State Rep. Roebuck on Philly Schools

from the inbox:

State Rep. James Roebuck, D-Phila., Democratic chairman of the House Education Committee, issued this statement on the Philadelphia public schools' financial problems: 

"I was offended by the response from the Corbett administration. The $45 million for which they apparently want to take credit is NOT state money, but rather federal money the state owed that the Obama administration has forgiven. Essentially, all the Corbett administration is doing is the $15 million increase in the basic education subsidy for Philadelphia that doesn’t make up for two years of much deeper cuts in state funding. I would also like to point out that the city council and the teachers have been doing their part – it is the Corbett administration that has been letting our children down. 

"I would remind everyone that the new state budget only restores $122 million of the nearly $1 billion cut statewide from K-12 education two years ago, a cut that was locked in by flat funding last year. I supported a Democratic budget amendment this year that would have restored about $300 million of those cuts as part of a plan to restore the entire amount over three years."