Republicans threaten to break Philly schools

Republicans have threatened to deny Philadelphia schools critical funding unless city Democrats back a separate measure that would cut retirement benefits to future state workers.

"If Philadelphia Democrats aren't going to be there for what needs to be done, then nobody's going to be there for them," state Budget Secretary Charles Zogby told WHYY last week. "And they can go home and tell their constituents why they couldn't get money for the school district."

Zogby, who orchestrated the state takeover of Philly schools in 2001, today plays the role of cinematic mafioso: "Hey, pal, shame if something happened to that school district of yours."

Yesterday, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett reiterated Zogby's threat at a press conference and promised to veto any budget that did not include pension reforms, but backed away from a demand for liquor-store privatization. The governor and lawmakers hope to meet a budget deadline at midnight tonight but it is unclear whether they will do so.

The state has controlled Philadelphia schools since 2001 — yet under Corbett has deeply cut their funding. The recent comments are a stark reminder that state Republicans don't always consider Philadelphia's youth, disproportionately black and poor, to belong to the Commonwealth as a whole.

Yet more remarkable: this horse trading is not over any new state funding but rather over the state simply allowing the city to hike its own cigarette tax. This, after City Council recently boosted the share Philadelphia taxpayers pay to local schools, moving to provide the District with $150 million in funds. Council's new funding left the District with a narrowed, but still very large $66 million budget gap.

Council President Darrell Clarke had delayed the inevitable approval of the legislation, wanting to conserve funds for the city's own underfunded pension plans. The state that has cut so much funding to Philly schools, he argued, had to loosen its purse strings. But Clarke's foot-dragging delayed activists and the media from shifting their attention to Harrisburg Republicans.

For whatever reason, Philadelphia newspapers have in recent days dedicated precious little attention to the possibility that conservative legislators might further wreck school finances. Thousands of teaching and staff positions have already been lost. Schools have been closed, libraries are shuttered, violence has erupted, counselors cannot address complex student needs, nurses at many schools are part-time and arts and music are anemic. It could get far worse.

Corbett, under political siege thanks in large part to his big cuts to schools, did include new state education funding in his proposed budget. But a huge revenue shortfall has put that funding at risk, and many Republicans continue to oppose raising new revenue through a severance tax on natural gas drilling to pick up the slack. The District's budget gap will widen to $105 million if the governor's budgeted spending doesn't come through — meaning so many layoffs that schools would have difficulty remaining open.

"We do not have accurate estimates as yet," says School District spokesperson Fernando Gallard, "but it would be way over 1,000 layoffs. It becomes a question whether we would have the bodies to layoff and still maintain schools functioning."

Superintendent William Hite has also requested additional $224 million to start rebuilding the District and deliver the education that students deserve. That seems very unlikely.

I asked Stephen Miskin, spokesperson for Republican House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, this question: What does Philly getting approval to raise taxes on itself have to do with pension reform?

"Pensions and education funding are and always have been tied together," said Miskin, noting that pension costs are eating up an ever-growing share of state spending. "It's bankrupting the districts."

And last summer, he said, the state voted to direct more money to Philly schools — to allow Philly to hike its own sales tax and redirecting $45 million in federal dollars. But Republicans believe, says Miskin, that every dollar that goes to Philadelphia is one dollar that doesn't go somewhere else.

"Our members got beaten up back home in their own districts, mainly because of that cash, the $45 million," says Miskin. "Their point was, what makes those kids more important than our kids?"

He did not answer my question as to whether he thought the state of Philadelphia schools was acceptable. Indeed, Republicans are not even pretending that there is some valid policy-based reason to block the Philadelphia cigarette tax. "Right now," says Miskin, "the policy merits to our members is they don't want to raise taxes."

Democrats oppose reforms to the woefully-underfunded pension plans that would cut benefits to workers, and they oppose liquor privatization because it would eliminate union jobs. Those two issues (especially the first one) are complicated — but both seem to have little or nothing to do with Philadelphia being authorized to raise its own taxes to fund its own schools.

Turzai, who is angling to replace outgoing House Speaker Sam Smith, has political concerns to attend to. There might be bipartisan support for raising new revenue from a severance tax on natural gas drilling, but Turzai cannot support any tax hikes without alienating right-wing legislators whose support he needs to be elected speaker. It's not clear that Turzai, deeply conservative, would back a tax hike even absent the potential political fallout.

Republicans hope to blame Philadelphia Democrats for this debacle, even though their party controls the governor's office and both houses of the legislature and yet can't get their own party united behind the measures.

Corbett must navigate between his party's right-wing and a general electorate already prepared to blame him for school funding problems. He seems to be having trouble doing so.

The state budget is setting Philly schools up for renewed and deepening disaster in September. That means a wave of negative headlines ahead of an already-difficult reelection fight in November. If Republicans further starve Philadelphia schools it will be horrible for students in this city. It could, however, prove helpful for Democrats in November. Strangely, the fate of Philadelphia students and the state Republican Party now seem closely entwined.