The East Penn School District, like any large bureaucracy, generates its share of waste and inefficiencies. As I've met community members in this campaign, teachers, custodians, maintenance staff, and others who work in the district have all shared with me specific examples of waste in the East Penn schools. One of the best ways to combat this problem is to develop a culture (and a concrete procedure) that encourages all employees to report waste and inefficiency in a safe and constructive way. At the same time, the mantra of "cutting waste" will not magically cure the pressure on the public school budget. How should we think about the bigger issues? I would propose three basic principles in approaching the larger budget questions: (1) A long-term approach to budgeting. Cutting $1,000 to fix a leaky roof from the budget today is short-sighted if it means we will have to pay $100,000 to repair the damage caused by the leak in a few years. (See my separate post on this subject.) (2) Cost-cutting proposals should be specific. Calling for budget cuts in general makes for good political theater, but it takes both knowledge and leadership to propose actual cuts that might improve the district's finances. (3) Balance. Fiscal responsibility must be balanced again the need of our community for excellent schools-- public education is itself an important pillar of our community's economic fortunes.
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One of the questions I was asked last night at the school board candidate's forum was whether or not I believed education was a basic right of everyone. My answer was a simple and unequivocal YES. I suspect most people would agree with me, at least in principle. But this principle has a number of implications that make some people less comfortable. Most importantly, it forces us to address the thorny issues around funding public education. A belief in the right to education is meaningless if not accompanied by action to make this right a reality for everyone in our community. Local taxpayers take on 28% of the cost of public schools on average nationally. Most of the rest is made up by state funding. In Pennsylvania, however, the state leaves local taxpayers footing 44% of the bill (detailed reports available here). We need reform of the state's fundinThis lack of support from Harrisburg is unfair to local taxpayers. It is also leads to enormous inequality between the opportunities given to students who happen to live in different districts. This last point is made movingly in a 24-minute film entitled Education: A Human Right that premiered just last week. The film was created by students in the Pittsburgh area, in conjunction with the Youth Media Advocacy Project, American Friends Service Committee, Carlow University, and Steeltown Entertainment. Education: A Human Right from Kris Veenis on Vimeo. Many of you have already seen the article I wrote for the new publications Emmaus Life and Lower Macungie Life. The message of the article is simple: Our home values are closely tied to the quality of our schools. This may not be the most important reason to support public education, but it is one that affects everyone in the community, not just those with kids. For those interested in learning more, visit my Get the Facts page that provides details about the relationship between home values and schools. I also include links to the original newspaper articles and research reports where this data is published, so you can read them for yourself. A reprint of my article is below.
I am on the executive board of the Lehigh Valley Research Consortium (LVRC), which conducts social science research relevant to the local community. We recently completed a study of Lehigh Valley residents, asking them about what factors they consider most important when making housing choices. The result of over four dozen focus groups involving hundreds of people: the quality of the schools was the single most common factor people consider when people choose where to live in the region. What I found most interesting was that this was true even for those with no kids. You can read the full report for details on this and other data collected to help understand what the Lehigh Valley population wants in future economic and social development. |
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