Limerick Area Candidate For State Rep: Schools Need Fairer Funding

The following letter to the editor was submitted by Mike D. Hays, Press Secretary for Joe Ciresi, a candidate for State Representative in Pennsylvania's 146th district. To submit a letter ot the editor at Patch, please email justin.heinze@patch.com.

Recently released school performance profiles (SPP) from the state show that Spring-Ford students and teachers are making significant academic progress. However, the inequities in school funding are once again clear by looking at the performance of other districts in less affluent areas.

Joe Ciresi, vice president of the Spring-Ford Area School Board and candidate for state representative in the 146th, has been campaigning to fully restore the millions in public education cuts enacted under former Gov. Corbett and supported by Rep. Tom Quigley, his opponent.

“While it makes us proud to see Spring-Ford’s High School, 7th Grade Center, 8th Grade Center and Limerick Elementary all ranked in the top three in the county, lawmakers in Harrisburg are still failing to address the issue of fair funding,” he said.

Funding from Pennsylvania accounts for approximately less than 20 percent of school district budgets in Montgomery County, which means local property taxes make up a lion share of funding. Areas with lower property values, including Pottstown and Lower Pottsgrove, have a steeper hill to climb to fund education.

“Tom Quigley, who turned down a television debate, is hiding from his past votes on education. He supported abandoning the fair funding formula used under Gov. Ed Rendell. That decision alone cost Pottstown taxpayers $5 million,” Ciresi said.

In a press release from the PA Department of Education, Secretary Pedro Rivera said that this year’s SPP scores are the first to reflect a more rigorous PSSA test (Pennsylvania System of School Assessment).

“The SPP is one indicator of how schools are supporting student learning, however the SPP uses a formula that is heavily dependent on standardized test scores,” Rivera said. “At Governor Wolf’s direction, the department has been engaged in a dialogue with stakeholders for over a year to
determine how to make the SPP a better, more holistic measure.”

Patch file photo.