Thorn Cuts the Wrong Person

Find the original article here: http://www.ydr.com/opinion/ci_18416876

An excerpt from the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education on July 1, 2011 concerning the new state budget:

“The 2011-12 state budget, signed yesterday by Corbett, provides $10.1 billion for

the sustainment of public education and educational programs in Pennsylvania.

The state’s contribution to Basic Education Funding, which primarily supports school

district operations, was increased from last year by $233.3 million, or 4.56 percent.”

Strangely, this press release does not tell us the new state budget reduced state spending by the one-billion dollar amount the media keeps citing. So where does that number come from? Why do the media insist that Governor Corbett reduced school spending by one billion dollars when it is plainly obvious that this year’s budget spends $233.3 million more than last year? You tell me! Could it be that the media makes this claim in news reports, as they have repeatedly done over the past months, to garner an emotional reaction? Are they targeting conservative lawmakers who are attempting to be fiscally responsible with this misleading reporting?

The media can get away with this type of reporting because the claim they make is not factually incorrect. School districts across Pennsylvania will be receiving about one billion fewer dollars this coming school year compared to the last school year. However, that reduction is not the result of the Corbett budget. It is the result of the failure of the temporary stimulus money that the federal government, under the leadership of Barack Obama, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi, provided.

You remember the plan; the one that resulted in the ultimate demise of our liberal, former Republican (RINO) senator, Arlen Specter. The nearly $800 billion plan that was to create millions of jobs around the country, but ultimately it ended in higher unemployment (with Specter among the numbers who lost their jobs). The plan that provided temporary federal money designed to create all of those “shovel-ready” jobs and included funding for education. One of the many problems with the plan is that, while everyone knew it was temporary money, school boards did not treat it as such. The end result is that thousands of school district employees across the state are now unemployed.

Back to the thorns: Who deserves the thorns for this mess? Is it the person who increased school spending by 4.56% over last year? Or, do the thorns belong to the individuals who did not plan for what they all knew was coming down the pike? I know, the question is so obvious that it is silly. But, I need to answer it anyway. I mean, people couldn’t figure out that temporary funding meant that they wouldn’t get it every year and look at the mess they brought on all of us as a result.

So, THORNS to school directors and administrators across the state for failing to plan for the inevitable and continuing to take a “money grows on trees” attitude when it comes to school funding.