New Pa. education secretary details priorities
by Dale Mezzacappa on Apr 26 2010 Posted in Breaking news
Thomas Gluck, named Monday to replace Gerald Zahorchak as Pennsylvania's secretary of education for the remainder of Gov. Rendell's term, said that much of his work over the next several months will involve money.
High on his priority list is preserving the governor's proposed $335 million increase in the basic education subsidy for next year's budget, maintaing the two-year-oldeducation funding formula that distributes state aid to districts based more closely on need, and winning hundreds of millions of federal grant dollars through the Race to the Top competition.
Rendell, who has made education a priority in his administration, is one of the few governors who has increased education spending during the recession; in other states, including neighboring New Jersey, drastic state aid cuts are forcing local districts to scramble.
Gluck also said he would work on getting the legislature to pass revisions to the state's Education Empowerment Act, which would give the state more power over