Allentown Schools Have Cut 404 Jobs Since Corbett Took Control of the Budget

[JPZenger]

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-school-proposed-budget-20130524,0,4733428.story

The Allentown School District just approved a 3rd set of layoffs. This will mean that a total of 404 jobs will have been cut by the School District since Corbett took office. These layoffs are necessary even after a 8.5% tax increase this year, following additional tax increases in previous years.

Almost all art, music and gym teachers will have disappeared, as well as many academic teachers, librarians, administrators, and custodians.

Many other public school districts have suffered from severe cutbacks in the numbers of teachers and teachers aides because of Republican budget policies in PA. Those cutbacks have been the most severe in the school districts with the highest percentages of minority and low income students. Those districts not only have less local tax revenues, but also have much higher needs, including having higher numbers of students with special needs and who do not have English as their first language.

One of the first things that Corbett did when he took office was to slash state general fund revenues that had been approved months earlier for public schools. He did this halfway through the budget year, changing the current budget. He then took the money that Congress had recently approved to avoid teacher layoffs and used that to replace the state money in the current year budget. All of the school districts had projected that those new federal funds would be available for the following budget year to avoid layoffs. Then, he said he didn't cut the state spending for schools, which was a lie for several reasons.

At the same time, urban school districts are being squeezed by the sequester. The federal government does not provide a large percentage of total school funding, but most of the funding they provide is targeted to low income schools. The sequester has decreased these federal funds to urban schools.

At least 17,000 teaching positions have been cut in Pennsylvania since Corbett took office. That is about the same number of jobs that have been directly created from fracking.