East Penn Could Lose $4,827,864 for Education

If Gov. Tom Corbett’s state budget goes through as proposed, East Penn School District could lose $4,827,864 in support, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

“The state is proposing a host of cuts that will affect East Penn taxpayers,” said School Board President Charles Ballard in an email.

Some of the Governor’s cuts include $546,765 for early-childhood programs in East Penn as well as cuts in basic education funding, $978,852, and subsidies, $2,413,932.

Gov. Corbett outlined his proposal March 8.

But Ballard said the Governor failed to mention some of the cuts, such as “the state suddenly not paying half of the social security taxes for employees.” And that could have a direct impact on local taxpayers.

For East Penn, the cut in the state’s contribution to social security taxes for East Penn workers could cost the district an extra $343,135 in the 2011-2012 school year.

Under the Governor’s proposal, spending on public education will be reset to 2008-2009 levels.

The good news, Ballard said, is that “we had actually used the 2008-2009 basic education subsidy numbers in our proposed preliminary budget.”

That means East Penn was prepared for some basic cuts.

“The bad news is that since East Penn traditionally has a lean budget compared to other school districts, the remaining cuts to balance the budget will be extremely difficult to obtain without affecting programs,” he said.

East Penn Superintendent Thomas Seidenberger did not respond to requests for comments on the state budget, but he has posted a memorandum about the Governor’s budget proposal on the district’s web site.

Called the “Superintendent’s Corner,” Seindenberger wrote that the web page will be his “forum for disseminating the most important district information.”

On March 9, Seidenberger posted content from the Pennsylvania School Board Association on his forum.

Of course, school superintendent’s want as much money as they can get to improve school performance, though in a weakened economy, and an election year, there are cries from taxpayers to ‘cut, cut, cut.’

Seidenberger said in a previous interview, however, that there is no consensus on what to cut.

“No one wants their own kids’ program cut,” he said. “Everyone wants to cut the stuff that affects other kids.”

The PSBA states that “most, but not all, other programs under the education portion of the [state] budget plan are level-funded or decreased or eliminated, including:

• Special Education: $1 billion (level)
• Career and Technical Education: $62 million (level)
• Pre-K Counts: $83.6 million (1.9% decrease)
• School Employees’ Social Security: $530 million (3.83% decrease)
• Teacher Professional Development: $7.2 million (66.3% decrease)

“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)”

If these numbers hold true, then East Penn will face $4,827,864 in cuts from the state.

On Monday, March 14, the school bard meets to continue discussion on East Penn’s own proposed school budget, which right now calls for a 4.8 percent tax increase.

This is also an election year, and there are 12 candidates running for five seats, including board president Ballard. No doubt the budget will feature prominently in the discussion.

“Our business office has been busy crunching the numbers as we get them,” Ballard said. “I expect an update at our meeting on Monday [March 14] on the effect of this news on the budget process.”

NOTE: Attached to this article is a FAQ from the Governor’s Budget Office as well as a summary of the losses to school districts prepared by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The March 14 East Penn School Board agenda is also atached.