North Penn educators gathered with Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) President Rich Askey to discuss the local impacts of public-school funding cuts proposed by state Sen. Doug Mastriano at a press conference in front of Montgomery Elementary School on Sept. 15.
A PSEA analysis estimates that Mastriano’s education plan would cut public school funding by more than $12 billion annually, which would lose nearly 119,000 jobs statewide and more than double teacher-to-student ratios in Pennsylvania public schools.
“This is PSEA’s analysis. And we did it because the students, parents, and school employees of Pennsylvania deserve to know about this, and because Sen. Mastriano won’t tell us,” Askey said.
The analysis is based on comments Mastriano made about changing the state’s student funding levels — which currently is an annual average of more than $19,000 per student — in a March 2022 radio interview on WRTA in Altoona.
“I think instead of $19,000, we fund each student around $9,000 or $10,000, and then they can decide which school to go to: public school, private school, religious school, cyber school or home school,” Mastriano said during the radio interview.
Mastriano said the PSEA analysis is incorrect and that the union did a simple extrapolation from the remark from his March interview. According to a video released by the campaign, the comment about the $9,000 or $10,000 in per-student funding is just one component of his overall education plan.
“The union deceptively took that one component and is representing that as his entire plan,” the video narrator said. “Except, that's not his plan.”
Mastriano’s website said that as governor, he would “make sure public schools are well-funded” and will also “fight like hell to provide them the competition that will make them great.” Mastriano is an advocate for school choice and wants to expand options so “no child is trapped in a failing school ever again.”
In a Jan. 14 op-ed titled “Reevaluating how Pennsylvania funds education,” Mastriano mentions that Pennsylvania is seventh in the nation when it comes to education funding and spends $3,000 more per student than the national average. Both of which contradicts what he considers is a “myth” that “Pennsylvania schools, especially schools in low-income areas, are underfunded by the state.”
He also said that “over staffing and administrative bloat have become commonplace in Pennsylvania school districts.”
He proposed the idea of strengthening Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) and Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit (OSTC), which provide scholarships to lower- and middle-class K-12 students.
“These scholarships allow parents to have the choice of where they send their child to school,” he said in the op-ed.
The PSEA said if Mastriano’s plan would become law, North Penn School District would lose $116 million in school funding, resulting in the loss of 1,063 staff members and 58% of the district’s workforce. Student-teacher ratios would increase by 154%, according to the PSEA.
“Teachers, counselors, learning support, speech and language pathologists, occupational therapists, bus drivers, cafeteria aides — all of the people our students are so used to working with every day, they would be lost,” Sean Devlin, president of the North Penn Education Association and teacher in the district, said.
North Penn middle school teacher Erica De Vose spoke about how the large cuts would impact students.
“Not only will we have more students in each class, but there would also be no early intervention, no speech, no reading support, no support for special education,” De Vose said. “Listen, when the children get sick, there’s no nurse. There’s no one teaching lessons. There’s no one. There’s not even anyone cooking lunch.”
North Penn School Board member Christian Fusco said that more than one-third of North Penn’s operating budget would be gone under this proposal, citing that the district “would have to reduce [its] staff by 58%.
“That would double class sizes overnight,” Fusco said. “We would have to cut back on investing in innovative programs like our engineering program, which is nationally recognized. We would have to cut back on student mental health support. We would have to forgo building infrastructure upgrades and eventually see these buildings fall into disrepair.”
Askey encouraged everyone to consider the impact of Mastriano’s plan on the public schools in their communities.
“Sen. Mastriano often says that facts are stubborn things. Yes, they are, Senator,” Askey said. “But, when we’re talking about the future of public education in Pennsylvania, when we’re talking about children, about their parents, and about our communities, facts are what we all deserve. And the facts are, Sen. Doug Mastriano has called for a $12.75 billion cut to our public schools.”
See also:
North Penn High School Recertified as a National Banner Unified Champion School by Special Olympics
NPSD Educational Foundation Seeking Sponsors and Golfers for 21st Annual Golf Classic
North Penn School District Continuing Universal Free Breakfast Program
