Impact of Corbett's Education Budget

Governor Corbett presented his 2011 – 2012 to a joint session of the Pennsylvania Legislature today and he kept his promise of a balanced budget and no new taxes. It isn’t pretty. If you’re interested in the details on which department gets what, the new governor has created an Online Budget Dashboard with the details of his budget proposal which includes some deep cuts in educational support. (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/imageserver/budget2011/GBD_2011.html

As Winston Churchill observed there is an opportunity in every difficulty, and I believe Governor Corbett’s budget will present communities with a tremendous opportunity to strengthen their local education infrastructures.

Successful education is dependent on three very important factors: Family, School District and the local community. With expected deep cuts in state educational support, local districts will be challenged to effectively engage community leaders and parents to participate in and strengthen the education process. If the state budget passes as presented, local school districts will be expected to do more with less, and effective engagement with parents and community leadership organizations will be critical. The financial crisis may well prove to be an incentive for communities to build a collaborative effort of school, community and parent stakeholders, to assess the district’s strengths, community challenges and needs, to develop an educational vision, and to plan the community’s educational future. It’s not rocket science to consider getting people together to discuss an important issue like education, and a few general rules for effectively engaging stakeholders should be considered:
• Establish ownership among participants,
• Build on the strengths of local individuals and organizations,
• Promote participation by community-wide stakeholders,
• Get everyone working together and focused on the same issues,
• Develop specific actions with measurable results.

By engaging diverse stakeholders, including residents, non-profits, businesses and others to develop sustained collaborative efforts to strengthen education, the District could be in a better position to link unique community resources together with its educational resources to provide a more effective, nurturing learning environment. As I said, it isn’t rocket science, but getting a community’s assets all working together to support education could be a very empowering tool.