CV Officials Concerned About State Funding Source

At first glance, the $637,000 boost in state funding to the Chartiers Valley School District for next year seems promising.

But while school district officials say they’re happy about the increase in Gov. Tom Corbett’s budget proposal, they’re also “concerned” that the boost in funding might not be sustainable.

School officials are questioning whether the funding increase could be tied to one-time revenue generated from the possible sale of the state liquor stores.

Chartiers Valley Superintendent Brian White Jr. said in a written statement emailed to Patch on Friday that the budget does not adequately solve long-term funding gaps.

“We are pleased that the proposal does not cut education,” White said. “We are concerned that the revenues proposed to support the budget are based on one-time sources such as the sale of the state liquor stores. While this will provide some funding to education, it does not address long-term funding issues.”

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White acknowledged that the state is boosting its funding to Chartiers Valley to $10,158,865, for the 2013-14 school year—about $637,000 more than last year—but most of that would go toward payments to the pension system. White suggested the increase to general education funding would actually be about $125,000.

CV officials are not the only ones who have questions about education funding being tied to privatizing the state liquor system. State Sen. Matt Smith, D-Mt. Lebanon, told Chartiers Valley Patch last week that he wants the each issue to stand alone and be debated separately.

“(The governor) is saying on one hand that we need more education investment, but saying the only way we have to do that is by privatizing the state stores,” Smith said. “That should be a stand-alone issue. You don’t make (education funding) dependent on privatizing the state stores.”

Click this link to see how the new state funding breaks down for Chartiers Valley School District.

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