In Shippensburg and in communities all across Pennsylvania, we care about our children and we care about their public schools.
For many years, SASD and most other public school districts in PA have been able to offer our children a rich variety of educational opportunities at a reasonable cost to local taxpayers. These opportunities have allowed our graduates to compete with their peers in PA and around the nation when they enter the workforce or pursue post-secondary educational opportunities.
The lack of adequate funding from our state government and the massive increase in state-mandated costs, however, are changing public schools in PA . Inadequate state funding is forcing our public schools to reduce learning opportunities for our children.
See PA state funding to public education here: PA State Funding Cuts 1
Since 2009, SASD has cut $1.7 million from its budget. We have lost 55 teachers and support staff, the trained professionals who worked closely with our children every day.
The ’13-’14 budget includes a tax increase and will cut an additional $500,000 in teaching staff to cover a $900,000 gap in the budget. This will bring the total cut in programs and services for our children in SASD since 2009 to a devastating $2.2 million.
While making $2.2 million in cuts, SASD has also raised property taxes, shifting the cost of paying for public schools from the state to local home and business owners.
Since 2011, Governor Tom Corbett and our area legislators have demonstrated with their policies and their votes that they do not care about our children or their public schools. They have refused to invest in our public schools and our children. They have told Pennsylvanians that our public school districts will need to learn to do more with less.
At the same time that Governor Corbett and our area lawmakers have told Pennsylvanians that there is no money for public schools, they increased state government spending on costly entitlement programs that funnel more than $150 million tax dollars into private educational programs EACH YEAR, at the expense of our public schools.
In addition, Governor Corbett and our area lawmakers refuse to fix a broken formula that results in the wasteful spending of $365 million in taxpayer money each year. Our state government mandates that SASD spends over $900,000 per year on cyber school tuition, nearly twice what it costs these schools to educate children.
It is time for Pennsylvanians to tell Governor Corbett and the politicians in Harrisburg that they need to make funding our public schools and supporting our children their TOP priority this year.
We will not stand idly by as our state government refuses to adequately fund our public schools.
We will not stand by as our state government shifts the cost of paying for our public schools onto the shoulders of local home and business owners.
We will not stand by and silently watch as our children receive fewer educational opportunities than their brothers and sisters who came before them.
Go to the Take Action tab on this site to find your legislators’ contact information. Call, email, or send a letter to Governor Corbett and your state senator and state representative. It will only take a few minutes and it will make a difference. Our children only get once chance at an education. We need to speak up for them now, before it is too late.
Contact us at educationmattersinthecv@gmail.com
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