With video; Former Gov. Rendell says greater investments in education needed

By Stacy Brown | PA Independent

HARRISBURG — For Zonie Jackson, a parent of two young students and a teacher at First Love Christian Academy in Washington, money should not be an issue in the school choice debate.

"It's really simple," Jackson said. "The money should be allowed to follow the kids, where the kids and their parents choose to go to school."

The school choice proposal would give parents more options, said Terri Costenbader, who has children in ninth and 10th grades and also teaches at Allentown Central Catholic School.

"It gives parents more of a choice of what type of education they'd like for their children, and it helps some parents to be able to afford alternatives" to public school, Costenbader said.

Hundreds of students and teachers, many sporting red T-shirts in support of a recently passed state Senate measure to expand school choice options, crammed the Capitol rotunda on Tuesday to attend a rally supporting Senate Bill 1, and Gov. Tom Corbett's education reform plan.

"Every parent needs to have the opportunity to make the choice that's best for their child's education, and I absolutely believe that SB 1 would immediately affect those children who are in the persistently failing and violent public school system and allow them to be in a safer and more educationally conducive setting," said Luciana Boone, a Philadelphia parent who traveled to Harrisburg for the rally.

Boone said her two children, ages 12 and 13, attend a charter school, because public schools in her area are not producing well.

When told the program would mean taking funds from public schools to fund education in private schools, Boone said it did not concern her.

"What would be the long cost if our children are not educated properly? This is the right thing to do," she said.

Senate Bill 1  would create a public school voucher program for students from low-income families as well as expand an educational scholarship program used by some students to attend nonpublic schools. SB1 also would mean instituting financial and academic standards for the state's system of public charter schools.

The proposal passed the Senate in October and now moves to the state House for consideration.

Before passing the measure, state senators performed a financial analysis of the proposed program and estimated that the voucher program would cost about $16 million in the first year based on an estimated 3 percent of eligible students using the voucher. State-level funding for school districts is expected to redirect $15 million from the school districts in the first year of the voucher program.

While proponents, mostly from Catholic schools statewide, blanketed the Capitol, some balked at the proposal because of the money it would extract from public schools. Opponents also expressed concern about the selection process for students who wish to attend a private or charter school.

"The process should be like public schools in that whatever student comes, the private schools should accept," said Jan Snyder, of York. "I don't believe our taxpayer money should be shifted from local schools to private schools. If they are going to implement this proposal, then the governor should look at the Marcellus drilling to come up with the money. I'd be very disappointed if this bill goes through as is."

Marcellus Shale is a layer of rock 5,000 to 9,000 feet beneath the ground under parts of New York, West Virginia, western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio. Methane and other natural gases are trapped in fractures in the rock, and experts have said up to 516 trillion cubic feet of gas could be in the Marcellus Shale. It could generate more than $20 billion in revenue for the state.

"I don't think under any circumstance public school money should be given to the Catholic schools because I believe the church has enough money," said CasSandra McCune, of Greenburg. "It's just not the right thing to do."

Ernest Perce, an Enola resident who said he was an American atheist, also opposed giving money to church-affiliated schools.

"It's unconstitutional, and that's why we have the separation of church and state," Perce said.

But the governor said the bill is a "great first step in education reform."

"When there are so many failing schools and 99 percent of our teachers are graded as satisfactory, that is unacceptable," said Corbett, who was flanked by supporters including rally organizer Otto Banks, executive director of REACH Alliance, a grassroots coalition dedicated to ensuring parental choice in education.

The governor's predecessor, Ed Rendell, followed the rally by taking the rotunda podium before a far smaller crowd.

"There has been a lot of misinformation about Pennsylvania's education system. We have gotten nothing but praise for the progress we've made in education improvement over the last eight years," Rendell said.

Rendell said if he were governor and SB1 came before him for consideration, he would do three things: "Make sure it didn't take any money from public schools, and private schools would have to accept any public school student who applies."

And Rendell said the program would need to be structured, so only  low-income students entering a private school for the first time would receive a voucher.