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THOSE WHO thought that education was a sacred cow in the Pennsylvania budget were recently disabused of that notion.
In the $27.3 billion spending plan he released Tuesday, Gov. Tom Corbett proposes making hamburger out of the education system:
• A 52 percent reduction, totaling about $625 million, for the 14 state universities and the four state-related institutions.
• A 10 percent reduction – approximately $550 million – for K-12 instruction in public schools.
• Eliminating $260 million in grants to school districts.
That the governor came out swinging a meat-ax at state spending is no surprise.
The state’s budget for this year is $28 billion, which includes federal stimulus spending that will not be available next year, and officials had estimated that in 2011-12 Pennsylvania would face a $4 billion shortfall.
Corbett had said the budget would not include new taxes or fees.
In his budget speech, Corbett said, “This budget sorts the must-haves from the nice-to-haves.”
We don’t think of a quality education as being merely nice to have. In the global economy, it’s vital for maintaining competitiveness. But Corbett shifted money from education to pay increased expenditures on state pensions and debts.
Meanwhile, he adamantly opposes levying a severance tax on natural gas production. According to Rep. Greg Vitali, Delaware County, the tax could generate an estimated $245 million in fiscal year 2011-12 and almost $570 million by 2015.
Corbett’s budget also assumes a projected surplus of more than $500 million. But instead of taxing the industry, using some of the surplus and spreading the budget pain equitably, Corbett seems bent on extracting pounds of flesh from education.
All of which will fall heavily on local taxpayers, who will have to make up the difference in higher property taxes. College students and their families also would feel the pain.
The Reading Eagle has editorialized about the need to face painful budget cuts or pay more in taxes, and about the need to restrain districts’ personnel costs, but the governor’s draconian cuts to education come across as unnecessarily belligerent, and they will weigh most heavily on the middle class.
The battle is not over. It is the Legislature that will have the final say. We remain hopeful that lawmakers will find a more balanced, reasonable approach, rather than offering up education as a sacrifice for the state’s economic frustrations.
We don’t think of a quality education as being merely nice to have.