PSEA Blasts Mastriano's School Choice Plan At Event In Bucks County

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Leaders of the Pennsylvania State Education Association joined representatives from the Council Rock School District on Sept. 15 to slam Gubernatorial hopeful State Senator Doug Mastriano’s plan to bring school choice to Pennsylvania.

Rich Askey, the president of the PSEA, led two press conferences, one in front of the Council Rock Administration building in Newtown and the other in front of Montgomery Elementary School in North Wales, Montgomery County, to lay out the impacts Mastriano’s plan would have on public education.

“On March 4, Sen. Mastriano was on a radio program and he said this. ‘I think that instead of $19,000 we fund each student around $9,000 or $10,000 and they can decide which school to go to - public, private, religious, cyber or home school.’ You know that cutting school funding in half would be devastating. Can you even imagine what school would look like with half the teachers, half the staff and half the opportunities?”

As Askey and others spoke at the Newtown event, a group of Mastriano supporters protested loudly, waving signs and chanting, “My child, my choice.”

“Shockingly Sen. Mastriano called for these devastating cuts without providing a single detail,” continued Askey as the protests grew louder. “We called on Sen. Mastriano to do the responsible thing and to release those details. Other than some flip flopping and other typical politician
double speak, Sen. Mastriano has remained silent,” said Askey.

According to Askey, a new PSEA analysis has found that Sen. Mastriano’s education plan would be “devastating” to public education in Pennsylvania, cutting funding by more than $12 billion annually and resulting in the loss of nearly 119,000 jobs statewide and more than doubling
teacher-to-student ratios in Pennsylvania public schools.

“More than half of Pennsylvania’s school districts would see revenue decreases of 35 percent or more,” said Askey. “It’s hard to imagine how schools would even function.”

Mark Dolan, the president of the Council Rock Education Association, said Mastriano’s funding model is “not good for the communities of a Pennsylvania and especially for the community of Council Rock … In Council Rock, $112 million would be lost from our budget. That’s a 46 percent decrease in funding. That would result in a loss of 60 percent of the staff. Sixty percent of our staff would result in 798 jobs lost.

“At Newtown Middle School where I serve we have 78 teachers,” he continued. “We would be reduced to 31. There is no way we could continue to deliver the same high quality services and education that the Council Rock families deserve.”

Cindy Lawn, the president of the Council Rock Education Support Professionals Association, added that if Sen. Mastriano’s plan becomes law there would be very little in the way of special education supports. “Classrooms would be even larger and there would be no supports for them,” she said.

Council Rock parent Lisa Dinella said she moved here so her children could attend the Council Rock School District. “The idea that our district would lose 798 teachers, councilors, bus drivers, and support professionals is really concerning,” she said. “I can’t even imagine what would happen to our schools if our student-teacher ratio would increase by 138 percent.”

Mariann McKee, who spoke as an individual school board member, closed out the press conference by advocating for “the appropriate funding for our public schools.

“We are all aware of the disruptions of the last few years in our students lives and to their learning. We have seen the impact on their mental health and well being. We are committed to addressing their needs whether academic, social and emotional and to do so we need the
financial commitment which comes from the state.

“We have the support of our community and the families who put our children first. We have the talent of an extraordinary staff and administration who work every day on behalf of our students,” said McKee. “What we need are the dollars that can come from the state of Pennsylvania to achieve the goals of every child in our care. I ask that the public education and the students we serve be the priority when allocating state funds.”

After the press conference, State Senator Steve Santarsiero and State Rep. Perry Warren spoke in solidarity with the PSEA.

“We’re here today to speak out in favor of fully funding our schools and against the disastrous proposal by Sen. Doug Mastriano,” said Santarsiero. “The state needs to pick up a larger share of school funding so the burden does not fall on local property taxpayers. Gov. Wolf has worked to restore school funding. What Doug Mastriano is proposing would eviscerate our public schools. It would cause class sizes to more than double. It would cause thousands and thousand of teachers to lose their jobs.

“This election is about so many things - a woman’s right to choose, reasonable gun violence prevention measures - but for our kids and our families here in Pennsylvania, give them the greatest opportunity they can have to succeed in the 21st Century and to achieve the American
dream, we have to make sure we fund their education," said Santarsiero. "And Doug Mastriano wants to eviscerate it. What does he want to do? He wants kids to go to cyber schools and private schools, he wants kids to go to religious schools. Look, every family should have a right to where they want to send their kids, but we should not make it impossible for them to send their kids to traditional public schools because we are not properly funding them. He wants you to have a choice, you just can’t chose a public school.”

In a statement, the Mastriano campaign responded to the PSEA’s claims by saying, “Don't be fooled by PSEA's lies. Doug Mastriano's education plan doesn't reduce spending by one dime, but it would take a percentage of the state's per pupil spending and give it directly to families so that
their children have the opportunity to escape failing schools, where the PSEA and Democrats like Shapiro have been content to leave them trapped."

The campaign also directs voters to Mastriano's campaign website which says that “Doug Mastriano beligeves every Pennsylvania child is entitled to a top-notch education and that, when schools compete, it promotes excellence. While he'll make sure public schools are well-funded, he'll also fight like hell to provide them the competition that will make them great. Mastriano will work with the legislature to finally bring school choice to Pennsylvania families, so that no child is trapped in a failing school ever again."