Local group joins Capitol rally for more education funding
HARRISBURG – As state lawmakers continued to haggle over the 2003-2004 budget for Pennsylvania’s schools, droves of advocates for a new system of funding the schools descended on the state Capitol on Thursday to demand that the state give children in poor, rural schools the same educational advantages as their peers in thriving communities. A contingent of Fayette Countians joined in the Rally for Educational Justice as representatives of Reaching Educational Achievement with Community Help (REACH).
They gathered on the Capitol steps, which offered little shade from a sweltering sun.
“We have come to put heat on the Senate and House for educational justice,” said the Rev. Dr. Arthur White, president of the Pennsylvania Baptist State Convention, who served as the rally’s master of ceremonies.
A slate of speakers for the rally, organized by the grassroots organization Good Schools Pennsylvania, offered their support for Gov. Ed Rendell’s Plan for a New Pennsylvania.
Highlighting the plan is new state money for early childhood education, full-day kindergarten, small classes in kindergarten through third grades, tutoring and teacher training. Rendell has proposed cutting local property taxes in exchange for state money from a hike in the personal income tax and legalized slot machines at horse racetracks.
REACH, a community organization of Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, attended the rally as a partner with Good Schools Pennsylvania, and Fay-Penn President Michael W. Krajovic was among the speakers. Krajovic said education is the number one issue facing business in Pennsylvania today.
He said many do not have the education they need even to enter the work force and are being left behind while businesses are locating in states that better support their education systems.
“Show how much we love and care, not just about our own children, but all the children in Pennsylvania,” he said, urging support for the governor’s plan.
Thursday’s 90-minute afternoon rally featured several other speakers, including Rendell, business leaders, students, school administrators and religious leaders.
Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Bill George of Beaver County told the crowd, “If we stand together, we can make something happen.”
One speaker after another offered the governor encouragement, even chanting “P. I. T.” to show their support for his proposal to raise the personal income tax from 2.8 percent to 3.75 percent, as Rendell, flanked by Lt. Gov. Catherine Baker Knoll, took the podium.
He acknowledged the educators and business leaders in the audience, saying the educators know what the children need and the business leaders know they have to provide for the schools for the sake of better-educated students able to compete in the changing economy.
He said the students who cannot pass achievement tests are “dead on arrival” when they try to enter the job market.
Pennsylvania is ranked 47th in the nation in economic development, he said, “because we don’t educate our people.”
“I am never going to stop fighting to make sure our children have the right and ability to reach their full potential,” he said.
Referring to the July 1 start of the new fiscal year, Rendell said he will work hard in the next four days to see the initiatives through the General Assembly, whether it takes until June 30 or longer to finalize the education budget.
Much of the state budget is final, although Rendell initially vetoed the education budget and proposed the additional and new funding for the schools.
The Senate earlier this week gave its nod to a subsidy bill would give school districts an average 2.8 percent raise in their annual state allotment but makes no changes in the way the schools are funded. It also approved a bill that would allow a school district to exchange the property tax for a local earned income tax by voter referendum. The action now goes to the House for consideration.
“There’s still time,” said spokeswoman Janis Risch when asked at the rally what the Senate action means to Good School Pennsylvania’s efforts. “We formed 21/2 years ago to mobilize the taxpayers. We felt there was plenty of good policy ideas out there, but what we felt was missing was civic engagement,” she said.
She said about 2,000 people signed up for the rally, but she noted that she could not estimate a turnout. The rally culminated an effort called Stand for Children that Good Schools Pennsylvania launched in January. As part of that campaign, someone from the organization has made his or her presence known at the Capitol every day the lawmakers were in session since January.
The Fayette County contingent included 17 people from the REACH group who boarded a bus sponsored by Fayette County Community Action.
Laurel Highlands School District Superintendent Dr. Ronald Sheba and Albert Gallatin Area School District Superintendent Walter Vicinelly met up with the REACH group outside the Capitol. With Vicinelly were A.G. administrators Mario Tiberi and Tony Tokish and school board President John Gruskowski.
Tiberi, the school district’s substitute assistant superintendent, said he would pay a higher personal income tax if he knew the money was going to a pool for equitable distribution among the school districts that need the state funding.
“For eight years, the Ridge administration ignored education, and we’ve fallen behind,” Tiberi said.
The REACH itinerary included visits to the offices of state Reps. James Shaner and Jess M. Stairs and state Sen. Richard Kasunic.
Shaner said he can agree with the initiatives the governor has proposed, in an ideal situation. However, he said the reality is that someone has to pay for this plan, and he does not want to raise the personal income tax to support it.
“We need to find a better way to fund it,” he said.
Stairs, the majority chairman of the education committee, said the governor’s plan needs to be fine-tuned, but the problem is the lawmakers have yet to negotiate it, and only a few days are left before the end of the fiscal year. Stairs said he is not for the tax raise and doubted the governor’s entire plan would get the House support in this tight economy. He reasoned it may be more likely that the plan is phased in.
Kasunic was unavailable, but the group spoke to his chief of staff, Stephen M. DeFrank, who commented that attempts in the Senate to raise the personal income tax were voted down.
Of the proposed tax raise, Krajovic said many people have left the area for jobs elsewhere and they pay personal income tax at rates of 6 percent and more without complaint.
Krajovic said the message the Fayette County group wanted to take to Harrisburg is that the state must come through with equitable funding for the school districts that cannot compete with the property values of places like suburban Philadelphia and that the status quo is no longer enough.
He said the early childhood, full-day kindergarten and small class sizes in kindergarten to third grade are especially important for children to develop when they are most able. Otherwise, he said, that child falls behind and may never catch up.
Editor’s note: Harrisburg Correspondent M. Bradford Grabowski contributed to this report.