John Baer: The heart of the battle: Education spending

AT THE HEART of the shameful, politics-driven state budget impasse, now in its 55th day, is spending for public education. The folly in this is that spending for public education is also at the heart of politics, period.

Every president, governor, senator, congressman, state lawmaker loves education, because it's about "our children" and "our future." School funding grows annually, no matter which political party's in charge.

The further folly - despite Gov. Rendell and entertainer Bill Cosby pleading for "no more cuts" - is that nobody in the budget battle is talking about cutting education funding. Republicans just want a smaller increase than Democrats. And it has ever been so.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Sen. Jeff Piccola, R-Harrisburg (32 years in the Legislature), says: "This is an argument going on for decades. Democrats want more than Republicans, but everybody wants more and every year it goes up."

When Democrat Rendell rails against GOP "cuts," he means cuts in a few areas such as early education or teacher development or cuts in his own proposed increases. Whether those areas should be cut is debatable. But any notion of education funding being cut is not.

So, what are they fighting about?

Mostly which pile of tax dollars is used to pay for increases both sides want. This is sorta like a checkout clerk asking if I want to pay with credit or debit. Doesn't matter; it all comes from the same place.

The difference between how Rendell and Republicans want to spend more money is the use of federal stimulus dollars. Rendell wants to use $418 million; Republicans $728 million, and less state money.

(Don't you love how state pols gleefully extol using federal money as if it's free, as if we're saving something, as if no Pennsylvanian pays federal taxes?)

The Rendell administration argues two points against the level of stimulus funds Republicans want.

First, it jeopardizes upcoming federal grants, including $4.35 billion in "Race to the Top" money to be awarded to states competitively. Applications are due this fall, funds early next year.

State Education Department spokesman Mike Race says that the GOP "misuses" federal money and that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan claims that states doing so might as well "tear up the form" rather than apply for "Race to the Top" funds.

But Republicans say that they comply with stimulus requirements and note that a Duncan letter to Rendell in June said only if the Legislature cut state funds, backfilled with federal funds and didn't use its $750 million Rainy Day Fund it "may" negatively impact chances for grants.

Use of Rainy Day is still in budget-bargaining, and Senate GOP spokesman Eric Arneson asks, even if Rendell is right on this, "Do Pennsylvanians want to have their taxes increased . . . in exchange for what might be available behind Curtain Number One from the feds?"

Piccola contends the state is "ahead of the curve" and well-positioned to win federal grants due to past reforms in areas the feds are pushing, such as charter schools and academic standards.

And others argue, reasonably, that with Democratic U.S. Senators Bob Casey and Arlen Specter working for such grants, it is unlikely that Pennsylvania gets stiffed. (Casey's an Obama b-ball buddy and early backer; Specter's seeking re-election with Obama's support.)

Rendell also says that using stimulus funds set to expire in two years would leave a future hole in the education budget. But he uses stimulus funds, too - although $310 million less than the GOP - which strikes me as a difference that could be made up with "Race to the Top" grants, funds from a second round of $5.6 billion in federal grants to be awarded in September 2010 and an improved economy.

It's complex, but simple, too.

Pennsylvania just was named by the Center on Education Policy, a national schools-advocacy group, as the only state with academic gains in elementary, middle and high schools between 2002 and 2008.

Such gains reflect reforms initiated under Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" program and increased spending under Democrat Rendell.

Both parties can claim credit for this. Both parties want more for education.

And the politics of a standoff make no sense at all.