The Tinman: Corbett's War on Poor Kids Shows He Needs a Heart (Daily News Cover Story)

[JPZenger]

Last edited Tue Apr 3, 2012, 03:46 PM - Edit history (4)

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120403_Poor_hurt_by_Corbett_cuts.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120403_Uncovering_kids__89_000_poor_Pa__kids_slashed_from_Medicaid.html

"AS HIS critics see it, Gov. Corbett has declared war on Pennsylvania's poor. At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in February to discuss the administration's proposed $629 million in cuts for the state's public-welfare agency next year, state Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, said the proposed cuts were "downright cruel," adding that "this administration is putting its foot on the neck of poor folks."

The proposed cuts come on top of $600 million in cuts to public-welfare spending in the current budget. Last August, thousands of children began disappearing from the state's Medicaid rolls.

Corbett also is proposing more stringent standards for food-stamp recipients. The administration wants to reinstate an asset test for those individuals. Anyone under the age of 60 who has more than $5,500 in savings or assets would no longer qualify. Individuals 60 and older and/or disabled who have $9,000 in savings would no longer qualify. Last year, a state health insurance program for the working poor became the first victim of Corbett's budget ax. In February 2011, the administration pulled the plug on adultBasic, which insured 42,000 working-poor Pennsylvanians, including more than 6,100 in Philly."
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Plus, here is a great editorial on Pa. School Funding by a parent:

http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/04/corbett_cuts_school_districts.html

Excerpt:

"Imagine being a student who spends more time in study halls than in classes with teachers or who sits on a windowsill for class because there are not enough desks for the 45 children in your class. Imagine navigating to your desk around buckets that catch water leaking through the roof of your dilapidated building.

Thanks to Gov. Tom Corbett and the PA. Legislature’s massive cuts in state funding to public K-12 education last year, these are the experiences that some children in Pennsylvania face.

Corbett’s continued defunding of public schools has not spared any district in the commonwealth. Seventy percent of schools in the state have increased class sizes, 44 percent have reduced course offerings, and more than 14,000 positions were cut or left vacant. J...school districts are facing massive shortfalls and making impossible choices about what programs to cut and which opportunities to deny students.

Cutting $961 million in funding to our public schools last year wasn’t enough for Corbett. He initially claimed to be providing Pennsylvania schools with “level funding” in his 2012-13 budget. Some media outlets even reported that the governor proposed a slight increase in funding for public schools. In truth, the budget contained another round of drastic cuts for our struggling public schools."
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Instead of ObamaCare, Pennsylvania Has CorbettDoesn'tCare

http://www.pasenate.com/?p=8264

"As state budget negotiations continue ahead of the June 30 budget deadline, state Sen. Mike Stack said he believes affordable health coverage, public education funding, higher education assistance, and the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP) should be included as a priority.

Stack joined his Senate Democratic colleagues today at a Harrisburg news conference announcing the caucus’ budget priorities, which call for growing the economy, investing in education, protecting funding for seniors and people with disabilites, fostering alternative sentencing guidelines for nonviolent criminals, and partnering with local governments, school districts and taxpayers.

“We recently had a debate on the Senate floor on the use of ‘Obamacare,’ ... it is a monumental health care reform law that will make a fundamental difference to millions of lives,” said Stack, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. “With that nickname in mind, I have a similar moniker for the Corbett administration’s ideological and public policy plan to destroy education funding, higher education funding, and human services for the disabled and elderly: Corbett Doesn’t Care.

“Governor Corbett can rail against Obamacare all he wants, and Republican lawmakers can try to create loopholes to block the health care law for the sake of protecting citizens from individual mandates, but it’s not going to balance our budget and put people back to work,” Stack said. “We need to stop with the partisan nonsense and get to work trying to find new ways to bring in revenue, fund our schools, fund autism services, fund our transportation infrastructures and move this commonwealth forward. Senate Democrats are not distracting the public with divisive measures. We want to move Pennsylvania forward, and our budget priorities plan reflects that.”