GOP Budget Falls Short of Philly Schools Request

July 1, 2015 – Holly Otterbein, Philadelphia Magazine – Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed the GOP-led legislature’s state budget Tuesday night, in part, he said, because it would set aside far less education funding than he believes is fair.

How much less?

Earlier this year, the Philadelphia School District asked state lawmakers for an extra $206 million. The Republican bill would have provided only an additional $21.8 million to the school district, according to data from Senate GOP spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher. That’s about 11 percent of the surplus funding that district officials said they need.

Wolf’s proposed budget would also spend less on the school district than officials would like, but just slightly. His plan would allocate an extra $184 million to the city’s schools, according to district spokesman Fernando Gallard.

Although the GOP budget would have given the schools half a loaf, it still would have been enough to cover the district’s $85 million shortfall when combined with the $70 million in new revenue approved by City Council last month. The district requested money beyond that, though, because it hoped to begin investing in classrooms again after several years of severe cutbacks.

Deborah Gordon Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania, applauded Wolf’s decision to veto the proposal.

“The General Assembly has failed our children by refusing to restore draconian funding cuts that have left our poorest districts unable to meet the needs of their students,” she said, referring to cuts made under former Gov. Tom Corbett.

Wolf and state lawmakers resumed talks on the budget at 2 p.m. today, the Associated Press reported.

Read the article on Phillymag.com: http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/07/01/gop-school-funding-philadelphia/

PA House Education Budget Is Woefully Inadequate To Meet Student Needs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Deborah Gordon Klehr, [email protected], 215-346-6920

PA House Education Budget Is Woefully Inadequate To Meet Student Needs:

It’s Time to Stop Shortchanging our Children

June 28, 2015

By a vote of 112-77, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a budget yesterday that continues to underfund our schools and does not reflect a true commitment to ensuring that all of Pennsylvania’s children receive a quality education. On net, the House’s education budget only provides an additional $8 million for K-12 public education and the average increase per school district is only 1.7 percent. The Legislature’s budget appropriates only a fraction of what many say is required to serve the documented needs of students. It is also less than 25 percent of the new money recommended in the Governor’s budget for basic education and only 20 percent of new money recommended for special education.

“This is a woefully inadequate investment in the future of our public school children,” said Education Law Center’s Executive Director Deborah Gordon Klehr.

The Senate is expected to vote on the same budget today. “We urge the Legislature to appropriate $410 million in new dollars for basic education and $100 million in additional special education funding,” said Klehr. Restoration is needed to close the gaps created by the 2011 reductions in public school funding, which crippled our schools and exacerbated funding disparities across school districts. “First restore the cuts, then apply the funding formula as adopted by the Basic Education Funding Commission. This is a thoughtful, well-crafted formula based on the real costs of educating students, but it is only as good as the funding that is driven through it.”

The nearly $1 billion in cuts to basic education funding in 2011 cost 20,000 educators their jobs, forced students into larger class sizes, and eliminated key academic programs and basic services.

Special education had been flat-funded for six years until last year’s modest increase. This year, the Governor’s budget included an additional increase of $100 million in special education funding. This is essential for the nearly 270,000 students with disabilities across Pennsylvania. The Legislature’s proposed $20 million, a 1.9 percent increase, is not enough to meet our students’ needs. “Children with disabilities cannot afford to wait and we cannot prolong the reductions in special education budgets,” said Klehr.

“Our goal is for all children to learn in adequately resourced classrooms. We hope the Legislature will commit to a long-term investment in our children. The current budget falls far short of this goal.”

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The Education Law Center-PA works to ensure that all children in Pennsylvania have access to a quality public education, including children living in poverty, children of color, children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, children with disabilities, English language learners, and children experiencing homelessness. For more information, visit www.elc-pa.org or follow @edlawcenterpa on Twitter.

Public Interest Leadership Changes Reflect National Trend

June 15, 2015 – by Ben Seal, The Legal Intelligencer – The Philadelphia public interest community is in the midst of a flurry of leadership changes, and as longtime pillars of the community pass on their organizations’ torches, the same appears to be happening nationwide as a generational shift occurs. Continue reading →

Education Law Center names Deborah Gordon Klehr Executive Director

The Board of Directors of the Education Law Center-PA is pleased to announce the appointment of Deborah Gordon Klehr as Executive Director.

With nearly a decade of legal experience at ELC, Deborah has shown a deep commitment to the Center’s mission and is well respected as an effective and strategic leader statewide on issues of public education. Deborah brings extensive expertise on education law and policy issues, including fairness in school discipline, equal access to education for at-risk students, and fair funding for public education. She has served as ELC’s Interim Executive Director since the end of 2014. Deborah has strong working relationships with the education policy and advocacy communities across Pennsylvania and nationally.

“We are thrilled that Deborah has accepted the role of Executive Director. We know that the Education Law Center will continue to thrive under her direction. Deborah will ably lead ELC in the tireless pursuit of quality public education for all children in Pennsylvania,” said ELC Board President Dr. Bruce Campbell, Jr. “I am looking forward to continuing to work with Deborah as we take ELC into the future,” said Nancy A. Hubley, Director of ELC’s Western PA office located in Pittsburgh.

Deborah joined ELC after clerking for U.S. District Court Judge Raymond J. Dearie in the Eastern District of New York. She was selected for and served on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Court Procedural Rules Committee and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Campaign for Fair Education Funding. Deborah has taught education law at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, and her article Addressing the Unintended Consequences of No Child Left Behind and Zero Tolerance: Better Strategies for Safe Schools and Successful Students was published in theGeorgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy. Deborah serves on several non-profit boards. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Deborah previously taught kindergarten and first grade in Hoboken, N.J. She resides in Philadelphia with her husband and two children.

Since its founding in 1975, ELC’s mission is to ensure that all children in Pennsylvania have access to a quality public education. ELC pursues this mission by advocating on behalf of the most vulnerable students — children living in poverty, children of color, children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems, children with disabilities, English language learners, and children experiencing homelessness.

For more information, visit www.elc-pa.org or follow on Twitter @edlawcenterpa.