PLBC calls for help for Chester Upland schools

	FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
State Rep. Ronald Waters D-Delaware/Phila. www.pahouse.com/waters

PLBC calls for help for Chester Upland schools

HARRISBURG, Jan. 25 – State Rep. Ronald G. Waters, D-Phila./Delaware, chairman of the Pennsylvania Legislative Black Caucus, and other members of the PLBC at a Capitol news conference on Tuesday called on the governor to release funds to keep Chester Upland School District in operation through the remainder of the school year.

The school district was decimated when state funding in last year’s budget was cut by $1,144 dollars per student. The district has slashed programs and reduced staff, and most recently, teachers have continued to work in the classrooms without being paid.

State Sen. Vincent Hughes,D-Phila/Montgomery, Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, pointed out that Chester Upland has one of the highest percentages of students enrolled in charter schools in the state. That money is removed from the public school to the charter school. “The state’s charter school reimbursement policy is killing Chester Upland,” Hughes said.

Rep. Thaddeus Kirkland, D-Delaware, who represents the school district, expressed outrage at the situation which is crushing Chester. “Here we are, programs cut, educators gone, students walking around bookless, and that’s unfortunate,” Kirkland said.

He compared the state’s funding for schools to that which is spent on prisons.

“We don’t cut funding for correctional facilities. We continue to build more and more facilities. We don’t call them failed,” Kirkland said. “If we don’t help provide a proper funding stream and source for our children, all you will do is increase the funding for correctional facilities.”

Waters concluded the event with a call for more equitable revenue funding system and the value of a quality education for employers. “As stewards of tax revenue and as lawmakers, we cannot cut services to our most vulnerable citizens and leave available sources of revenue untapped, and force other Pennsylvanians to do without. The only way you will prepare people for jobs, jobs, jobs is through education, education, education,” he said.