Reports from the Battlefield -- Corbett's War on Pennsylvania's Poor (CityPaper)

[JPZenger]

Last edited Thu Feb 9, 2012, 11:09 PM - Edit history (1)

http://www.citypaper.net/cover_story/2012-02-09-tom-corbett-philadelphia.html?ref=facebook.com

Excerpts:

"City Paper has learned that cuts implemented under Corbett have had a far deeper impact on almost every service the state provides to Philadelphians — including education; health care for the poor and disabled; welfare; food stamps; and support services for victims of domestic violence, the disabled and the homeless — than has previously been reported. It's all part of the ideologically driven agenda Corbett outlined in his campaign, and he has delivered: slashing expenditures with little apparent regard for the plight of the poor, or for Philadelphia's threadbare safety nets and crumbling school system.

More pain is on the way... Philadelphia will receive an estimated $42 million in cuts to public welfare programs, many of which are being consolidated into a new and perplexing block-grant program. "The cuts the governor has proposed for the Department of Public Welfare (DPW) are extreme, targeted and painful," says Donald Schwarz, Philadelphia's Deputy Mayor for Health and Opportunity... The proposed new cuts come on top of last year's state budget, which cut $1 billion from education and trimmed $400 million from public welfare spending — and follow another $156 million across-the-board midyear cut implemented in January.

...The Philadelphia School District must cut $61 million by June, and there is an expected $269 million gap in next year's budget. Last summer's cuts led to the elimination of 3,800 teacher and staff positions, including 1,300 layoffs. ...the loss of nearly $300 million in state funding to the district, combined with the loss of stimulus dollars, has pushed Philadelphia schools into profound crisis... The commonwealth has been in charge of Philly schools since a 2001 takeover....Of course, not everyone uses Philly public schools or state universities, but the social costs of bad schools — crime rates, lost lives and sky-high spending on prisons and policing — are paid by all.

...Making matters worse, Corbett's proposed budget will raise Medicaid eligibility requirements and eliminate the General Assistance Program, which provides cash assistance to nearly 68,000 disabled adults, domestic violence survivors, children in the care of nonrelatives and others. ... And for those who lose their homes, funds to assist the homeless have also been cut, as has funding to shelter women who flee their homes because of domestic violence....Since August, DPW has quietly kicked 88,000 Pennsylvania children off Medicaid. Workers blame a directive from Harrisburg that required them to review a backlog of documents in a matter of weeks. Basic due diligence like checking to make sure that mail was going to a current address did not happen. The number of adults removed cannot be determined because the state recently changed its accounting method, a move that advocates call suspicious."

[appleannie1]

1. It is not just Philly. His cuts are state wide.

That 30% cut to state funded universities means more than just Temple. There are state funded universities all across this state and it will effect thousands of students. He did not even figure transportation in his new budget in spite of the fact we have more bridges in need of repair than any other state. And if you are poor, you can go suck an egg if you can find one. To him, you are not worthy of human respect.

[JPZenger]

2. Yes, the article was written specific to Phila, but the effects are statewide

Yes, those effects are statewide, and there are plenty of poor and disabled people and distressed school districts in rural parts of PA.

There are even some questions about whether a couple of the smaller state-owned universities will be able to survive these cuts, such as Cheyney University. In addition, last year, the President of Penn State said that if a 50% cut went into effect, he would have to seriously consider closing some of Penn State's branch campuses. Most of those smaller branches are in Republican areas of the state.

Corbett is publicly saying he doesn't believe all these branch campuses are needed. Corbett also is publicly saying that he wants Penn State to consider whether they should become a private university (which would result in much higher tuition for PA. residents) Corbett has also said that he wants to phase out ALL state dollars to public colleges, and instead just rely upon grants to individual students. In effect, he wants to go to a voucher system for colleges. However, he is also cutting those state grants to individuals with financial need.

However, most of the press in PA. serve little more than as a steno pool, and the newspapers just print AP articles.