Those budget blues are singing once again....

I have been told that my blogs are very informative and uplifting; this blog is not. It is time for my yearly “grumbling and grousing” over the Governor’s proposed budget for next year. As I stated last year at this time, “…let me begin by stating this is not meant to be a complaint session. The governor’s budget is what it is.” In light of the current economic malaise, most districts in Pennsylvania are facing extremely hard times, with some unable to meet their bills even after extreme budget cuts. The Governor’s budget will do little to help and may put more districts in financial distress; against their own better judgment, districts are forced into deficit spending prior to passing a tentative budget for next year.

Central Cambria administrators have begun to once again scrutinize all areas of the district in an effort to present a balanced budget to the Board in May. Some of these areas include extra-curricular activities, conferences, out-of-district travel, staff realignment, staff reduction through attrition (these two latter items will necessarily result in larger class sizes), activity buses, AmeriCorps workers, technology, building budgets, dual enrollment and maintenance. There are other cost-saving ideas that are being discussed but have not been formally addressed.

Once again the Block Grant money (about $300,000 for our district) has been stricken from the Governor’s budget. This could affect our full-day kindergarten program; however, as I truly believe that full-day kindergarten enhances the academic potential of all students throughout their years in school, maintaining full-day kindergarten remains a top priority for our district. At this point we are planning to maintain full-day kindergarten classes for the 2012-13 school year.

As it currently stands, the Education budget for 2012-2013 proposed by Governor Tom Corbett on February 7 will shift more of the K-12 funding burden to local taxpayers. It will also dramatically cut state funding for higher education.
The proposed K-12 budget would “block grant,” or collapse into a new Student Achievement Education Block Grant, four current line items: basic education subsidy funding ($5.35 billion), pupil transportation ($542.3 million), nonpublic and charter school public transportation ($77.7 million), and $541.56 million of School Employees’ Social Security. This block grant show a modest increase in funding which Mr. Corbett uses to proclaim increased help for public education. However, this combined line block grant line item would provide an increase of only 3/10 of 1% over last year’s figure, or $21.8 million only enough to cover increased social security obligations; it provides no real increase for the basic subsidy to districts. Most other line items under the Governor’s PK-12 education budget were level funded (the same amount as in 2010-11) or received a 5 percent reduction.

I am doing my best to explain this to as many people as possible in order to prevent unwarranted optimism that our governor has mellowed in his attack on public education. With this in mind, please take a few minutes to contact your local legislator to ask - demand! - that Block Grant monies be renewed, and that, for the sake of Pennsylvania’s future, other educational cuts in the proposed budget be reinstated.
Once again, thank you for supporting public education and the efforts of your children’s teachers, support staff and administrators at Central Cambria.

And yes, thankfully, the NFL combines start this week into the weekend. While the Pens continue to play good/bad/ugly, I look forward to the NFL draft the last week in April.

Enjoy what little winter we have left. Dr. D.