Politics & Government

Corbett's Education Budget To Be Protested

Bethlehem City Hall Plaza to host rally at noon Saturday

The Bethlehem Coalition for Quality Education has planned a rally at City Hall Plaza on Saturday to protest Gov. Tom Corbett’s proposed budget cuts and its anticipated impact on education.

, and Alan Jennings, executive director of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley are expected to be among the featured speakers, according to Lorenzo Canizares, an organizer for the coalition and an organizing specialist for the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

The protest is scheduled to begin at noon in the plaza between City Hall and the main branch of the .

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“That budget is a killer budget,” said Canizares, adding that he believes it is putting children “in harms way” because of the large cuts to education. “It’s really mind-blowing where our priorities are.”

The Bethlehem Area School District is currently looking at. District officials have pinned much of the need for staff reductions on Corbett’s budget proposal, which reduces Pennsylvania’s basic education subsidy to the district by about 20 percent, and the loss of federal economic stimulus money.

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More cuts will be necessary if the district is to meet the school board’s stated goal of keeping the district’s real estate tax increase to 1.7 percent or less. Even with the cuts currently on the table, a 3.64 percent tax hike would be necessary to close a $2.4 million budget gap, according to Superintendent Joseph J. Roy.

However, some school board members have said the budget gap could also be closed by spending more of the district’s surplus, which

The protest does not aim to cast blame at the Bethlehem Area School Board, Canizares said.

“We believe they have the children’s best interest in mind,” he said. “We know they are in the same boat we are.”


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