Tuesday, March 8, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees held hearings on the education funding request for the 2016-2017 state budget–without having a full education budget for 2015-2016 in place!

We are working with our allies from the Campaign for Fair Education Funding to have a statewide Call to Action Day to send a message to state lawmakers that the continued gridlock and absence of a full budget that funds education for 2015-2016 are unacceptable.

Click HERE to contact your state lawmakers.

We elect lawmakers to find solutions to problems and to do the difficult job of governing. Lawmakers who fail or refuse to find a way to pay for the state’s obligations and instead choose to leave the Commonwealth and our schools in a state of fiscal precariousness are, very simply shirking their duties. They need to hear from us today!

Click HERE to call your lawmakers and Governor Wolf RIGHT NOW and ask them to:

• make a significant new investment of $600 million in Basic Education Funding over this budget year and the next;
• adopt the fair funding formula recommended by the bipartisan Basic Education Funding Commission (BEFC); and
• support additional revenue in the state budget to ensure there is enough money to provide sustainable school funding that will restore critical programs and services in our schools and close the gaping $2 billion deficit.

It is time for the budget impasse to end, but not just any budget will do. After all of the pain that this budget impasse has caused, Pennsylvanians deserve a budget that was worth the wait, a budget that will provide a strong foundation for the sustainable, predictable, and long-term investment that our students both need and deserve.