PA. Repub House to Phila Schools: Drop Dead

http://thenotebook.org/blog/147506/cigarette-tax-vote-canceled-schools-opening-jeopardy

Because the Repubs in the legislature refused to return some of the funding to the Phila. Schools that they had cut in recent years, Phila. decided to try to reduce the problem on its own. City Council approved an increase in the cigarette tax that would only apply to Phila. However, they needed authority from the State legislature to do it. The teabaggers who control the House just went on vacation without completing the final vote that was needed.

It appears the Phila. schools will not be able to open on time. The same delays and uncertainty in funding happened last year too, causing fears that the schools would not be able to open. The school district also needs to know whether it needs to do another massive round of layoffs, on top of the three rounds that already occurred under the Corbett-House Teabagger budgets.

Excerpts:

"Pennsylvania House Republicans have canceled a planned session on Monday to vote on a $2-a-pack cigarette tax in Philadelphia, jeopardizing the next school year for tens of thousands of students.

Schools are now only weeks away from their scheduled opening day, but without assurances that the District will have enough funds to operate a functional system, much less one that offers an acceptable education.

Hite, Mayor Nutter, and City Council President Darrell Clarke all called the cancellation of the vote "devastating." House Republicans said they would come back on Sept. 15 instead, but Hite says he needs assurances of the money by Aug. 15 in order to forestall all kinds of operational decisions, including up to 1,300 layoffs.

"It's outrageous that the Philadelphia School District is being held hostage by an internecine fight within the Republican Party," Cooper said."