Also criticizes school choice initiative

Gov. Rendell spoke to the media Tuesday, exactly one week before he will leave office.

Departing Gov. Ed Rendell has a warning for governor-elect Tom Corbett.

Should the new governor decide to publicly blame the previous administration for leaving the state in less-than-perfect condition, Mr. Rendell is more than ready for a war of words.

“You’ve heard of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell? Don’t talk and I won’t respond,” said Mr. Rendell Tuesday.

For his part, Mr. Rendell promised to honor the precedent set by previous heads of state and remain out of sight as the new administration sets up shop in Harrisburg. Mr. Rendell said he does not intend to be part of the opposition and will not publically criticize the Corbett Administration unless they force him to defend his record.

“If someone stands up in the Corbett Administration and says ‘Governor Rendell left us this massive deficit,’ I’m going to come here and I’m going to have a press conference,” said Mr. Rendell.

Under Mr. Rendell, state General Fund spending has increased from $20.8 billion in fiscal year 2002-03 to $28 billion in the current fiscal year, 34 percent increase. During the same period, tax revenues have increased from $22.1 billion to $26 billion, an increase of 17 percent.

The gregarious governor will depart from Harrisburg next week and likely will land among the talking heads on cable news. He is reportedly in negotiations with multiple stations for his own show and is in the process of writing a book reflecting on his career in politics.

As if to give a preview of what could be coming later, Mr. Rendell used Tuesday’s press conference to go head-to-head with Mr. Corbett on a pair of issues.

On the same day two state senators introduced landmark school choice legislation to get the poorest children out of some of the state’s worst-performing school districts – a major policy issue advocated by Mr. Corbett during his gubernatorial campaign – Mr. Rendell said he thought the measure was a mistake.

State Sens. Jeffrey Piccola (R-Dauphin) and Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia) said the new plan would allow the parents of a needy child to take the state subsidy that would have been directed to their home school district and apply it to the public, private or parochial school of their choice.

“We also know that we have a group of schools that have been persistently failing, unsafe and falling short in meeting the needs of our kids and families who cannot afford to move to a better school district. Our plan targets these schools and those students who are trapped,” said Mr. Piccola in a statement Tuesday.

Mr. Rendell said the state’s charter schools, which grew from 91 during the 2002-03 school year to 145 this year, have solved the problem of choice in schooling.

“Did we need a vehicle so that a parent who has to send their kids geographically to a failing school has options? Yes we did. Have we resolved that problem? I think we have with charter schools,” said Mr. Rendell.

Mr. Rendell said allowing students to use state tax money to attend private schools would be a problem since private schools could accept some students and deny others for various reasons.

Mr. Rendell did praise one part of the senators’ proposal: the plan to increase funding for the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program, which allows businesses to receive a state income tax credit for donating to a scholarship program. The scholarships help families in failing public schools afford tuition at a nearby private school.

Mr. Rendell also took exception to comments from Kevin Harley, Mr. Corbett’s communications director, regarding the state’s adultBasic health insurance program, which provides insurance coverage for the poor.

Tuesday, Mr. Harley was quoted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette saying the Rendell Administration “wanted to have Tom Corbett deliver the tough news they should have delivered months ago” regarding the program’s funding difficulties that will require higher premiums starting Feb. 28.

“I think it’s typical Ed Rendell,” Harley said. “He made promises he never kept. He had an obligation to fund the additional money, and he didn’t.”

Mr. Rendell said Mr. Corbett was made aware of the situation with adultBasic in December, when the two men and staffers met for breakfast at the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg.

“We knew that the money was going to run out in the fall and we have been alerting people,” said Mr. Rendell. “I am mystified by Harley’s statements.”