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A huge day for education in Pa.
Ed Rendell is coming to town today – and he’s bringing with him lots of green.
The governor is not here to promote a new, environmentally friendly program.
Rendell is coming to sign a historic state education funding plan, part of his hard-fought budget proposal. And a cool $82.6 million in additional funds for classrooms.
Rendell will sign the measure during a ceremony tonight at Upper Darby High School.
He’s coming to the right place.
Property taxes, the albatross that hangs around the necks of so many Delaware County homeowners, are a huge issue here. For years the state has retrenched on its efforts to fund education, usually coming up far short of its stated 50 percent goal. The result has been an increasing burden at the local level, usually exacted from an increase in property taxes, the basic building block of education funding in this state.
Rendell’s budget also will utilize a new method of doling out the increased funding, as suggested by a special costing-out study ordered by the state Legislature that put a number on what it should cost a district to provide an adequate education for each child.
The selection of Upper Darby for the signing ceremony is particularly apt – for a couple of reasons. Upper Darby is one of the districts in line to get a huge boost of new funding. For the first time, money will be allocated at least in part according to need. That means that some school districts – Upper Darby among them --- will get more money than some wealthier districts. It will go a long way to even the education funding playing field for needy districts such as William Penn and Southeast Delco as well.
But there’s another reason that I hope was at least in part one of the reasons Rendell is coming to Upper Darby today. I surely hope Rep. Nick Micozzie is there.
No one in the Legislature has been a bigger booster of fixing the flawed system this state uses to fund education than Micozzie, R-163. He even rolled out his own plan, dubbed the Successful Schools model, several years ago. It never had a chance of being approved, but it certainly raised consciousness of the situation.
Micozzie’s plan was not even especially popular with his fellow Republicans, but that did not deter him. He has been a steady voice in calling for reform of the system. And earlier this year he was one of the first to step across party lines and support Rendell’s plan.
Overall, it’s a good day for Upper Darby, and a good day for a lot of kids who are going to be helped by this new spending plan.
Ed Rendell has a lot to do with that. So does Nick Micozzie. But in the end, it’s the kids who will win. Isn’t that what really counts?
The governor is not here to promote a new, environmentally friendly program.
Rendell is coming to sign a historic state education funding plan, part of his hard-fought budget proposal. And a cool $82.6 million in additional funds for classrooms.
Rendell will sign the measure during a ceremony tonight at Upper Darby High School.
He’s coming to the right place.
Property taxes, the albatross that hangs around the necks of so many Delaware County homeowners, are a huge issue here. For years the state has retrenched on its efforts to fund education, usually coming up far short of its stated 50 percent goal. The result has been an increasing burden at the local level, usually exacted from an increase in property taxes, the basic building block of education funding in this state.
Rendell’s budget also will utilize a new method of doling out the increased funding, as suggested by a special costing-out study ordered by the state Legislature that put a number on what it should cost a district to provide an adequate education for each child.
The selection of Upper Darby for the signing ceremony is particularly apt – for a couple of reasons. Upper Darby is one of the districts in line to get a huge boost of new funding. For the first time, money will be allocated at least in part according to need. That means that some school districts – Upper Darby among them --- will get more money than some wealthier districts. It will go a long way to even the education funding playing field for needy districts such as William Penn and Southeast Delco as well.
But there’s another reason that I hope was at least in part one of the reasons Rendell is coming to Upper Darby today. I surely hope Rep. Nick Micozzie is there.
No one in the Legislature has been a bigger booster of fixing the flawed system this state uses to fund education than Micozzie, R-163. He even rolled out his own plan, dubbed the Successful Schools model, several years ago. It never had a chance of being approved, but it certainly raised consciousness of the situation.
Micozzie’s plan was not even especially popular with his fellow Republicans, but that did not deter him. He has been a steady voice in calling for reform of the system. And earlier this year he was one of the first to step across party lines and support Rendell’s plan.
Overall, it’s a good day for Upper Darby, and a good day for a lot of kids who are going to be helped by this new spending plan.
Ed Rendell has a lot to do with that. So does Nick Micozzie. But in the end, it’s the kids who will win. Isn’t that what really counts?
posted by Heron's Nest at
8:03 AM
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