Education Secretary Says House Republican Budget Will Drive Up Property Taxes, Reverse...

Education Secretary Says House Republican Budget Will Drive Up Property Taxes,
Reverse Gains in Student Achievement

HARRISBURG, Pa., July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Education Secretary Gerald
L. Zahorchak responded to today's announcement of a House Republican budget
plan by releasing the following statement:

"The education budget presented by the House Republicans is even more
devastating for local taxpayers and students than the terrible version passed
by their counterparts in the State Senate. Both would cut more than $1
billion in state funds out of the Governor's education budget plan. Both
would drive up local property taxes on senior citizens and other struggling
homeowners. And both would mean drastic cuts to programs that are successfully
increasing achievement in our schools.

"The House Republican budget follows in the footsteps of the Senate
Republicans by gutting $729 million out of the state school funding formula.
Both caucuses would use shell games to temporarily fill this hole with federal
stimulus funds - the same stimulus funds that are intended to help us keep
making progress in implementing our school funding formula. And when the
federal funds expire in just three years, the Republican plan would create a
nearly three-quarters-of-a-billion-dollar hole in the state's education budget
- leading to massive property tax hikes, program cuts, or both.

"In addition, the House Republican budget goes even further than the Senate
Republican plan in making deep cuts to several of our most valuable programs
in helping students learn. Their plan cuts the Accountability Block Grant
program by $71 million - a 26 percent cut that could mean the loss of full-day
kindergarten for 13,700 children and larger classes for nearly 3,500 young
learners. And their plan cuts the state's successful tutoring program in half
- eliminating the reading and math support that more than 180,000 Pennsylvania
students rely on.

"The House Republicans say that their budget increases education funding by an
average of 11 percent for all districts, which is seriously misleading. Here
are the facts: the Republican budgets make massive cuts - period. Meanwhile,
the federal stimulus package increases federal funding for low-income student
grants and special education grants. These mandatory increases in federal
funds cannot make up for their dramatic cuts. One in four Pennsylvania schools
cannot draw down the federal funding for low-income students. Moreover, even
those districts that can use these funds are extremely limited in how they can
spend the federal money. And just like the rest of the stimulus funding for
education, these resources will disappear when the stimulus funds expire.

"The bottom line is that the House and Senate Republican budgets do nothing
more than shift the burden from the state onto the backs of local property
taxpayers. That's a plan that Pennsylvania cannot afford and that reverses all
of the academic gains our educators have worked so hard to achieve over the
last six years - and which are so vital to our commonwealth's future economic
success."

CONTACT: Michael Race
(717) 783-9802

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Education

Michael Race of Pennsylvania Department of Education, +1-717-783-9802