Wolf Campaigns For Education Budget In Phoenixville

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf was in Phoenixville Tuesday morning campaigning for his controversial budget plan and education initiatives that remain under intensive fire from Republicans.

His stop at Phoenixville Middle School was part of his “Schools That Teach” statewide tour trying to raise support for his budget that Republican state Congressional lawmakers say will raise taxes too high.

Wolf has said that a severance tax on natural gas would pay for his education budget.

The Commonwealth Foundation, a pro-free market and limited government organization that is campaigning against Wolf’s budget, said that wasn’t true.

“It’s not dedicated to education—it’s earmarked for alternative energy subsidies, among other forms of corporate welfare,” the organization said in a press release accompanying Wolf’s appearance in Phoenixville.

State Rep. Warren Kampf, who spoke at Phoenixville Middle School after Wolf, said that Wolf’s budget raised taxes too high and was “bad for Chester County.”

Wolf said that education spending needed to happen now.

“You can’t keep taking money out of education and get to a good place,” he said.

Under Wolf’s tax plan, funding to the Phoenixville Area School District would increase in 2015-2016 by nearly $1 million, rising from $5,806,300 last year to $6,537,974, according to the Schools That Teach page.

That would include over $75,000 in funding for special education programs.

Statistics on the Schools That Teach page show a slow decline over the last three years in percentage of students who were “proficient” or “advanced” in math and literature at Phoenixville.

Since 2012, the math proficiency rate has dropped from 86 percent to 83 percent, and the reading proficiency rate has dropped from 83 percent to 80 percent.