Instill a competitive environment in our public school system. Emphasize personal responsibility in the classroom.
When the teachers’ unions contributed $4 million dollars in political money to Governor Tom Wolf, it shouldn’t be surprising that his executive order to thwart charter schools comes straight from their playbook.
State Rep. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland) was delayed from her initial phone interview for this publication because of a meeting with a constituent, a concrete contractor, with a problem all too common in Pennsylvania. The contractor was a down-the-line victim of a holdup in state permits.
“He wasn’t getting paid because the business he did the work for wasn’t getting its permits,” the first term lawmaker said. “He has seven employees he has to pay. It’s precisely these kinds of problems that keep us from growing businesses here.”
"The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water."
-John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health Education and Welfare under JFK and author of "Excellence."
For all practical purposes, the General Fund budget signed in part by Governor Wolf in late December was the same one he vetoed in early July. At the time of the signing, he didn’t indulge the press to answer the most obvious question: why sign it now but not then? Surely, he could have saved a lot of people a lot of grief, and the taxpayers a lot of money. Instead of taking questions, he chastised the legislative leaders, calling the budget “garbage” and “an exercise in stupidity” and then left. The tragedy is that all this was completely unnecessary.
Under current Pennsylvania law, it is solely the responsibility of the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) to release Educational Improvement Tax Credits (EITC) and the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credits (OSTC) to the approved business applicants. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is currently withholding $150 million in credits, threatening the future of schools and programs that serve our most vulnerable student populations.
Governor Tom Wolf vetoed funding approved by the General Assembly last week to rescue social services, school funding, and other programs stranded by Wolf’s state government shutdown. Three months into the fiscal year, the governor clings to his position that he will sign nothing but a complete, final budget plan. Anything short of that is a “stunt”, he says. Upon vetoing, he said that he could not approve the stopgap plan in order to “keep the pressure up,” essentially holding hostages for now 91 days and counting.
There have been two major myths that have been perpetuated in the past several months. Below are the myths, and the real facts.
Myth: A billion dollars in education funding was cut by Republicans
In his four statewide campaigns for public office, Tom Corbett presented himself as the candidate who would make the tough decisions and do the right thing. As he now concludes a decade of public service to our Commonwealth, he has proven himself to be a man of his word.
Strong Showing for Governor Corbett at Annual Conservative Event
Governor Tom Corbett earned praise last Friday from the “dean” of the conservative movement in Pennsylvania. Emphasizing the administration’s pro-growth efforts, Frederick W. Anton III told a crowded ballroom at the 25th annual Pennsylvania Leadership Conference in Camp Hill that he was “100 percent behind the re-election of Tom Corbett.”
Governor Tom Corbett recently said that Pennsylvania’s school funding systems should be changed to “a true funding system” that is fair to all schools.