CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Budget Fluffernuttery Threatens Schools

CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Budget Fluffernuttery Threatens Schools:

PA: Budget Fluffernuttery Threatens Schools

We have a budget problem in Pennsylvania. You could call it a budget "crisis," but that makes it sound like it just sort of happened, like a hurricane or male pattern baldness. You could call it a budget "impasse," but that suggests two grown up sides that can't find a compromise. Perhaps budget "screwup" or budget "failure so stupid it is raising the collective blood pressure of the entire state."

If it seems like we've been budget fiasco for a long time, that's because we have. Today is Day 168 of the ongoing budget not-done-on-time event.

There was a time when I would have agreed with a bi-partisan assessment. In the early stages, the GOP controlled PA House and Senate wanted to act as if the previous GOP governor had not been decisively kicked to the curb. Newly-elected Governor Tom Wolf, whose previous work experience is running a successful family business, did not initially seem to grasp that he is not a CEO who can order the legislature around as if they are his minions.

But many of the parties got on a learning curve and seemed to make progress.

At first it seemed like a manageable catastrophe. After all, we're used to this-- we've had five late budgets in ten years.

True, there was fallout. You may remember that the Chester Upland school district, underfunded by the state and sucked dry by charters, had to ask its teachers to work for free when the state missed CURMUDGUCATION: PA: Budget Fluffernuttery Threatens Schools: