PSERS and SERS project total taxpayer contributions will increase from $1.1 billion this year to more than $5.5 billion in 2016—a 421% increase in five years.

remember its all about the kids.

Is this honestly any different than what our current president is doing and has been doing since he took office? What do you expect from politicians? They all do it, it's not right, but it's happening...and the east penn school district will have to figure it out just like every other working family right now who can't find the money to pay their own bills because EVERYTHING is escalating in price.

LMR But you and I can't just increase taxes to pay our personal bills.

Well Mr. Ballard, tell us how you really feel! So, what's your solution? Let's here how you would turn around the education issue Corbeet is facing. Remember raising taxes is not an option!. My pockets are empty. I agree with Lower Mac Resident about not being about the kids..... its not. That's your smoke screen. I have a plan and I know you, the rest of the board members, and your union teachers would not like it. I think you may have forgotten how to tighten your belts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmvzKVS0S6Q
another example of hidden fees for homeowners........they like to sneak these things in, see Mr. Ballard, this is nothing new

Mr. Ballard only wrote this article to support the next tax increase coming our way. The East Penn School District School Board can't/won't do anything but increase taxes. Learn how to tighten your belt, Mr. Ballard; that's what the rest of us have to do.

Some ways the board has already saved money since last year: 1 year pay freeze from all bargaining units, not replacing various retiring teachers, energy savings, paper savings, taking drivers ed. out of general budget, etc.

This district is spending less money in the present budget as opposed to last year despite resing costs and falling revenues. That is not easy to do.

I wish more tax watchdogs would get on board with the concept of reigning in growth in LMT. If a new high school is ever needed in EPSD I've heard a price tag of upwards of 100 million. Enrollment from what I understand has leveled off, but the Jaindl development for example would include 700 new high density homes. This type of development is an enrollment factory. Development like this churns out enrollment year after year due to the fact they are starter homes. Young families move in, stay couple years then move out. And the cycle repeats. Judging by amount of "for sale" signs in places like Annandale and Penns West you see the cycle repeating in those HD developments. These developments are NOT inherently bad, it's just when the ratio an area approves of them starts to skew too far in one direction as it WILL if Jaindl tract moves forward.

A development similar to Annandale (this according to bus drivers though I would love to get harder figures) would add 700 more students to the rolls of the school district. This coupled with other projects in the pipeline or being discussed now. (Allen organ rezoning from commercial to High Density ect. ect.)

You want to reign in school taxes? STOP GROWTH NOW in the township.
www.facebook.com/friendslmt

How about my second question? Your first sentence says LMT not EPSD. You make it sound that the Lower Macungie Township is the only contributor to the problem. Maybe the biggest but not the only.

Perhaps you malcontents look no further than to the constitution (which you are so fond of referencing when it suits you), The state constitution is very clear in the role of mandating education and policies. If you really want to get upset about money, why not look into the MILLIONS of dollars that these cyberschool owners are walking away with. In fact, you are being scammed so badly by them, it's hard not to laugh at your objection to your local dollars staying local.

Cyber school and charter schools have got to stop

By the way, the PA auditor general has asserted that the cyber charters has made a 108 million dollar profit of YOUR TAX DOLLARS. And he goes on to say that they have charged ONE BILLION DOLLARS to educate 73,000 PA students. Why don't you LOOK INTO that? http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/2010/10/pennsylvania-charter-and-cyber-charter.html

Cyber charters are profit making machines using the tax dollars that SHOULD be going to brick-and-mortar schools, which provide a vastly superior service. For every student that leaves a traditional school district to "attend" a cyber charter, that school district loses money, in East Penn's case, over $8,000. That is a disgrace! Pennsylvania's Auditor-general and Attorney general need to conduct a vigilant and thorough investigation of all charters schools. I'd be interested to see if any charter school administrators and/or directors have contributed to Corbett's campaign.

Mr Ballard has got it right. As a lifelong Republican I wouldn't feel that I was being honest if I defended Gov Corbett on this point. He is cutting at the heart of local public schools, East Penn and others.

Yesterday there was an article in patch about "the sky is falling" alarmists. There is a lot of the "sky is falling" rhetoric spouted herey, too. You'd never know from this piece that EPSD enjoyed a 6% increase in state funding from 2009-2010 to 2011-2012 during a recession, despite claims to the contrary that create panic.

For the real data, see the district's budget at their website: http://www.eastpennsd.org/Budget/_docs/generalfundbudget2012.pdf .

09-10 state funding to EPSD was $21.77 million and 11-12 funding to EPSD was $23.10 million, $1.33 million or over 6% more. The year in between had even more money, but that was from unsustainable one time Federal stimulus money that was funnelled through the state as a conduit.

