LETTER: Schools need a budget passed
As school districts reach the end of the first quarter of the school year, many are forced to borrow money to meet their district’s expenditures. It’s unfortunate that districts now have another expenditure to meet that comes with interest they must pay on these loans. There is no end in sight for a legislature compromise.
Education funding has been deficient in Pennsylvania for a long time with both public school funding and funding for our state universities. Our state-supported schools, especially Pitt, Penn State and Temple, have some of the highest tuition rates in the country at around $20,000 per year. Students in Florida pay nearly $5,000 per year in tuition. This is evidence of the underfunding of our state universities. It also causes our students to pay more in college loans.
Our public schools have been underfunded for many years, as demonstrated by recent lawsuits requesting that school subsidies be increased, especially in economically deprived districts such as those in Fayette County. Families are forced to pay higher property taxes and high tuitions, which act just like another tax. Harrisburg doesn’t want to change sales or income tax rates, but the increasing property taxes and tuitions have a direct effect on family budgets.
One solution to struggling districts is for the state to alleviate some of the burden districts are forced to pay to cyber charter schools. School districts in Pennsylvania that have students enrolled in state cyber schools are required to pay these cyber schools at the same rate we get reimbursed for students attending our district school buildings.
Cyber schools are public and deserve some funding, but these online schools don’t have the same expenses as our district schools. They don’t have to build and maintain buildings, transport students, pay utilities and all of the staff to maintain services. Cyber schools could function effectively with much less than the amount they are reimbursed from our district budgets. School districts are taking out short-term loans to help pay for these cyber schools.
We need help from our local senators and representatives to help the families in our local districts. I highly doubt that we would be having a long budget impasse if this were an election year. Let’s see if this occurs during the next election year. It’s time to stop blaming each other and stop costing our districts added expenditures.
Bob Renzi
Connellsville School Director