School vouchers back in play for Pennsylvania’s budget fight
(WHTM)– There are multiple touchy subjects that will be considered as Pennsylvania decides how to fund fairly Pennsylvania schools.
Those subjects range from school vouchers to a higher education make-over, to preparing students for the workforce of tomorrow, and in the eye of the storm is the state’s Secretary of Education Dr. Khalid Mumin.
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This Week in Pennsylvania
The governor wants an historic $1.1 billion more for public schools. Mumin says vouchers are back in play. Can he guarantee no public money will go to religious schools?
“The word guarantee is tough,” Mumin said. “You know, I wouldn’t say that. You know, I wouldn’t box myself into a guarantee.”
He is also working on a historic re-shaping of higher ed., which Senate Republicans have rejected.
“As I said in my comments, the governor’s proposal is not ready for prime time,” Senator Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R) said.
The Senate is moving its own higher ed. plan that ties state funding to college metrics. Mumin optimistically looks past the Republican’s plan.
“My reaction, I’m extremely hopeful because at first it was the administration’s plan with no dialog and now this opens the door to a deeper discussion around the proposed investments that the governor has put forward,” Mumin said.
“The ongoing challenge in Pennsylvania continues to be getting the skilled workers for the jobs that are available,” President of the PA Chamber Of Business and Industry Luke Bernstein said.
Taxpayers are spending more and more on schools. Money well spent? That depends, Bernstein says, on whether students are prepared for the three “e’s.”
“They need to be ready to be employed,” Bernstein said. “They need to be ready to enlist or they need to be ready to enroll, whether it be a secondary post-secondary education or to a four year degree, so they can then get a job and stay in Pennsylvania.”
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Mumin is certainly saying the right things. “We are open for business and dialog and discussion,” he said. But can he and the stakeholders do the right things for schools as the calendar creeps toward May and lots of loose ends dangle?
“It would certainly be a boon for public education,” Central Dauphin School Board member Eric Epstein said. “It would be great for us, but we’re always in that quandary is, we have to have a budget done and in place by June 30. They’re supposed to have a budget and in place by June 30 it rarely occurs.”
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