If you want a view of the front lines of the Republican war on public education, look no further than the Chester Upland School District in Pennsylvania where the entire teaching and support staff has agreed to go to work starting next week without pay, and without any idea when and if they'll be paid:
Employees of the Chester Upland School District in Pennsylvania will show up for work on the first day of school next Wednesday, but they don’t expect to get paid.
The district, which has been struggling with financial and academic problems for decades, is on the edge of insolvency and cannot make payroll, state and local officials have said.
So on Thursday, about 200 members of the local teachers union voted unanimously to work without pay as the new school year opens. They were joined by secretaries, school bus drivers, janitors and administrators.
“The thought of it is very scary,” said John Shelton, 60, dean of students at the district’s only middle school and a 23-year employee. “It’s mind-boggling because there’s truly uncertainty. But we are all in agreement that we will come to work, so that the children can get an education.”
Michele Paulick, President of the Chester Upland Educational Association,
stated that if the teachers failed to show up, they would risk termination because they would be seen to have "terminated their contract with the District." So in effect these teachers are forced to work without pay, even though many, such as Mr. Shelton, have indicated they would voluntarily do so anyway:
Shelton...said he and his colleagues are willing to sacrifice because the students rely on the schools. “Some of our children, this is all they have as far as safety, their next nourishing meal, people who are concerned for them,” he said. “We are dedicated to these children.”
The Chester Upland School District is situated outside of Philadelphia and serves about 3300 students, most of them from low-income families. The district has had financial problems for nearly two decades, and is now facing a deficit in funding that could ultimately reach $46 million unless the state intervenes. Although the district has a history of poor management, the primary reasons for its dire financial conditions now are twofold--massive cuts in public education education imposed by former one-term Republican Governor, Tom Corbett, and a provision in state law that requires to pay charter schools within their districts substantial amounts for students who live within the district but want to attend charters. As a result of that law, the charter schools, which are privately run, receive more in tuition payments from Chester-Upland than the District receives for itself in aid.
State law includes a funding formula that is especially generous toward special education students who attend charters; Chester Upland has to spend $40,000 per student per year for every special education student from its district who enrolls in a charter school. That’s twice the amount the district spend on its own students with special education needs and more than any other district in the state, [Spokesman for Pa Governor Tom Wolf] [Jeff] Sheridan said.
The largest local charter school, Chester County Community School, serves 2900 students, nearly as many as the school district. Because the programs for the charter receive are given preference with regard to their funding, their programs are naturally better. The practical effect of the state law is that parents will try nearly anything to have their children classified with special needs, thus emptying out the public schools and further draining them of their scant resources.
The charter school was founded by one of Corbett's largest campaign contributers, a lawyer and entrepreneur named Vahan Gureghian:
The charter school was founded by a lawyer and entrepreneur named Vahan Gureghian, who also owns and runs a for-profit management company that has a contract with Chester Community Charter School to operate it. Gureghian, incidentally, is a big contributor to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, having given more than $300,000 to his campaign, which made him the largest single donor. Gureghian also served as an education advisor on Corbett’s transition team after his 2010 election victory.
The Republican-dominated Pennsylvania legislature, which authorized former Governor Corbett's cutbacks in the first place, has proposed a relatively paltry increase in state education funding. The overarching reason for their miserly attitude towards the state's children is less visible, but rather obvious--the same Republican-dominated legislature who cut education funding receives the bulk of campaign largesse from the fracking industry which has despoiled much of the state without paying any taxes for the privilege, thanks to a bought-and-paid for Republican legislature:
Money from the shale gas industry in the form of political contributions began to pour into Pennsylvania in record amounts as the drilling boom took off. According to the Pennsylvania based watchdog group, Marcellusmoney.org's latest report, based on Pennsylvania campaign finance records, "Since 2007, the natural gas industry has spent $41 million lobbying Pennsylvania officials. The industry in the same time period gave $8 million to Pennsylvania candidates and political action committees (PACs). Governor Corbett was the top recipient of the shale gas industry contributions receiving an estimated $2,084,241.00 from the industry since 2007 and an additional $562,652 from industry Political Action Committees." Party PAC contributions heavily favored Republican candidates who received an average of $7.00 for every $1.00 given to Democrats.
The oil and gas industry alone has contributed
over twice as much money into lobbying and political campaigns than did all "teachers' unions," for the privilege of not paying substantial fees and taxes to the citizens of Pennsylvania while it rakes in profits from its drilling operations. As a result of this corporate welfare for the oil and gas industry, for which the vast majority of Pennsylvanians receive next to nothing, public education cannot be fully funded. Private capital from the likes of Gureghian stands ready to swoop in, greasing its entry with massive campaign contributions to the Republican Party. In this way, public education is gradually undermined and defunded, so that crises like that experienced by Chester Upland cannot be addressed.
These teachers and school employees haven't been paid throughout the summer so it's very, very difficult for them to meet a family budget without a paycheck in September. The Republican Party has eagerly embraced teacher-bashing as part of their 2016 agenda. So the next time you hear a Republican blame teachers for the state of public education, you should ask them to describe the last time they were forced to come to work without expecting to be paid.
The answer, I suspect, is "never."
