the most poverty and highest property taxes, which includes us. The state, in turn, then reduced their allocation of funding to these districts. Therefore the federal stimulus money was not additional money. It was simply replacing previously budgeted state money for these districts. Now that the federal stimulus money is no longer available the stimulus amount should not be considered as part of the state's 2010-2011 state education funding total. It is a significant difference and should be considered when determining state education budget cuts. Poorer school districts are slapped with a double blow- by 1) CUTTING funding and 2) basing these cuts on inaccurate and unfair data- in these economically challenging times.

I understand the need for frugality but the same standards should be shared equitably across the state. Please take the ethical course of action and correct this inaccurate calculation of state funding before the final approval of the state budget.

Respectfully,
Your Name Here.

Here are a couple links that I found helpful. Copy and Paste these addresses.:
http://www.elc-pa.org/budget2011.html  -- Click on the Spreadsheet of the Statewide Education Budget Impact by District.

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/  -- If you rest your cursor on the tabs at the top a drop down list of choices will appear. Email addresses for every legislator can be found here.

I hope everyone read the article in The Derrick Corbett takes his case to the county commissioners in Tuesday March 29th's edition.
Corbett spent a lot of time explaining why he opposed taxing the natural gas production from the Marcellus Shale formation beneath Pennsylvania. It said he would like to persuade Texas-based energy companies to move their corporate headquarters to PA. ---I don't think the governor is familiar with our relatively recent Pennzoil/Quaker State fiasco in regard to relocating headquarters.  And if they DO relocate here, what's to stop them from moving again to the next state that offers tax breaks?

But this was my favorite quote in the article: " If we bring in companies like this, our revenues will come up, and (if) we control our spending...we will be able to fund education the way we want to, we will be able to take care of the poor and needy the way we want to."  So, until those companies show up the poor and needy can just suck it up and deal with it. ---This is the part of the quote I imagine he said in his head.  Wow, what can we do? Make your voice heard.

Hormonally yours,
Peg