On June 11, a special press conference was held at Manheim Central High School to discuss the Education and Library budget cuts proposed in the Republican State Senate Bill 850. Although the bill was recently rejected by State House Democrats, many of the bill’s initiatives will remain on the table as Harrisburg lawmakers work to compromise on a final budget by June 30.

Headlining the gathering was Gerald Zahorchak, Governor Rendell’s Secretary of Education. Zahorchak was careful to remind Lancastrians that the cuts of Bill 850 remain a threat to PA Schools and Libraries: “Some people are applauding the fact that the House Appropriations Committee said that this bill won’t move forward. Well, that’s good news. However, it’s not the story. The story is that…all of the minutes and hours of the coming days and weeks [of developing the final budget] will be spent with the ideas of 850 at the table.”

Zahorchak stressed that, in simple economic terms, Education is one of the most valuable investments that our State can make. And, in Zahorchak’s estimation, 850’s budget cuts would hamper some of PA’s most progressive educational programs-programs like pre-Kindergarten, which are voluntarily taken on by many districts without any special funding.

Also speaking at the conference were representatives from the local Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), Conestoga Valley School District, Solanco School District, and Manheim Borough.

Following the conference, NewsLanc spoke with Susan Hauer, Administrator of the Library System of Lancaster County. Hauer explained that, even without Senate Bill 850, funding for Public Libraries remains in jeopardy: “Libraries…are under the Department of Education, but a lot of times, they don’t include public libraries in their machinations with the Legislature and the Governor, because we’re not mandated…. So, in the Governor’s budget, education was increased, but libraries were cut.”

Manheim Community Library Director Barbara Basile, also present, laid out the funding challenge in plain terms: “We’re already at bare bones. We’ve been bare bones for a number of years. If libraries get cut, jobs are going away….We’ve done the best we can with as a little as possible for a long, long time. There is nowhere left to go except cutting hours, cutting jobs, cutting services.”