text: Superintendents, School Choice and Budgets | PoliticsPA
  Pennsylvania's state of education
  Phila. Superintendent of Schools Arlene Ackerman
  Just as corporate CEO's exorbitant salaries are scrutinized, so too will school District Supintendents' – that is, if State Rep. Michael McGeehan (D-Phila.) has anything to say about it. Representative McGeehan recently fulminated to Fox that "Not only does [Philadelphia] Superintendent [Arlene] Ackerman make more than the governor, and not only does she make more than the mayor of Philadelphia, she makes more than the governor and the mayor combined."
  As school districts across the state face harsh budget cuts, Representative McGeehan explained that "we need to reign in these excessive public payrolls." Ackerman, head of the struggling Philadelphia Area School District with a budget gap nearly double that of 2007, has been heavily criticized of late. With high drop-out rates, low test scores and now budget trouble, the city's district is in trouble.
  Some also feel that educational budgets statewide face similar, potentially-ruinous problems. Gov. Corbett promoted shifting almost $1 billion of funding from the state's responsibility to the federal government. However, this allocation from the federal government may also evaporate and leave the educational system in an abyss. This move comes after most educational organizations supported Onorato in the governor's race last fall.
  To potentially remedy the issue of state and school district budgets, the state Senate is pushing school choice as an alternative to mandated teacher furloughs due to economic necessity. This bill is also perceived as a viable substitute to hiking property taxes to decrease the deficit.
  Tom Gentzel, executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, disputed the school choice bill's ability to lower the public education costs: "Public education is hamstrung by the thousands of mandates, rules and regulations that are imposed by the state and federal governments while private education has to follow relatively few rules, most of which do not add expense to the school."
  Next month's state budget will provide valuable, if not alarming, information regarding the future of public education funding in PA.
  February 24th, 2011 | Posted in Front Page Stories, Harrisburg | 1 Comment
  One thought on "Superintendents, School Choice and Budgets"
  The death knell has sounded for the union controlled public school system. They won't go softly into the night, but they're going whether they like it or not. The taxpaying public has been awakened by the greedy unions turning out an inferior product and they're gotten the message to their political representatives they're no longer going to accept the status quo.