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Keep our tax dollars in our local schools
Harrisburg politicians are up to their shenanigans believing we are not paying attention. They plan to use our tax dollars to further enrich owners of private and religious schools.
Senate Bill 1, introduced by Sen. Scott Martin to the Senate Education Committee, would:
Increase tax breaks to businesses and corporations who support private and religious schools, then increase that by 25% each year. Cost: $300M this year; $1B over five years.
Empower a commission of political appointees to open charter schools without school board and taxpayer approval. Cost: In 2019-20 alone we, the Pennsylvania taxpayers, spent $2B on charter school tuition bills, which is money taken away from our local schools.
SOUDERTON â Proposals backed by school districts across the state and Gov. Tom Wolf to reform charter school funding would unfairly cut the funding going to the charter schools, the CEO of the largest organization advocating for Pennsylvania charter schools said during a May 26 visit to Souderton Charter School Collaborative. First and foremost, this is not the time to cut funding for any public school within the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Charter schools are public schools, said Lenny McAllister, Pennsylvania Coalition of Public Charter Schools CEO. Â
School districts pay tuition to the charter schools students from the district attend, currently based on the amount the sending district spends per student in the district. The proposed changes would set a standard fee statewide at less than is now paid. One of the particularly troubling aspects of the proposal is that the amount paid charter schools for special education students would decrease, affecting som
FRANCONIA â If you rounded your bill up to the nearest dollar or donated by converting points earned with your purchases at three local Giant supermarkets earlier this year, you were one of the contributors to the almost $35,000 raised through those efforts and presented to Souderton Area School District s food services programs. This really helps our families, Lisa Gentile, the district s interim supervisor of food services, said as Keith Wagner, manager of the Harleysville Giant, Michael Downey, manager of the Souderton store, and Brian Camilleri, manager of the Hatfield store, presented the district with a check for $34,904 on May 18. I was very surprised â pleasantly surprised â when I saw the dollar amount, Gentile said.Â