Panel OKs school mandate relief bills
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More than a dozen bills aimed largely at reducing costly state mandates on school districts have cleared the state Senate Education Committee.
In a two-hour meeting Tuesday, the committee approved 17 of 18 bills, which will now be forwarded to the full Senate for consideration.
The only measure that did not make it out of the committee would have given school districts the option to use a single prime contractor instead of multiple contractors.
The list of approved bills is wide-ranging, including proposals to allow teachers to be furloughed for economic reasons, eliminate the requirement that teacher furloughs be based on seniority, remove the requirement that school nurses be school certified, and require school boards to have a two-thirds majority to enact property tax increases.
The measures are largely intended to help school districts deal with $1 billion in cuts in Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 2011-12 budget.
"The fiscal circumstances in which the commonwealth finds itself in 2011, I believe, has a silver lining which forces us to address the issue of mandates on public schools," said committee chair Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, R-Dauphin.
The committee's minority chair, state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-Chester, said: "School districts have asked us for decade after decade, as have townships, for mandate relief. School districts now are in an emergency," he said.
Steve Robinson, spokesman for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, said he hoped that more items would be added to the package later, including removing the prevailing wage requirements.
Wythe Keever, spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said "mandates" often are "minimum quality standards," each of which should be examined carefully before changing.
"If there are requirements that don't have educational value to students or mean safer schools, they should be eliminated. But educational quality should be a higher priority than short-term budget issues," Mr. Keever said.
He noted three measures that raise concerns, including the method for furloughing teachers, which he said would remove "important safeguards to keep experienced and highly qualified teachers in the classroom."
He also said removing the certification requirement for school nurses would put student health and safety at risk, and requiring a two-thirds vote of a school board to increase property taxes would make it "more difficult" for districts to raise money as they face significant state budget cuts.
Other measures approved include:
• Alternative certification for teachers.
• Increase in the threshold cost for bidding.
• Reduction in reports required of school districts to the state Department of Education in years in which state education funding falls.
• Two-year moratorium of Act 48, which mandates continuing education for teachers, while a study of it is done.
• Repeal of limits on the use of increases in basic education funding.
• Change in policy on sick leaves and sabbaticals.
First Published April 6, 2011 12:00 am
