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Although we have been saying for several years that the institution of a
referendum on proposed spending increases by school boards was inevitable,
there is no satisfaction in having it actually happen. The only purpose
served by that prediction was "Forewarned is forearmed". But really, what
the heck can you do to prepare for such an eventuality besides increase
millage for necessary revenue while you can do it by board vote alone? That
is a short term response for something that will have a long term effect.
In the end, it was a handful of scared Lehigh Valley Republicans joining
with almost all the House Democrats that got the bill through. Then the
Democrats' leadership bailed out on an "understanding" they had with
Majority Leader Smith to go back and broaden the potential revenue sources
to include something from state raised funds.
Regardless, school districts now have referendum with very little, if any,
tax relief, and certainly no improvement in the way public education is
funded. The tragedy is that there is very little possibility of returning to
this issue and actually doing something meaningful for the foreseeable
future.
Be that as it may, it is now the law of the land and must be abided by. We
are comforted by the thought that seemingly negative things often turn out
to have positive aspects we had not thought of. It is also possible that
only by more closely engaging what we fear can we find the means to craft a
better outcome in the future.
PARSS will continue to do the best job it can to represent the interests of
the state's rural schools and its small schools (not always one and the
same). There are lots of important issues and much work to be done. The fact
that we don't always get the result we want can never be a reason to stop
trying.
Joseph Bard is the Executive Director of the
Pennsylvania Association of Rural and Small Schools |
