News

Legislative Contacts Needed Regarding State Budget

Description of Legislative Priorities for 2008-2009 Budget

PACTA has two main priorities for legislative action that involve the 2008-2009 education budget. As you know, negotiations are taking place among the house and senate leaders to craft a state budget that state law requires to be adopted and in place by July 1st. It is vitally important that all PACTA members begin contacting their legislators by Thursday May 22nd on the details provided in this letter.

PACTA's two priorities involve increasing the vocational subsidy and increasing the adult education reimbursement

Vocational Subsidy Increase

PACTA is requesting to increase the vocational subsidy by 5 percent as compared to the governors proposal of increasing the vocational subsidy by 2.5 percent. A subsidy increase of 5 percent would result in an additional $3.15 million available for state approved CTE programs. Although the percentage of the state budget that provides for secondary CTE programs is less than 1%, the additional $3.15 million will serve to increase the state commitment and to provide some offset and relief to the over-reliance on local member district contributions to offer quality career and technical programs. In additional, the additional 5 percent will contribute towards accomplishing the second PACTA priority which involves the adult education subsidy.

Adult Education Reimbursement

PACTA is proposing a two-step increase in the reimbursement for adult education instructional hours beginning with the first step in the 2008-2009 budget and the second step in the 2009-2010 budget.

Proposed Two-Step Increase

2008-2009
Reimbursement at $16.80 per hour which is $4.1 million or a $2 million increase of the current fiscal year
2009-2010
Reimbursement at $25 per hour which is $6.125 million

Funds are allocated by PDE from the main budget line for Career and Technical Education for adult education reimbursement. Section 25-2507 of the school code addresses adult education reimbursement. PACTA is supporting adding language to Section 25-2507 part 2. The new language would read:

and through the 2007-2008 school year; and sixteen dollars and eighty cents ($16.80) for the 2008-2009 school year and twenty-five dollars ($25.00) for the 2009-2010 school year and every school year.

PACTA also supports adding language that includes a cost of living escalator to avoid the necessity of future school code changes.

PACTA Member Action Needed

Please contact your local representative AND senator to inform them of your support for the two legislative priorities. Be sure to let them know how valuable these two priorities are for enhancing the quality of the career and technical programs in your schools and how this will alleviate some of the fiscal burden on your local school districts. Remind them that CTE can and does play a crucial role in local and statewide economic development so funding these priorities offers benefits to our students and our adults who are pursuing additional education. With almost 100,000 students taking secondary CTE programs, the state contribution needs to be increased to reflect the needs of the students and business/industry. Pennsylvania has an education budget of over $9 billion and with CTE receiving a little over $62 million which represents less than a 1% state financial commitment to CTE. Please inform your legislators about this and strongly encourage them to support the change. In the Senate, Mike Brubaker, Republican of Lancaster is a sponsor of our initiatives. Representative Dan Sura, Democrat of Elk County is a sponsor in the House. We know that we have many other legislators who support career and technical education. Please inform your legislators that these two supporters will be working with the leadership in both chambers of the legislature to garner support for our priorities. Please remind your local legislator to make sure that they notify their leadership of their support, too.

Once you have made contact with your local legislators, please provide feedback to me via e-mail on the responses that you received and the action that your legislator has agreed to take on our behalf. Your feedback will allow us to evaluate our legislative strategy and, if necessary, to make additional contact or provide more information to both the senate and the house members.

Thank you for taking this action on behalf of CTE in Pennsylvania.