Education is the key to the quality of our workforce.
Focus must begin with early childhood education programs, continuing through K-12.
We must do more to help qualified students attend 4-year colleges, community colleges, and trade colleges that match students with the job needs of the 20th century.
We must work to get our children to stay in Pennsylvania so we can remain competitive in the new world economy.
Governor Rendell has made education a top priority, and largely through his efforts Pennsylvania is the only state that has achieved significant progress in raising reading and math test scores test scores.The funding formula passed by the Legislature has helped level the playing field for all schools, but we still rely too heavily on property taxes to fund our schools. We need to tap other sources of revenue and eliminate waste in government programs and agencies so we can ease the burden we now place on homeowners, many of whom are on fixed incomes.
Pennsylvania depends on property taxes to fund public schools more than almost any other state. According to the Census Bureau, Pennsylvania ranks 5th in our dependence on property taxes to fund education. This needs to change.
Nationwide, states provide on average 50 percent of the money required to fund public schools, with other revenue sources providing the rest. As of 2008, Pennsylvania's state government only provided 36 percent of the funding for public schools, the second lowest in the country. Only South Dakota fared worse. This also needs to change.
Some examples of how we can generate revenue for education and other needs elsewhere and relieve the burden on homeowners: