By Randolph Carney
Children are the future. What young people learn and experience becomes a part of their lives, and goes on to have a powerful influence on our society.
The proposed dramatic reduction in state funding for schools in Pennsylvania will require drastic cuts in spending on education. This puts many important programs at risk: music, gym, sports, and perhaps even kindergarten could be eliminated to balance school district budgets. Even eliminating all administrators and support staff would not begin to make up for the lost state funding that school districts in Pennsylvania are facing.
As a result, there will be a lot of pressure to raise local taxes to replace some of the lost state funding. But real estate taxes are already far too high, and the state legislature doesn’t have the political will to provide a more equitable way to fund local education. Increasing real estate taxes even more will only serve to drive people and businesses out of Pennsylvania.
State colleges in Pennsylvania are facing even deeper funding cuts. Losing more than half of all state funding will require these schools to raise their tuition substantially. This means that fewer and fewer of our young people will be able to afford a college education.
Cuts in funding for education in Pennsylvania will leave our state with young adults who are less well prepared to compete in the world. Saving money now at the expense of our children’s education will eventually cost our state far more than we can afford.
EDITOR: The author is a candidate for the board of the School District of Lancaster
The above letter is from someone who has never seen a government employee he didn’t like! What is curious about the proposed gutting of the education budget, is that it seems the future would be much brighter if some, or most, of these cuts were directed to non-productive government expenditures, such as for the outrageously obscene salaries and benefits paid to union police and fire employees. That this seems to be an untouchable entitlement is ridiculous. These two unions are bleeding our communities dry.
I fully expect responses whining about the criticism of the union. The fact is, very few of these people could earn a fraction of what they earn as a result of the failure of our politicans to negotiate reasonable contracts. There should be no public sector unions. Then we’d see what their salaries should actually be. Do Lancaste City residents realize that their police department is paid substanitally more, in both wages and benefits, than officers in a city where it is actually dangerous to be a police officer, such as Philadelphia?
Anonymous: “…has never seen a government employee he didn’t like”??? Try telling that about me to the many Lancaster City and Lancaster County officials and employees who I have publicly opposed and/or made a complete fool of.
I’ve not been attending Lancaster City Council and LCCCA meeting for well over six years simply for the entertainment value.