Unfortunately, an opposite impression has been created by statements from other sources, some official and some not. One example is the patch article titled "East Penn Could Lose $4,827,864 for Education" and subtitled "Governor’s proposed budget sets state contributions back to 2008-2009 levels." at http://emmaus.patch.com/articles/east-penn-could-lose-4827864-for-education.

Neither of these statements are true. Clearly, from the data in the budget, EPSD gained $1.3 million or 6% more state funding over the last two budget years. State support for education is EPSD has been steadily growing and the sky isn't falling.

The part of the Corbett cuts last year that I believe you are ignoring:

These existing programs did not receive any funding in Corbett’s plan:
* Accountability Block Grants (cutting $259 million)
* Educational Assistance Program (cutting $6.9 million)
* Reimbursement of Charter Schools (cutting $224 million)
* School Improvement Grants (cutting $10.7 million)
* Science: It’s Elementary (cutting $1.6 million)
* Mobile Science Education Program (cutting $14.3 million)
* Dual Enrollment Programs (cutting $6.9 million)
* High School Reform (cutting $1.7 million)
* Intermediate Units (cutting $4.7 million)

It's more than just the basic education subsidy. For example, cutting the charter school reimbursment was huge for East Penn.

http://www.eastpennsd.org/Administration/_docs/FAQs.pdf - helpful in understanding what happened last year

Ted: Please stop comparing ACTUAL revenue from the state in one year to BUDGETED revenue from the state in other years. You know better. The only true comparison is actual to actual. The basic education subsidy over those years only went up 2%.

Also, the federal stimulus money was substituted by the state for some of funds they would have otherwise had to pay the district and so the 'unsustainable' is not accurate either. The state balanced their budget with the federal stimulus money. Not all of it was 'extra' and thus 'unsustainable".

Chuck: please stop admonishing me for doing exactly what you and school boards properly and necessarily must do, which is to use the best available data. When you work on the 12-13 BUDGET, you will certainly look at the 11-12 BUDGET and the ACTUAL numbers for 10-11. You also might look other hybrid cases for 11-12, (or at least the administration will), in a “work in progress” or similar format. Anything less would be foolish. And I’m certain YOU KNOW THAT, in spite of your exhortation to the contrary.

With regard to your second paragraph, I agree with you that the state balanced their budget with stimulus money to make up moneys they didn’t have, while you seem to agree with me that there was some ‘extra’ money beyond that was essentially passed to school districts to make up for other (non-state) revenues they lost. And that is my point for comparing 09-10 with 11-12 in my original posting: 2010-2011 is so weird, that it is difficult to interpret its numbers, because of the ostensible spike in state funding. Both budget numbers and actual numbers 10-11 are an anomaly and are outlying data points.

Indeed, you should reserve some of your criticism to “Truth Seeker” who introduced the 10-11 BUDGET numbers into the discussion when much more accurate ACTUAL numbers for that year are available in the recent bond statements.

BTW, those documents show a 20% increase in total state funding over the last 5 years for which there is ACTUAL data.

Ted: The comparison is only valid on actuals, no matter what you say. The basic education subsidy has only gone up 2% per year or less for the past 5 years. If your 'total state funding' includes social security tax payments and PSERS share for the state, those funds have nothing to do with what East Penn 'gets' from the state because they are pass-through funds that really don't go to us. WE haven't gotten 20% more for the educational purposes of the district, and trying to use that number is disingenuous.

And thus spake Zarathrustra, Thou must not utter anything about the current year, for the numbers are not actual, and they mean only what we want them to mean. Have we reached the point of know return? (apologies to Kansas)

Mr. Ballard, I applaud you for your editorial. It is heartening to see a school board member sticking up for public eduation (should be a moot point, but not so on all boards). I would love to see a member of the West Chester School Board stick up for our district against the Gov who continues to defund our children's educations. But unfortunately we have a majority of right wing extremist tea partiers who would like nothing more than to see our schools fail to make room for vouchers to support private & parochial school interests.
Artie & Black Sheep, it is Gov Corbett you should direct your anger toward, not the school boards which are just trying to keep their heads above water. The governor is pushing cuts to education funding for a second year in a row, while simultaneously working to divert $Ms to vouchers & charter schools--I agree with manfromuncle & srodham69 wholeheartedly, these ventures are huge scams and breeders of corruption that are stealing $Ms from taxpayers and putting it in the hands of those smart enough to take advantage of a subpar funding system. Gov Corbett's latest plan is to remove any risk to the state for future transportation & FICA cost increases and make all future funding arbitrary rather than formula & true cost driven. Not to mention the huge PSERS liability that the state caused in the first place which is eating up more & more of district's budgets, and mandates that also cost so much but add no value.