Our view: Maintain Pa. budget's focus on education

Matty,Matty,Matty you are still in outer space. Quit being an alien and get another job! Your so called ideas are really out there. Why don't you write about how the United States exports the least amount of products and imports the most. Or how about the NAFTA thing, where Pennsylvania's companies are moving to Mexico! What about that Matt?? I have talked to many people in Texas that have trained the people of Juarez to do American jobs and when they were done training them, the trainers got laid off!!
As I talked to these people thay have relayed to me that the people of Juarez don't care about learning the trade they just keep doing what they want. This isn't from just one person this is from groups of people that have spent nine months to two years training people of Mexico.
Matt, I think you need a working vacation to El Paso Tx, and go to Juarez Mexico and see just what is going on. Go talk to the people in the motels that are there training the Mexicians and talk to the people of El Paso about all the jobs going to Mexico, then I think you will safely land back on earth and realize that the rederic that come from your mouth is from inexperience!

Did Major graduate from an accredited university with a degree in Journalism? Which one? Is the Public Opinion his first job on a daily newspaper?
His current job is to write editorials. It is recognized that he does not actually write all of them.

Millions of Pennsylvanians are cutting back on little luxuries like high priced coffee. We are opting for home brews of store brand coffee. Having 500 school administrations is the "latte" of public education. School administration consolidation is an outstanding proposal!It will create real, substantial tax savings on the local and state level. This savings will compound over future years as millions are saved on raises, benefits and pension obligations for the excess administrators.

This savings yields a significant reduction in the pressure to raise property taxes.

We can no longer afford the whipped cream of spending on average $220,000 in salary and benefits for 500 Superintendents. Nor can we afford to spend $150,000 per Business Manager 500 times. A thousand curriculum directors and asst directors at about $130,000 each is a "sprinkles" topping we simply can no longer justify.

Rather than continue to fight over the costly compensation of thousands of these education upper level management people, we should simply reduce the number. I estimate in salary and benefits alone, we'll save over $100,000,000 by eliminating 80% of our excess administration.

By reducing the number of districts to 100 we solve many problems.

National School Board Assoc. has reported that many districts are challenged to find qualified Superintendents and that the pending retirement of many will be a national crisis. This scarcity of candidates has also driven up the costs of Superintendents.

PSBA has repeatedly reported the serious problem of communities being unable to find 9 people willing to serve on their local School Board.

All the school districts in PA pay fees to PSBA and PA Superintendents Association and the Business Manager Association and the National School Administrators Association and so on. These fees are based on the number of administrators. We will cut these costs by 80% when we reduce the administrations by 80%. Hundreds of thousands of tax dollars saved within the state.

The best part is that this will not have a negative impact on our children or our classrooms. In fact, it will direct millions of tax dollars that are saved into those classrooms to support achievement focused instruction of our children.

The declining economy is now forecasted to last for several years. Some experts believe it will last for over a decade. The house foreclosure crisis is deepening across the state this year. There is also a wave of commercial property defaults that will be a blow to some shaky banks. More banks are failing each month. The Feds gaven rescue money to PA banks in January.

Pennsylvanians are cutting back in thousands of ways. We are adapting, making the necessary changes to protect our families and preserve our businesses.

Like fancy coffee at $5 a cup, 500 school district administrations is a luxury we Pennsylvanians simply can no longer afford.

I absolutely agree with apaul2! It's about time they are talking about consolidation of school districts! We are native Marylanders who have been living in southeast PA for approx. 6 years and are appalled by the wasteful spending on excess admininstration. We are looking forward to consolidation or we will have to begin looking to move back over the Maryland line where taxes are lower and spent more wisely.