Editor:

COVID-19 was a devastating financial blow to all. Never let a crisis go to waste. Immediately, the Harrisburg “political” wheels began to turn.

The ying: On March 12, the PSEA wrote a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf and Education Secretary Pedro Rivera regarding the financial concerns of their “school support staff” (subgroup) union members if schools were closed. On March 13, Wolf declared a state emergency and ordered all schools in Pennsylvania shut down for 10 business days due to the rapid spread of this virus. That closure was first extended and schools were ultimately ordered closed for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

On March 19, House Education Committee Chairman Curt Sonney circulated a Co-Sponsorship Memorandum add a House Amendment onto SB 751 (old Senate Bill going nowhere previously) with a special provision in the PA School Code under COVID-19 for the 2019-20 school year “to address uncertainties” in the educational community.

In less than a week, and without input from any of the 500 local school boards, SB 751, as amended, was unanimously passed in both the House and Senate on March 25. It was signed into law by Wolf on March 27 and renamed Act 13 of 2020.

Harrisburg legislators approved continuing full spending of local districts’ budgeted funds that could have been saved during this closure - without requesting input from the 4,500 elected school board members regarding these routine local budgetary spending “decisions.”

Among other administrative PDE mandate reliefs, this amendment guaranteed spending for: 1. Every public-school employee will be paid his/her full annual salaries, 2. receive full Employer Contributions (+34.5% of gross) during this school closure as if the Pandemic of 2020 never occurred, and 3. continue fully paying Bus Contractors, etc.

The yang: Shortly after Act 13 became law, several taxpayer relief House amendments were introduced to freeze local property taxes at current rates for the 2020-21 school year. Education “leaders” opposed this effort. HB 1776 (Cox) and HB 2431 (Gleim and Cutler) both addressed this. They were discussed on the House floor on April 24 but could not get enough legislators to support this timely and urgent minimal temporary financial relief for hurting taxpayers. Opposing House members claimed this was a “taxation” issue and should be left for local school elected officials to deliberate/decide.

Think of all the precious state and local tax dollars they are wasting. Pennsylvania General Assembly and Wolf, collectively, are simply callous hypocrites. Another COVID-19 public education lesson learned.

Sincerely,

Gerard E. Grega

Weatherly School Board Member

Packer Township