Our education summit is finally here. YorkCounts will be at the Pullo Center all day Thursday hearing four morning presentations and an afternoon panel discussion talk about the current state of public education. The panel discussion will focus on fiscal matters, with particular attention to the looming pension crisis.
I wanted to take a minute today to review some of the great education posts we've had on the blog over the past six weeks. We had a chance to talk to Elaine Weiss, who will be our keynote speaker. Elaine's big thing is we can't fix schools in isolation from the surrounding community. Where there's poverty and crime and drugs and family issues at home, the community and the school have to work together.
We heard from Brian Jensen of the Pennsylvania Economy League, who made it plain that the pension obligations that school districts are facing will overwhelm many districts and be a burden on taxpayers for decades unless we figure something out quickly.
We heard from Dayna Laur, who said that districts should be doing more to collaborate and share costs on professional development - and, presumably, in other areas - in ways that would improve training and student outcomes AND save money.
And we heard several people argue for the need to reduce our reliance on property taxes as part of a fix to the way we fund education.
If you didn't register, don't worry. You will still be welcome tomorrow. And if you can't make it, read these posts to get caught up on some of the issues. And if you did register, thank you, and we hope the conversations are the beginning of a process for making York County schools the best they can be.
- Dan Fink
News and views from YorkCounts and its partners about the work we are all doing to create a vibrant York County.
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