Several articles about how budget cuts to PA. public schools are hitting too hard

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20120224_At_news_conference__speakers_say_budget_cuts_hitting_Philadelphia_schools_too_hard.html

Excerpts:

"At Northeast HS, we lost shop teachers, art teachers," said Tony Danza, who spent a year teaching at Northeast for a reality show. "That sends a message to the kids that they really don't matter." He said he was particularly struck by cuts to school nurses. The district has laid off dozens.

Tracie White was laid off twice, first in June from Overbrook High, then, after she was recalled, in December from Alcorn Elementary in Grays Ferry. Nurses, she said, help keep schools running. They "do so much for the children that parents and the general population don't know about," White said - not just handing out medication, but conducting health screenings, working with counselors on student-behavior plans, serving as a listening ear for students. Many public schools lack full-time nurses and police officers now.

State Sen. Mike Stack (D., Phila.) laid much of the blame at the feet of Gov. Corbett, who has introduced sharp cuts to districts across the state."
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In a completely unrelated matter, Governor Corbett announced plans to spend $55 million to renovate the Capitol building complex. This is after tens of millions were spent over the last decade to renovate the Capitol. Corbett also recently approved $2 million of state money to renovate a buildng to hold Arlen Specter's papers.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/20120223_One_survivor_of_bus_crash_released_from_hospital.html
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Corbett also spoke out yesterday in fear against a possibility that Ed Rendell could be one of the partners making an offer to buy the Phila. Inquirer and the Daily News. Actually, the Phila Inquirer is one of the very few media sources in PA. that are actually reporting what is really happening and asking questions, and not just serving as a steno pool that re-prints Corbett's speeches. Unfornately, not enough people read the Inquirer today.
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/20120224_Corbett___Bad_idea__for_Rendell_to_seek_newspaper_role.html

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http://yinzercation.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/the-fiction-of-flexibility/

"As the Post-Gazette reports today, 'district officials said it’s nearly impossible for them to reduce salary and transportation costs as most salaries in the district are dictated by contractual agreements, and transportation costs continue to increase, in many cases, because more students are choosing to attend charter schools and their home districts are required to transport them to distances up to 10 miles.”

... A new charter school in Penn Hills has increased transportation costs for that school district and also nearly doubled its charter school tuition payments, from $4.2 to $8 million. Penn Hills, McKeesport, and Sto-Rox all stand to lose their funding for full-day Kindergarten programs with Corbett’s elimination of accountability block grants...

What’s worse, the Post-Gazette reports that business managers in these school districts “fear the reason Mr. Corbett lumped much of the school funding … is to eliminate the formulas previously used to fund items such as transportation and Social Security subsidies.” David Hall, director of finance for the North Hills School District, explained, “Right now, both the [Social Security] and transportation subsidy are formula driven and when they are increased, the state automatically increased their subsidy to match. By putting it into a block grant, I’m guessing there won’t be any increases in the future. It will no longer be formula based,” Mr. Hall said.

In other words, where school districts used to be able to count on formula-based increases for things like transportation costs, now they can expect no increases at all, even as costs continue to rise."

Much more at:

http://www.elc-pa.org/budget2012.html