Much funding restored for public schools and higher education

HARRISBURG - With the deadline to pass a state budget days away, the House could begin debate as early as Wednesday on the negotiated deal between Gov. Corbett and legislative leaders to spend $27.65 billion in the next fiscal year.

The deal would undo some of the most painful cuts to public and higher education that Corbett proposed in February, but still calls for less money for an array of social-services programs.

But with only four days left before the start of the new fiscal year on Sunday, there is still much scrambling behind closed doors to strike deals on a number of key issues. Among them: whether to lump payments the state makes to counties to administer social-services programs into so-called block grants.

Also unclear are the particulars of an administration priority: a proposed tax credit for Shell Chemical L.P. if it builds a huge petrochemical plant in Western Pennsylvania.

Still, more details began to emerge Tuesday on the budget's winners and losers.

In the first column: the four state-related universities, including Temple and Pennsylvania State, which will be spared the 30 percent cut Corbett had proposed. The 14 colleges in the State System of Higher Education, which stood to see aid dwindle by 20 percent, also will get all funding restored.

Corbett had proposed ending the block grants that school districts use to pay for all-day kindergarten and other early-childhood programs, but all of the $100 million for the program will be restored, according to budget spreadsheets released Tuesday.

In the losers column: the temporarily disabled and others who rely on the state's general assistance program that provides cash benefits to nearly 70,000 adults. Corbett proposed eliminating the funding, and GOP legislative leaders did not seek to restore it.

Calling that decision "heartless," State Rep. Rosita Youngblood (D., Phila.) said: "While steadfastly advocating billion-dollar tax breaks and tax credits for big oil and gas companies, this administration chooses to put a meager monthly stipend for our least fortunate on the budget chopping block."

Several human services programs, which Corbett had proposed combining into one lump-sum payment to counties, would take a 10 percent funding hit, less than what Corbett had proposed in February. Still in question is whether those programs will be funded separately or lumped together as part of a block grant the Corbett administration is pushing.

Tuesday's budget spreadsheets generally contained heartening news for public schools.

For public school classroom operations, the budget deal would increase funding slightly overall, although most of the extra money could be destined for financially struggling districts.

The deal would also restore Pre-K Counts, a prekindergarten program, and Head Start supplemental assistance to 2011-12 levels, erasing the cuts that Corbett had proposed.

It also would restore Science in Motion, a mobile program that Corbett had zeroed out.